“I DO!” Those were the words I spoke twenty years ago today in the sanctuary of the Temple Baptist Church in Pueblo, Colorado. WOW! It is almost unbelievable to think that it has been two full decades. The last 20 years have been priceless. Laura and I have shared a lot of living. For example:
Just days after getting married we drove across the country and moved into a little one room apartment complex in which every other tenant was a widow lady who was each old enough to be our grandmothers, and in some cases our great-grandmothers.
We spent the first 6 years of our marriage in youth ministry as I served as the Youth Pastor at the Community Grace Brethren Church in West Milton, OH. If you can survive the first 6 years of your marriage being in full-time youth work, you can survive just about anything that life may throw your way.
While in Ohio we experienced the birth of our first child. Joy Laura was born on February 3, 1990 at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Dayton, Ohio. After struggling through infertility issues, it was a true miracle when Joy was born. She was, however, born with a severe club foot and had to have major reconstructive surgery and spent the first many months of her life in a cast.
We also experienced the horror of almost losing Joy one evening when she had a lengthy and severe seizure due to a sudden spike of a fever. We had to call 911 and Laura had to give CPR after we found Joy seizing in her crib, picked her up and she quit breathing. When the paramedics arrived they asked what hospital we wanted Joy taken to. There was our local hospital, but a short distance away there was also a wonderful Children’s Hospital. Our hearts dropped when we told them to take her to Children’s and the paramedic responded, “She won’t make it to Children’s.” I’ll never forget that night.
We also experienced the birth of our son at the same hospital where Joy was born. Jonathan Scott came to us on October 22, 1992. He too had to have surgery as a baby due to a large cyst that was growing rapidly over his eye.
After spending 8 years in Ohio, we took on our first Senior Pastorate ministry in Osceola, IN. We spent 9 wonderful years there watching our children grow and grow and grow. Then came our move to Lititz in the summer of 2004. Twenty years ago we knew we were going to Ohio but we never could have guessed that our lives would ultimately take us to Indiana and then on to Lancaster County, PA. Twenty years ago we had no clue that we would be made stewards of two incredible kids. There was very little that we knew twenty years ago except that we were madly in love with each other. The truth is that we have no clue what the next twenty years hold for us. But that’s ok. We are still madly in love with each other. That’s a great foundation for the next two decades. It has been 20 years and here is the best part…“I STILL DO!” Happy Anniversary, Laura!
Just days after getting married we drove across the country and moved into a little one room apartment complex in which every other tenant was a widow lady who was each old enough to be our grandmothers, and in some cases our great-grandmothers.
We spent the first 6 years of our marriage in youth ministry as I served as the Youth Pastor at the Community Grace Brethren Church in West Milton, OH. If you can survive the first 6 years of your marriage being in full-time youth work, you can survive just about anything that life may throw your way.
While in Ohio we experienced the birth of our first child. Joy Laura was born on February 3, 1990 at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Dayton, Ohio. After struggling through infertility issues, it was a true miracle when Joy was born. She was, however, born with a severe club foot and had to have major reconstructive surgery and spent the first many months of her life in a cast.
We also experienced the horror of almost losing Joy one evening when she had a lengthy and severe seizure due to a sudden spike of a fever. We had to call 911 and Laura had to give CPR after we found Joy seizing in her crib, picked her up and she quit breathing. When the paramedics arrived they asked what hospital we wanted Joy taken to. There was our local hospital, but a short distance away there was also a wonderful Children’s Hospital. Our hearts dropped when we told them to take her to Children’s and the paramedic responded, “She won’t make it to Children’s.” I’ll never forget that night.
We also experienced the birth of our son at the same hospital where Joy was born. Jonathan Scott came to us on October 22, 1992. He too had to have surgery as a baby due to a large cyst that was growing rapidly over his eye.
After spending 8 years in Ohio, we took on our first Senior Pastorate ministry in Osceola, IN. We spent 9 wonderful years there watching our children grow and grow and grow. Then came our move to Lititz in the summer of 2004. Twenty years ago we knew we were going to Ohio but we never could have guessed that our lives would ultimately take us to Indiana and then on to Lancaster County, PA. Twenty years ago we had no clue that we would be made stewards of two incredible kids. There was very little that we knew twenty years ago except that we were madly in love with each other. The truth is that we have no clue what the next twenty years hold for us. But that’s ok. We are still madly in love with each other. That’s a great foundation for the next two decades. It has been 20 years and here is the best part…“I STILL DO!” Happy Anniversary, Laura!
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