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Prattling Pastor's Wife
Jun. 25, 2006
17 years and counting...
Dan and I just celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary on Saturday June 24th. I am sorry to say it was not a huge shindig. We are waiting on the next payday to really go our and celebrate. I think dinner and a dollar movie is in order but it will have to be next weekend or so...
In 17 years I have become a very different person from the girl Dan married. I believe our love is stronger now than it has ever been. I know that I have been made better in knowing and loving Dan. Someday I will post on all of the things we have lived. For now, I will share our first year of marriage and a little update...
The day we married was the beginning of a life of full time ministry. Dan had been serving in a little church in Big Spring, Texas. He was the music and youth minister. He had served as a music minister for six years prior to that in a little church in Abilene, Texas, where we attended Hardin Simmons University. We were the responsible first borns in our families so we waited to marry until Dan graduated and I only had my student teaching left to finish. We planned to live in Big Spring and I would commute to Midland, Texas to teach while he commuted to Lubbock to attend Seminary Extension classes with SWBTS. We married and settled into our roles there. Our first year was very hard. We were fine as a couple but we realized several things in that first year. I realized that I could not spend money like I had with my parents. I went from a household of... let's just say, lots of money to a household of a starving minister. It was hard but God taught me so much that first year about trusting Him. Dan and I learned to cling to each other and to God that first year. I think that is what made our marriage so strong from the beginning. We only had God and each other and I truly believe God planned it that way for us to learn those valuable lessons.
We served under a pastor that was very good at his craft. He was a workaholic but a very wise man and taught Dan a great deal. There was a secretary that could read their minds on staff and a deacon and his family that took us in as their own. We still love that family very much. The pastor went by the title Brother Bob. He was a short little man with tons of energy. He is still full of energy into his 60s.
That first year we realized that youth ministry was not our thing. Music was a strong ministry for us, though and Dan was quite good at it. He had grown up playing and singing in church and so had I. He really excelled with the music. He really fell on his face with the youth, though, and that is why we had to leave. We went through disappointment, bad landlords, the death (murder) of one of our youth, pneumonia, money struggles, the flooding of a home, heart ache, a heart attack of Dan's father, finishing up student teaching and substituting in the schools there, a calling we had to answer and the final decision to cut our ties and move forward to the seminary to go back to school full time while I taught in Ft. Worth to put food on the table. It was a hard year - oh yeah, I mentioned that - but God was so gracious and wonderful to us.
Zip forward to tonight...
Dan just got off the phone with an old friend named Andrew. He was a roommate of Dan's in college and they were in Cowboy Band together at HSU. Andrew is, quite possibly, the very reason Dan served in Big Spring. You see, Andrew's dad is Brother Bob. We have kept in touch with the family throughout the years. Brother Bob went on to serve with the NAMB in Montana after leaving Big Spring. He has been a home missionary for many years. He is such a gifted man. His children have all followed him into ministry, too. The call was not a happy call tonight. Brother Bob has been diagnosed with Lymphoma (Cancer). He is about to undergo tests and very aggressive treatment. We are sad for the family. We are praying fervently for Brother Bob. We ask you to join us. He is in such good spirits over this and knows that God is in control. You see, I know that because he taught us that 17 years ago and he lives what he preaches.
Thank you, Father, for the life Brother Bob has led and is still leading before the world even in the midst of his suffering...
Blessings to you all... and thanks for praying with us!
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Posted by
Carrie K. 
Jun. 25, 2006 - Untitled Comment
amy
tudorhouse.wordpress.com