ABOUT

Good morning!  Welcome to my blog.  Did I just say that?  Until two weeks ago I had

never considered writing a blog.  In fact, I wondered why anyone would sit in front of the

computer for half a day, when there are so many more exciting and useful things to do.

Nevertheless, here I am, and I believe it is God ordained.

This all started with my desire to get my book published.  Yes, I have written a book.  It

is about my first and only marriage at the age of seventy-seven.  You can read that story in

capsule at sacredgroundstickyfloors.com  I am told that

in order to publish a book, people have to know who I am.  I have to get my name out there.

Since I am retired and no longer have a pulpit, there’s got to be another way, hence, this blog.

I am an ordained minister credentialed with the Assemblies of God.  I also hold a Master

of Arts degree in education.

I laughingly say that I have been in church every time the doors were open since I was

two weeks old.  At the age of five, I knelt with my Sunday school teacher, Effie Doshier, and

gave my heart to Jesus.  From those early years, I knew that God had something for me to do.  I

assumed that I would marry a preacher.  He would preach and I would sing and iron his shirts

(that pretty much dates me) and together we would take the world by storm.  With that hope

in mind, I enrolled in Bible College and looked for my preacher, but he obviously wasn’t looking

for me.  Being the practical gal that I am, I decided that I might have to make a living for myself,

so I changed courses and pursued a teaching career.  I enjoyed teaching, but something wasn’t

right.  Something was missing.  Over a period of time and a difficult, circuitous route I finally

arrived at the place God intended, a place in full time ministry.

I always wanted to be married and have babies, but God seemed to be saying “no!”

Finally, I decided to quit grieving and get on with my life.

I obeyed God’s call.  For more than forty years that call has taken me back and forth

across this country and many other places in this world.  When I think about it, I am amazed at

the places I have been and the variety of ministries in which I have served over the years,

 

ministries which include children’s evangelism, staff pastor, women’s ministries, prison

ministries, youth outreach, home missions evangelism, music ministry, foreign missions, Bible

College teacher, and the list goes on.

I have decided that I have lived an incredible life.  What little girl from Oklahoma

growing up poor, as I did, has had the privilege of traveling the world; of ministering in places

like Central Asia, Turkey, India, Western Europe, Poland, South Africa, and right here at home?

The greatest privilege has been that of being used by God to bring hope to the lives of the

hopeless.  I love, love, love my ministry.  And I love the God who called me, ordained me, and

empowered me to do His work.  I am blessed!

In 2010, at the age of seventy-five, I retired, sort of – kind of, and moved back to Arizona

where I was raised.  I did so reluctantly even though I felt that it was the right time.  But I

couldn’t imagine any other kind of life than that which I had led for more than fort years.  I

heard others talking about the joy of retirement spending the day on the golf course, traveling

the world.  I had already traveled the world, and golf held no interest for me.  I was sad and I

was terrified.  I didn’t like being retired. I had not been part of a local congregation for more

than forty years.  Up to that time, this was the greatest and most traumatic adjustment of my

Some Sunday mornings I wanted to stand up and shout, “Someone put me in charge of

something.”  I knew no one, and even worse, no one knew me.  I had lost my identity.  I made it

known that I was available to do something, anything.  Finally I was asked to teach an Adult

Bible Study on Sunday mornings.  I was delighted beginning to feel like myself again.  I might

make it after all.

Then in the middle of all this, Sweet Cecil, a long time friend, showed up declaring that

he loved me and wanted to marry me.  Well, that’s the short version.  It wasn’t all that cut and

dried.  I had long since forgotten about romance and marriage.  As a matter of fact, after

reconciling myself to it, I had done quite well on my own.

I can’t help but laugh, when I think of the way God works.    Let me warn you.  Just when

you think things are going swimmingly well, and you can sit back and heave a sigh of relief, our

all wise God sometimes seems to take delight in interfering in your life.  It’s as though He is

saying, “No, no!  Don’t get too comfortable.”   All those years ago, I thought God had said “no”

to marriage and I had learned to be content.  Now, I began to believe that perhaps, instead of

saying, “No,” He had just said “wait.”  Boy, did I wait!  Fifty years or more I waited.  I don’t think

I understand God’s sense of humor.

I thought when I married Cecil on February 9, 2013 that it was the beginning of the last

chapter in my life, a reasonably long, happy chapter I hoped.   Though I was seventy-seven and

he was almost eighty, we were both reasonably healthy.  We would be together, loving each

other, serving God, and doing all the wondrous things we had planned, until Jesus came.  It was

instead, the beginning of the shortest and saddest chapter of my life.  For after five months and

eleven days, Cecil went home to be with the Lord.  You’ll have to read my book for further

details.

I love serving God!  It is never boring, because He is a God of variety and a God of

surprises.  You never know what He has up His sleeve.  Now at the age of eighty, I am turning

the page to begin a new chapter in this book that we call life.  I am not going to think of it as the

last chapter, because, as I said, you never know what God has in mind.

I’ve always wanted to write.  I have always wanted to be published.  My book, Ten

Months and Seven Days, has been entrusted to an agent.  I am praying everyday that she will

see the value in it.  And while I am praying, there are a couple more books rattling around in my

head needing to be written.

While I was a missionary in Europe, I wrote a French language children’s video series,

Boulevard des Enfants with teacher’s manual and work books.  Those videos have been seen all

over the French speaking world.  Hmm!  I guess that means they were published.   They have

also been translated into Russian, for use as Sunday school material, and in Chinese.  That was

many years ago, but it makes my heart glad to think about it.

Now I am writing again.  I am convinced that God is opening for me this new avenue of

ministry.  I trust that He will use the books, assuming there are books, to touch lives, but now,

and perhaps even more particularly, He will use this blog, which I launch today.

I want this bit of writing to make you laugh, to make you cry, to motivate you to

consider your own relationship with God and what He can and will do in your life and through

your life.  Walk into the sunlight with me and soak up the SON’S rays.

I love God, I love my family and friends, I love beautiful things, I love to travel, and, in

spite of recent pain and loss, I love my life.  And I love dogs, but I don’t have one.  I keep

thinking about it.  For eighty years I’ve thought about it, but I never could come up with a good

name, and I guess I have never stayed in one place long enough.  Now that I am tethered to this

computer for the rest of my life I’ve solved that problem.  Maybe I can find a little puppy who

won’t mind keeping me company.  Perhaps you can help me think of a name, or I could just

name him Google.

REMEMBER:  The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow