Back in Texas after a trip to Georgia

We have always heard that home is “where the heart is” and that’s true as life changes. Nothing stays the same. If you don’t like your present situation, just wait. It will change. It may be soon or it may be years, but life, for all of us at all ages, is forever changing.


The middle of April, we drove back to our house in Sharpsburg, GA and packed up our stuff. We have accumulated so much “stuff” over the years. I cannot imagine someone living in the same house all of their married life and then trying to clean it out. We began our mission work in 1984 and we cleaned out our house and moved to St. Croix, U.S.V.I. We lived in simple apartments for about 15 years. When we returned from the foreign mission field to Nashville in 1998, we began to fill a house again with stuff. A lot of it was “gifts” from our family, children and friends. These are the things that bring memories and are special to us. Things I bought at stores for a certain spot to make a house a home, means nothing when removed from that location. With this move, we have moved 16 times since we got married.

Leigh Ann (our daughter) took what she could. She has limited space but she was able to accept things that had value or were of special sentimental value to me. That made me very happy. Those things are hers to do whatever she wishes with them in the future. I don’t have that pain in the heart that I would have if I threw them away. I brought back to the RV to enjoy a few things our children have given us. The rest of the stuff I packed up can be sold at a yard sale (25 cents to hundreds of dollars) but it is all too good to throw in the garbage.

We are parked at Boles’ Children Home in Quinlan, Texas (outside of Greenville and an hour’s drive from Dallas). We will visit several churches in this area for the next month. We will return to China on June 22nd. I will write about that trip as soon as I return home. Future plans include me speaking at a Ladies’ Day in Chattanooga, TN on September 10th with my subject “Making a Difference”. We will report to churches in Tennessee and Kentucky in September and October.

As long as we are able to do fund-raising for the work in China and give reports to interested churches, we will continue this life-style. I fought living this way because I honestly don’t like camping and never will. For the life of me, I don’t know why anyone would do this if they didn’t have to. Maybe it would be different however, if you could park at resorts, take in the sights, and move on at your leisure. Our purpose is so different because we go where we can get appointments and stay only as long as necessary. There’s no real “adventure” in our camping but there is an overwhelming sense of accomplishment because it is a good work. It is good to be physically and mentally able to work and we plan to do that as long as we are able. For both of us, this full-time together is important at this stage of our lives. You have to be great friends to live peacefully together in an RV!

Should we have to give up the traveling, we will reduce our “stuff” down to an apartment size living quarters. As we get older, having only necessities and a simple life-style is a blessing for us and for our children who will never have to clean out a house with too many belongings and too many memories.

Our house will be sold whenever the market is such that we can, but if it does not sell, we will try to rent it. It was a good home; it served our purposes well, but is no longer needed.

Our daughter is enjoying the benefits of a small apartment and finding life easier to manage without so much “stuff.” She says she needs to begin cleaning out unnecessary things also. Our son, Ronald, is going to the Philippines this weekend to propose to a girl who lives on a remote island in the Philippines. If this relationship works out, he will continue to live in China (or perhaps later in the Philippines). Neither of our children will need our house, so it’s time to let it go.

As I mentioned at the beginning, things are forever changing. We will be changing the sponsoring congregation for the work in China. For many years, the elders at Peachtree City have wondered what they would do with the work should something happen to Ron. Ron is currently looking for a congregation that is capable and willing to continue the work in the future. We support over 650 little children that would have no hope in life without our care. It is a big operation and will require some management from the U.S, although we have operations in China running extremely well, due to our son’s oversight. Ron continues to try to build up funds to secure the work in the future, but in today’s economy, it’s not easy. We ask for your prayers that HE will lead us to the right congregation and right people to assist with the work in China so it can continue as long as HE is willing.

Reminiscing about how life changes, I spoke on Saturday with a dear friend in Nashville. Her name is Mary Ann Farmer and she is 89 years old. When we moved to Nashville from Montreal, Quebec, Mary Ann befriended me and remains a close friend. When Ron was making trips to China and I was working as the church secretary, Mary Ann made sure I was invited with her friends to dinner, movies and events. She took care of me to keep me from being alone and lonely. We went to the mall and walked every morning during the week days. The good part of that is, after our walk, we went to McDonald’s and ate breakfast! I’m sure we needed to walk about l/2 day to offset the calories of our breakfast but it was a fun time and we convinced ourselves that it was “healthy.” She can make the best banana pudding ever! Mary Ann is now in assisted living and not doing well. My prayers continue for this dear friend from 1998.

I will close this segment of my blog with these thoughts taken from THREE MINUTES A DAY by James Keller:

“In the O.T. it is said, “Remember thy last end and thou shalt never sin.” (Eccl. 7:40). If someone could follow us always and never let us forget the great fundamentals of life – the value of our individual soul, the deep love of HIM for each of us, the love we should have for all men as children of a common Father, and above all the eternity of either heaven or hell which will follow the end of our life here on earth – what changed beings we would be. We wouldn’t make the mistakes we often make now through our failure to keep our minds fixed on these infallible truths. Instead, the life of each of us would be a living prayer which would affect not only ourselves but the world.”

Last Wednesday night I heard the teacher of our class (an elder) say: “I told my son that nothing in life is important unless you go to heaven in the end.”

Let us all be busy in HIS work and remember that we have a world to win, that those far from HIM may have heaven also.