Last Sunday, we celebrated Larry's 50th year "on the road". He graduated from High School May 14, 1961 and left the following day May 15, 1961 joining his brother Lowell and his wife Connie in full-time evangelism, literally "on the road" 300 plus days a year.
Not long after my graduation tassel had been presented to me on May 14, 1961, I sped home to the farmhouse to begin packing a few of my personal belongings, preparing for the first leg of my 50 year journey. Of course, I didn't know that at the time.
Greetings from Bismarck, ND! Whew...what a whirlwind couple of weeks - let's recap! We ministered in Sioux Falls, SD on Easter at Calvary A/G with Pastor Dan and Phyllis Kuno. Seeing precious souls at the altar and lives being changed was truly the expression of what Easter is all about.
We celebrate Easter this week...I love it...as it was Easter season that both Larry and my families came to Christ in the 1950's. I love to remember it. My parents were invited to church, the preacher shared a simple salvation message to our family of 10, at the time...
Recently, we were in the Houston area for four days. We ministered last Sunday at Son Harvest church in Crosby, Texas, which is a small suburb of Houston. What loving pastors Richard and Joyce Amador are! Their congregation reflects them in their love also. Pastor Richard has a heartbeat for Native American ministries and us being from the Sioux Native American reservation in South Dakota - our spirits clicked.
We've had another great week. We had a service in Metairie, LA which is a suburb of New Orleans. It was great being back with Pastor Dan and Paulette Flanagan and the church family. They are a resilient body of believers. They too survived Katrina suffering extensive damage where 100's lost their homes and all their personal possessions and belongings. In the devastation they fled to several different states to start a new life. Even through all of this, the remaining parishioners are upbeat and loyal.
It's a beautiful Mississippi day! You can finally sense that spring is coming. When it hit 70 degrees yesterday, I got a taste of spring fever...the only problem...I don't have the energy to go with it!
"Larry - come here - QUICK"...I belted out this morning at 5:30 am. He groggily opened his eyes and grunted, "What, come where, for what?" I panicked and commanded, "Just hurry and come!" It had been another day of storms and high winds, flash floods and tornado warnings. It had stormed all night with high winds and a wall of rain. We raced back into the living room of the motor home with our feet sloshing in water on the floor; I looked up and saw a stream of water pouring out of a cupboard.
I just had a rendezvous moment here... it is almost exactly 6 years ago, that we traveled to Kiln, MS and Picayune to hold a soul winning rally. It was a great day. The next day, Larry climbed a ladder up to the top of our 12 foot motor coach to fix a leaky vent. As I watched in dismay, Larry lost his balance, slipped off the top of the motor coach and hit the ladder. Oh yes, I guess I should tell you that, I was standing on the bottom step of that steel step-ladder in order to assist him. BOOM! The steel ladder collapsed under his 240 pounds. His impact acted like an ax, amputating my right foot at the ankle as the ladder snapped together.
Larry and I have now been married for 45 ½ years, and we have found that there are rules for marriage that help keep the garbage at bay if we diligently abide by them. Years ago, someone handed me a piece of paper with some "Rules for a Happy Married Life," that I have kept, utilized, and expanded.