February 11, 2003

MOBERLY - It’s called “snail mail."

But 53 years!

Marie Taylor, church secretary at Carpenter Street Baptist Church, Moberly, is still scratching her head about a post card that arrived at the church in late January – 53 years late.

While sorting the church’s morning mail, Marie found the post card that was addressed to Jack Stanton, who served as pastor at Carpenter Street from 1947 to 1951.

“He’s gone. He’s dead," was the first thought Taylor said she had.

Looking at the card closely, she saw that it was postmarked: 9:30 a.m., October 20, 1949.

The card featured a picture of a St. Louis evangelist, Del Fehsenfeld, who was planning a revival in Burbank, Calif., in 1949. Promised revival topics included: “Are you ready to meet God?" and “Will the atomic-bomb end all?"

Stanton died in 2001.

From 1975 to the time of his death, he was an associate professor emeritus of evangelism at Southwest Baptist University and was former director of the Internation Institute of Evangelism.

Fehsenfeld is still alive.

Taylor used the internet to find the 90-year-old retired evangelist. She located him in Greenville, S.C.

Postal officials speculated about the whereabouts of the card the last 53 years.

The Moberly postmaster, Rich Skaggs, said it could have been stuck in a machine or a piece of furniture in a Burbank post office and didn’t get found until a recent renovation.