Our little church was growing. Milt learned to preach to a group of five or six as if it were a crowd of five hundred. And from the beginning he was a good preacher. Other people started to come - neighbors, students, interested people. We had an abundance of youth, so you girls, Cheryl and Debbi, always had babysitters. Our youth group was getting too big for the house, we needed more space. With the house Milt had bought came a two car garage, a pretty solid cement building right behind our home. So he transformed that into a youth center and meeting room for the youth and this worked very well. Wednesday nights we had prayer meeting in our living room, the youth met for their meetings in our converted garage and on Sundays we had the Odd Fellows Hall! We never lacked for babysitters for you, Cheryl, or for Debbi after she was born.
We had three bedrooms in our new home, a large one for us with Cheryl's crib in there too. A small one for Dave and a larger room for Donna, which doubled as a guest room when we had company. And then you came along, Debbi, and we needed more room to house everyone. So Dad built a rough room in the basement, kind of dark and dank, but it made a room of his own for David! Then we moved two cribs into his old room for you two babies and we were all set for sleeping.
Dad had long been connected with Word of Life (youth) ministries - since his conversion. He had worked at their camps and knew Jack Wyrtzen well. So the spring before you were born, Debbi, we invited Jack to come with his singers and entourage to conduct a youth rally in the local high school. Dad was busy with the meeting and I was sitting with you in my arms, Cheryl, on an aisle seat. You were wide awake and ennervated from the loud music and you were bouncing up and down and made one huge jump right out of my arms onto the cement floor! I heard the crack as your head landed and was petrified. People came to our rescue and you were crying - the meeting went on but Dad had to take me home to take care of you and get you settled! The next day you were fine but we were sure scared that evening when it happened. The rally gave us some exposure in the Christian community and some others joined us.
Our second baby was due about the 1st of July. I wanted to have an early birthday party for Cheryl and Grandma Pierce drove up to help us celebrate and stay with you while I went to the hospital to have our baby. Days went by and no baby and finally on July 15th - your actual birthday, Cheryl - they took me to the hospital and I was there in labor all day. Dad stayed right with me and walked me up and down the hall and stayed beside me until I went into the delivery room. Some of the other women in there saw Dad calmly walking me around and asked me afterwards who my doctor was - they had never seen him before - he seemed so nice! They were shocked to hear that it was my husband - I guess their men were nervous wrecks for the birth of their children! I remember looking up at the clock on the wall - a little after seven pm - when you gave your first cry, Debs! Another girl and born on her baby sister's first birthday too!
So now we had another person in our church, baby Deborah Lee! The youth were all delighted and we never lacked for babysitters. We remained there in Rutland for one year, and were scheduled to sail for France for language study in June of 1958. It was recommended to us that we make a speaking tour in the New England district, to let people get to know us, their new missionaries. So we arranged a ten day tour - a different church every evening. And what a trip that was!! Two babies in diapers (and that was before disposables!), all of our paraphenelia. We dressed in African clothes, I sang and we even sang together and Dad spoke of our plans and gave a short message. It was a grueling tour but went well and it did give us a good prayer base in our district of New England when we left for the field.
Dad consulted with the District Superintendant and they decided to ask a certain couple from Nyack, to come to replace us in Rutland. He was from Maine, so used to New Englanders. They seemed like a sharp couple, lauded by the College. We decided to just leave the house and everything in it set up for them. We did everything we could to make their entry into the ministry easy. And then we took off for New York City to embark on one of the first voyages of the SS United States, headed for France!
What a beautiful ship and our party of three couples, two singles and four children had a beautiful voyage across the Atlantic. They had playrooms for the children, the dining facilities were wonderful and our staterooms were comfortable. The trip was only four or five days, but it was just the rest we needed after our strenuous packing and car travel.
(A sad interval in here...... after we arrived in France we heard little from Rutland and wondered why but soon found out. The new pastor and wife were not happy. They did not like the house, they hated the gas and wood stove combination and wanted the church to buy them a new stove. It really set them off when someone commented that some of the best meals they had ever tasted were cooked on that stove! The wife was an organist and we had no organ, so she did not even attend the Alliance church but became the organist at the liberal First Baptist church in town. And he started drinking - heavily. At first people hated to tell us this but little by little we got the whole story. And in a very few months the DS had to go in and forcibly remove this couple and send in an interim! Our poor little congregation really suffered. Dad had even built a small, attractive church on the property next to us - which we owned. The people loved it but again the new pastor and his wife scorned the new little white church! The church eventually recovered, but the news was hard on us, to see our two years of hard work thrown to the wind. The couple left town and the church did recover and still exists today.)
As for us, we werer in Paris, beautiful Paris, and ready to start language study....and that is another chapter!
Fun to hear all of the details, Mom!
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