In January 1994 Doug received a call from his long-time friend, Len Nelson, with an unusual request: “Would you like a new Estonia baby grand piano for your sanctuary?” Doug says the amount of time necessary for him to formulate an answer could have been measured in milliseconds, “You bet we would!” That began an interesting and revealing discussion among the staff and leadership of the church in the early 1990s.
The first question was, “Who is this guy and why does he want to give us a $20,000 instrument?” The answer was simple. Len was a stockbroker and paid soloist in Philadelphia where Doug had served during his Princeton days. He loved the Lord and music and wanted to give five pianos to congregations around the country with whom he had a relationship.
The second question was, “What’s it going to cost us?” The answer was $265 to purchase a piano bench. Len apologized that he couldn’t ship benches along with the pianos from the Baltic state of Estonia. After considerable discussion the trustees decided that they would authorize the purchase.
The third question was, “How could it fit into the sanctuary?” The far smaller upright piano that was currently being used required far less space. Again the answer was simple, we’d remove the first pew on that side of the sanctuary. (The removal of the pew turned out to be quite a boon, providing lots of space for other worship enhancing activities.)
After nearly 30 years of worship, recitals and special events, that gift has been used to the glory of God in countless ways. It was a joy to welcome Len to Hebron several times over the years as a guest soloist. Len went to be with the Lord sixteen years ago, yet his service to Jesus Christ continues here and in at least four other congregations around the country.
