Fairview to Tokyo

Fairview to Tokyo: "BlogThis"M

My brother Orvin was a big surprise, born when I was 9 years old. From the very beginning he was sunshine in our home. I sometimes used to think, "What would we do if we didn't have Orvin?" Everything connected with babies until they were born was so secrative in those days. My Grama--Mom's Mom--came to visit and one day she told me in Norwegian that my Mom was going to have a baby, and then she added, "Oh, I guess I shouldn't have told you that!" Mom was surprised that even the older brothers enjoyed the new baby so much. We have a picture of him and Clarence when he was about 2. There was 25 years difference in their ages.

Orvin waited for me to come home from school by the bus, and he knew where the hands on the clock would be. When the older brothers were in the military, Dad gave him "Geography" lessons and I particularly remember him pointing out "Australia" on the globe.

Once when Orvin was about 2 years old, my friend Jean and I were out with him along and we had to cross an irrigation ditch that had a little water in it. We tried to get him across, passing him, but one of us missed the "catch" and he fell in! None the worse!

From Timbucktwo

We spent 2 home leaves in Florida at the D&D Missionry Homes. It was great to have a roomy house on the grounds and we could attend various services and prayer meetings. In English! Grandma Joseph even came down and stayed a while...long enough so I could have some 20 ladies in for a birthday party for her.

One of my very special friends during one of these stays was Phyllis Rilling. Phyllis and Emil were on leave from Zimbabwe.

One day Phyllis and i set out for somewhere and we decided that I would drive going and she would take the wheel coming back. Phyllis was driving and suddenly she decided to make a left turn where she shouldn’t have. Immediately from behind came the wailing of a police car siren! Just as she moved to the side of the road to stop, she groaned, “I forgot my driver’s license at home!”

A young policeman came to her side as she rolled down the window and reiterated what we already knew....that wrong turn! Then he asked, “May I see your driver’s license?”

When Phyllis told him her dilemma, he quipped, “Oh, oh, you’ve got 2 counts against you,” and then stepped away to talk on his then-walkie talkie.

My tender-hearted friend was visibly shaken and I’m sure our policeman friend saw that from the beginning. He soon came back and relaxed with his two elbows on the window ledge as he bantered, “You’re really in luck. I can’t find a policeman to write up a ticket, so you’ll have to listen to me lecture.” He actually seemed to be getting a kick out of it all.

To try to help or at least offer an excuse, I ventured, “She’s from Africa and I’m from Japan.” He had a quick realistic reply for me: “I don’t care if you’re from Timbucktwo. She broke a law!”

Then he good naturedly ushered us to drive on! Without giving us a ticket! I’m sure both of us “foreigners” in America made double sure we had our driver’s licenses when we went out after that!

Motorhome Friends

Fairview to Tokyo


During a home leave some years ago we were in Texas. Scheduled to have a missionary meeting at a church where a good Montana friend now went. As per directions, we drove into the huge yard of the church to get hooked up for electricity. Kenny went inside to get pertinent information. As I waited in our motorhome, a gentleman came to talk with me.

“Are you planning to stay here tonight?” he asked. When I assured him that we were, he said, “Then I will bring you a gun.” I nearly had a heart attack. “A gun? Why?” I blurted out. With a swoop of his arm over the church yard he explained, “Look, if somebody should come to cause trouble, nobody would hear you call.” (Cell phones? Not back then!)

Tom said that we should talk it over and decide what we wanted to do by the time he got back from driving somebody home. He added, “You can park your motorhome in our driveway.”

Well, when Kenny came back, it didn’t take us long to decide that we didn’t want to stay where we were. So we happily accepted Tom's invitation and followed him to their home and parked in their driveway for the couple of days we were in the area. Tom and Gail have been dear friends of ours ever since. Gail is very computer-literate and regularly encourages us with articles, tips, challenges and prayer requests on e-mail.

Incidentally, as if to undertline our decision, as Kenny and I sat there talking, someone knocked on our door. Both of us heard it clearly. But when we checked, nobody was theere. You figure.

No Sermon Please.....

Fairview to Tokyo
Oh how I loved my little boys! They were my life. Hands on. And usually they were put first, but I remember one Wednesday night I was chiding, "Hurry. Finish eating. I have my class, you know..." when one of them--I think i was Jim--threw out, "I hate Wednesday nights!"

From then on I tried to be more careful about the whole Wednesday night sitation so they would feel relaxed and more important than the class! I always felt that if you lose your kids, your ministry doesn't have much value. But, being an imperfect mother, I failed in lots of ways. We had to learn on our own most of the time...Rainy, Pat and me! Us old roommates who got married out here and were raising our families. There were no pertinent seminars to go to and not a whole lot of books on our needed subjects.

I've always said that I couldn't have loved them more...I did have my own joke, though. I said that if Kenny had married my aunt Alma, there wouldn't have been anyone home to raise the kids. Both were world travelers.

At night a ritual was "love talks" from bed to bed before they fell asleep. Sometimes I think I might have over-used this opportunity to "teach" them something, like when I was leaving Kimbo's room one night and he quipped, "I only asked a question. I didn't ask for a sermon!"

Role Model

Fairview to Tokyo

Once there was a little boy whose crib was in what is now my office...and there as an orugorumerry hanging from the ceiling. From the time he was old enough to stand up in the morning
and hang on to the crib railing, he would call "Baba" and Baba would come and pick him up and take him to his room down the hall.

The years went by...not too many, tho...and one day we went into Baba's room and there above a little shelf on which he had his prized posessions like his boxing gloves, was a sign that said. "Please do not touch." The problem was that the only one who touched was that little boy from the crib and he couldn't read! But he evidently enjoyed monkeying around with those precious items and so the sign.

Some more years went by and once it was suggested that Baba, like everyone else, probably had some faults. To this the loyal pre-teener firmly challenged, "NAME ME ONE!"

Baba went off to college. There he met his beloved and a wedding date was set. By this time the boy from the crib was an early teen-ager. One day he swept the garage for me, but he didn't do such a hot job so I called him on that and he sassed me back, something he didn't usually do. That night after I was in bed, here he came and burst out the words, "I'm sorry for today. Bobb's getting married and everything's wrong." I said, "Oh come here....." So he did and we talked. I told him that Bobb wasn't going to die, he was just going to give us our first girl...a sister in law, for which I was thankful and thrilled. So now he would also had a sister to look up to.

More years have gone by and the bond is still strong. Nothing beats having good role models!