Seeking God

My Life through the Years

Part 27

Our last installment brought us to my stay in the apartment. I wondered how I could be in a place that I didn’t like or want—and didn’t know how to get out of this. I was alone and without meaningful fellowship at all. The positive part was that this was near to where I was employed, yet far from the two storage places. (I needed these places since my present living quarters was so small.)

In 2001, a friend from South Carolina (Rhonda) introduced me to a young woman in Peru, South America. So much could be said about this. At first, I was able to encourage and build up this young woman, Moni (short for Monica). Eventually it went on from there. She flew to Fort Worth then (later) I flew to Lima. Three years later, she moved to Fort Worth, Texas, to a nearby apartment. She was able to take educational training that enabled her to teach bilingual Hispanic students.

This was finally the woman of my “dreams” and we talked a lot about such things. In fact, this was the continual center of our conversation. As you know, I had never been married before and I looked forward to this day. Thus, so many of my future plans and dreams were centered in this delightful woman from thousands of miles away!

Although I have not written about “love and romance” on these pages, I must say that when Moni came into my life, I believed that this was the “God sent” one I had waited for, For years you know that I had wanted a wife. I planned for her, wrote about her, but finally (after such a long while), God “opened the door” and provided this woman of my dreams. Of course, I knew that this would be a life-changing experience and that life would never be the same, but I believed that Moni was the one for me after such a long, long wait.

This matter of schooling was somewhat incongruous since I was a firm believer (and she was too) in home schooling—not in secular education. Yet we determined that she would be careful in what she taught in a way that would be harmonious with Biblical principles. And, I might add that this was first graders (before many objectionable things such as evolution and certain worldly activities were introduced).

In time, we were married in Pennsylvania in the back yard of my mother’s place in Ellport, Pennsylvania (near Ellwood City). (By this time, dear Dad, was gone and Mother was not living in the house.) As I said, by this time, my father was gone—but how I could wish that he had the privilege of being here—to meet Moni and to do a lot of other things! The whole family helped with the event and we were able to go through the process we needed to and thus we were wed on that grand day!

I continued to wonder how all of this was going to work out, in light of my long-range plans and the “dream” I had at age 22. We went to Niagara Falls then to Arkansas, then Oklahoma. We then returned to Fort Worth, Texas. God had given a sweet and blessed woman to be my wife after all of these years of waiting! Moni went on to prepare herself to teach and even drove the distances to the various locations.

I had three very old cars and this was a plague that continued. Further, sadly and unexpectedly, the conditions at work changed abruptly. I had worked for many years (28 years to be exact), first for one company and then another person and company took over. After a few years (probably about five or six), the owner of the company that employed me wanted me to work on the Lord’s day—at a time that I had not needed to work for many years. In one day, I lost my job! About two days later I had a meeting with the owner and his assistant. His “dismissal” (or firing) stood firm!

Even when I sought to receive Texas unemployment income while I was looking for employment, the owner objected—and I was completely out! After 28 long years of faithful and diligent employment, I was without work! I don’t know if this was a matter of “religious persecution” or a more mundane rationale, but I went to employment counseling and regularly looked for a job—but could find nothing. Maybe it had to do with my dismissal or maybe my age, but for whatever the reason, I was out. Since this was close to social security time, I chose to accept this income.

Let’s return momentarily to about 2007. I found myself running with pain. As you know, I had run for many decades by this time (I had begun about 1968 and especially 1976), but what was the pain in my leg? I was able to go to an orthopedic doctor who discovered (through an MRI) that I seemed to have a problem with sciatica and spinal stenosis, thus I had to cease my running. I had been trying to bicycle my miles for a while but now just went to walking. This seemed to work, plus I was able to do a lot of praying as I walked. Sadly, my pulse is not quite as high but I suppose that this is to be expected at my age and condition. Now, I walk every day (about 3 miles, about 4 AM), and I find this is great. (This gives over 1,000 miles a year). I do miss my running but it seems that I just can’t continue with this anymore.

We need to stop here but we’ll plan to return for the final installment next.