Saturday, May 3, 1997

Souls still being mended at former shoe shop

By BILL WHITAKER

Associate Editor

The former home of an old shoe shop is still saving souls these days, just eternal ones.

Long an amusing if somewhat decrepit-looking sight on South 1st, the front of the drolly named No-De-La Shoe Shop has finally been obliterated, replaced by a dark brick facade matching that of the First United Methodist Church just around the corner.

And for good reason: The old building that once housed a shoe shop and auto body shop in back now houses, respectively, the Methodist church's new prayer room and its recently opened youth center. The prayer room was dedicated last weekend, just in time for this past Thursday's National Day of Prayer.

"It's a place where we can really focus on the prayer ministry of the church," pastor Tom Thomson said following Sunday's dedication. "We'll actively gather up prayer requests, too. We've gotten them all along, but before now we never had a place to post them."

And, yes, the prayer room will actively consider all prayers, regardless of the source - or the denomination.

"We're centrally located in this city," Rev. Thomson said, "and we want to pray for our city and reach out to our neighbors."

CITY NEEDS IT, TOO

Prayer facilities consist of a small, private "prayer closet," as one church official dubbed it, and a larger room for more than one person to pray in. The idea behind it is a place for thoughtful solace and quiet prayer - something not necessarily available to some people.

Those wishing to use the prayer facility should contact the church, 673-0007.

The 45-year-old pastor, who has led First United Methodist seven years (and whose grandfather once pastored there), says converting the old building into a useful facility for the church wasn't as hard as convincing everyone of the need for an active prayer room beyond the church sanctuary.

Such reluctance, he admits, was easy to understand.

Peggy Knowles, who actively spearheaded the drive for a prayer room, admits even her husband Roy had doubts, mostly about putting a prayer room in the old No-De-La Shoe Shop, by then a public eyesore. The shop was seized for unpaid taxes in 1991 and later purchased by the church at a sheriff's sale.

"Three people said bulldoze it," said Abilene High teacher and church member Bob Sanderson, a pivotal force in the building's renovation.

"And I was one of 'em!" Roy Knowles admitted.

But Knowles said he came around to his wife's thinking, as did others.

"I think it was through a lot of prayer and the fact God wanted it," Mrs. Knowles said later. "It was also lots of letters in the church newsletter and people getting up at church and talking about the power of prayer in a place that was quiet.

"So," she joked, "I guess you could say we were pushy about it!"

COMING AROUND

Mrs. Knowles said some of the biggest holdouts eventually proved big supporters of the program.

Truett Lambert, retired rancher and a longtime member of First United Methodist Church, readily identified himself as one of those who initially had doubts about the whole idea. At one point, he politely but firmly told Mrs. Knowles he had little use for a prayer room.

"If I need to pray," the old rancher told his friend, "I can always go out and pray among my horses and cows."

However, more and more church officials came to embrace the idea, especially after seeing Rev. Thomson's excitement about the project. Lambert was typical of those gradually caught up with the idea.

"I knew he would, too," Mrs. Knowles said. "I told him back then, 'Truett, I'm going to pray alongside you some day in that prayer room, and you're going to be sorry you ever said you didn't want one!' He hasn't prayed with me yet, but he will!"

To hear Truett Lambert talk, you can just about depend on it.

"When they first began talking about it, I thought, 'I'm a rancher and I got the whole world to pray in,' " he said. "But I was neglectful in my thinking. I was just looking out for Truett Lambert. Just because I got three sections of land to pray on doesn't mean everyone has all that land."

Last weekend 72-year-old Truett Lambert was among those braving the chill and the wind and speaking over the roar of passing trains and thundering trucks, all in praise of the prayer room.

"It's a major accomplishment," Rev. Thomson said. "It was such a mess inside, you'd look at it and wonder how it could ever look nice. But some of us like Peggy kept that vision, and once the leadership was convinced, the project went head."