Gypsy on the Move: From Norman, Oklahoma to Lexington, Kentucky

Our years in Norman were amazing. God showed His faithfulness over and over. Our six heart-bound years in Nepal were similar to our six heart-bound years in Norman. We are still heart-friends with most of those from each place today. It was what soon became a pattern of six year time investments in the lives of people, and the binding of hearts. Personally, Norman was a time of healing, a time of resting from many moves for our family, and a time of finding an earthly father in Dow Robinson, our pastor of 40 years.

We had many festive times and many hours of fellowship in Christ during these years. Below are just a few pictures of those times. You can see Richard McAfee in the front of the group photo, with Lois on the left, Dow on the right and Bill and I next to them at table.  

Mike McKee was next to me and I tried to put some confetti on his head. I’m not sure what we were celebrating here, but it was fun!

I continued teaching and loving children in K-1, developing primers that revealed Jesus, and seeing kids learn to read and love to learn. 

We had a school board of godly men, shown below: Bill Leal, James Beale, Mike McKee, Dow Robinson, Mel Oxsen, and Dick Niven. The middle four are already in heaven--probably having a great time without us yet!

Ladies' Teas where we shared God's Word and encouraged each other and prayed for each other were also special. Here we are gathered at Miiriam Oxsen's home--treasured friends for this life and the next: Grace Robinson (Dow's mom), LiPiSu Wu, Mim, Lynn Fisher, Kim Foster and Frankie Senter. 

So we had a group of forever friends, many children’s lives invested in, and our house on the land nearing completion! Three years after moving out to the land, the house, windows and doors were finally in and it was beginning to look a lot like home! The kids and I had done much of the painting while Bill had done most of the hard work, including plumbing and electric, along with the help of friends from the church. Here's Joshua's version of the house after listening to my verbal description--without seeing any photos!

Meanwhile, Bill was still working full time for the University of Oklahoma where he was promoted several times, finally becoming the Assistant Director for Data Processing.

One funny memory was a surprise party Bill planned for my birthday. To do this he had Jonathan fake a fall and call for me to come upstairs. Meanwhile, Bill opened the door and let friends in for the party, who all yelled "Surprise" when I came down!" The grands love this story and Isaac did this picture. 

During these years I had many dreams that seemed to be prophetic. Sometime in the years, I had had a dream of a huge river that came and split the school house in half. (Ethan's signature is on the upper half of his drawing of my dream--he's our artist.) Half of the people were on one side and I and others on the other, floating down the river. I could remember exactly who was on each side. I shared this dream with Bill and with Dow. As it turned out, there were those in the church who objected to the leadership and were strongly critical. 

With conflict rising, it became clear that the school needed to close down for now. So we did, and the next year our kids attended the Covenant School in Oklahoma city where I taught 26 wonderful kindergarten and first grade kids. It was a long drive from Norman to OKC every day, but we spent time in the car singing to the Lord, and talking about life. There was also a black van the kids well remember that took a load of kids every day. 

Then, surprise, oh, surprise, we saw where the river in my dream was taking us! We received an invitation to move to Lexington, Kentucky where I would get to teach in the church school where one of our leaders, Paul Petrie, was pastor. Bill would work as a SAS instructor, and Dow had also been invited to move and set up a Bible and missions training institute. We were excited and prayerful. As it turned out, eight different families all decided to move to Lexington, including my sister’s family, and Mary Fleming, Bill’s boss who had given her heart to Jesus and had become a integral part of our family.

It now felt like Norman wasn't home anymore. But what do you do with an unfinished house on ten acres of land at the end of a quarter mile long dirt road? The housing market had crashed because of the oil and things didn’t look promising. We talked with our realtors and they said to wait to put it on the market until later. 

But a few days later Richard, the realtor, called and said they have a couple who were looking for an unfinished two story house on about ten acres in a wooded secluded place!!!!!  The couple came, saw our house, loved it and bought it.

One important change for me during this time was my name. For many years I had gone by the name Dotty. I had moved between sixth and seventh grade and began in a new school, Clark Jr. High. Being insecure, I deliberately changed my name from Dorothy to Dotty, hoping to attract more friends, thinking Dotty was a more popular name. 


So for 25 years I was known as Dotty. Many of you reading this still know me as Dotty. But the Lord said that He had named me Dorothy because I was His gift. Dorothy means “gift of God.” That was hard for me to believe until He healed my heart. So 25 years after being Dotty, I again became Dorothy, His gift. Below is Isaac's drawing of both names.

So now comes the next move. Are you dizzy yet? I think our kids were. Leaving friends, making new ones is not easy whatever age you are, but the teen years are hardest. Yet the kids voiced no objections for the move and we made plans to complete the sale and move to Kentucky in the summer. We know now this was yet another hard move, leaving friends, especially for Jenny.

Onward to Lexington!

Around the World in 18 Days: Our First Return to Nepal

In the midst of our flurry of life in Norman, our hearts still reached out to Nepal. We received letters from Kissan and family about how they were following Jesus. They wanted to see us and we wanted to see them again. So in 1984 we packed our bags and returned to Nepal. Afterwards we wrote a story about our trip for all our friends. I have scanned it in so you can see it page by page. The pictures are all hand drawn by our kids, of course! Jonathan was 14 and Jenny just turned 12 when we made this very memorable trip.

Missionary to the Sandpile Tribe: The Joy of Teaching and Writing Books for Kids

OK, here’s one of the most amazing part of my journey – one I never expected, the part that is pure gift from my Father. When our church decided to create its own school in 1980, I was asked to teach the kindergarten and first graders. As I had only taught middle and upper graders so far, I was a little unsure of myself. I had a Life Teaching Credential for K-9 from the state of California (the month before they stopped giving out life credentials), and had student taught in both first and fourth grade. But to shape the lives of little ones just learning to read and loving to learn? This was a heavy responsibility.

So, yes, I eagerly said YES! Then I began preparing. We were using the A-Beka curriculum for K-1 which was easy to follow. But half way through the year I realized the readers and curriculum touched on “God” almost as an add-on in some stories. I wanted the kids to receive heart training as they read that went beyond the academic and gave them an encounter with the Living God--with words that provided a foundation in Who God is and how He lives life and loves through His people.

So…..I began to write my own stories for the children to read and discuss. As the children read these stories, their hearts were drawn to Him, and I could only give thanks, and write more. All in all, over the next five years, I wrote 8 sets of primers for K-2nd grade and wrote both the phonics and math curriculum to have its focus on relationships and Who God is. Father Alphabet had 26 kids. Bet you can name them all! Can you guess how many were boys and how many were girls?

One of my favorite things I did with the kids was the character quality curriculum. I began to teach the children and write about the character qualities of Jesus, the ones the children could identify with, like neatness, gratefulness, and forgiveness. Claire Sawyer started writing songs that exemplified these character traits and the kids loved singing them!

Every year I also had my classes write a gratefulness journal (OK, the kids started writing early--you who know me know how important writing is!). The kids came to school thinking about something they were grateful for, and then wrote a brief sentence or story with accompanying picture. For Thanksgiving, these journals became gifts of gratefulness for the parents. The first ones were typically, “I am grateful for my mom,” and “I am grateful for my dad.” I treasured reading their thoughts. And you know, they came to school with a positive attitude and complaints were few. Discipline was not difficult. Oh, how I loved these kids. Every year, I was given a new crop or precious lives.

Soon other schools heard about these books and wanted to use them in their schools. So….we began our own publishing company called Burning Bush Publications. That was where God met Moses and I so wanted the kids to meet and know Him too. We had many contributing artists, starting with the very gifted Kim Foster and later including Gracella Cunkle. I’ll post a summary below of the book titles.

Little by little I started getting invitations to go and teach teachers at other schools in different parts of the country, and then England and Canada too. The books were even used in schools in Africa, with some language and picture variations. What a privilege that was. And these schools wanted the curriculum too! I was grateful to be a part of something much bigger than just us. Jesus was making Himself known one school at a time, one child at a time.

Meanwhile, our kids were daily doing their lessons in PACS, but all the kids had lots of extra-curricular things. You can see Jenny in dance, Jonathan at work and the kids in a school performance. Plus I'm the one in the blue school uniform!

Brochure for Burning Bush

Burning Bush Publications, a small, family-run business, was formed in order to allow public distribution of a new set of beginning readers for primary age children. Why a new set of readers? Aren't there plenty of good Christian readers now? There are many good books that can be read to children - but few books for children to read for themselves that are academically sound and which have solid Biblical content.

Academically Sound. The books and other teaching materials were prepared by Dorothy Leal who has a doctorate in reading education from the University of Kentucky. She is a veteran of the classroom who has successfully brought literacy to many young people. The books follow a phonics progression, and gradually introduce more complex grammatical constructions. Each book builds on the ones before until the child attains a fluency in reading. The books are being used by both church schools and home schools in the United States and abroad.

Solid Christian Content. The books were written in the belief that living in the Kingdom of God has practical applications to the daily lifestyle of young children. Each story and activity focuses in on a biblical aspect of life and provides a springboard for discussion and further teaching. Prayerfully used, these books will help change your children's lives.

The books are designed to be used by both parents and regular school teachers. Most books include two pages of Instructions for Parents which provide direction as the parents become involved in the teaching of their children to read.

Burning Bush Offers

(For those unfamiliar with US school levels, K is kindergarten, age 5-6, 1 is first grade, age 6-7, and 2 is second grade, age 7-8.)

The Top Ten: Pre-primers in two books (K)

God Made Life, God Made Dad, God Made Mom, God Made Me, God Made Us: God's purpose in life as expressed in families, in 5 books (K-1)

The Life of Jesus: Jesus as a pattern for life, in 3 books (K-1)

Jesus the Baby, Jesus the Boy, Jesus the Man, in 3 books (1)

God's Plan: God's: Love, Faith, Hope; Work, Rule, Rest; Ask, Seek, Knock, in 3 books (1)

The Work of Jesus: Showing God's Will, Showing God's Power, Showing God's Way, Showing God's Life, in 4 books  (1-2)

The Secret Keys: two kids discover 12 character traits; in three books (1-2)

The Life and Work of God's People: Pioneers on the Move,  and Pioneers Leading the Way: biographies of Godly people, in 2 books (2-3)

Character Quality Curriculum: a detailed discussion of 26 character qualities with a cassette tape and written music (K-2)

Battle for the Heart: a spiritual warfare game with game board and directions (2+)