By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
Posted April 10, 2003

ODEBOLT - A convert to Catholicism shares her time and talents with St. Martin Parish.

Malinda Bengford has been a part of St. Martin Church in Odebolt since her conversion into the Catholic Church in 1964.

"My husband was Catholic and I was Lutheran," Bengford said. "I just felt that starting out in a marriage - and we were planning on having children - that I had seen too many marriages that just didn't work out because the religions were different. I decided that I wanted our family to be a one-religion family, and so I took instruction."

In her parish, Bengford is involved in many different things. She is a lector, a cantor, the director of religious education (DRE) with Joan Godbersen, the instructor for Mass servers and the decorator of the altar with flowers.

"I'm one of those people who can't say 'no,'" Bengford said. "I just get myself into all kinds of little jobs. After they start, I just keep going with them."

According to Godbersen, if someone is looking for Bengford, they can usually find her at the church.

"Malinda's dedication to her own family as well as to our parish family is truly inspiring," Godbersen said. "She will always greet you with a smile. St. Martin Parish is blessed to have her, a convert to the Catholic faith, sharing her talents in our parish."

She started helping with flowers occasionally after she and her husband were married in the '60s. Once her children were a little older she started helping more, including decorating for the Christmas season.

"The beauty of working with flowers and singing and listening to people sing God's praises, that's one of the biggest ways that I see God," Bengford said. "I have always loved singing, and to hear people sing the word it makes me feel wonderful."

Along with singing and decorating with flowers, another main job she has developed over the years is being the CCD coordinator and teacher.

"When Father Bob Keith was there, he wouldn't take no for an answer," Bengford said. "They needed a CCD teacher at that time. I never felt right about it because I was a convert, and I thought I didn't know enough to teach kids."

Since Father Keith wouldn't take no for an answer, Bengford started teaching seventh grade. After a year or two she switched to third grade, which she taught for several years.

"When Father McClintock came, they couldn't get anyone to be the coordinator, so the second grade teacher and I got together and decided that we would try to do it along with our teaching," Bengford said. "So that is how that came about."

She commented that she really enjoyed teaching the third grade, but after a few years of coordinating and trying to get things together, it got to be too much to teach and coordinate. They started with elementary and moved to high school and elementary, and it became quite a big job.

"She is genuinely concerned about the youth of the parish and the parish as a whole," Godbersen said. "Just to look at these wonderful young people and you can see God in them. Teaching kids, you get more out of it than they do. It is just a really rewarding thing to do."

Bengford continues to work in the church because, as she says, she has always loved to work with flowers, to sing and to work with kids.

"I don't know, I just got started with it," Bengford said. "My faith has grown through the years in my love of God. I just feel that I can somehow maybe pass that along to some of these young people, my grandchildren as well as their friends. I am the type of person that when I start with something, I try to do the best I can and keep going with things."