Making a clean break: Church custodian retires after years of service
By Shelly Webb
January 14, 2010
656
At some point between 1966 and 1967, Charles Sayre was offered a part-time job at Millersburg First Presbyterian Church. He accepted the position thinking it would be temporary, but boy was he wrong!
My father-in-law actually had stopped by the church one day and they had asked him if he thought Id like a part-time job there, Sayre said. When I got the message I thought about it and said yes. I thought at the time it would just be a temporary thing. I had no idea I would spend the next 42 years serving as the church custodian. Ive really enjoyed it though. The people there are so nice and I have really enjoyed doing the work.
Sayre especially liked taking care of the church because he understood that he was really taking care of Gods house, something that meant a lot to him over the years.
I always took my hat off when I came in to clean the sanctuary, he said. I felt like I really had a special job and was doing something in a small way for God. Working at the church and taking care of things has a way of making you feel close to God, too, and Ive always appreciated that feeling.
In addition to working at the church, Sayre also worked at the Flxible plant in Millersburg until it closed. Afterward, he was fortunate enough to be transferred to the companys Loudonville location and continued working there for several years. Working out of town gave Sayre less time, but he managed to keep the work at the church done by adjusting his schedule.
Driving to and from Loudonville made my time a little more stretched, he said. Most of the time I would get up early and go to the church about 4:30 or 5 a.m. I would work until about 6 when Id have to leave to be at Flxible in Loudonville by 7. I would get some work done in the mornings and then stop back by in the evenings and finish things up.
Sayre took care of the inside as well as the outside of the church, which included mowing grass in the summer and shoveling snow and clearing sidewalks in the winter.
He has been so faithful all these years, shared church secretary Debbie Allison. He has really blessed the people of the church with his gifts and talents. Weve appreciated him throughout every season, but probably through the winter season even more so. There was never a problem with snow or ice at the church. He always had everything cleared.
According to interim Pastor Burt McGlawn, Sayre has fulfilled an important position in the church and set a great example of servitude over the past 42 years.
There are no small jobs in Gods house, he shared. Every single thing an individual does in the ministry, whether its the church secretary, teaching Sunday school, doing the custodial duties or preaching, its all unto God and He is pleased and blessed by our service.
Sayre is now 70 years old and retired five years ago from Flxible Company due to health reasons. He suffered a heart attack and although he retired from Flxible, he went back to the church work after he recovered.
Everyone at the church was so caring and good to me when I came back from the heart attack, he said. They made sure I had a self-propelled mower so it wouldnt be as hard to cut the grass and they also bought a snow thrower so I wouldnt have to shovel so much in the winter months. I am so lucky to have this church family. My wife, Rita, and my daughter, Lisa, and I are really blessed to be a part of First Presbyterian all these years.
Over the years Sayre has worked with three different pastors and had only good things to say about each one. He was married at the church and said First Presbyterian feels like his home because hes grown up there and been a part of it for so many years.
Before I got married I went to the Methodist church, Sayre shared. I transferred my letter of membership to First Presbyterian when Rita and I married and Ive been a part of this church ever since.
Sayre decided to retire as custodian under his doctors advisement due to his heart health. He will miss the duties at the church, but is happy that hell still be there every week enjoying the people hes grown to love and appreciate.
