I was born in Rochester, Minnesota where my dad was in school at the Mayo clinic. But I was born again in California at Mt. Hermon Christian Conference Center when I was seven. God had blessed me with good, mature, Christian parents. I was the youngest and have two older brothers.

One thing our parents believed strongly in was Christian schools. My middle brother was sent away to a Christian school at 14 and so at the age of 14, so was I. I took the train from Southern California to Orlando Florida to go to a boarding school called Hampden Du Bose Academy. I went all four years. Life wasn’t always perfect or easy but it was wonderful because I was exposed to great speakers such as Billy Graham and many of his team. Great authors like Amy Charmical, Hudson Taylor, and Elizabeth Elliot, who had been a teacher there years earlier before she married Jim.

I found that the Lord was real and relevant and there with me when my parents were 3,000 miles away. It was good for me though the discipline of a boarding school is not easy to learn or accept but very necessary for life. Lessons learned there would be with me and help me in the years ahead as a believer, mother and pastors wife.

Many missionaries sent their children to high school there and they put me to shame with the sacrifices they had made in life. One friend Marilyn, did not see her parents for four years because they were missionaries in Africa. Billy Graham’s daughters went there and two of them were my room mates. But there was one girl named Lolly who was two classes ahead of me who made all the difference. She made me realize that it is one thing to be saved and another to follow Jesus and give up your will for His and it was because of her prayers for me for one whole year that I felt that He was calling me to full time Christian service. Lolly also became a missionary in South America.

I went on to Westmont College for 2½ years and then transferred to Point Loma and graduated from there. Don and I met at our church and were married our senior year. God had called him to the ministry shortly before I met him. We were headed down the same road and excited about what lay ahead. The following year we went to Bible college in England and then home to land in the middle of a large revival … the “Jesus movement” was exploding.

We were on staff at Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa when Kay Smith came and taught a Bible study in our home. It grew so large that it had to move to the church and I fell in love with ministering to woman. Kay, along with my mother and mother in law were great examples to me in prayers and loving God’s Word and loving the woman. The Lord has given me the privilege of heading up woman ‘s ministry in the churches Don has pastored and sharing through the years at woman’s retreats and couples retreats with Don.

The Lord gave us three boys which have given me countless illustrations and now grandchildren that do the same. It is not easy to be a wife or mother or woman in the crazy world we live in today but Jesus has answers for us. How grateful I am to Him and His precious Word.