I met Rebekah at Cedarville College (now University) in Ohio. I was attending that fine Christian school and a secular university nearby. One semester I had to leave class early to travel to the other school. Needing to have someone share class notes with me, a friend recommended the smartest girl in class, Rebekah. I met her in the snack shop and she shared her notes and her smile with me. It was the smile that benefitted me the most. We dated and were eventually married in 1970.
Upon graduation I started teaching school and so did she, until God gave us our first daughter. But, He only let us have her for 22 days before she died. That was tough for a young, inexperienced couple like us. Thankfully, the church rallied around us. Little did we know this was preparation for future ministry to couples who would lose children. Rebekah stayed home to care for and teach the three daughters who followed. We were pioneers in homeschooling during the 70's. A neighbor of ours was threatened with jail for keeping his kids out of the government school. We were not a good target for this abuse because we were college graduates in education. I went on to earn my masters in education.
Cedarville's president asked me to become Public Relations Director and I served at my alma mater for 11 years in the 80's. During this time a publisher asked us to author 24 booklets on character building in children. As a result we received many invitations to speak on this topic at state conventions for Christian schools and homeschoolers. The publisher later produced two hardback books from our character series. We hope to reprint our 24-booklet series in the future. Recently it was translated into Korean and published for that market. A Tawanise publisher has indicated interest in printing a Chinese version.
From Cedarville the Lord called me to minister as Corporate Chaplain at GRACO Children's Products. This leader in children's products used to be owned by two Christian brothers. They wanted their church to provide a pastor to meet the spiritual needs of their employees. I had that privilege for 8 years during the 90's. During this time my girls grew up and the boys began to notice them. Figures,,,they had Rebekah's good looks and godly spirit. This is when we saw our commitment to courtship really pay off.
Jennifer, Jessica, and Johanna were popular girls who did not date. Nevertheless, they had lots of friends who were boys. Some wanted to take their friendship further and asked me about it. My girls said, "Ugh" to some, "No way" to others, and for a few "maybe". They let me turn the guys down (another nice benefit of courtship).
Then came Tim, Rich, and Nate. You can read their stories on the Testimonials page. They sat through the many questions we have now printed on CD (see the Services page). They passed our "test", courted, and married our daughters.
Today I have been Principal at Covenant Classical School & Daycare for nearly 10 years. We minister to hundreds of children in Huntsville, Alabama. And we are enjoying being grandparents to five grandchildren. They call me Papa Sir, and Rebekah is called Mama Darling.
I am humbly thankful that God taught us the way of courtship. I believe it protected our three J's, and God used this bettter method to reveal to them the men of their dreams.
