The Rev. Phil Webb is shown at the pulpit in the sanctuary of Asbury United Methodist Church, Webster City. Taking Dave Parrott's idea of "a gift of sound", he recommended it to his board of trustees and made it a reality. The gift of unused sound system components is only the latest example of generosity from a church that's served Webster Citians for 160 years.

In this season of giving, we may well ask what makes a truly meaningful gift? At a very minimum, it requires a giver motivated by genuine generosity and a truly grateful recipient. Here’s a story of such a gift, one of Webster Citians looking after each other. It began last spring, when a local church upgraded the sound system in its sanctuary.

The first church in Webster City was built by Methodists in 1866. What we know as the Midwest today was populated by hearty settlers who followed the National Road through Cumberland Gap, flat-boated down the Ohio River, or went via the Erie Canal to Buffalo, New York, and from there by Great Lakes steamers to points in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

Many of these people were Methodists.

Methodism began in the 1730s as a movement to reform the Church of England. When that didn’t happen, they broke away to form their church based on their own particular “methods” of worship. The movement gained traction in rural England and, especially, in Wales. It later spread across the British Empire.

One of the first Methodist bishops in the U.S., Francis Asbury, is considered the founder of Methodism in America. He gave his name to many churches, among them the Asbury United Methodist Church of Webster City.

There’s a long record of Asbury as a force of good in Webster City.

When the preschool movement gathered momentum in the 1970s, its purpose was to give

students a foundation for later success and allowed both parents to work when families badly needed the extra income. Asbury recognized this need and started Webster City’s first preschool. It’s still going strong today.

Thanksgiving and Christmas community meals are a Webster City tradition, provided by several churches over the years. But in modern times it was Asbury’s members who left family holiday celebrations, going to work in the church’s kitchen and fellowship hall to serve a meal to people who had no way to get one otherwise.

Doug Bailey, a longtime Asbury member, speaking of the church men’s group, said: “We delivered food and supplies to a homeless camp in Des Moines and cooked meals at a men’s shelter in Fort Dodge. Everyone in our group felt the same way; it wasn’t right so many people were in such dire need so close to Webster City.”

Bailey’s son, Tim, learned the importance of service to others at both church and at home. He and his wife, Caroline, have been missionaries in Sighisoara, Romania, for the last 12 years. A neighbor to Ukraine, Romania has been filled with refugees since the war with Russia began. The Baileys are helping those people every day, especially the 50,000 orphans the war has created.

Asbury members Don and Trudy Anderson answered the call for help after Hurricane Katrina killed 1,400 people and caused $125 million in property damage.

Don Anderson said, “We packed meals, meal kits and birthing supplies for Louisiana. People from Webster City got in their cars, loaded their own lumber and tools, and drove to New Orleans to repair homes.”

In another project, the Andersons and fellow Asbury parishioner Brett Adams built looms to weave plastic grocery bags into sleeping mats for homeless people. “It may not be your idea of comfort, but when you sleep on the ground, a one-inch plastic mattress is a big improvement,” Anderson said.

The mats go to homeless camps in Des Moines and to Honduras, Ecuador and Haiti, according to Alair Willits, volunteer coordinator at Midwest Missions in Jefferson. The organization is an umbrella charity of the United Methodist Church.

“Don and Brett are wonderful volunteers. They’ve been here since we opened in June 2023.” She estimates Methodist churches in Webster City, Algona and Goldfield have made 300 sleeping mats in the last three years.

You never know what you’ll find in a church closet. Usually, it’s the staples of church life: choir robes, 50-gallon percolators, old hymnals.

Asbury’s closets had all this and more — much more. When the church upgraded the sound system in its beautiful sanctuary last spring, it stored the old components in closets throughout the building hoping, eventually, to find a buyer.

That buyer never materialized.

But one day while helping set up Asbury’s new sound system, Dave Parrott opened a closet door, scarcely daring to believe what he saw. There was a Yahama console and a set of amplifiers and speakers all in good, working condition.

Now, Parrott isn’t just anybody when it comes to sound technology. He understands sound in a way few ever will. From 2003 to 2013 he taught audio and video technology at Mt. San Jacinto College, Hemet, California. After 2013, until 2021, he was associate professor and department chair of audio and video technology there. Graduates of Parrott’s classes design, build, operate and maintain sophisticated sound systems in theaters, concert venues and on cruise ships across the country.

In 2021, he and his family moved to Webster City to be near family. In the last two years, he’s been volunteering at local churches, helping upgrade sound systems and teaching their staff to use and troubleshoot them.

Parrott approached Asbury’s pastor, the Rev. Phil Webb, suggesting the church donate its old sound system to Webster City High School. Parrott was doing some work on the sound system in Prem Sahai Auditorium and found it was beyond repair.

“With two to three weeks’ work, I could replace the old components in the auditorium with those from Asbury and rewire them in time for the variety show,” he said.

Webb took the idea to Asbury’s board of trustees.

“We didn’t think we could sell the components for anything close to their worth, so we were delighted to give it to WCHS,” Webb said. “We didn’t want our equipment to go just anywhere. We know it will be appreciated and well-used there.”

Janie Seiser, chair of the Asbury board of trustees, agreed.

“If we could help students at the high school, that was a win for us. The trustees didn’t hesitate; it was a unanimous decision.”

Generous?

Parrott put the value of the package, if new, at more than $40,000.

Tomorrow: Part Two — The Recipients