Fourty Eight Years

 

 

At 17 how could we know 48 years would pass so quickly. Oct. 20th, today, this young looking man and I got married in the oldest church in Illinoios. I am sure lots of advice was given to us since we were only 17 but for life of me I can't remember what it was. Oh yeah I do remember they said it would not last.  God was at work even then.  

Ten years into our marriage we still did not have children. Ace had a massive heart attack at age 27 which was quite a wake up call on our lives. God would use this to bring his prodigal son around along with the birth of our first child after 12 years of marriage, a little girl, Tara Jo. Four more years passed so quickly and along came our son Jared.  

God was working in our lives to bring us to him and through an agressive soul winning church we got invited to pay them a visit.   It was exactly what we needed, 16 years after our wedding Ace came back to the Lord and I got saved. 

Of all the change since getting married this was the biggest one...God always has a plan for His children.

We became active in our church, growing, learning how to walk as a child of God should.  The church we attended was known as the getting saved church so we learned early how to take our Bible and lead someone to the Lord.  Twenty two years into our marriage Ace left his job with TWA and we went full time in the ministry.  Life was taking on some drastic changes but God was not through with us.

Missions was something our church kept before us and there was nothing we like better then having  what ever missionary  was visiting our church over for a meal.  It was exciting to hear their stories and pray for them, never thinking God was going to ask us to do that.  I mean we were doing our part right there in good old Kentucky for the kingdom of God. 

Somewhere in our 27th year of marriage God was going to send us on a different path.  I remember Ace telling our Tara he was going to show her the world.   True to his word August 1991 we left for Bolivia, South America to serve with New Tribes Missions.  Those were great years, our kids were with us, we were serving over seas, life was good. 

There are too many details to list of our 48 years together.  God has allowed us to serve in two countries and just this past year, Sept. 2011 we returned home to serve in a stateside ministry with New Tribes.  Which brings us back to this Oct. 20th, 2012...anniversary time.   As you can tell from the picture we did not have a big wedding...simple...and we have remain simple people. God delight in using simple people to tell His story.

The question always comes up,  would you do it again?  Yes is alway my answer but not at 17.  No one is mature enough to take on a marriage at that age.   There is some value in allowing yourself a few years to go to college or just work and learn a little about yourself before taking on the responsibility of marriage.  Some of those years were hard ones, still not sure how we made it through them.  But here we stand...48 years later and the only advice I would give anyone getting married is to get to know the Savior first, learn to walk with Him first, learn to follow His lead, learn about His love for you first. 

In two years we will celebrate our 50th and I want a party, a big one and you all are invited.  So put the date on your calendar in bold print and Lord willing I will see you there.