Greetings to all of our precious friends! We miss you so very much. You may have been wondering, “Where are they? What are they doing since having to close down the ministry in 2024 due to life challenges and health challenges?"
Well, I will take a couple minutes to share what’s going on. First of all , Larry and I are celebrating 60 years of marriage on October 16th. Wow...time flies whether you’ve got wings or not! Honestly, I never dreamed we could be sweethearts and enjoy marriage, ministry and family this long (60 years--amazing)! I am so thankful God brought us together as young teenagers and now here we are: I’m 81 and Larry is 82. Someone said years ago, “We come together out of passion (meaning we look at each other and bang the sparks fly and love is in the air), but what keeps you together all through the years is compassion." This is so true as we have discovered when you get to our age, we share our compassion for each other to help each other through each day--- every mountain top, every valley, every challenge, at times wiping each other’s tears and cheering for each other. We have definitely ventured into a new era of our journey.
Scroll through the following pics for a few of the stages...
For us it has been “sweet and bitter"!
SWEET – our love for each other and family is so sweet and it keeps growing. How blessed we have been to be able to share 60 years of life and love together AND a ministry of seeing nearly 100,000 people make decisions for Christ. That has made the journey exciting.
BITTER—-we have experienced that coming through struggling with various health challenges. Life changes
… and it is our love and compassion for each other that shines and grows even through the changes. As most of you know, Larry has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease which his mother, his brother and his uncle had. I remember a day specifically about 7 years ago when we were ministering in a little church in South Dakota; we were standing hand-in-hand, heart to heart. In that moment, I felt God speak to me – – “Changes are coming." I was hoping it was a great surprise or something of that sort – – but day by day, I saw how the disease began to steal a part of his body. As of now, it is progressing quickly. Larry has come to need his cane, his walker and of course me (his shoulder) to lean on due to his balance that is quite unsteady. These changes are so hard to see in someone who has been so strong. To see this outgoing man of God hurt is hard, but he stays so happy and sweet in the midst of it all. I am blessed. Larry misses ministry deeply, he misses meeting and talking to all of the people, he misses preaching, and of course, telling his “bad dad jokes“! Ha ha!
Yet, we take our present circumstances, and we continue to minister day by day in person at clinics, doctors offices, the hospital, or on the phone as we come into contact with so many hurting people. We are definitely kept busy with ministry in this way now that is what God called us to do. Larry has had four back surgeries in the past couple years, and I just got out of the hospital two days ago again with ER runs due to heart problems, but God is faithful. I am now not only his wife, but his caretaker—no, no, no--caregiver. We know the Lord is with us in this part of the journey just as He has been with us through every other part of our journey, but I do ask for special prayers for both of us for strength and healing as we navigate each day and the unknown it brings. We definitely need to rely on God‘s strength to get through it. Our kids are so wonderful to help us. We are just so proud of them and incredibly grateful for the respect, love and help that they give us. We don’t know what we would do without them. Thank you, Jesus.
In closing, I just ask you to continue to remember us in prayer. It would be so sweet to hear from you. That would bring great encouragement to Larry and I and we would also love to see how you’re doing also.
Here’s our address: 3241 Potts Xing, LaVergne TN 37086
We love you! God bless you until we talk again.
Gloria