HEN MY SISTER DIED I SUDDENLY realized how much I would miss the letters in my mailbox that came with her return address. Adele* lived a simple life of almost fanatical devotion to God. When she was terminally ill with cancer, I sent her money to buy flowers. She returned the check and wrote, "Please use this for a worthy purpose." I sent the check to ADRA.

Doing With Less
Adele married at 18. The first of her six children was born a year later. Her letters were few or nonexistent while she was raising six children. I was busy too. We never had the good fortune of living near each other. She stayed near our small hometown in Montana.

When her children were mostly grown, the letters came. We corresponded in the days before faxes, overnight delivery, and e-mail. Sometimes her letters were written on scraps of paper, the backs of church bulletins, the edges of a newspaper article. She used her "spending" money for "worthy purposes." The church was her life, and outreach was one of her passions.

"Yesterday we visited a Native American monument and museum," she once wrote. "I noted the address of their headquarters and sent them a copy of the book The Triumph of God's Love and an issue of Liberty magazine."

"We are going to camp meeting," she reported in another letter. "I plan to buy a few books to give out. We pay our tithe, give an equal amount to the church budget, and donate to the building fund."

Adele and her husband, Wyatt, had only a few possessions and raised two large gardens each year. They received only Social Security checks. Adele did not own a washing machine. She caught rainwater in a large tub and washed her clothes by hand. A cousin who visited her once told me in disbelief, "They have nothing; she didn't even have an egg beater."

Adele and Wyatt's joy came from serving God: the church was the center of their solar system. "We hope to purchase a sign for our new church," she wrote. "We are looking forward to the church dedication."

In another message she wrote: "I sent three sets of the Conflict of the Ages Series to the other three churches in town--one to the Lutherans, one to the Catholics, and one to the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church. Of the three, only the Catholics sent a thank-you note."

In one letter she recalled her childhood. "One winter we went to Jewel Point and stayed a few weeks. What fun to go in the stores and look at the pretty things. I saw a pink hat I wanted, and I bought it. That was before we joined the church and knew how to spend more carefully," she observed.

"Yesterday we went to a cattle sale," she reported. "I distributed literature to people from three counties. I handed out the booklets Happiness Digest and Bible Answers."

In another letter Adele wrote about a scheduled visit to her town by the governor of Montana. "I took my most luxurious copy of The Great Controversy, the 1888 edition, to give him; but he didn't come. So I gave it to his assistant to give to him."

Among her community contacts were two public school teachers who were concerned about the lack of moral training in public schools. Adele wrote: "I got busy and supplied them with a selection of our papers; from Our Little Friend to the Review. Please pray for them."

Questions for Reflection or for Use in Your Small Group 1. What principles help you decide how to spend your money? 2. What do we communicate to friends and neighbors by the way we shop and spend? 3. Have you ever analyzed your shopping patterns? Do you ever buy something you already have? 4. What is the balance between blatant consumerism and denying oneself?

As communication secretary for the local church, Adele managed to get excerpts from the books The Faith I Live By and Steps to Christ in the local newspaper. "I want other people to know our religion means something to us," she wrote. With her letter were clippings from the newspaper.

One article about health started with Genesis 2:7 and described a healthy lifestyle. There was a phone number and address for more information about God's laws of health. Another column contained quotes from the book Education, along with an invitation for people to attend prayer meeting.

That fall she wrote, "We had a work bee at the school to get things cleaned for the school year. I clean the bathrooms each year."

Adele's daughter, Maggie, visited from California and bought her parents some new cookware. Maggie told them she used to go home and cry because she had so many lovely things and her parents had so few. "I told her she needn't have," Adele remarked. "We're perfectly happy with what we have."

Simple Pleasures
Adele and Wyatt filled their lives with simple pleasures, that included feeding apples to the neighbors' horse. "I walked to the Browns to give them some Guides for their granddaughter," she wrote in one letter. "They have an Arabian horse. He's all alone in the pasture, so each afternoon I quarter and core an apple and walk over to feed him.

"Our garden is flourishing this year," she continued, "so we have lots of strawberries that we use on our cereal. We don't have to buy milk or cream."

I received my last letter from my sister one day in March. Adele was in an advanced stage of cancer. "I was in the hospital four days," she wrote. "The church sent me a plant." In that letter she returned my check for flowers. "We're sending funds for the van in New York City and some to the Voice of Prophecy. I've made out an order for seeds for the garden." It was her last sentence.

Two months later Adele died at the age of 77. Four months after that Wyatt died of a heart attack while working in the garden.

To all appearances Adele and Wyatt lived ordinary lives. But the extent to which she was willing to go without for the sake of her Lord was extraordinary. Her life was a constant example to be frugal for the Lord's sake. Life's only purpose, she believed, was to use our means to forward God's kingdom.

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*Names have been changed throughout this article.

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Irene Andlove is a pseudonym.