By
JEAN HOPFENSPERGER
,
Star Tribune
Five years ago this spring, Greg Thomas sat on the crumbling steps of
an abandoned church.
Contemplating how to serve his creator during what
he believed were his final days, he came upon the idea of restoring the
tiny wooden church outside Montgomery, Minn. He never imagined that in
doing so, he would restore his own health as well.
“It’s an amazing story,” said Thomas, 61. “I can’t tell you how many things have transpired because of that church.”
That story includes a
century-old church opening its doors for the first time in 70 years, a
community drawn together by its rebirth, the arrival of a Hollywood film
crew and an unexpected spotlight on a former propane truck driver who
was just trying to do some good.
Until 2009, Thomas lived
an ordinary life. A Bloomington native, he worked as a truck driver,
bricklayer, insulation installer and more. A big guy of 210 pounds, he
enjoyed hunting, fishing and the quiet beauty of Minnesota farmland.
Divorced, he had a son and grandson.
But in May of that year,
Thomas was stunned by a diagnosis of Stage 4 neck and head cancer. He
found himself with a feeding tube in his stomach, all his teeth removed
and 40 rounds of radiation treatments and chemotherapy, which left him
wiped out.
He returned to his house
in Montgomery, about 60 miles south of the Twin Cities, not knowing if
he would live or die. He said he overheard doctors tell his family that
they might want to plan for a funeral, and he was “terrified.”
Solitary walks along the
rural roads near his home soothed his spirit, and one day, Thomas
spotted an abandoned church next to a little cemetery. Curious, he shook
the door handle, but it was locked. So he sat on the steps and prayed —
a move that became nearly a daily ritual.
One morning, a jolt of
inspiration struck on those steps, and suddenly the wandering cancer
patient had a plan. Thomas walked to a nearby farmhouse and asked who
had the keys to the church. That someone was Don Rynda, an 82-year-old
member of the church cemetery association.
Thomas called Rynda and
shared his idea — namely to repaint the lovely old church. If the
association could come up with paint money, he’d try to come up with the
labor.
“I thought, ‘Am I just dreaming?’ ” Rynda recalled thinking that day. “That church has always been closed.”
St. John’s Catholic
Church stands where the early Czech settlers thought the town of
Montgomery would grow, he explained. Most folks in town still have
family members buried at its cemetery.
The association said yes.
Bugs and beauty
It was a warm August day
when Thomas unlocked the church with anticipation, stepped inside — and
promptly fell through the rotted wooden floorboards.
Undeterred, he gazed across a place frozen in time. “It looked like people just left after the last service,” he said.
“All the pictures were
still on the walls. The old Catholic Bible was still on the altar. The
statues of Jesus and Mary were up at the altar. The candles were in
their holders. Inside a little cabinet [tabernacle] in the altar were
some folded blue cloth they used for holy communion.”
Stepping out of the hole
onto the floor, Thomas heard the crunch of dead beetles under his shoes
and noticed spider webs draped around.
“I couldn’t wait to get started!” he said.
Thomas began slowly by
replacing outside shingles, working as long as his energy allowed. He
filled buckets of water and cleaned the spider webs and beetles. He
began scraping the outside paint.
Something funny happened, he said. The more he worked, the better he felt.
“It was like as I was rebuilding the church, God was rebuilding me,” he said.
By the next summer, the man who had hovered near death was on a scaffold outside the church, scraping paint.
One day two pickup
trucks pulled up, and about 10 people spilled out. “They asked if they
could look around the cemetery,” Thomas recalled.
The group explained they
were a film crew looking for an old European-style church for a scene
in their movie. Could they do it here?
Turned out the film
starred Oscar-nominated actor James Cromwell as a World War II veteran.
The script was written by Jeff Traxler, whose family hails from Le
Center. Thomas was recruited to play a German soldier “extra.”
“It was my three seconds of fame,” he laughed.
No fame, but good fortune
The film, “Memorial Day”
didn’t launch Thomas’ acting career. But it did launch a series of
coincidences that supported a renovation with virtually no budget and
one volunteer worker.
The church’s crumbling steps, for example, were replaced thanks to an unexpected offer from the film crew.
The roof was a mess, and
after Thomas contacted Springer Construction Services of Prior Lake for
a bid, he wound up with free roof tiles from Kansas supplier DaVinci
Roofscapes and at-cost labor from Springer.
Dutch Boy paint
representatives came to the rescue last year, when the newly painted
white church began peeling because of moisture problems. Its volunteers
scraped off Thomas’ two-year paint job and are returning this summer to
repaint.
As Thomas’ story spread,
neighbors stopped by and offered support. Nearby farmers helped erect a
huge donated cross in the churchyard. The American Legion of Montgomery
hosted a fundraiser. Frandsen Bank & Trust in Montgomery became the
depository for donations to the new St. John’s Chapel Fund.
Thomas, meanwhile, grew
stronger. Last year, the feeding tube was removed from his stomach,
allowing him to eat solid food for the first time in four years. He
acknowledges he’s received very good medical care, but he’s not
convinced that’s the only thing driving his health.
“I don’t believe my healing came from being in a hospital,” he said. “There are too many things that have happened in my life.”
Candlelit opening
On a cold December night
last year, Thomas placed luminarias along the gravel driveway to the
church to welcome the community to his first major open house. A new
fireplace provided some warmth, and the kerosene lamps on the walls and
candles on the altar emitted a gentle light.
Connie White Tupy,
president of CornerStone Bank in Montgomery, was among more than 120
people who attended. She was not prepared for the wave of emotion that
struck her when she entered the place. Said Tupy: “It was like taking a
step back in time. It was serene.”
Thomas locked up the
church for the winter after the party, waiting to reopen it until this
month. He’s now launched the next phase of his work — installing
insulation and repainting the white interior.
No Easter event is planned, but Thomas does not miss the significance of this holiday.
“Easter is about rebirth,” he said. “And that’s what happened to me.”
h/t to
Father Z
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