I was born
September 5, 1941, in southeastern Pennsylvania. Within the first
two years of my life, tragedy claimed the lives of both my parents.
My grandparents were left to rear my brother, my sister, and me.
While theirs was not a Christian home, I am thankful for the Bible
principles they used in our upbringing. I enjoyed a very happy
childhood, most of which was spent on the back of a little, fat pony
riding all over the countryside. My grandfather carefully taught me
the principles of caring for my pony. I am so thankful that he was
not overprotective but allowed the disappointing "bumps and bruises"
of life to build endurance and character in me.
I later graduated to riding horses and
fox hunting, which led to the exciting world of horse shows. I rode
for various stables in Pennsylvania and after high school accepted a
position riding for a stable in Virginia. Breaking and training
horses demanded discipline in my life, and the lessons I learned
were later used by God in parenting my son and in discipling other
Christians for Him. It was in Virginia that I met my husband, but
while I was expecting our son, Scott, he deserted me. Upon returning
to Pennsylvania to live with my sister and her family, tragedy
struck once again. My brother-in-law was hopelessly trapped in the
flames of a truck accident and was burned alive. We also learned
that my dear grandfather was suffering from terminal cancer.
Rejection, desertion, and now death brought me to doubt my prideful
self-sufficiency. I moved to a small two-room apartment, and Scott
was born on October 9, 1962. As I counted each tiny finger and toe,
I knew that in spite of my secret bitterness toward God, He had
given me a most wonderful gift and responsibility. However, I
continued to struggle with rebellion and self-pity for three years
during which I obtained a divorce on grounds of desertion. Scott,
like I, was never to know an earthly father, but we were both soon
to find a Heavenly Father!
Upon assuming my new role as a mother, my
career with horses was traded for an office job and a totally
different lifestyle. Each day as I was commuting to and from the
office, I passed a small Independent Baptist Church. For some reason
that I did not understand at the time, I decided to obey an urge to
visit one Sunday morning. Being "unchurched," I knew nothing of
denominations or what various churches believed, yet the Lord
graciously led me to this Bible-believing church! Satan, of course,
was busy telling me, "You are divorced. These people will not accept
you. You cannot become a Christian." Among my other sins, I
considered the two packs of cigarettes I was smoking daily and
hopelessly admitted that I was "hooked." However, the joy and peace
that radiated from the Christians convinced me that they had
something I needed. I was drawn back to hear the Gospel message of
salvation. The Lord showed me through Ephesians 2:8-9 that it was
not by my works, but by the finished work of Christ on the cross of
Calvary that I could be saved from hell. On September 5, 1965, I
knelt by my bed and confessed my sin, asking God’s forgiveness. I
asked the Lord to take the broken pieces of my life and mold them
into a life of service for Him and to help me rear Scott to know and
serve Him. God’s promise in Isaiah 54:4-17 became precious to me
when I felt overwhelmed as a single parent. I learned to pray in
each situation, "Thy will be done." How little I realized the
exciting plan He had for our lives!
My local
church provided me with many opportunities to serve the Lord through
secretarial work and visitation. However, my heart desired to become
even more involved in the Lord’s work. Four years following my
salvation we had a Missions Conference at our church. When
missionaries came from the Navajo Indian field, my heart was
challenged with their plea for workers. After much prayer, Scott and
I visited their field during the summer, and I became thoroughly
convinced that God had called us to work with the American Indian.
Many of the women were single parents - viewing their circumstances
to be hopeless and using alcohol and immorality as an escape from
reality. Christ was their only answer, and I longed to show them the
way. Claiming I Thessalonians 5:24, I resigned from my office job,
sold most of my possessions, and left for the mission field without
any promised financial support. (I would not recommend following my
example unless clearly led of the Lord!) During the next few years
the Lord taught us many lessons about living by faith in His school
of "kneeology." I would not trade those times of testing for the
most lucrative salary in the world!
During the next
eight years we ministered to the Navajo Indian people, helping with
secretarial work, teaching kindergarten class, and starting a jail
ministry with the women. We also served in a remote area of the
Navajo Reservation where I taught kindergarten and conducted Bible
studies with the women as an outreach of our local church. In July
of 1977 we accompanied a missionary family to the San Carlos Apache
Reservation in southeastern Arizona to pioneer a new work.
Conditions were similar to other Indian reservations. Alcoholism
claimed about ninety percent of the people with an average
life-expectancy of only thirty-six years of age. Sniffing of harmful
substances, such as spray paint and gasoline, had reached an
alarming eighty-seven percent among the juveniles.
In 1980 Evangelist Lester Roloff
visited the San Carlos Reservation and became burdened with the need
of helping the Native American. As a result, Regeneration
Reservation was founded shortly before his death in 1982. The
purpose of Regeneration Reservation is to assist in the training of
those called to facilitate the planting of native indigenous
churches on the surrounding Indian reservations. This is
accomplished through evangelistic outreach with follow-up
discipleship training. We are presently working with families on the
San Carlos Apache Reservation and the White Mountain Apache
Reservation. We are surrounded by seventeen Indian reservations
representing twenty-one tribes, many of which have no Bible
teaching. We have an Internship Program at Regeneration Reservation
designed to help equip others as missionaries and "tentmakers" to
reach and train native leadership within their culture.
My greatest joy as a mother has been to
see the Lord perform the role of a Heavenly Father to my son. From
the time of my salvation, my desire and prayer has been that God
would guide him into a life of dedicated missionary service. I
rejoice that the Lord has called Scott and his wife Kathy to direct
the ministries at Regeneration Reservation. In addition, I have the
great joy of being a grandmother to four beautiful grandchildren:
Jessica, Sarah, Nathaniel, and Caleb.
Has it been easy to follow God’s plan
for my life? No, many times we fail Him. But He never fails us! When
life’s circumstances present us with overwhelming challenges, we
must never think that God has forgotten us or "put us on the shelf."
The Christian life may be full of trials and discouragements, but we
need never live in defeat. Joy and contentment come only from
reading and obeying the truths in God’s Holy Word.
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