Legacies

I remember Boston Chapel, when it was near Roxbury Crossing and also when it made the move to Harrison Ave, in the South End of Boston. Due to the love of the people who ministered there I became a Nazarene. The church body helped to make me feel as though I was at the banqueting table of Jesus Christ. At the church, there were not walls or barriers, people were treated equally with must respect and love. The church was spirit-filled and just wanted to do God's Work. I remember the street evangelism and how we would go out in the projects and have a great time in the Lord! I remember speaking with a young girl named Sandra Jackson and telling her about the saving grace of Jesus Christ. She started to attend the church and she became a life time believer of Jesus Christ. A few years ago, she went home to be with the Lord! I have so many, many great memories of my home church.

I remember Charles Walker's grandmother who was a saint in the church. She attended every service and she had so much love and wisdom to share with us young folks! One day that I will never forget, Mrs. Walker came to both the morning and evening services. She was full of life and praising God. She went home after church, sat down and started, to read her bible. She closed her eyes and went home to be with the Lord. A great woman of God! ~Dr. Jossie Owens

Joan was involved in Boston Chapel when I first arrived at ENC.

 I did not get involved until the fall of 1956 and got to know my future wife of now almost 54 years in that setting.  I took care of the green Chev Carryall that belonged to the Chapel and drove it in to the Chapel with a load of students every Sunday afternoon.  It was a good time of fellowship for all of us.  

Nevin Crouse was the pastor of the Chapel.  The building we used was in rather bad shape and eventually was condemned.  I had seen a lot of poorly built and unsafe structures in Africa where I grew up, but was astonished to find people living in dangerous facilities like this in Boston.

The work primarily with the children was delightful as you saw them learn Biblical stories and truth, but it was also very disheartening because the children returned to homes that scarcely deserved that name - with many parents besotted by drink.  The adults whose lives were transformed by the power of our Lord moved out of the Chapel area with their families because they were able to keep a job and could build up resources that had been wasted on drink and now could be used for a home and family.

We believed that Jesus came to seek and save the lost, not to build a self-sustaining congregation.  We spent hours talking with our college pastor, J. Glenn Gould about the Chapel.  He gave us a lot of courage.

Support for the Chapel had been coming from church sources but these had become very limited and meeting rental and emergency repairs was a serious problem.  At one stage those of us working in the Chapel had to decide if we were going to let it fold or if we were going to come up with funds that seemed to be beyond our capabilities.  We were convinced that God wanted the Chapel to continue.  

We prayed and God moved us to give what we had.  In my case I was working 40 hours a week and had saved $600.00 for tuition for the term that would start in a few weeks and God moved me to give it all Boston Chapel.  This was an important lesson for me in trust and obedience to God.  We raised the money that the chapel needed, and God provided the money for the payment of my tuition. ~Ted and Joan Esselstyn

I received a phone call one day from the switchboard that a piano player was needed for one Sunday at Boston Chapel on Mass Ave. The new pastor Robert MacDonald had come from Nazarene Bible College and they didn't have a piano player. I went that Sunday (I believe it was 1969) and the rest is history. I stayed there and when I was dating and married David Kingsley, he attended as well. We loved that little church at 667 Mass Ave and went there until Rev. Leite was called from Brazil. This was around 1980 when we transferred our membership to Brockton First Church of the Nazarene. At the time we left most of the people were CapeVerdan and we didn't want the new pastor to have to translate for us. It turned out to be a blessing as that church has become a large church with their own facilities in the city of Brockton. I have great memories of Boston Chapel under the pastorates of Robert and Pauline and then Bill and Linda Freed. When I graduated from ENC my plans were to move into Boston and become the Christian Education director, but that never happened for one reason or another. ~ R. Kingsley