"The best fun I've ever had? That's easy. It was the year I got to play Santa in a town that had no people."

Pinkie was hosting the Sabbath potluck out under his prune trees, and I was moving from an incredible potato salad to the dessert—fresh corn on the cob! Conversation had ebbed, so while slathering butter on the corn I asked a couple of the folks, "What's the most fun you've ever had?"

Ralph was the first to talk.

"I was working at an Adventist hospital," he began, "when the county Social Services department called and asked if I would help them with a problem. I love problems, so I immediately agreed and then asked what kind of problem we had."

"There's a whole town filled with farm laborers about three miles from your hospital. The people there are very poor, and most do not have green cards to work in the U.S. They need clothes, food, toys, and medical care, but whenever someone from our department shows up to help, the town is empty. They scatter, fearful that we're there to send them back across the border. It's July, but could you help these families have a good Christmas?"

Ralph was director of Environmental Services at the hospital, and most of his staff were naturally fluent in Spanish.

"I called a special staff meeting," Ralph forgot all about his dessert as he told me the story. "I told them about the call from the county and then said, 'We've all got good jobs, and enough clothes to give everybody up there something to wear. Bring in what you've got, and let's give 'em Christmas!'"

Two weeks later they were ready. The entire hospital staff jumped at the invitation, and the housekeepers' cars were overflowing with piles of clothing, sacks of toys, cases of food, and enough kids' vitamins to last a year! They were ready for a party.

"I wanted to go along to help deliver the goods," Ralph said. "But I'm a short, round, white-haired Norwegian who looks like he may be from the border patrol! They'd all run away if they saw me. Then one of my employees handed me a Santa suit."

Ralph, 74, and now a veteran of many July Christmases, blinked away his tears before finishing.

"The people in that town treated us like we were bringing them manna directly from Heaven! And I got to be the Santa!"

Dick Duerksen is the official "storyteller" for Maranatha Volunteers International. Readers may contact Dick at dduerksen@maranatha.org.