Fifty years and counting.

First thing I think as I look at the pictures to the right is, where did all those years go to? Seem that is a common thought for people our age especially after 50 years of marriage.

On  Oct. 20th  Ace and I  at 17  joined our lives together.  Did we have any idea how hard being married was going to be?  Any idea of the countless sacrifices we would make to struggle through some hard years, (notice I put an 's on the end of year)?   Without Christ in our life for the first 15 years it is nothing short of a miracle we stayed together.  Young love wears off after a few trials. 

In 1980 we took another step of faith and joined our life to Christ and life begin to take on meaning beyond just living the American dream.   Were the hard times gone? Of course not, in this life you shall have tribulations Christ said but with His help and His love motivating us we begin to learn how to over come time and time again.  

Endurance is the word that comes to mind as I look back at 50 years.  We have endured each others petty and not so petty frailties and stayed the course.  With both of us having a common goal of being transform into the image of Christ those struggles God used  to show us our sin and help us repent.   Forgiving one another became a way of life.  After 50 years we still have to forgive each other, which I am sure we will be doing till God takes us home. 

God took our broken lives and begin to use us in ways we could never imagine.   He has not  wasted a thing in our lives and only He can pick up the broken pieces and turn them into something that will glorify Him. 

Do we have any regrets, of course, getting married at 17 is not a wise choice but here we stand on this side of 50 years together.  Now, we know there is not another 50 years ahead for us... lets see, that would make us 115, hummm,  not gonna happen unless God preforms another miracle.  The few years we do have left we want to be used till we are empty so He can fill us up again.  

Funny...this morning as we were packing up the car to head out on our anniversary/ ministry trip my husband said, we did not have this much stuff when we got married and moved into our first apartment.  Amazing the baggage we have accumulated in the past 50 years, the things we think we need to even take a weeks trip.  Back then, there were no computers or bags, no golf clubs, no pill  boxes, I don't  even remembering having a cooler,  nothing by dreams and zeal that says, we can conquer anything. We know now, we cannot conquer anything without Him and He has given us wisdom on what to take as we travel.  One thing for sure traveling is a whole lot easier with a Wal-mart in most towns. 

It's been a wild 50 years of life and we have lived it fully and find ourselves thankful for all those 50 years contain, yeah, even the bad times.   Most people our age have a paid for house, a nice paid for car,  a pension, an RV but God put us on a different path, and we have loved every minute of it, no regret. He has always supplied our needs. 

Thanks for reading our "story".  Of course we would like prayer as we continue to minister. 
 1. for our health
2. for wisdom and understanding as we work with missionaries home for furlough. 
3. prayer for the one thing we don't like to mention but one must have, money,  it  buy gas to put in our car to visit these ones home.  Our support has dropped since we took up a stateside ministry.  And if I could be specific, we are looking to buy an newer car. Our 1992 Buick runs pretty good because my husband works on it a lot.  We have experience a few  breakdowns on the road which are costly so we have taken to renting a car for long trips. 
4.  For our two children, Jared and Tara and their families.   Our son and daughter in the picture are the best of the best and they have given us five grandchildren.   Yeah, we are blessed.