The First Petal - Reflections of My Life

I was born in Danville, Illinois and shortly after attending first grade my family moved to Chenango County, NY.

My father's family lived there since the late 1930s and his longing to be with his parents won out over Mom's desires to remain near her family and homeland.

So, my parents and seven children loaded up and moved to NY.

It is there where I was raised, there where I attend school, there where I formed friendships, there where I would first experience pain, there I would marry, have children and there where I would find the greatest love of all....the Lord Jesus Christ.

My husband Gary found Him first. We attended a church at the invitation of a co-worker; where the people of that church showed love to us in a way we had never experienced before and the Pastor there lived the very heartbeat of God for lost souls. It was then that Gary, one day out of desperation and a near divorce decided on his way to work one Thursday morning to turn into the church parking lot, walk into the Pastor's office and say, "Pastor, I don't know how...but I need to get saved." The Pastor showed him where to kneel and began to pray and from that moment to this...Gary's life has never been the same.

However, I was the skeptic. I put the poor husband to the test. In my own haunting words...(which echo every time he re-tells the story)...that when he came home so excited to tell me that he had given his life to the Lord that day...I said..."I am not going to me married to no Holy Joe!"

Neither one of us had been raised in a Christian home and the only kind of "so called saints" we knew are not worthy of even a mention here.

Things took a little more time with me. My life had been hard and the love I had experienced was not the kind that God had to give. When I began to see that there was a new man in my home, who was completely delivered from drinking and was passionate for serving God...who began to love me when I was the most unloveable...then....I began to desire to know his Lord also.

Gary received a call to preach and after stating the next few haunting words , "I am never going to be a preacher's wife" (which echo every time he re-tells the story)...we headed out to try and honor the Lord with our entire lives.

Ah, we were young and often foolish in those early days, from street ministry, City Mission work, door to door evangelism, bus ministry, travelling and singing, tent revivals, home meetings, pastoring and pioneering...we have learned...that there is a fine line between youth and true spiritual maturity...and sometimes ...even now... we refer to ourselves as, "old and occasionally foolish"...lol. But in the words of our friend, "God has brought us a mighty long way!"

It has been 30 years since we found the Lord and have been on this incredible life journey. God has been faithful! He has seen us through many things and taken us many places...and all the while we have been following him, He has "loved us with and everlasting love" and has truly been El Shaddai..."the God that's enough!"