Advocate of the Word

Jicelyn Thomas and I first met back in 1985. She and I and a man named Biff Weidman were going to be hired at Patchwork Central in Evansville for positions that were called "Advocates of the Word." The problem was that they only had enough money to pay for two positions. I had just graduated from seminary, so I could get a job in a church in Evansville. Bishop Hoddapp graciously agreed to appoint me to Asbury UMC in Evansville.

It was a tough year and I grew to know and love Jicelyn in that year in Evansville. There was a Bible Study that met at Patchwork in mid-week. It was mainly made up of clergy from the neighborhood around Patchwork.Jicelyn impressed me with her intelligence, her commitment to justice and her matter-of-factness. She struck me as politically savvy, but not willing to give up her principles. She came over to our home on Christmas Eve and we sat around the tiny kitchen table and prayed and laughed and talked. She was a little bit of home in a place that felt far from home at Christmas.

After Kathy and I left Evansville to come to Broadway, Jicelyn stayed at Patchwork and then a year or two later headed off to seminary at Candler in Atlanta. We would visit her -- one year Kathy and Biff and traveled down to Atlanta to spend a few days in prayer and Bible Study together seeking discernment about possibly starting our own intentional community.

Jicelyn worked in the Jubilee Summer Program in 1990. She came back in 1991 after she graduated and was appointed to serve here at Broadway. She made her home with us on Washington Boulevard. We had a shower put in on the first floor and converted the dining room into her bedroom.

When we left on December 31, 1991 Jicelyn stayed on in the home. I can't remember whether it was mid-summer 1992 or 1993 that she packed up and headed to Vanderbilt down in Nashville, TN to begin working on a Phd in homiletics. Right before she headed down she ended up in the hospital several times. She wasn't sure what was wrong. After a brief hospital stay she made the move and quickly ended up in the hospital in Nashville. Fairly soon after she arrived she was diagnosed with Lupus.

Over the next several years she was in and out of the hospital in Nashville. She continued to work on her Phd. Her eyesight would fade in and out and she got a student who would read her books into a tape recorder and she would listen. She couldn't wear shoes because of the swelling in her feet, so in the winter she would wear bread sacks around her feet to keep them dry when she went grocery shopping. She would laugh and say that people would point at her and say "there goes that bag lady that is getting her Phd at Vanderbilt."

Once she hit the million dollar cap on her health insurance and her health continued to deteriorate she returned home to Evansville and moved into a house with her mother Wilma and sister Bev.

After several years and continued deteriorating health Jicelyn had to move into an apartment building that consists of some very light assisted living. She isn't all that happy about it -- she'd rather be out with Mom and Bev, but with Bev on the road with the railroad every week it had become impossible for Wilma to take care of her daughter.

In January I had visited with Jicelyn down in Evansville and I returned again on Friday night. Her neighbor Jackie fried up some fish for us. It was great and Jicelyn and I talked and talked and talked. We talked about the real Gospel stuff. We talked about how people's lives change and how communities change. We talked about her health and about her lack of desire to be kept alive by artificial means. She tires quickly and it took all she had for me to get her in the car and drive her out to Wilma and Bev's so she could see the old home place.

I remember so many Bible Studies we have done together. I remember so many discussions about what ways in which we live out our faith and what the calling of the church is in the midst of this world. And I'm so glad that we can still have them. And I'm glad that we can still laugh. I wished we still lived and worked together. Jicelyn isn't perfect any more than any of the rest of us are. But, in her, I have found someone who I can talk with -- who understands the questions that form in me, because they are many of the same questions she struggles with. She is a wonder. I don't know how much longer Jicelyn will be around...but as long as she is here...I know no stronger Advocate of the Word.