LIVING THE DREAM
IN FIFTH GRADE, circa 1970, Mrs. Theda Miller asked usal what we wanted to be when we grew up.
I KNEW THE ANSWER!!
A preacher or a missionary,
I knew the answer. I had known for a while.
It came straight from Matthew 28.
Go Ye into all the world.
I thought I better go, but I also wanted to go.
I wanted to go to Africa, where little hungry kids would be so grateful for a bowl of anything.
I wanted to go to China, where Dr. George S. Benson had been before his
illustrious career in education.
And for years, on the back wall at Rogers Chapel, there was a huge poster of black and white pictures with the
headline, WHAT IS SUN KYI DOING IN CHINA?
And I wanted to go to the Philippines, where the first foreigner I had ever met, Conrado, a preacher boy for Crowley's Ridge College, was from.
My mother's side of the family considered mission work to be the
best thing anyone could ever choose to do.
Although my uncle, J.C. Reed, was a missionary to Guatemala for over 40 years, I think I only met him once, probably for a funeral.
My great-uncle, Miller Forcade, was an eccentric gentleman, who had done mission work in several
countries, including Japan. I will never forget his prayers before bedtime at DeRidder. His prayers were like a course in
geography and missions. He was very specific.
I hope there are still prayers like that.
I recently was invited to a 50th anniversary celebration for a church he
had started up north in 1964.
And of course, my great-grandfather, Ben J Elston, baptized George S. Benson in Oklahoma or Kansas long ago.
Anyway, in 6th grade, I did put up with a bit of derision as the popular boys would snort, PREACHER!, or MISSIONARY! at me
in the halls or boys' room or playground. But this made me smug and righteous-feeling inside.
Nothing much happened between 6th grade and Sandy in this story.
Nothing, that is, except CRA, John Clayton, and Larry Brinkley.
Crowley's Ridge Academy was definitely a mixed bag. Horrible teachers and good teachers.
Cruel classmates and wonderful Christian classmates. Some in-between. I read and studied the Bible
a lot and I can still see AJ Hendrix putting his charts up on the board.
John Clayton, of Does God Exist ministries, was a brilliant apologist, and superb speaker.
We heard him at Pocahontas, Piggott, Jonesboro, and many other places too numerous to
mention. I learned so much from him that I can never thank him enough. He is 80-something now and still going strong.
Larry Brinkley brought joyful, smart Christianity into our tiny world of
Rogers' Chapel and BE BAPTIZED TODAY sermons week after week. Larry held
our meeting, as they used to say, for a few years. That meant he preached every night
for a week or so in the summer and we invited neighbors and local churches to join us.
I still get goosebumps remembering the year when three of the community's most
supposedly unreachable elderly sinners were saved! Larry would come eat watermelon
with our family, even though we could not invite him inside, and he introduced my mom
to the William Barclay commentaries. He was a superstar to us. He must have put thousands of hours
into planning and carrying out youth rallies and SO MANY OTHER MINISTRIES. Later he would also teach
some at CRA. Also going strong still.
I grew up thinking the sixth step of salvation was After high school, Harding!
Even though my two elder siblings strayed from this path,
I went straight to Harding the summer after high school. After high school and a little surgery, that is.
Even though I got two stinking B's in summer school, it was a good plan. Before the
thousands arrived, a few hundred of us had the place to ourselves. So I got to know
my way around and make friends I could never find again.
HARDING, OH HARDING! How many blessings!
Great Bible teachers and Jim Woodroof and Sandy, to name the tope three.
Of course, friend to last a lifetime.
I met Sandy in chapel my second semester. She was already friends with my sister Beth
so that was a point in my favor. Poor guy named Tim something sat between us and never figured out
he should switch with one of us. We had a lot of important things in common and could talk easily. We both
wanted to be missionaries and she had a class under Gary Walker, visiting missionary who was
recruiting people to go to India. As we became more serious, we were also both making commitments
to go to India with Gary.
I must mention Campaigns Northeast and Owen Olbricht here as important influences. On campaigns
I saw that I could read the Bible to people and that God could change
eternity for them. I also loved the people I got to work with. I
experienced the difficulty of remaining motivated when results seemed
to come very slow, as well.
After graduating and marrying and studying in Lubbock and raising money, etc, we left for
Inda on MARCH FORTH, 1981.
India was wonderful and terrible by turns. We had small victories, big shocks, abundant blessings,
good co-workers, and made friends to last another lifetime, thanks to the Internet and FB.
On the heels of our commitment to stay longer, move to Mysore and start a brand new church,
and an intensive language course, my health took a sharp turn in a bad direction. I spent 3 months in
the hospital at UCSF and Sandy had to bring our two little kids home by herself. The particular dream known
as INDIA had to be put aside.
7 YEARS IN CALIFORNIA
I did many part-time jobs, teaching English,
subbing, preaching, modeling, etc
I got my MA in TESOL from SFSU.
Took me 5 years part-time and many trips over and under the Bay Bridge.
We learned a lot about ourselves, our kids grew.
If we cannot go to India, we will look for a cleaner country
where we can support ourselves! Japan has a lot of good jobs
teaching English!!
Soooo....on a credit card I went to JALT in Omiya in 1990. Is this what
they call a Hail Mary? I would interview with several companies and
choose the best of the many offers I would get. Not quite.
The interviews were very sparse. And they looked askance at me thinking of
bringing two small kids over.
For old times sake, and to respect my father, I went to visit Joe
Betts, pioneer and grandfather of mission work in Japan, who had
known both mine and Sandy's parents at Harding. As we toured the facilities of
Iberaki Christian College, he lent me a copy of the Japan Times, where
I found an ad for teachers for the newly opened Mount Hood Community College
Kurashiki in the lovely little town of Kojima.
Well, I applied for a job there, and the rest is FANTANSY, GRACE, FABULOUSITY,
ETC...
God has let us support ourselves,
teach the Gospel,
make friends,
make a home.
in short,
God has let us
LIVE THE DREAM!
I KNEW THE ANSWER!!
A preacher or a missionary,
I knew the answer. I had known for a while.
It came straight from Matthew 28.
Go Ye into all the world.
I thought I better go, but I also wanted to go.
I wanted to go to Africa, where little hungry kids would be so grateful for a bowl of anything.
I wanted to go to China, where Dr. George S. Benson had been before his
illustrious career in education.
And for years, on the back wall at Rogers Chapel, there was a huge poster of black and white pictures with the
headline, WHAT IS SUN KYI DOING IN CHINA?
And I wanted to go to the Philippines, where the first foreigner I had ever met, Conrado, a preacher boy for Crowley's Ridge College, was from.
My mother's side of the family considered mission work to be the
best thing anyone could ever choose to do.
Although my uncle, J.C. Reed, was a missionary to Guatemala for over 40 years, I think I only met him once, probably for a funeral.
My great-uncle, Miller Forcade, was an eccentric gentleman, who had done mission work in several
countries, including Japan. I will never forget his prayers before bedtime at DeRidder. His prayers were like a course in
geography and missions. He was very specific.
I hope there are still prayers like that.
I recently was invited to a 50th anniversary celebration for a church he
had started up north in 1964.
And of course, my great-grandfather, Ben J Elston, baptized George S. Benson in Oklahoma or Kansas long ago.
Anyway, in 6th grade, I did put up with a bit of derision as the popular boys would snort, PREACHER!, or MISSIONARY! at me
in the halls or boys' room or playground. But this made me smug and righteous-feeling inside.
Nothing much happened between 6th grade and Sandy in this story.
Nothing, that is, except CRA, John Clayton, and Larry Brinkley.
Crowley's Ridge Academy was definitely a mixed bag. Horrible teachers and good teachers.
Cruel classmates and wonderful Christian classmates. Some in-between. I read and studied the Bible
a lot and I can still see AJ Hendrix putting his charts up on the board.
John Clayton, of Does God Exist ministries, was a brilliant apologist, and superb speaker.
We heard him at Pocahontas, Piggott, Jonesboro, and many other places too numerous to
mention. I learned so much from him that I can never thank him enough. He is 80-something now and still going strong.
Larry Brinkley brought joyful, smart Christianity into our tiny world of
Rogers' Chapel and BE BAPTIZED TODAY sermons week after week. Larry held
our meeting, as they used to say, for a few years. That meant he preached every night
for a week or so in the summer and we invited neighbors and local churches to join us.
I still get goosebumps remembering the year when three of the community's most
supposedly unreachable elderly sinners were saved! Larry would come eat watermelon
with our family, even though we could not invite him inside, and he introduced my mom
to the William Barclay commentaries. He was a superstar to us. He must have put thousands of hours
into planning and carrying out youth rallies and SO MANY OTHER MINISTRIES. Later he would also teach
some at CRA. Also going strong still.
I grew up thinking the sixth step of salvation was After high school, Harding!
Even though my two elder siblings strayed from this path,
I went straight to Harding the summer after high school. After high school and a little surgery, that is.
Even though I got two stinking B's in summer school, it was a good plan. Before the
thousands arrived, a few hundred of us had the place to ourselves. So I got to know
my way around and make friends I could never find again.
HARDING, OH HARDING! How many blessings!
Great Bible teachers and Jim Woodroof and Sandy, to name the tope three.
Of course, friend to last a lifetime.
I met Sandy in chapel my second semester. She was already friends with my sister Beth
so that was a point in my favor. Poor guy named Tim something sat between us and never figured out
he should switch with one of us. We had a lot of important things in common and could talk easily. We both
wanted to be missionaries and she had a class under Gary Walker, visiting missionary who was
recruiting people to go to India. As we became more serious, we were also both making commitments
to go to India with Gary.
I must mention Campaigns Northeast and Owen Olbricht here as important influences. On campaigns
I saw that I could read the Bible to people and that God could change
eternity for them. I also loved the people I got to work with. I
experienced the difficulty of remaining motivated when results seemed
to come very slow, as well.
After graduating and marrying and studying in Lubbock and raising money, etc, we left for
Inda on MARCH FORTH, 1981.
India was wonderful and terrible by turns. We had small victories, big shocks, abundant blessings,
good co-workers, and made friends to last another lifetime, thanks to the Internet and FB.
On the heels of our commitment to stay longer, move to Mysore and start a brand new church,
and an intensive language course, my health took a sharp turn in a bad direction. I spent 3 months in
the hospital at UCSF and Sandy had to bring our two little kids home by herself. The particular dream known
as INDIA had to be put aside.
7 YEARS IN CALIFORNIA
I did many part-time jobs, teaching English,
subbing, preaching, modeling, etc
I got my MA in TESOL from SFSU.
Took me 5 years part-time and many trips over and under the Bay Bridge.
We learned a lot about ourselves, our kids grew.
If we cannot go to India, we will look for a cleaner country
where we can support ourselves! Japan has a lot of good jobs
teaching English!!
Soooo....on a credit card I went to JALT in Omiya in 1990. Is this what
they call a Hail Mary? I would interview with several companies and
choose the best of the many offers I would get. Not quite.
The interviews were very sparse. And they looked askance at me thinking of
bringing two small kids over.
For old times sake, and to respect my father, I went to visit Joe
Betts, pioneer and grandfather of mission work in Japan, who had
known both mine and Sandy's parents at Harding. As we toured the facilities of
Iberaki Christian College, he lent me a copy of the Japan Times, where
I found an ad for teachers for the newly opened Mount Hood Community College
Kurashiki in the lovely little town of Kojima.
Well, I applied for a job there, and the rest is FANTANSY, GRACE, FABULOUSITY,
ETC...
God has let us support ourselves,
teach the Gospel,
make friends,
make a home.
in short,
God has let us
LIVE THE DREAM!
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