Triple C News - July 3, 2021
Hey, everyone!
Well, it’s gonna be a big holiday weekend!
This Sunday!
We’re ready!
Our 46th anniversary!!
That’s right!
It was 1975…
Two kids in love.
Add 46 years…
and lots of adventures and mishaps…
sadnesses and joys…
plus the beautiful, unpredictable, ever-unfolding plan of God…
and what do you get?
Two old people in love!
We got married on July 4 because I was a garbageman in Palo Alto, California that summer and they gave us Saturday the 4th and also Monday off!
We always get fireworks for our Day! (Thanks, everyone!)
I meet Jesus in October, 1974 in California. I meet Tina about a week later. We got married in eight months(!) and I really didn’t know either one of them very well!
I was 20 and she was 19 when we got hitched. I truly believe that God just took over and said, “Honey, you’re not smart enough to know what you need and I’m just gonna make this decision for you. She’s the one.”
As always, He was right!
God gave me the perfect soul-mate, heart-mate, best-mate!
When ! was “up and down”, she never was!
Always steady, trusting and calm!
While I easily struggled, she almost never did!
We’ve moved 31 times!
But whether it was in a trailer park in seminary in Upper Indiana with one…now two…then three little kids and 120 inches of snow in the winter and a husband who was either in class, at Owen’s Market bagging groceries, or studying Greek till 12:30…
Or in hot, exciting, and a little scary Florence Italy, “barcollando” down crowded streets as she made her way to our Italian language school…
with new sounds, new smells, and 7-months pregnant with the new one on the way…
Or in a high-rise apartment, in a city as many miles wide as Oak Ridge with 2.5 million residents, with new converts crowded around our table waiting for “la pasta di Cristina” (that’s what everyone called her there) and from time to time a few even moving in with us…
she never ever complained about anything!
She was a “mamma” to so many, an unquestioning servant of Jesus no matter what He called us to do, and a constant, unfailing “best bud” to a guy who has always really needed one more than most people probably do!
The first time we met, I was wearing my “Big Bird” bright yellow sweater (it disappeared at some point…hmmm…) and my overalls and I showed off how I played the banjo. I always thought that’s what sealed the deal for her. She assured me later that it had decidedly NOT been those components that won her heart!
(Hey! Why DID she fall for me?? What if she hadn’t?? Where would I be?? Yikes!! It gives me chills to think about!!)
The only thing she ever wanted and hoped for was one day to have a little place out in the country somewhere.
One time, we bought a little life insurance policy from a friend.
“So, if I kick it, what would you do with this?” I wondered.
“Well, I’d pay for whatever the kids’ college would be and then maybe look for a little farm house out in the country where I could have a sheep or two or a few goats, a couple of big dogs, some chickens and a big garden.”
“Ah! That’d be awesome! After all our moving around the world, we’d love having a place like that!”
“Um, I hate to tell you but I bought it with life insurance! You’d have to be dead, right?”
It’s been 20 years since we got our little place down in Oliver Springs. We’ve had sheep and now we have goats. We’ve had lots of chickens and plenty of big dogs. We have lots of peace and loads of fun!
I remember the day we looked at each other and realized…
“Hey! We got it! Your dream!!”
“And I’m not even dead!” I added!
For endless reasons, God is SOOOOOOO good!!!
Happy 4th, everyone!
(Happy 46th, babe!)