Living in the Kingdom

This is where the rubber hits the road.  Now that we'd made a decision it was up to us to live it out with the Holy Spirit's help.  We had been partiers--Saturday night meant we were usually gone dancing and partying.  The first Saturday night after we gave our life to the Lord the telephone rang and the people said "Let's go to one of the nightclubs in Salina".  So we went. When we got home we looked at each other and both said it was the most miserable night we had spent.  After that the phone would ring every week and I would lie saying that we had company or were sick or had something else we had to do.  I didn't have enough guts to tell them that we were Christians now and the Lord had taken away any desire to party that way.  I didn't want to offend them.  This went on for abut 6 months and then the Holy Spirit convicted me that I should tell the truth.  So I did and it freed me to live my new life openly.  

              "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;                      the old has gone, the new life has come!   II Cor. 5:17 NIV

We were Catholic and the words 'saved' and 'born again' were not in our vocabulary.  We attended a Bible study with our Protestnt friends and they showed us in scripture what the words meant and helped us understand what had happened in our lives.  We wanted to see what our church had to offer so we questioned our priest.  He told us "I don't know what you are talking about but there are some meetings going on out in Hays next weekend that you might be interested in".  This was Pentecost weekend and the meetings, conducted by a Father Rohr, were excellent.  In the evening they had a prayer meeting and we had never been to anything like it. It was awesome!  The power of the Holy Spirit was there and healed and delivered people. When we got home we started going to a prayer meeting in the Catholic rectory in Concordia. Everyone would be praying aloud as the spirit led them, then a silence would fall on the group and someone would give a prophecy or a word of knowledge or word of wisdom.  There was a little boy, 6 years old, who would often prophesy at length.  It was always beautiful and right on. Later, we and another couple started a prayer meeting and Bible study in our own church.

We started sharing with our family and friends but were not able to communicate what had happened  to us in a way that they could understand.  We were at my sister's house for dinner and she asked our daughter to say the blessing.  She didn't say the traditional blessing so then my sister told her children "now you say the real one".  She didn't understand where we were coming from but later she became a very strong Christian and prayed for people's healing and salvation and openly shared her new faith in Jesus whenever she could.

We were Godparents to one of my nieces.  I felt the Lord was telling me to write her and her husband and tell them what we had experienced in our life.  We were taught that it was the responsibility of the Godparents to help form their spiritual life.  It took 4 pages and their response was that they really didn't understand why we were sharing this with them. They are a very strong family today,  dedicated and living their lives for the Lord.  So our responsibility is to share what the Lord has done for us and then let the Holy Spirit do His work.

After a couple of years we realized there was a different emphasis between the Protestant Bible study and the Catholic prayer meetings we were attending.  The emphasis at the prayer meetings was on the power of the Holy Spirit Who lives within us and is our present day enabler. 

"But when He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth, He will not speak on his own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come."    John 16:13   NIV 

So we spent more time at the prayer meetings and at charismatic Masses.  We also went to Full Gospel Businessmen International meetings and Catholic charismatic conferences where we observed and experienced many miracles, healings and deliverances.  More about that later.

As we live in the Kingdom it is our reponsibility to share the 'good news" (Gospel) with the people around us and whoever we meet wherever the Lord takes us.  In John chapter 3 Jesus tells us that we must be born again to see, enter and hear the Kingdom of God.  In verse 13 He says "I have spoken to  you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?"    NIV  This tells me that we can all live in  the Kingdom of God right now.  You must be born again!! 

                                                                                                                                                                               

Getting Saved

In the early '60's I was serving on the school board of the rural school our boys attended.  A neighbor who was also on the board rode to one meeting with me and when we got back to his house afterward he didn't get out of the car.  We just sat there and chatted for a while then he started sharing with me about Jesus.  I thought he was crazy and my wife thought we must be out partying because I didn't get home until 3 am.  The next day when I went to work I told some people: "This guy told me he knows he is going to heaven."  I thought this was a big joke because no one could know that they were going to heaven.  Could they?

We continued our lifestyle for the next 7 years but God was working.  He brought a whole new set of friends into our life and they were all talking about Jesus.  We would sit up all night (almost) discussing scripture and what it meant to us.

One couple in particular kind of took us under their wing.  They would take us to hear speakers.  One night they took us and another couple to Concordia to hear a preacher.  There was a nun there who had come because one of her piano students was providing special music that night.  When the preacher gave the invitation to come to the front to accept Jesus we were amazed to see her go down the aisle.  On the way home I said:  "That preacher was looking straight at me all night".  The other couple husband who was with us said:  "Oh, no!  He was looking at me".  We were both under conviction about our lifestyle but we were tough, we resisted.

Shortly after that a professional football player by the name of Bill Glass was scheduled to speak in our town.  (He was an all-American at Baylor University and later played for the Cleveland Browns)  I was asked to be a counsellor as a representative of the Catholic church.  On May 30, 1971 we went to the meeting in the grade school gym.This time the conviction got the best of us and when he gave the invitation we and our three sons and a niece went forward.  It was a great moment---and what a relief!!  All of our burdens were lifted and immediately we experienced a new freedom.

Meanwhile---back at the ranch---.  During the meeting there was a bad storm.  We had trouble getting home because there was water over the road.  My sister, who was at our house, with our little  daughter and her 2 small children, was running bathwater for the kids when the storm hit. She gathered up the 3 kids and took them to the old root cellar in the back yard.  That took real courage because it hadn't been used for so long that there were snakes and spiders etc. down there.  When we finally got home we found that the barn had blown down, the back screen door was ripped off, and the bathtub had overflowed.  

I think the devil was really mad because he had lost 6 of his own that night!!!

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life."   John 3:16  NIV

"He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.  I write these things to you who believe in the Name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life."   I John 5:12-13  NIV     

LENT

                                                           Donny               Me

                                     June 16,1940--First Communion

I was raised in a Catholic family.  As long as I can remember we always went to church.  We lived 10 miles from three Catholic churches.  Minnespolis, Delp0hos, and Meredith which was a small country church.  We kids liked to go to Meredith because it was small and there were a lot of other farm kids there.  The church would hold about 50 or 60 people.  I think the pews were homemade.  They were made out of 1X12 boards about 10 feet long.  4 or 5 people could sit in them easy.  I remember you had to watch it when you sat down because the pews were not fastened to the floor.  The floor was slick and the pews were light.  When you sat down  they would scoot out from under you if you weren't careful.  The kneelers were the same way so if you didn't watch it when you knelt down they would scoot away or turn over.  So you can see, we kids would have fun watching things happen and we would laugh when they happened to us.  

We went to Minneapolis for catechism.  They only had it two times for country kids that I can remember--once before 1st communion and once before confirmation.  They were two weeks each.  

I remember we would go to confession on Saturday night and that meant you could not eat anything after midnight.  We thought we were going to die!!  Saturday night was a big thing during the summer because you didn't go to town during the week and if the folks went to Salina we didn't get to town for two weeks.  On Saturday nights farm families would gather in town to shop and visit with each other.  They would visit until after midnight so on the way home we would want something to eat but that was a no-no because if you broke your fast you couldn't take communion Sunday morning.

When Lent came around it was time to get out the rosary.  Ash Wednesday was the start.  This was the only time I can remember going to church during the week except for mid-night mass on Christmas eve.  We would go to the Ash Wednesday service and get the ashes put on our forehead and NO washing them off the rest of the day.  The ashes were from Palm Sunday palms that had been burned and they symbolized repentance and sorrow for sin.

Every night at bedtime we would kneel by our beds and say the rosary.  Mom would lead us until we got older.  When my sister Donna got older she would lead us.  We all got our turn leading the rosary.  I remember we would be saying the rosary and fall asleep and someone would poke us to wake us up.  I thought we did it for hours but it was only 15 minutes or so.  We got pretty good, we could mumble the responses in our sleep.  It was a serious thing to our mom. We didn't understand that until later years.  

Lent is the time for reconciliation with the Father and His Son Jesus so fasting was a big part of Lent.  I remember we would give something up for Lent.  Mom would ask us "What are you going to give up for Lent this year?"  We would answer with some smart aleck answer like watermelon, washing dishes or going to school.  Mom would say "That won't work!"  We would give up something like candy, ice cream or one of the meals each day.  We would do this to show Jesus that we loved Him.  In later years we realized He was more interested in our heart (our inside rather that our outside).  I knew ABOUT God but I didn't KNOW HIM.

Joel 2:12-13----"Even now, " declares the Lord, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning."  Rend your hearts and not your garments.  Return to the Lord your God , for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity.  NIV

Coyote hunting

My father was what you would call a coyote hunter.  He had 3 or 4 coyote hounds.  He and a man from Delphos would go hunting on horseback.  They would run a small rope through the ring on the dog's collar.  One end of the rope would be fastened to the saddlehorn and the other end they would hold in their hand.  When they would see a coyote they would turn the rope loose and the dogs would take after the coyote.  Sometimes they would catch one.  I was small when I first started going with Dad. He had an old Model A coupe with a rumble seat in the back where the dogs rode.  Most of the time he hunted with one other person but sometimes he would hunt with a group of hunters.  There would be 8 or 10 other hunters and their dogs.  In later years there would be sn airplasne that spotted the coyotes for them.

I remember one Saturday night in 1940 we went to town to buy groceries.  We would take the cream and eggs to town and sell them for grocery money and we would get to go to the movie which cost 5 cents.  While we were at the movie Dad went to the Ford dealership and bought a new 1940 Ford sedan.  It was the first two seated car I remember us having.  We  (kids) thought that was great, we would have a lot of room.  It was winter and very cold and we thought it would be nice to have a heater because the old Model A had no heater, we used blankets.  But surprise---no heater!!  Dad said he didn't want one because if we went coyote hunting with him we would want the heater on and the coyote dogs would get too hot, then they would get pneumonia when they got out in the cold.  The next morning, sittiing in the front yard, was the back seat cushion out of the new car and there were the coyote dogs in the back seat ready to go hunting.

In the winter they would have coyote round-ups.  They would mark off a 5 mile square, divide the number of people who showed up for the hunt by 4 and place them at intervals on the roads on all four sides of the square.  At a certain time they would all start walking toward the center which would be on  a hill or a clear, level spot so no one would get shot.  Only shotguns were allowed, no rifles. They would shoot their guns off occasionally to drive the coyotes to the middle. When you got close to the center you could see coyotes running in circles trying to get out. Sometimes they did.  

I remember one coyote hunt in the late 30's.  They got 2 pickup loads of jackrabbits.  The county had a bounty of 5 cents on them because they were destroying the farmer's crops.

The last one I remember was probably in the late 50's.  The Jaycees (of which my brother was a member) sponsored it.  When they got to the center there were deer there.  They didn't shoot them because noone had seen deer around here at that time.  Now we can look in our back yard and see 30 or 40 and just as many wild turkeys and sometimes bobcat.  There have been reports of big cats in the area too, which is probably true as they follow the deer.

Saturday on the Farm

                                              Billy Max,    Donna,     LaRoy

                                                        

                                Donna, Max Sr., Max Jr., Eva, LaRoy

No school today!!  "Get to play?"  Most Saturdays--no play.  There was  plenty of work  to do.  We always had fence to fix. clean the chicken house and creosote the roosts and some of the sides to keep the mites down, clean the milking part of the barn.   We had sheep so in winter we had to clean the sheep barn.  In the summer time they were on pasture.  The pasture had a creek running through it and the sheep kept the bottom of the trees trimmed as high as they could reach.  They also kept the weeds out of the pasture.  It looked just like a golf course.  The grass was native buffalo grass.

The first chore we had to do was milk the cows.  We had 5 stalls to put the cows in.  Most of the time we had 6 to 8 cows to milk.  We milked by hand.  The cats always came to watch us milk because we had a pan we would put some milk in for them.  They would stand at the back of the cows and we would squirt milk at them trying to hit their mouths.  If you weren't watching, someone might squirt you in the back of the head!!  Then we would take the milk to the house and  separate it (the cream from the milk).  The separator we had was a crank type.  It had a bell on the crank that would tell you how fast to turn the crank.  It was important to turn it at just the right speed to do a good job.  We were reminded often to "listen to that bell".  Later we got an electric separator.  The cream we would put in the cream can.  The separated milk we would feed to the pigs and bucket calves.  New born calves got whole milk for a while to get a good start.

On the north side of the barn there were 3 large stalls where we kept the horses.  Most of the time we had 4 horses, two teams, that we used to feed silage to the cattle in winter.  There was a walkway  through the center of the barn with  a ladder at one end that you could climb up into the haymow.   The haymow was a large room that covered the whole barn where we kept hay for the horses and milk cows.

Some Saturdays the folks would take the eggs and cream to Swifts in Salina to sell and use the money to buy groceries.  This would take them 5 or 6 hours because they would shop at Montgomery Ward's.  It was a large department store that had clothing and farm supplies.  It was also a catalog store.  This would give us time to have a calf riding contest while they were gone.  Sometimes our neighbor kids would come over and ride, too.  We had a corral so we could run the calves through the chute.  We would put a pipe behind them so they couldn't back up.  Someone would get on the back of the calf,  someone else would open the front gate and away we would go!  Sometimes good--sometimes bad!!  These calves weighed 500 to 600 lbs, so they were good sized calves.  One time the calf I was riding got too close to the barbed wire fence.  I have a scar on my left leg  about 5 inches long yet today.  We would watch down the driveway for our folks to come home because they would bring home candy for us.  Dad was never very happy when he found out we were riding his calves.  He would say "you will run the weight off of those calves".  But we would do it again when we got the chance.

Hunting--by son Mark

Well, here goes....Some of the best times on the farm were in the fall.  I always loved to hunt and we had an abundance of places to hunt.  I still remember one of the first times that I was able to carry a gun myself when we went pheasant hunting.  It was either Christmas or Thanksgiving at Aunt June's and Uncle Clarence's farm south of Simpson when I was about 10 years old.  It was the beginning of lessons in gun safety.  I believe that Grandad, Dad and the boys and Uncle Clarence were all along that day.  We went to a pasture on the northwest corner of the mile line just north of Uncle Clarence's place.  We were all getting out and lined up to walk the grass and trees there.  I was carrying a Mossberg bolt action 20 gauge shotgun.  There was a thumb tab labeled 'safety' located under the rear of the bolt action.  I don't know why they called it a safety because it wasn't safe (didn't work properly) , and me being on my first hunt that I could carry a gun, I had my finger in the trigger guard  and my thumb on the safety tab.  Needless to say in all the excitement I had a real strong trigger finger and as we were walking along my gun, (which Dad had been real diligent in gun carry safety, had been pointed at the ground) decided to 'go off'!  Needless to say, there was a hole in the pasture about a foot or two from Uncle Clarence's foot and I got the priveledge of watching the cars until everyone got back from the hunt.  It was a lesson I will never forget, TEST YOUR WEAPON BEFORE YOU USE IT!  Whenever I used that gun again I would always carry it with the bolt in the raised position and close it before I shot,  just to be safe.

Starting in about my 8th or 9th grade year I would go hunting along the creek (Pipe Creek) north of home just about every evening after chores whenever I had enough ammo.  Mom had a nice Marlin lightweight 12 gauge pump that I would use.  It 'kicked' pretty good but was easy to carry and maneuver.  The more you hunted that stretch of the creek the healthier the birds would be and the more coveys there would be as you would keep them scattered.  I got pretty good with the gun and could shoot a lot of '3 bags' when I would raise a covey of quail.  I had to let the birds fly away for a bit on straight away shots or there would not be too much left except wings and a poof of feathers.  I would always get startled when a pheasant would rise and usually shoot before getting lined up, kinda frustrating but eventually I got over that.  I would look forward to that time of the year starting with Dove through the end of Pheasant and Quail season.  I never really got too involved in Duck and Geese hunting but would sometimes hunt the slough areas in the field for Teal when there was water there.  I didn't do much Deer hunting as they weren't as plentiful then but I do more now.

Oklahoma--Flying

On weekends I worked at the City Airport.  My job was fueling up planes, washing windshields, cleaning the leading edge of wings, getting planes ready for the people who were renting them, and keeping the hanger clean.  Instead of taking pay I took it out in flying lessons.  I learned in an Aeronica Chief.  The man I worked for was well known in aviation  He was a barnstormer.  He gave flying lessons to Gen. Patton.  He had several planes and ran a charter service.  I would go with him often if he had room.  He is now in the Aviation Hall of Fame.  He died this past summer at age 101.

Our neighbor had several children and one day he asked me if I could drop candy from the plane for one of his sons birthday.  We made up some little parachutes out of handkerchiefs then tied bags of candy on them.  They went out in the country about 5 miles from town and I went and got the plane.  It was one I had never flown before with a stick rather than a wheel like I was used to so I was a little nervous but I flew over them and dropped the parachutes with the candy.  They thought this was great.

At Christmas time they gave 80% of the Fort time off to go home or whatever.  Christmas was in the first week and I got stuck in the 20% that had to stay.  Darlene rode home with the couple we lived with.  Monday morning I went to work.  There wasn't much to do because the base was pretty much at a standstill.  My commanding officer and I were talking.  He knew I was taking flying lessons and he asked if I needed some cross country flying time.  I said yes, I could use some.  He told me to go check if I could get a plane and take it home then come back Sunday, pick up my pass and drive home.  He said he would cover for me.  So that afternoon I fueled up the Aeronica Chief and headed north 600 miles.  This plane had no radio and very few instruments.  I charted my route on maps that would show a windmill and 2 tanks, a small town water tower, or a farm pond.  It was visual flying.  I stopped at Anthony, Kansas to fuel. It was a small airport and I was lucky there was someone there to fuel me.  I was almost home when I noticed 2 airforce planes flying real close, one on each side of me.  The pilots were pointing me to get off.  I wasn't paying attention and I was flying over the bombing range at Shilling Air Force Base at Salina.  They escorted me and I got off!!

A neighbor had an alfalfa field that was 1/2 mile long.  I circled the house at home and they came and watched me land and picked me up.  I drove some stakes in the ground and tied the plane down.  While I was at home I had to give rides to the whole family.  My mom had heart trouble so we had to take it easy and she got along ok.  My sister clamped both hands around my leg while we were making a bank and she wouldn't let go.  I had a good friend come out in the evening to take a ride.  My neighbor was carrying the milk to the house and I throttled the engine down and came up behind him.  It scared him because he hadn't heard us coming.  I hadn't seen their windmill so I had to pull up quick and level out to keep from stalling.  He dropped his two buckets of milk and my friend riding with me got sick to his stomach.  I told him that behind him were some containers and he filled one and one half of them.

So I spent Christmas week at home with the family.  Early Sunday morning I headed back to Lawton.  I stopped at Anthony once again for fuel.  When I got within 100 miles from Lawton their was a large storm to the west of me which I didn't appreciate.  Then I noticed a plane I thought I recognized flying beside me.  It was Ralph Swaby, the owner.  He got worried about me in the storm and came to see about me because he knew what time I was supposed to be back.

I landed at 3pm at the airport, went home and got some clothes, picked up my pass at the base, and drove home and spent another week with the family.  At the end of the week Darlene and I and Steve headed home (back to Lawton).  By the grace of God, and having a good commanding officer and flight instructor I got to enjoy 2 weeks at home.