Me vs. the Courts in California? In Which I Almost Lose My Job…. Again

This story's pretty simple really. After student teaching, I was offered several jobs teaching in different school districts. I chose a fourth grade class of 35 amazing kids at Glazier Elementary School in the Norwalk-LaMirada Schools. Then I moved out on my own to a cute little one room bungalow with a white picket fence.

The 35 kids became my whole life. I loved the kids and I loved teaching. I spent hours before, during, and after school trying to make learning and reading fun and meaningful.

However, being naive about legalities, I started telling my students about Jesus. Three of them, DeLise, Susan and Jerry, decided they wanted to follow Jesus too. So I started holding Bible classes after school. I was soon to learn this was not allowed.

So here’s how I almost lost my job….again. One afternoon during Bible class, we were working our way through John, chapter 3. One of the children, Susan, asked if verse 16 meant her parents needed Jesus too, or they would perish and go to Hell. We re-read the verses and prayed for her parents. However, she went home and on her own told her parents they were going to hell and needed to ask Jesus to be their Savior.

I was called into the Principal's office first thing the next morning and told if I wanted to keep my job and not end up as a major court case in the State of California, I would stop talking to kids about Jesus and the Bible. The Principal told me about other teachers who had lost their jobs doing this. But he wanted to give me another chance. So our Bible classes after school stopped. Instead I met on Saturdays with whoever could come and meet off the school grounds. 

With great joy, I recently reconnected with DeLise on Facebook and heard her recounting of the same events. Mostly I heard how she still loves and follows Jesus and that warmed my heart for sure.

But all of this took its toll, and by the middle of the semester I ended up in the hospital exhausted and still in need of much healing….enter the boy, the kiss, yet another tree, and the proposal.

John 3:16:  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.


Song: Your Grace Finds Me (Matt Redman), Your Grace Finds Me  

St. Augustine and Me: “I Badly Wanted to Love Something….to Love and Have My Love Returned”

It was my final semester of college courses for my teaching credential and my whole world seemed upside down. I thought I had become a "successful Christian" and all of life seemed on the right track. Everything fit in a box, even my conceptual understanding of God and His Son Jesus.

Then God let my box be shaken....and it fell apart. I became involved in self-righteous, self-justifying relationships that were not godly and gave me a false sense of identity and the human love I felt I wanted and needed. How could I now be dealing with sin, and why?? Wasn't I still a "good Christian who loved Jesus"?

I began to touch the selfishness still rampant in my own heart. I felt much as Augustine did during his schooling in Carthage. He later confessed, “I began to look around for some object for my love, since I badly wanted to love something….to love and have my love returned was my heart’s desire, and it would be all the sweeter if I could also enjoy the body of the one who loved me” (Confessions 3:1).

Here was God's solution for my dilemma. As with Augustine, God didn't stop my foolish choices. Just like the children of Israel in the wilderness, He let me prove to myself that being and doing things right in my own eyes didn't work. Pure and simple, I was a sinner and needed His love and forgiveness. And He didn't forsake me. Instead, once I acknowledged sin as sin and yielded to Him my hopes for love on my terms, He began to give me more than I could ever have imagined.

I learned that I'm not the first person to prove I was a sinner and needed God’s grace provided through Jesus. In fact, there is no other way to be cleansed from guilt or to become a follower of Jesus. Recently I was reading how easily Aaron, and even Moses, "became" sinners and how God did not reject them, only disciplined them with love and forgiveness. Then there's Peter who denied him three times. Denied he even knew Jesus! I think Jesus wept with Peter….and I know He wept with me.

So I joined the company of those who have proved that they are nothing without Jesus. He's the only One who can clean us up and draw us back into relationship with the living God. This is really the whole message of Christmas and why Jesus came. The reason for the season is that we are separated from God and Jesus came to reconcile us to the Father. This is the real reason for celebration!

Out of His grace during this time, He also gave me a family in which to heal, the family of Dr. Larry and Jackie Hale. In order to cut housing costs, I had moved in with this family to help care for their precious baby, Rebecca. But I was the one who received the most care. Larry, the father of this home, prayed for me and encouraged me to seek God's forgiveness and healing. He and Jackie loved me with compassion, even when they saw how broken I was. Often Larry, as a father, would sit and talk with me after dinner, giving counsel, advice, and ministering the love and acceptance of Jesus. How good of my Father to give me a father at this time to help walk me into wholeness.

Here’s what Augustine learned, the truth of the only true completeness (Confessions 10:6):

What do I love when I love my God?
Not physical beauty, or the splendor of time;
Not the radiance of earthly light, so pleasant to our eyes;
Not the sweet melodies of harmony and song;
Not the fragrant smell of flowers, perfumes and spices;
Not manna or honey;
Not limbs such as the flesh delights to embrace;
These are not the things I love when I love my God.

And yet, when I love Him, I do indeed love a certain kind of light, a voice, a fragrance, a food, an embrace.

But this love takes place in my inner person,
Where my soul is bathed in light whose brilliance is not bound by space;
When it listens to sounds that time never takes away;
When it breathes in a fragrance which no breeze can disperse;

When it taste food which by eating can’t diminish;
When it clings to an embrace which is not broken when it is fulfilled.

This is what I love when I love my God.

Song: Create in Me a Clean Heart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFlgIk7CXbs

Jesus' Birthday Cake

There are so many special things that happen during this season. I want to share my favorite one in our home. In addition to pumpkin pie, at our house on Christmas Day we bake a birthday cake for Jesus.

Then we decorate it and each person gets to put a candle on the cake. Around the Christmas dinner table, we all sing Happy Birthday to Jesus and blow out the candles together. That's what Jesus does with our sins. Completely gone.

Now this next part is my favorite: We each take a piece of cake, reserving one piece of cake for Jesus. Then we pass around Jesus' piece and each take a small piece. We wait until each person has a piece and then eat it together. It is a time of communion with our loving God and each other.

May your Christmas be blessed with peace, joy, forgiveness and communion in your home as you remember Jesus, the greatest nomad who ever left one place and came to another.

21 Cartons of Milk and the Boy Under the Tree: How I Met My Husband

As I studied God’s Word, I felt strongly that I was to serve overseas and share His Word with those who needed Him. But there were so many opportunities, which way should I go? As I listened to different speakers and heard about many great things going on, I was drawn to one mission organization. Wycliffe Bible Translators focuses on giving God’s Word to people who have never had His Word in their own language. Since it was through reading His Word that my heart got drawn in, I wanted to help others come to meet Jesus through His Word.

Being a member of Wycliffe meant you had to have a minimum of two full summers of intensive linguistic training at one of Wycliffe’s training schools held at different universities around the country. The closest university to me was Oklahoma University in Norman, Oklahoma. So in my junior year I applied to take the courses and was accepted for the first set summer courses. It would be a long drive from southern California to Oklahoma, but I found another applicant who needed a ride and so we drove together. Janet Barnes became my roommate and friend. Janet and I drove straight through, arriving at 3 a.m. when the temperature was 103. We took the last room available—a corner upstairs room in a hot brick building facing the setting sun.

Now Janet happened to be a teacher who taught high school Spanish. One day she called me to come out of our hot dorm room and meet one of her former students. I went out on the upstairs landing in my bathrobe and curlers (!) and saw this young kid sitting under a tree with a tray full of 21 milk cartons. He was an MK (missionary kid) and had been travelling with his parents for a week. When he returned, he picked up the 21 cartons of milk he was owed for his absent meals (children got 3 a day) and took them to drink under a tree.

 

I’m afraid I wasn't too impressed with this young boy who seemed kind of nerdy. Plus he was only 18 and I was two years older and much wiser. If you know me, you probably already have figured out that this young geek was my future husband Bill. While he seemed interested in me, I tried to discourage his interests and so we didn't date that first summer.

Janet writes: "I remember that often you and I would go to the dining hall together, get our trays of food, and then I would spot Bill and suggest that we sit with him. Later on you told me that you really didn't want to sit with him, but I guess you were too polite to tell me that, so we sat with him, which pleased me!" Janet even kept a letter we wrote her of our engagement ... well, kinda told her. I'll be happy to share it with you if you'd like; just ask.

So I focused on my studies of phonetics, phonology, and grammar. Besides having Kenneth Pike (Nobel Peace Prize nominee) for a grammar instructor, I also had a very good phonology teacher named Dow Robinson During this summer I completed the rigorous application to become a member of Wycliffe Bible Translators and was accepted. Oh, by the way, Bill's father, Otis, was the Candidate Secretary for Wycliffe and Bill's mom, Mary, helped with the process, so all memberships went through their office. So really they knew me well before Bill did.

I returned to Biola for my final year to get my BA and to graduate. Though I still had Student Teaching and another semester of course work for my teaching credential, the next summer I headed back to Norman, Oklahoma, for the second summer of linguistic training classes (grammar and phonology).

During this second summer I had a couple informal dates with the geek from the previous summer--cokes or ice cream at local shops--and found him fascinating. When we talked he seemed caring and kind  and less geeky. He knew so many things about everything and he loved the Lord too. He planned to attend Westmont College the next year while I would be student teaching. Then he would be going to UC Berkeley for his final year to complete his math degree. But as I still didn't want to move things forward, we decided we would just write letters ... until the time when I ended up in the hospital in the same city where he was going to school, halfway across the US. But that’s part of the next story.

Wycliffe’s unofficial theme Song: Faith Mighty Faith by Charles Wesley:

Faith mighty faith, the promises sees and looks to God alone
Laughs at impossibilities and shouts “It shall be done!”
And shouts, “It shall, it shall be done. It shall, it shall, it shall be done!”
Laughs at impossibilities and shouts “It shall be done!”

Matthew 28:18-20: Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Working My Way through College and the Time I Almost Lost My Job

It’s never been cheap to go to college, especially if you live on campus. My mom helped out as best she could, but I had to work hard, sometimes 30 hours a week in addition to carrying a very full course load, with wonderful courses by amazing teachers. My work jobs were varied and included being an RA for several years. Another job was being the elevator operator for our downtown dorm (12 stories high). Back in those days, all elevators were operated by an employed person.

Fortunately I had some pretty interesting jobs and wonderful bosses. My first year, I worked in the children’s department of the Los Angeles Public Library, which was right next door to our dorms. I fell in love with children’s books, and the two amazing librarians there who nurtured that love. Mrs. Margaret Riddell became a friend for life.

The next year I worked at an insurance agency as a secretarial assistant to Mr. John Motley. He was a great boss. But I think I’ll tell you the time I nearly lost me my job. Normally my job was to file computer cards. Pretty dull and boring. Then his secretary went on vacation for two weeks at Christmas and he asked me to fill in full time. I was a good typist and dutifully typed up all I was asked to do. I enjoyed playing the part of being the “real” secretary.

But one day I noticed that a bill had not been paid and was way overdue. So I thought it would be helpful if I sent a reminder note to the man who had not paid his bill. Soon after, Mr. Motley called me into his office and asked me to sit down. He asked me if I had written and sent out this note. I explained my actions—that I wanted to help him. He told me I should never write and send a letter to a customer without his permission. I apologized, quite contritely.

Then he looked at me and started laughing. I was puzzled, as you might imagine. Then he told me he had wanted to write such a letter himself but didn’t have the courage! I don’t remember the outcome of the letter’s warning and if the bill got paid, but I’ll never forget the kindness of this boss.

With several jobs at one time, my GPA wasn’t stellar, but I did complete 6 years of coursework in 4 ½ years (including the two semesters that I also took Koine Greek (not in my major program) to learn to study the New Testament in one of the original languages (not to be outdone or an underachiever!). 

During my first year at Biola, 1963-1964, I had the privilege of being a counselor for the Billy Graham Crusade in downtown Los Angeles. I remember being up front and Billy Graham passing in front of me one time. I was blown away by the Presence of God he carried then.


Song from Biola Days:
I am not skilled to understand: I Am Not Skilled to Understand - original
Here's an update rendition (with Chinese translation: I Am Not Skilled to Understand

My life verse I chose during this time was Psalm 27:4 (KJV):  One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.

God Speaks in A Dream About the Trinity

God began to speak to me in dreams during my college years. The first time I remember this was when, during a Bible Class, we were studying the Trinity and I was trying to understand how three could be One.

During this time I had a dream, I was out in the desert with bright blue sky and the sun shining unhindered. No clouds. I was with my sister at a picnic table. We were getting ready to sit down when I suddenly noticed something unusual happening in the sky. The full moon over to the side began to grow larger. Then a distant star on the other side began to grow larger too.

I was so shocked I remember telling my sister to go grab our camera so we could take pictures of this! The moon and star continued to grow until they were equally as large as the sun--all the exact same size!

Then, before we could get the camera, the sun, moon and star all began to merge together into one glorious light. We were awestruck and I awoke. Mystified.

I knew the dream was from God, but didn't know what it meant. I immediately told my roommate about the strange dream and she knew it must have come from God to help in my struggles to understand the reality of the Trinity. There was no way to humanly understand this mystery. God wanted to show me He was three in One in a very memorable way.  It all came clear and all I could do was worship this Three-in-One God: my Father, His Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit. I never doubted the reality of the Trinity again.

I told this story to the boys and asked them to draw a picture. They didn't exactly know how to get the motion of them all coming together, but made a some great pictures. I like Isaac's picture of Nancy with the red hair and me with my hands raised!

Trinity Verse for Christmas: The Spirit, the Most High and the Son of God all in one verse!

Luke:34:35

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God."

Song of the Trinity

Come Thou Almighty King by Charles Wesley. Each of the first three verses addresses a different member of the Trinity. The fourth addresses the Three-In-One.

(1) Come, thou almighty King,
help us thy name to sing;
help us to praise:
Father, all glorious,
o'er all victorious,
come, and reign over us,
Ancient of Days.

(2) Come, thou incarnate Word,
merciful, mighty Lord,
our prayer attend.
Come, and thy people bless,
and give thy word success;
Spirit of holiness,
on us descend.

(3) Come, holy Comforter,
thy sacred witness bear
in this glad hour.
Thou who almighty art,
now rule in every heart,
and ne'er from us depart,
Spirit of power.

(4) To thee, great One in Three,
eternal praises be,
hence evermore!
Thy sovereign majesty
may we in glory see,
and to eternity
love and adore.

College Fun, Friends, and Father's Heart for Missions

When it was time for the next move, I was excited. The high school years of much change were behind me and I graduated in the top 10% of my class of 450. I even earned a partial scholarship to college. I decided at this point that I needed a lot more Bible training and so chose to go to Biola College (now Biola University). This meant many nomadic changes in the years ahead: from new dorm rooms and roommates to back and forth summer work placements and home surgeries and stays.

Everyone at Biola had to take one year of Bible classes (two full semesters) in addition to their four-year major. I majored in humanities, which included 18 units of literature, 6 of philosophy, and 6 of foreign language (I chose Spanish). I also took courses in elementary education, knowing early on that God had called me to work with children. At that time, education majors in California also had to complete another year post BA to obtain their teaching license. That's 4 years for a BA plus 1 year Bible classes plus 1 year for a teaching credential = 6 years altogether.

My classes were good, I just wish I'd had more time to study. Since I worked up to 30 hours a week, this was a challenge. But I especially enjoyed the year I took Greek, just for fun, and even today can make my way around a Koine New Testament. I graduated in 1967, but took the final credits for my teaching credential the next year. I received one of the last "LIFE" teaching credentials issued in California. They changed it to periodic renewals the very next month.

My first two years I lived in the dorms downtown in the top floors of the Church of the Open Door. I lived on the 12th floor. I traveled by bus at 5:30 a.m. each morning out to my classes on the campus in LaMirada. What great memories of times with friends on those buses!  My last two years I moved out to the LaMirada campus and new dorms. Isaac and Ethan have drawn the difference between the two for you!

Highlights of My Years at Biola

During my years at Biola, I met many new friends, some of whom are reading this blog today! Sometimes I went home on weekends, which was less than an hour away, and friends who lived out of state would come to stay and eat my mom’s good cooking. The photo of brothers David and Jim Christensen (Jim’s at my piano) was taken in my living room. The photo next to it is of some of my best friends in front of the downtown dorms. I'm to the back right of JK Adams, the guy in front. Lee Ann Wimer is to his left with her future husband Spence Wimer behind her. Spence and Lee Ann have been friends over the years. Others I recognize are Neal Anderson, Eddie Snyder, David Christensen, Roger, Sheryl, and Linda (whose last names I've forgotten).

Service Projects: Every year at we got to do a service activity. My first year I helped teach a Child Evangelism after-school-program.  My first year at Biola, I also worked as a counselor for the Billy Graham Crusade in downtown Los Angeles. I remember being up front and Billy Graham passing in front of me one time. I was blown away by the Presence of God he carried even then. Another year I was part of a downtown ministry to the homeless.

The third year I was the piano player for a male quartet and Sunday evenings we would go to different churches to sing. Here’s a picture of me and the guys! Ed Snyder, on the left, was the “Captain” of the quartet crew.

During my first year at Biola I also became a counselor for the Billy Graham Crusade in downtown Los Angeles. I remember being up front and Billy Graham passing in front of me one time. I was blown away by the Presence of God he carried even then.

By this time, I’d become a messenger about the love of the Father in Jesus to everyone I met. When I had more leg surgeries, I told roommates, nurses, and doctors. I told my Aunt and Uncle, who only chuckled at the time. But they listened more carefully than I knew. And of course I told my friends.

Throughout my years at Biola I kept being drawn to overseas missions. Often our chapel speakers were missionaries who told of how they loved and served people in other countries. I'd heard Father's heart for missions and I thought I’d love to go -- to any country but India. So basically I told the Lord to not send me anywhere but there!

Those of you who know the rest of the story now can chuckle since we ended up in Nepal, right above India on the map, and with very similar cultures and problems. Go check out the world map and see these two countries--and find Mt. Everest in Nepal too. But I had heard His call to missions. That was all I knew at this point.

Friends, Memories and Facebook

How many friends do you still know from childhood? With one you are rich, with two you are richer than a king, and with three you hold the treasures of the ages.

Years ago, a friend helped Mary (Laing) Vaughn and I reconnect on Facebook. Then lengthy emails followed, and our old high school friendship is still growing. During my junior year, her dad had tutored me in geometry when I wasn't doing well. It meant I got to hang out with Mary more too. We spent many good times at each other's houses, sharing lives.

There's one important story about Mary that I want to tell you. During my senior year, a YFC leader was praying for us as a group and told us God would be speaking to us and giving us the name of a friend whose heart He wanted to touch for Jesus. In the silence that followed, I was surprised to hear the name "Mary." I knew it was my dear friend Mary and began to pray for opportunities to share Jesus with her. As the school year ended, nothing had happened. But we had a slumber party one night at the home of another good friend, Linda Gardner. All my best friends were there, which of course included Mary. We got to talking and after a while went out to sit in the car for some privacy......

Here's what Mary later wrote of that encounter, "Do you remember the night of the slumber party at Linda Gardner's house?? You wouldn't let me out of the car until I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior.(You must have known something about me that I didn't know!") Since that time Mary has continued to follow Jesus and has a wonderful husband who also does. Mary and Buck and Bill and I have spent some precious times of sharing our faith in Jesus together.

Then last year it was my high school's 50th class year reunion. While I didn't make it to California, we were on a trip and stopped to see Mary and her husband Buck in Pennsylvania.  We took this picture together at their house and sent it to the class (the falcons were our mascot). "Ever forward, never backwards, that's our Crescenta Valley Team!"

Thanks to Facebook, I have been in touch with other good friends from high school too. Marilyn (Petersen) Kirshberger and I have continued to keep in touch over the years. We've missed the birthday hot fudge sundaes but we have spent good time together during our travels. Most recently my good friend Terry (Morris) Cleary and I have found each other (she was in an earlier photo with me and my mom)! We haven't yet been able to get together face-to-face, but we're talking about it! It's also been a joy to reunite with Shery (Rife) and Paul Lowen, in email and in person! I'm sure there's been others too....and the story's not all written yet!

I love "friending" and renewing these relationships, learning about the between-years of those I have loved--and their families and stories. God's been very good.

One thing I am leaving out are all the boys I had crushes on! I didn't do a lot of serious dating, but had fun and special times with lots of the guys from YFC. Here's Milt Jones and I at one of our YFC retreats. I think he was from the Pasadena YFC. Milt, where are you??

PS: If any of you have pictures of our high school years, please send on!! Below is another picture I found in the yearbook of the future Teachers Club! Terry and I are in the front row on the left. We both made it into teaching too.

Jump If You Know the Question...AND the Answer!

The most transforming experience I had during high school was being part of our YFC Quiz Team. To compete with teams across the area, the state and nation, we formed a Crescenta Valley team. In eleventh grade we studied and memorized the book of Mark and in twelfth grade took on the book of Hebrews. Can you imagine memorizing those wonderful books during the teenage years? It helped me know Jesus better and many of the verses remain familiar and well loved today.

As a local team, we met weekly to practice answering questions and then monthly had contests against other schools' teams. We studied one chapter a week. The judge would ask a question and as soon as we knew how to complete the question AND give the answer, we jumped out of our chair. The first one up got to try to answer correctly. Here's an example:

Judge: “Who is the So…..JUMP!  Chair #3, what is the question and answer?”

Chair #3: “Question: Who is the Son? Answer: ‘The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word’ (Hebrews 1:3).”

Judge: "That's correct. SCORE 1 point!"

I remember spending many hours studying and memorizing God’s Word late at night. My sister Nancy remembers helping me study for this. And Marilyn (Petersen) Kirshberger remembers all the 3 x 5 cards we created with rubber bands around them to keep chapters together. Then we quizzed each other daily. And while we never made it to Winona Lake for the national championships, it worked its way deeply into my heart.

Here's a photo I found online to make you chuckle. We didn't really jump that high but sometimes it felt like it as we tried to be the first one out of our chairs. Kinda felt like Jeopardy!

Apparently the Quiz Teams are still going strong. Scroll down to the one minute mark on this linked video and see how to really jump out of your chair: Quizzing video.  And YouTube is full of videos of all ages doing Bible quiz teams. Today Quiz Teams can download the questions all ready for them too!

I’m so very grateful that God allowed me to come to know Him through His Word. It helped form the direction for the rest of my life, including later joining Wycliffe Bible Translators to help people who didn't yet have a Bible in their own language to hear about Jesus, and learn to read, in God's Word.

Our Youth For Christ Club was an encouragement in several other ways too. We had monthly meetings in one location for all the Los Angeles area YFC clubs. These meetings were life-changing times of hearing God's word from many respected leaders in the church. Roy McKeown was the Los Angeles leader and Gene Sweeney was our area director. It was during this time I really came to know and love Jesus.

OK, next blog I MOVE again, this time to college. Mom had drilled into Nancy and I that we needed a profession in which we would have a guaranteed job with income and to choose to study either nursing or teaching. Even though all my family were nurses and doctors, I already knew I would be a teacher, so that was easy. My days of studying geometry, chemistry, and college prep courses, and even my wonderful years of piano lessons with Mr. Frost, were soon to be part of the past. But my four years of Spanish were to continue into college along with my heart for international peoples.

One of my favorite songs about God's Word is Ancient Words Ever True Changing Me and Changing You.

Hebrews 4:12: For the Word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

Glub, Glub, Glub….Getting Baptized in a Full Leg Plaster Cast

The first time I was baptized I was in fifth grade. My mom picked me up from a party and took me to be baptized and then returned me to the party, all in the space of about an hour. All I remember is being sprinkled and feeling rushed because I thought I had more important things to do.

This time was different in two important ways. It was June 10, 1962 at a combined baptism for two churches. I had recently turned 17. This time I knew it signified a commitment to be a lifelong follower of Jesus. It was also different because I was wearing a full length leg cast (after yet another surgery), and was being fully immersed in front of the whole church. The cast was a heavy plaster one, like in this picture. Nowadays they have casts that are easily removed from your leg, but then the plaster was almost cemented around your leg and very heavy....and itchy. (The picture below is not me, just a picture I found online. My leg had to be straight with no bends!)

So how did this baptism happen? I got a large garbage bag and put it around my leg and tied it tightly at the top of my leg. I left my crutches on the side of the baptistery and, with help, hopped into the cool water.

All was going well. I was giving my testimony of what God had done in my life. Then the pastor joyfully immersed me. At this VERY moment the plastic bag around my leg started leaking and going “glub, glub, glub.” I could both hear it and feel it. I felt the water trickling in, down my leg, but could do nothing about it.

So I entered into the joy and mystery of the occasion and then got out as quickly as possible. But I knew I’d been washed clean and was so grateful for the new life I’d found in Christ. And the cast was only damp. We were able to get it dry using a towel and hair dryer.

Jesus made such a radical change in my life that both my mom and sister noticed. My mom wondered why I didn't get angry anymore. When I told her, she decided that maybe she and my sister would come to church with me..

Nancy recently emailed me her memory of this time: “After you came to Jesus I saw the change in your life and that's when I came to Jesus also. Seems we all have to come to the end of ourselves before we recognize our need for the Lord.”

I'm so grateful that the life journey that my mom, my sister, and I took all merged together in the bigger journey with Him. One day we will look back on all this with even greater joy.

Romans 6:4: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

Song: Baptized in His Name.

The Bible "Expert" Repents and Gives Her Heart to Jesus

Being now a self-declared "expert" on the Bible, I decided that I should start a religious club on our high school campus. I put a note in the school newspaper to arrange a meeting with others who may have a similar interest. A couple dozen kids showed up, all of whom happened to be Christians.

As it turned out, these students knew of an organization that we could hook up with, so the group developed into a Youth for Christ (YFC) club. The other students elected me as President, assuming I suppose that I belonged to Jesus since the club was my idea. But I had not yet admitted I needed Jesus to forgive me and be my Savior. Up until then I was reveling in a combination of self-inflated righteousness and an awe of the God who was always there.

It was at YFC that I met many significant friends, ones who wanted to talk about the purpose of life. One who became a best friend was Marilyn Petersen, now Kirshberger. Marilyn and I hung out a lot together, even shared hot fudge sundaes on our birthdays. There were a couple of twins who were leaders in the Eagle Rock YFC, Ed and Ernie, who were the heart throbs for many gals.

YFC had retreats and camps where we talked about what it meant to follow Jesus. We hung out with other YFC leaders from other schools. The photo below is taken at a retreat with my good Snowman Friend who borrowed my crutches (but not my cast).

 

And one time we mourned together as a young YFC leader named Hal was killed in an car crash—yet his funeral was one of giving thanks for his life. I’d never been to a funeral before and it seemed a whole new way to look at life and death for me.

I had also discovered a Swedish Covenant church near our home and started going there every week. The teaching from God's Word by Pastor Lorin Soderwall was good and I met many amazing, heart friends there, like Sherry Rife, now Loewen. They all spoke very directly about Jesus and how to share our problems and concerns with Him. I went through a confirmation class here where I learned many things about what it meant to follow Jesus. Here’s a picture of my confirmation class. Sherry is in the middle. You can see my cast from one of the surgeries.

Our youth directors at church, Larry and Marilyn Pendleton, took me into their family and home and even let me come on vacations with them. They had a poodle named Fifi who used to water ski on a board attached to their boat. So funny to watch. I babysat their three boys, Steve, Ricky, and Gary, often, but it didn't stop there. We’d sit around the living room and openly talk about the deeper issues of life and what it meant to follow Jesus. They answered question after question—even ones about why God would allow me to have all my leg problems. I’d never encountered people like this.

SO, surrounded by God's people, and being continually exposed to God's Word, I recognized my need of more than social religion. During tenth grade I asked Jesus to be the center of my life, to forgive my anger and sins and be my Savior. And thus at 16 years old I began my new life with him.

From now on I hope to share a song that represents a part of my new life and nomadic journey and mention Scripture that talks about it too. Here’s the song for this one, sung by my 3 grandsons: Three Boys Sing "At the Cross" The words are a bit different that the traditional song since I rewrote them for young children to sing and understand: At the cross, at the cross, where Jesus died for me. And the bad things that I've done got erased. It was there at the cross, I gave Him my heart and now He’s the one I want to please. 

So for this one, Ephesians 2:8-9 expresses what He did for me at this time of my life: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

How My Doctor’s Biggest Mistake Led Me to Jesus

Everyone’s special, right? But how many people do you know who can move their knees caps out of their sockets and several inches around their legs? Just me, right?

I had inherited this physical problem from my mom. My knee caps would fall out of place and cause me to fall and break my legs at least once a year. Consequently, I could move my knee caps all over my knees and gross out my friends. So nurses Mom and Aunt Hazel decided I couldn't be a socialite, or a dance floor queen, if I were always wearing casts.

They knew of a famous orthopedic surgeon and arranged for me to have surgery on both knees. Dr. J. Vernon Luck Sr., accompanied by Dr. Munsen and Dr. Nichols, performed the surgery at the Los Angeles Children’s Orthopedic Hospital in June of 1960—as soon as school was out.

However, things did not go as my mom and aunt planned. During the surgery the doctor accidentally cut a nerve in my left knee, leaving my leg and foot paralyzed. Because of this, what the doctor called his "once in a blue moon" case, I was confined to bed with casts for three months, and a leg brace for many years more along with six more major surgeries over the next four years.

The doctors graciously covered the cost for all the following surgeries and my mom did not sue. Back in those days, most people trusted the doctors and didn't sue for accidents. Dr. Luck went on to pioneer limb reattachment in the year after his biggest mistake ever. He became so famous that an important research hospital is now named after him: J. Vernon Luck Research Center. I now wonder if his “mistake” may have pushed him to research and develop how to help reattach nerves.

This was the beginning of many painful tests and treatments. As a young girl, I remember lying in my hospital bed feeling pretty sorry for myself and not knowing how to relieve the pain. My mom and aunt were great. I don't remember how they got my home with two full length leg casts, but they did. So I was confined to bed (and you can read in there using bedpans and having sponge baths) for the summer. A few friends came to visit, and my sister was there through it all. She still is. Like my mom and aunt, she too later became a nurse, and went on to become a nurse practitioner.

During this time in bed, I read everything my mom brought me and was still bored. Here's my amazing mom from an old church photo I just discovered!

Finally, out of desperation, my mom checked out a Bible from the library (we didn't have one and only went to church on Christmas and Easter). She figured that would take me a little longer to read. She was right. But I did read the whole thing, cover to cover.

It was through this reading of that Bible that God began to reveal Himself to me. I found I liked the man Jesus that  I read about in the New Testament (when I finally got there after reading the whole Old Testament first!), and how He loved and cared for people in need, like me. And I soon came to love the real Jesus I had not previously recognized, but had encountered in those experiences I wrote about in earlier blog entries.

So now I began the all-important high school years, with a disability I never imagined…..and a relationship with the Living God I also never imagined. And God said that it was good. And this “evening and the morning” were the next day of my life.

The Complicated Maze of Teen Friendships

The early teen years were full of normal life activities, insecurities, and a continual search for belonging. I tried hanging out with the "popular" kids. My mom even arranged a birthday party for me at my Aunt Hazel's house. I invited a bunch of them to come....and they did. My aunt had a beautiful home and always welcomed me and my friends. Anyway, they all gave me bracelets....which I didn't wear.....until then. It was at this party that I realized that there were "cliques" of kids and no way "in" unless you followed their unwritten rules.

I found little in common with their goals. Their goals seemed to be to look cool, dress cool, and demonstrate their coolness to others. Plus all of this cost money which I didn't have. But I tried. I went to dances to meet boys--see Joshua's picture below of me dancing with a boy and two other friends (Grandson Joshua recently turned five).

I listened and tried to be a friend, but hanging out with them didn't satisfy my heart's desires or make me that popular. All they wanted to talk about was who was cool, who wasn't, and what it meant to look, dress and act cool. Even then I was looking for something more, for friends who would talk about the rest of life and learning and the world, and how I fit into it all. I didn't know yet that this was a deeper search for the heart of my Heavenly Father.

Gratefully, in the midst of realizing that I didn't fit, I encountered some REAL friends, many with whom I am still friends today. I entered a season of hanging out with these new friends, talking on the phone, sometimes for hours...and having fun together. Here are two pictures from junior high--first of Terry Morris, now Cleary, at my home with me and my mom.

 

This next photo is of my friends, at yet another party at my aunt's house. OK, all you "old" friends, can you find yourself or should I list who I remember??!! I know Patti Boe is first up, then me while I still had two good legs. I see Terry at the end, right after my little sister, but I'm not sure of the rest.

Here's a couple more pics of some good friends. The top one I took in the courtyard of Clark Junior High soon to become Crescenta Valley High School, and the second was in the front yard of my house after a slumber party during ninth grade. Let's see, here are my best guesses--Top photo below: Karen Marvin, Carol Martin, Judy Kraii behind Bonnie Marshall, Patti Boe, Bonnie and Dorothy Witt. Bottom photo below: Bonnie Marshall, Linda Gardner, Carol Martin, me, Patti, Marj, Bonnie and??? How many did I get right?

When we all graduated from Clark Junior High in 1960, the Glendale Public Schools decided to create a new high school for our area. They did this by turning my Junior High into the new Senior High. The new name of the school was to be Crescenta Valley High School or CVHS. Some of the history can be found at this link: Crescenta Valley High School History. They did it gradually, so my grade was always the highest. So in tenth grade there was only one grade--mine! Then another one was added each year until it was 10th-12th grades.

Many other things were going to be new and different starting in 10th grade, things I couldn't yet imagine. During the summer following graduation I was to have surgery on both my legs. My whole life was about to change....radically. A friend recently asked me if I had to choose just three, what would be the major events in my life? While the divorce was big, it was not as big as what was about to happen...my first life-changing and life-defining event, and finding true life-long friends.

Ray Bradbury: Meeting a Famous Author Who Read My Story! Thank you, Miss Sargeant!

I had one amazing English teacher in junior high. Miss Sargeant taught me to love writing. She taught the class to write many different genres--even poetry! I was especially blessed because I had Miss Sargeant as a teacher for English in both 7th and 9th grades. I don't know if she hand-picked all of us for her 9th grade class, but I know she was God's provision in helping form my love for reading and writing today.

During 9th grade she told us we were going to have a contest to see who could write the most well-crafted and creative story. I wrote my story, and dramatized it, about the snake bite incident. I know it went through many revisions, and I was very proud of this long autobiographical novelette. I don't remember how many pages it was, but all our stories were like little novels to us who were just learning the craft.

She built up the contest and told us a famous mystery author would be reading the stories and giving a prize for the best one. Our stories went through many revisions and there was much excitement. While my story was not chosen, the fact that Ray Bradbury (her good friend!) had read my story and commented on it was awesome to know! Of course, I didn't appreciate who he was until much later.

We planned a big Author's Party (long before such an event was popular) and Ray Bradbury came and talked to us all about what it's like to be an author. Now I wish I remembered more about what he said about my story--and wish I still had my story. It was a wonderful party, though I have to confess I was disappointed that my story didn't win the award! But how thankful I am to have learned so much about writing at this early age.

Ray Bradbury's Biography

      

Queenie's Death Sentence

With our own home, we were now able to get our own dog. The first dog we had we named Waggy, but for some reason he didn’t stay long. He was black and white and scruffy. The second dog we named Queenie, She was a large yellow lab mix, we think. We loved her dearly. We had her for many years. I remember when writing a story for my English class on "My Best Friend" that I chose to write about Queenie. I'm not sure what I said but the teacher chose it to display on the class bulletin board.

          One time Queenie gave birth to the nine puppies -- the ones you see in the photo below (I must have been about 14 years old cuz I still had two good legs). I was the midwife and got to be there and watch them all being born, including the last little runt that didn’t live longer than a few days. Queenie was a great mother too. She was awesome. We named her babies and the names are written on the back of this photo (my memory's not THAT good!): Stinky, Tiny, Princess, Mittens, Furocious, Lightning, Midnight, Skunky and Cutie Pie.

The hardest thing for Queenie, and us, was she had to be chained up while we were gone. In our yards there were no fences. The brick wall, behind me and the pups in the picture, was built up up to a long driveway that was parallel to our yard and house. The driveway, of course, belonged to the house next door......that happened to have a very small yappy dog. 

          This one small dog, NOT on a chain, was capable of tormenting Queenie with her incessant barking day after day. Well, sadly, one day Queenie got loose, broke her chain, and jumped up over the brick wall. She grabbed the small dog that had aggravated her for years and nearly killed it. We had to have Queenie put down after that….a very sad day for us all. We never got another dog after that. 

            I felt pretty angry inside about losing Queenie. It didn't seem fair that she had to die when the other dog had tormented her for so long. If only the other dog had been restrained, but it wasn't. If only Queenie's chain had been stronger, but it wasn't. As I look back and wonder what God was doing in my heart to prepare me to trust Him, I think I was beginning to learn that I couldn't live by "If onlys." I was soon going to learn to trust the God's "Only" Son.

             Queenie and her nine pups by Ethan Milo Lin:

"This is the Best Book I've Ever Written....Tears.....I Mean Wrote.....More Tears......I Mean -- Read": Changes, Challenges and Family Explorations

One year before our move, I had to give a book report in front of the whole class. It was hard for me to talk in front of the class. It made me feel dizzy. This time we had to do it on the stage of the school auditorium. My book was Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories. I was so nervous and flustered that in my concluding remarks I mistakenly said, "This is the best book I've ever written." Everyone laughed and laughed. I thought I must have used the wrong verb tense and corrected myself with, "This is the best book I ever wrote." More gales of laughter. With a very red face I finally realized what I had said wrong and hurriedly corrected myself with, "This is the best book I've ever read," and ran off the stage, probably in tears. 

This book report was when I only had one class and one teacher. Our move to LaCrescenta was a huge change in life and happened right before starting Clark Junior High School. This move from one city to another meant leaving behind friends and making new ones. This is hard to do at 12 years old. Instead of one class I now had six and they all had different kids in them. I felt pretty insecure and overwhelmed not knowing anyone. But it turned out to be a good school.

Another challenge was the long walk to school and back. It was over a mile walking each way (I checked out the distance at googlemaps.com). Back in those days there were no school buses. Sometimes my mom would drop me off early on her way to work. Then I'd sit outside and read a book until the school opened. Most of the time I walked both ways. 

No, there was no snow, and it was not uphill both ways! But our home was in the foothills of California! I did this walk even when I broke my leg -- which happened quite a few times. One mile up and one mile down. I wish I had a picture of walking up that steep street, Pennsylvania Avenue that led to Alabama St. It was a longgg walk every day, especially carrying books and homework. 

          

Other changes started happening too.This was the beginning of my teenage years, years of the “hormonal fog.”  I was a real teen, loved Ricky Nelson and Pat Boone, learned all the top songs, went to school dances, was enjoying junior high and making new friends. I was creating what I thought was a good life. Little did I know what life changing event was to happen between junior and senior high school.

Meanwhile, during these junior high school years, I would often get angry at my mom or sister and acted quite selfishly. I don’t know why, but I did. Plus I didn’t like it when my dad would call from Chicago and they would have screaming matches on the phone. We'd all end up crying then. My dad never sent any financial support for us after we left Chicago so they probably fought about that too. But my mom did start making my sister and me write letters to my dad, even if he didn't answer. When he did answer, his responses were distant or negative.

My mom made made some pretty great changes for us too. She started taking us on family outings. Every summer we would go some place to camp out. Crestline was the closest and we sometimes went there in winter when it snowed too. Sometimes Mom's boyfriends would come with us. We visited many state parks, including Yosemite and Sequoyah State Park. Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm were also favorite places to go.

Here's a photo of Queenie and me during one of our Crestline trips. I remember being unhappy about going on this vacation because I had to go in one of my many leg casts. But I'm so glad our mom took us on vacations and took pictures!  No "selfies" back in those days.

          One summer we went to Carpinteria State Beach and slept in a tent near the train tracks. Nancy and I experimented with putting pennies on the track and watching how they got flattened. We sometimes had to search for our treasured penny, buried in the sand. We didn't know this was illegal! 

           Another time at Carpinteria we heard a sudden hoard of people descend on the beach and discovered it was for grunion hunting. We'd never heard of it, but learned about it that night! If you want to learn more about California Grunion hunting, try out this link to see some pictures: California Grunion Hunting.