Chapter 48 - Through Mists and Rainbows
Our return tickets are to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where we hug Nick joyfully. His blond hair is trimmed, his white shirt starched. “You’ve grown taller and look wiser,” I tell him.
“It’s Jared who’s changed the most,” Nick responds, ruffling his brother’s brown hair. “You’re almost as tall as me now!”
In the hotel and over meals we discuss Nick’s classes and dorm life. He is an RA at Oral Roberts University, overseeing a dorm wing. He prints out excerpts from a book in his communications course on developing five-year goals.
“We’ll read this,” Larry says thoughtfully. “It looks interesting—we’re refocusing on long term plans now.”
In a few days we hug goodbye, standing near our tan Chrysler. Nick laughs, “Now I won’t have wheels, but I’m rich with you closer to me.”
Back in Colorado Springs we quickly find work—Larry in various construction jobs, and I at the Memorial Hospital NICU. We find a two-bedroom apartment in the Village Seven area, and Jared settles into 7th grade in a Baptist Christian school.
It seems strange to be back in Storybook Land again, where the lawns are manicured, the streets wide, the supermarkets large. I miss fulltime ministry, but it’s good to be paying off debt. The new well at our home in Peyton cost only $3,500 to drill—less than the $5,000 we had expected.
New Life has grown to several thousand and moved into a new building in the open fields north of town. The worship is powerful, Pastor Ted’s sermons instructive—his vocal cords are healing.
Nick arrives home for fall break and Christmas, and our family prayer times are sweet. We also begin to intercede at New Life Church Saturday nights in the main auditorium, forming a cell group. Jared plays on the grand piano and sings worship songs—some he has composed himself—as the rest of us pace the large room, praying. We become a faithful band of Saturday night prayer warriors!
Larry and I continue to seek the Lord about future mission work, and over several weeks form five-year goals. One is to build and sell houses until we own one debt free. Then we can rent it out, helping to support ourselves in missions.
I’d like to live in the country again,” I confide to Larry one evening over dinner. “Watching sunsets, hearing coyotes howl at night, looking for Orion among the stars, without city lights.”
“Maybe we should ask the Lord for a large piece of land where we could have cattle,” Larry suggests. “We could raise them for six months at a time. Buy in the spring, sell in the fall, make more cash to support ourselves in missions.
“Well, you were raised on a farm…that might work!” I smile. “Then we could travel overseas six months of the year when the cattle are sold. What do you think, Jared?”
“Country sounds fine to me. In five years I’ll be a senior in high school, almost ready for college. So I wouldn’t be travelling out with you unless it was during the summers.”
“Well, I’m going to start watching ‘Land for Sale’ in the Gazette,” I conclude. “The renters’ lease is up late this summer. They’ve shown interest in buying our house on the 50 acres.”
“Sounds good,” Larry agrees. “And if we make enough money on that house, we might be able to pay for the land. In this slow economy acreage is often cheap.”
“Remember that prayer time in Thailand when we got direction to come to Colorado Springs, Larry? You saw a log house. Maybe you can build one on the land!” I exclaim.
“Boy, that would be a dream come true for you, Mom,” Jared chuckles.
One afternoon when Larry arrives home from work I show him a Gazette ad. “Look at this! There’s 160 acres for sale northwest of Calhan for $40,000! It even has a pond. That would be about a 40-minute drive from here.”
“Amazing. Well, we’d better go and look at it.”
We wander over the rolling property the next day, astonished at how spreading it is. Off Ramah Rd., it is fenced, with a row of trees near the ruins of the homestead, and a small pond to the west. Behind the trees there is a rise where our log home could be built, and from there you can view the Front Range stretching deep blue beyond green fields, far in the distance.
“Wow, Jared exclaims, “this place is huge. You could have a lot of cattle, Dad.”
“I guess we need to be careful what we dream for. God can answer way beyond what we can ask or think!” Larry laughs.
We negotiate a contract to sell the Scott Rd. home to the renters and juggle the date for buying the 160 acres. Due to delays we end up paying $42,000 for the Ramah Road land, but it is still a bargain price. One Sunday we picnic with friends on the hill where the log home will be built. “Can you believe these views, Dennis!” Larry exclaims to our friend.
“God’s sure has been good to you guys,” Dennis declares. “Almost a year ago you were squeezed over drilling a new well…and now you’ve bought 160 acres!”
“It’s beyond understanding,” I murmur. “I pray we can be fruitful in missions through using this place.”
Through the fall and winter Larry builds the log home on our hill above the pond, and I work twelve hour shifts at Memorial Hospital with sick newborns. We keep praying with our Saturday night cell group at the church for missions and the church services.
In the spring we hear that a Youth with a Mission team led by Karl Strand is moving to Colorado Springs. Karl is tall and friendly, a visionary who draws missions minded people to him. We meet the team and have them over for dinner, forming friendships.
When the log house is finished and we move in, it’s like a dream come true! The logs are stained brown, with a red metal roof and a long front porch--over which two dormer windows twinkle like friendly eyes. I hang cream-colored curtains against the wood walls, and some landscape pictures.
How can all this stretching prairie be ours? The nearest neighbors Tony and Lou are a mile away, cattle ranching. We have vast panoramas of rolling meadows clothed with grasses and soapweed, of Calhan eight miles southeast, and the mountains far west. The nearly half mile of driveway is uphill and muddy in the spring, so the car is dirt spattered as I arrive home from my night shifts, but our home on the prairie is worth it.
We continue to develop our friendship with Karl and his YWAM team. When Larry and Gary his nephew partner to build a home on five acres in the country, they offer it to Karl at a discount to help his mission work. Karl is grateful, and when the house is finished many of the team move in—singles and one family. Occasionally we meet with the group, praying with them for the Crossroads school they are launching in the fall.
One day Karl asks us, “Would you guys like to lead the Crossroads school we’ll be starting? You have missions’ vision and experience…I think it’d be a good fit.”
We are surprised and excited. Would God want us to work in missions from our home in the States? We had never considered that. “Thanks for your confidence, Karl,” Larry answers. “We’ll think and pray about it.”
For three weeks we mull over the opportunity, praying every evening as a family. “We’d have to raise quite a bit of support,” Larry comments by the fireplace one night. “Not many people like to support missionaries who live in their own country and in their own home.”
“True. But it’s a wonderful challenge right here in Colorado Springs, to raise up workers for missions. Maybe we could each work a day a week in building and nursing to supplement pledged support. Just volunteer four days a week at the base.”
“We could suggest that to Karl,” Larry answers.
At the end of three weeks we have peace to join the YWAM team, and offer Karl our commitment,--with the stipulation we be allowed to work a day a week to earn money.
“Sure,” he agrees. “I don’t see why that wouldn’t work.”
I am elated, enthusiastic. Driving home with Larry, I reflect, “It’s so amazing the Lord would bring us to the States, give us a home, and allow us to work in missions with Karl and the team.”
“Yes, Larry reflects. “But it may not be easy to raise enough support. We struggled when we were in Malaysia…how many people will want to pledge when we’re right here in our hometown?”
“Yeah. I would want to give to someone overseas, myself. It sure is a walk of faith, isn’t it?”
We attend the YWAM meetings intermittently, being busy with our jobs. Around six weeks later Karl says he would like to attend our Saturday night prayer group in the New Life auditorium. He joins us as Jared is playing worship music up front, and we all walk, pray, worship around the auditorium.
At the end he suggests the three of us go upstairs to Pastor Ted’s office. We are surprised. Karl seems a little nervous.
Pastor Ted is cheerful and friendly. Karl explains that he has brought us in because he received three references on us, and none of them are really positive. He has another couple in mind who are joining their base…he would like them to lead the Crossroads, and we could assist them.
I am shocked. “Karl, you asked us to lead your school, and you didn’t even request an application. You didn’t tell us you were getting references.”
“What is negative in those references, Karl?” Larry inquires.
“The one from S.H. says he wouldn’t want to make you a base leader in Penang again, and the one from Jeff suggests Marti needs counseling.”
“Well, we left Penang suddenly, that’s for sure,” Larry responds. S.H. probably didn’t understand that.”
“And Jeff didn’t like that I was sharing with staff that we might return home if there wasn’t financial breakthrough,” I add.
After more discussion Pastor Ted concludes, “Well, Karl, you can choose who you want to lead your school. It’s your decision.”
“And we’ll be praying about what we should do, Karl,” Larry says firmly. “We’ll be in touch.”
In the following weeks I swing between anger and depression. “Why didn’t Karl tell us he was getting references?” I query Larry. “He didn’t even give us an application form. It seems so deceptive, so unfair.”
“I know. Karl probably asked us too soon. He should have waited to see if a couple he felt was more qualified showed up.”
“And S.H. and Emily are our friends! He was promoted to base leadership (and later national director) because you trusted and delegated.”
“Well, there are misunderstandings in life, big bumps along the way. If we hang on and are faithful the Lord will lead us forward into missions, make us effective.”
We keep praying and eventually feel peace to decline joining Karl’s staff. We refine our five year goals, which include working until we pay off a home. Until then we will travel out to teach overseas once a year.
When the sky is dark with glowering clouds, sometimes brilliant streaks of light break through, glorifying the landscape. Our sons’ growth and development are that to us now. Despite pruning and pain in one area, wholeness and fresh life appear in another. In May Nick graduates from ORU with a major in business, a minor in theology. Our family, my parents, and Nick’s other dad cheer as he receives his diploma. He moves home that summer, develops a window washing business, and later proposed to Linda, a lovely classmate from ORU. She is a pastor’s daughter and seems to complement Nick well.
Some months later I drive home from Colorado Springs and up our driveway after a light rain. Clouds scud across the sky, the air is misty. I see a large rainbow arching through the air just above our land, so I stop the car halfway to the house and get out. Our rolling meadows are glistening green gold in the sunlight, with wind rippling the tall grasses. Far away on Ramah Road the school bus stops and Jared jumps out at the corner. Seeing me in the distance, he walks fast, then begins to run up the meadows, his backpack jouncing on his shoulder.
“Don’t hurry,” I call to him. “Take your time…see the rainbow!”
The wind tosses my words through the air, he can’t catch them. So I wait, loving the moment, loving our son running through the wind and mist and rainbow over the land. He arrives, and I hug him. “Isn’t this beautiful!”
“Yeah,” he answers, laughing. “And it’s a long way to run home!”
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