MANNA in 1984 - Trusting God as we started our life together

Back when Roger and I were engaged & after our year of missionary training with YWAM ended in Feb. 1984, we had committed to travel with a mobile ministry team for 6 months. We also had chosen a date for our wedding of Oct. 7 and we would be arriving home from the tour only 7 weeks before our wedding.  So we had no employment income for a year and a half, only gifts of support from those who supported our desire to Know God and Make Him Known. With this in mind, we told the Lord we would have a wedding according to whatever He provided… from having family only to inviting all the relatives.  So off we went across the country, and while we were on this tour God, through others, took care of so many details… my brother offered us his old car, friends realized I love dusty rose and they gathered bridesmaid dresses from those who they were in a wedding with previously. They even mailed them out to the three friends who were in our wedding and they fit perfectly.  To top it off,  a friend of my mother's, who never married, contacted her and asked if she could be the mother of the bride and pay for our wedding!!!!!  I never expected such overwhelming provision, but God is more faithful than I have ever believed!

We arrived home 7 weeks before the wedding and immediately sent off invitations that my brother had beautifully created and printed for us.  Then we had to find jobs, a place to live and furnishings in 6 weeks… when I think of that now, I marvel at how much peace we had through it all, except for one day in particular, when we headed out...  That day was very stressful and we got in our first real argument. Dear friends, we were staying with, told us we needed a day off, since we had hit the ground running since our return. Frankly, we were ready for a break.  So we went to breakfast and per our friend's suggestion went to see a house that was way out of our league.  With no income for one and a half years & no current employment, we only hoped for a 3 room apartment.  How could we know what we could afford at this point anyway?!  So off we went and when we drove up the driveway into a clearing in the woods, we saw a house that looked like Better Homes and Gardens. It was a 5 year old, 2 story, salt box with floor to ceiling windows with a southern exposure… way nicer than anything we could have ever hoped for!! The lady turned out to be a Christian and she wanted us to have it, so she lowered the rent and offered to sell us the wood needed to heat the house for the winter for what it cost her before it was spit & stacked.  We did not even have the money to give her a down payment, so we borrowed that and the next week Roger returned to the area and he found a job!!

Fall 1984 outside our first home

I still marvel that we actually lived there as we started out.  God so overwhelmingly provided… a couch on the side of the road (our current couch was provided the same way), a table on clearance and chairs from a yardsale that matched. A single friend gave us her queen sized bed, deciding to get herself a single. Wedding gifts took care of kitchen needs and linens etc. and our honey moon was financed by all the monetary gifts we received plus two wedding gifts of cottages to stay in for free that friends and family owned in NH & Maine. Wow! I still marvel at all God did on our behalf!

When things got tough in our marriage, we could always look back and see God's hand of encouragement as we set out together and remember His faithful confirmation of our union. Thus began an an adventure that has taught us so much about the faithfulness of our God!

The adventure continues…..