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Urged to Preach
In the fall of 1914, Helen Williams and her sons returned to the United States. Mrs.
Williams directed the Bible workers’ training program at Washington Missionary
College in Takoma Park, Maryland, and pastored a small church in the Washington,
D.C., area.
Later, when Elder Votaw became ill, Helen Williams accepted the invitation to teach
his Bible classes at the college. She gave up the pastoral assignment to devote all her
time and energy to a heavy teaching load, which she enjoyed. In this employment her
salary reached a new high of $25 a week.
An anecdote recalled by Ethel Longacre Hannum relates to the human side of Helen
Williams the teacher. (Taken from a letter to the author by Ethel Longacre Hannum, July 25,
1985.) It was customary for the professor who taught Bible in the college to teach the
same subject in the academy. Ethel Longacre attended one of Mrs. Williams’ academy
Bible classes; three of her classmates were Donald Griggs, Arthur Walters, and George
Harding, who afterward became a cardiologist, owner of a mortuary, and founder of
Harding Hospital, respectively; but impressive as their later accomplishments may be,
these young men were normal teenagers.
Arthur was the class comedian, with many pranks up his sleeve. One day he was even
more lively and creative than usual. Finally Mrs. Williams placed a chair close to her
desk, facing the blackboard behind her, and asked Arthur to sit there, quietly, until the
close of class.
Arthur went to the chair as requested, managing to pick up a piece of chalk on the
way. Mrs. Williams was standing beside him but could not very well watch him as she
looked about the class. She was wearing an attractive red dress with large patch pockets
on the skirt. Leaning over very carefully, Arthur with his chalk drew a smiling face on
the nearer pocket. The students, releasing their repressed laughter, were filing out at the
close of class before Mrs. Williams discovered the impromptu art work. She took it good
naturedly, never seeming to hold resentment against students for their classroom
pranks. They could create few situations for which her four sons had not already
prepared her.
Ever gracious and pleasant, Mrs. Williams was loved and respected as a Bible teacher.
Nevertheless, after five years the teaching position was given to someone else, doubtless
a man, perhaps one with more formal education. One could wish that the college had
assisted Mrs. Williams in pursuit of further education. Nothing appropriate was
provided for her to do; all that she was offered was the work of residence hall dean at the
college where she was being replaced. Mrs. Williams was game to try. Unfortunately,
she had neither preparation for nor experience in this line of work. Therefore it should
not be surprising that the arrangement did not work out well. In Helen’s own stern evaluation of herself, “I was just fool enough to think that late in life I could change my line
of work and make a success of it. Result: a fizzle.” (Taken from a letter accompanying
Sustentation Fund Application by Helen Williams, 1922.) It is sad that a woman of her
experience in pastoring was asked to do something else totally unfamiliar and not within
her gifts.
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