Elva Pearl Hall

Elva Pearl Greenup was born in Everett, Washington on November 26, 1929, the eldest daughter of Harry and Olive Greenup. She grew up and attended schools in nearby Snohomish, Washington with her two sisters, Vera and Ardis. Her family were members of the Snohomish Free Methodist Church. Elva met Orrin Hall of Seattle on a blind double date and they married in 1947. Soon after their marriage they moved to South Carolina, where Orrin was stationed with the United States Air Force and where their son, Barry, and daughter, Barbara, were born. After returning to the Seattle area, they settled in Edmonds, Washington, where their son Brent was born.

Elva worked for many years as a secretary in the Edmonds School District. She loved working with middle school students and particularly enjoyed her time as the counselor’s secretary, taking a caring interest in kids who found their way to the counselor’s office. Orrin and Elva were founding members of the Lynnwood Free Methodist church, where they served faithfully in various capacities and made lifelong friends.

Elva was a gifted seamstress, sharing her sewing talents with various charities, and an excellent cook, famous for her carrot cake and Nanaimo bars. Thanks to her remarkable gardening skills, roses, fuchsias, hydrangeas and more grew abundantly in her garden, making it a creative space of color and beauty. Elva liked math and numbers, proving to be a formidable opponent or a valuable teammate in card and strategy games. She also enjoyed camping and traveling with the family, including a tour of Europe. After retiring, Orrin and Elva spent many winters in Mesa, Arizona, traveled extensively across the US, and assisted with relief projects organized by Samaritan’s Purse. They also helped at Rancho Betania Free Methodist Conference Center in Mexico.

In 1991, Orrin and Elva moved to Port Orchard on the Kitsap peninsula, where they built a home that was a place of welcome and hospitality for family and friends. Orrin died in 2018, after celebrating his 90th birthday and their 70th wedding anniversary. Elva died on December 10, 2020. She is survived by her 3 children and their spouses: Barry (Sharon) Hall, Barb (Fred) Powless , and Brent (Jennie) Hall; 5 granchildren: Brenda Ellis, Brian Hall, Tiffany Butler, Lisa Yoder, and David Hall; and 7 great grandchildren. Her love for Jesus, her gift of encouragement, her devotion to His Word, and her faithful witness to His saving and sustaining grace blessed all who knew her.

Orrin Glen Hall

Orrin Hall was born November 6, 1927, passed away at age 90 at Park Vista in Port Orchard, WA on Friday, August 3, 2018.  Orrin was the eldest child of Glen and Grace (Glancy) Hall.  His two brothers Vernon Hall and Larry Hall preceded him in death. He is survived by his wife, Elva, and three children, Barry Hall (Sharon) of Corvallis, OR, Barbara (Hall) Powless (Fred) Port Orchard, WA and Brent Hall (Jennie) of McPherson, KS.  They have five grandchildren (Brenda, Tiffany, Brian, Lisa and David) and seven great-grandchildren (Corban, Jack, Abrielle, Eden, Jayden, Brie and Lucas). He is also survived by two sisters-in-law, Ila Hall (Vernon) and Eleanor Hall (Larry).

Orrin was born November 6, 1927 in Tanunak, AK where his parents were sent as school teachers. They moved back to Seattle when he was eighteen months old. He graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1945 and attended Seattle Pacific College following. He and Elva (Greenup) met in the Fall of 1946 and were married December 12, 1947.  They celebrated their 70^th anniversary last December.

He was in the US Air Force from 1951-1955 during the Korean War.  He was stationed in Sumter, South Carolina during most of this time during which time Barry and Barbara, their first two children, were born.  After his discharge from the Air Force, he and Elva moved back to the Seattle area. In 1960, their third child, Brent, was born. Orrin served eight additional years in the Air Force Reserve.

Orrin worked for Pacific Northwest Bell now known as CenturyLink and retired in 1989 after 43 years of service.  Their family was raised in North Seattle and Edmonds area. Orrin and Elva traveled around the United States for a year after retirement, before building their home in Port Orchard, WA. They also enjoyed spending winters in Mesa, AZ for many years. They moved to Park Vista Senior Living Community in June 2017.  Orrin was a founding member of the Lynnwood Free Methodist Church, Lynnwood, Washington, and served as the church treasurer and board member for many years.

Orrin was known to be a very gentle, soft spoken, Christian man and is now in Heaven with his parents, brothers and many friends.  Prior to his death, he was well cared for by caregivers from Home Instead Senior Care and Park Vista Assisted Living as well as Kaiser Permanente/Hospice.  He will be sorely missed by his family and friends.

The memorial service will be an open house at Park Vista Senior Community hospitality room from from 2:00-4:00pm on September 29, 2018. Memorial donations can be made to Hope & Healing Africa, 3224 N. Tyler Rd, Wichita, KS 67212 or online at www.hopehealafrica.org.  This is a non-profit ministry that is supporting and rebuilding a small Free Methodist hospital in a medically underserved area of Mozambique.

Sharing the wounds

Last night we helped furnish an apartment for my new friend, Gina.  We put together a table, hauled in a bed, some chairs, a lamp, and a rocking chair so she can rock her baby girl.  We carried in clothes, a crib, and a few toys. She apologized that she had no furniture of her own, because she walked out of her home with nothing, leaving an abusive relationship to start over.

I’d never met Gina until last night, but she hugged me and asked if she could be my friend.  I hugged her back and in that embrace, I welcomed Lent.

I hugged Gina gently because she had lots of bruises.  I hugged Gina lovingly because I wanted to embrace her pain and carry it away with me.  And then I remembered Jesus.  I remembered the wounds he bore and how he embraced the stricken, the sin-stained, and the heavy-laden, making their suffering his own.

Lord, make me eager to share the wounds of others, to carry their pain close to my heart, so that together we can see you, our Savior, who bears away the sin of the world in an endless embrace of love.