In last week's episode we left off as a family of eight left their campground home in Mexico and headed north....
My parents believed in Jesus’ words in Matthew 10:9-12 when he sent out his disciples and told them not to take money or even bags or extra clothes. He told them to find someone worthy to stay with in each town. My parents operated this way completely by faith. I really do admire them for that. For all that I've been able to do in my life I often feel that I haven't even come close to what my parents did.
When we left Mexico we drove north to Texas and ended up in McAllen on New Year’s Eve. My parents stood in a phone booth calling number after number trying to find us a place to stay. Most places were closed because of the holiday and we didn’t have the money to stay in a hotel. Finally someone recommended a certain address and we drove there. The owners of the house were not at home, so we parked in the driveway and went to sleep. We woke in the morning to faces looking through our windows wondering why there was a van filled with sleeping people in their driveway. it turned out that this house was a halfway home for recovering, former drug addicts and alcoholics. The couple that ran this ministry became our very good friends. To help support the house and ministry they had a concession stand that would go to auctions. I still dream of their sausages and white flour tortillas. Oh yum!
I’m not sure if my parents helped at all with this ministry while we were there but they would have done well with it. My dad had been a drug addict before finding Jesus at the age of 19. God completely changed his life and he committed his life to helping others from that day forward.
We lived in a tent in the backyard of the house and this is where my love affair with libraries began in earnest. We lived catty-corner to a public library and my mom took us there every day. If it was hot outside, the library was delightfully chilly; if it was cold, it was cozily warm. Because we all enjoyed reading my mom could easily teach us and keep us occupied.
My love for books came much earlier than this. Since my parents moved so often they couldn’t carry many books. When I was a toddler, they had a book of children’s poetry that they read to me again and again. Before long I had memorized the poems and would ‘read’ the words by myself. Next thing my parents knew I could read. I was not quite three years old. I have been in love with words ever since.
My parents were taking some time to pray about what their next mission would be. I didn’t know this at the time but a new adventure was right around the corner.
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I love this! Your description of a library is perfect! And might I add that 'caddy-corner' is a very interesting term :P (I'm not quite sure what it means) lol
ReplyDeleteJennifer, catty-corner: diagonal across a polygon.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting life you have led! I'm wondering, did you ever feel insecure as a child living this way, or was it just the way things were? An adventure of faith, for sure!
ReplyDeleteOh, how exciting! You had such an adventurous childhood! How did you feel about it at the time? Were you always excited about moving or did you want to stay where you were? I was always excited about moving when I was a child, but my daughter, (one in particular) has always been opposed to change.
ReplyDeleteThat is kind of funny, my eight year old loves books. I don't think he will become anything like that though, he picks up and reads the encyclopedias at my mom's cause they are cool books.
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