At home in the house of the Lord

“I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord’.” If you quote these words from Psalm 122 to Ester Wiens, caretaker of McIvor Ave. MB Church, Winnipeg, she will agree with them wholeheartedly but hear them in her native Portuguese.

Wiens was born in the northern Maranhão province of Brazil. She learned about Jesus Christ at the Christian school North American missionaries set up in her village and then again at a nearby Catholic school where she earned a teaching degree.

One of her early teaching jobs was at a farming colony established by evangelical Christians to encourage local people to stay on the land. At the colony, Wiens met Mennonites for the first time and was impressed with their attitude of service.

“They had no biases against people because of race or money,” she remembers, “and they really cared about the poor people.” She liked what she saw, particularly in John Wiens, the young mechanic who taught colonists the care and use of farm equipment.

John and Ester married and moved to Curitiba, John’s hometown in southern Brazil. Wiens describes this move to the Mennonite “capital” of Brazil as the greatest culture shock of her life. Her in-laws had not learned the language of the land, so she could not communicate with them. Also, she was disappointed that many of the Mennonites lacked the servant heart she had admired in her colony work.

With her family grown and three grandchildren who call her “Vovo,” Ester Wiens, with her husband John, has chosen a career that includes caring for her entire church family.

Living to serve

With a growing young family, Wiens transferred from a teaching career to managing a Mennonite non-profit daycare. There, with her youngest son in tow, she was pleased to once again work with people who lived to serve others and who truly cared about the poor.

Meanwhile, her husband John had inherited the family dream of “One day, in Canada” and suggested they apply to immigrate. Knowing it was unlikely to happen, Wiens responded with, “Why not?” Their letter of acceptance came as a shock.

In Canada, far from friends and family, Wiens chose to set down firm roots, beginning with ESL classes. If her children (then 18, 14 and 7) married Canadians one day, she didn’t want any language barriers getting in the way.

The move also necessitated some hard career choices. Without the required certification to teach in Canada, she considered a kitchen position. “I used to be a teacher and a daycare manager,” she lamented. “Now I would be washing dishes!” But the pay was welcome, the part-time hours fit her family schedule, and she would be able to improve her English. Wiens took the job.

A new opportunity

When her part-time position was phased out, her manager suggested an entirely different opportunity: to be the caretaker of the church just seven doors down from the Wiens family home. She fit her new responsibilities around her home life while her husband, an experienced mechanic and skilled millwright, performed the heavy work and the maintenance. Suddenly she was a church caretaker and it suited her just fine.

In 2001, with her youngest child no longer in elementary school, Wiens became the caretaker at McIvor Church: a bigger facility, more responsibilities, and full-time work. Her biggest challenge? To make everybody happy. “A week where there are no complaints about the caretaker . . . that’s a good week for me,” she laughs.

But she hears plenty of encouragement, too. In fact, Wiens considers the people her greatest joy. She has countless friends of all ages she meets and greets in the church.

“Because I work in the church, I see all the things that go on,” she says. Rather than being discouraged by this, she is heartened to watch the “saints” live out their faith in real, if not perfect, ways. “I see that the people who work here serve God all of the time. And they train others to serve too.”

One thing that helps Wiens find satisfaction in her job is the vast difference between Canadian and Brazilian culture. “In Brazil, as a teacher, I had a maid and a gardener,” she explains. “Here, we all do everything ourselves. Even rich people do their own laundry.”

Rewards

Once Wiens surrendered her professional aspirations, she discovered surprising rewards in her work. This job, like no other, encourages quiet time with God. She particularly loves to clean in the sanctuary, surrounded by the Bibles in the pews, the pulpit and the cross. “I pray all the time because I work in the house of the Lord.”

So much time spent in God’s presence has given her a new mandate: “You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy . . .” (Leviticus 20:26). No matter the trials or circumstances, Ester Wiens chooses to be content in her own calling to holiness.

On Sunday mornings, she gladly shares her private place with the whole congregation. It is her job, after all, and her joy “to make the church a welcoming place for all.”

Ingrid Koss is a freelance writer. She is one of the people Ester Wiens often greets at McIvor Ave. MB Church, Winnipeg.