Schumacher becomes a lay speaker after retirement

By Editor | March 23, 2011 |

As the third week of the Lenten Luncheons draws near, Al Schumacher prepares to be the featured speaker at St. James Lutheran Church at noon on Wednesday, March 30. Meet, or get reacquainted with, Al and his wife, Susann.

“We came here (to Vandalia) 17 years ago,” Al said. “We came from Hillsboro, where we lived for 10 years prior to that.
“We opened the National Bank here in 1993, and we just kind of love Vandalia,” he said.
“We live in a ‘Mayberry’ part of the town,” he said. “We have good neighbors,” he said, naming several of them, including their pastor.
“He keeps an eye on us. We have really been blessed since he moved into the neighborhood,” he said, referring to Rev. Dr. Roger Grimmett, pastor of First United Methodist Church in Vandalia.
The Schumachers praised all of their neighbors by name, for the good deeds they do in the neighborhood.
“We were blessed before pastor moved here,” he said. “I’m 73 years old, and we have neighbors who look out for us. If I started to get up on the roof, they would probably come right over here to help me out.”
The Schumachers have four children: Rod, who works as international sales director for Thomas Nelson Publishing Co. in Nashville, Tenn.; Dick, who lives in Auburn, is employed by Memorial Hospital and also builds homes; Curt, who lives in Edwardsville and is a principal in Glen Carbon; and a daughter, Kelley, who lives in Hillsboro and teaches in Vandalia.
Like all grandpas, Al had a story to share about a grandson, Justin, who called from Tennessee.
“Justin said, ‘Grandpa, I need to interview you. I need to interview someone who was alive during the Vietnam War,’ and I thought, ‘My goodness, there is someone asking me history.’"
Al had served on the draft board in Missouri during the Vietnam War. “Of course, Justin had no idea what a draft board was.”
While Al was looking for papers that referred to those days, he ran onto the hospital bill from when he was born. The bill totaled $22.44, and it was marked on the bill that it was paid off at $5 a month.
About the Lenten Luncheons
“To me, it is a refreshing hour in your day,” he said. Susann added, “They are preparing us for the resurrection of our Savior.”
The Preparations and the Blessings
“To me, the amazing part about this, I went to lay speakers’ school when I was 70 years old,” Al said.
“I wore out two preachers in two years before they got me there. The first day there, when I sat down, everybody around the table, I had kids older than them.
“I thought, ‘Boy, the Lord really has a sense of humor, putting me in this position.’ But I’ve really been blessed, I’ve enjoyed doing it,” he said.
“When I retired, I’d been in banking and I was used to seeing people all the time.
“Then all of a sudden, like Susann said, ‘There’s just me,’ and I said, that’s OK, there isn’t 20 of you,” Al said.
“So this worked out to where Susann and I make calls for our church, we teach a Bible study at Sweetbrier Retirement Home every Wednesday morning, and on the third Sunday of each month, we hold a service at Brookstone (Estates),” he said.
“So, actually, it has been a blessing to us. We see people who are strong and have so many more problems than us, but you would never know it in talking with them. It’s just the way the Lord works in your life; there is no use fighting it.”
Al followed the urging of the Lord and his preacher to get involved in working for the Lord – he prayed, prepared, and put his feet and his voice to those prayers and preparations, with his wife at his side.
Hear Al Schumacher as he talks about “Discipline of the Saints” next Wednesday at noon at St. James Lutheran Church on Gallatin hill in Vandalia.