The Saga Continues

And so the two young lovers  met.  However, let us backtrack a little. James, or so he  was called by some , had been reared in West Salem, most likely on the edge of what most  would the secular side, known as Winston.  I am uncertain as to when the two merged. Although, his parents were decidedly unreligious, they paid a neighbor girl a quarter a week to take to take him to Sunday school at a local Moravian church. There he found his first encounter with spiritual teaching and remembered it fondly. There has been some confusion surrounding my dad’s name. Some would attribute to female stubbornness. His mother wanted to name him for his father, but my grandfather objected vehemently, fearing that Daddy would forever be labeled, “Junior.” Nana’s response to that reasoning, was, “Well name him what you want, but I’m to call him Bill.”  After trusting Christ as his Savior at the YFC meeting, Daddy attended Salem Baptist for a while.  There he met and was mentored by a retired missionary couple, Harry and Maude Ackland, who would become Auntie Maude and Uncle Harry to our family.  Auntie Maud had been reared in Eastern Canada and was from an unsaved family of some means.  Uncle Harry  was from Wales and had been saved in the Welsh revival. They spent a number of years in one of the African countries in extremely primitive conditions reaching the lost. When Daddy met them, they became his spiritual parents. It  was during these years that his heart turned to thoughts of  love  and these thoughts led to a failed romance … but God’s ways are higher. He had been attending her church.  And so when the romance failed, his cousin, a new believer,  invited him to that small Alliance Church where he met Miriam, a nurse he  had only seen in passing.  They established a relationship … now it was God’s time. He had known various members of her family.  He know there to support them through the death of Miriam’s brother, Leroy.  Soon it was time to tie the knot. Some wondered.  Miriam was the missionary in training now that nursing school was over … Bill was derailing God’s plans, but God is sovereign, and two hearts yielded to Him cannot undo His purpose regardless of how others read the signs.  God had a higher plan than the mission field for either of them.  One term was certainly have put Miriam in her grave if she had been able to pass the rigorous  physical that CMA expected its missionaries to endure this side of the field.  God’s ways were so much higher even though initially the young lover did not appear to meet human expectations.   Life is a journey that is best undertaken when we live for an audience of One.