Drama, Trauma and Fruit

I would like to tell you more about our ten years in Houston. Ted and I were on a call-in show on KHCB radio, the traditional Christian station.. That exposure opened up many ministries, one of which was in a church whose leadership did not believe in biblical inerrancy or  that Christ is God-in-the-flesh. I called my friend: "Billie, I may be in deep doo doo if I accept this invitation. Do you want to help me?" She did, and here's what happened: I was drawn to the Book of Ecclesiastes which I had never really studied, ...a fact which makes it all-the-more amazing that in  the weeks that followed, the whole bloomin' class came to Christ. Billie and I hot-footed it to our side of town as most of those women left that church, went down the street and joined the Baptists!

Ted and I met Charlie and Ann, ..the consummate hospitable Texas couple. They had adopted four children, moved from the swanky part of Houston (and there are many "swanky parts") and moved to their ranch in Tomball. Jessie, their black Christian handyman told Charlie about Jesus and Charlie came to Christ.  He thought it would be a good thing to take his kids to Sunday School but there wasn't one ...so he bought a Bible and taught them himself.  Ann came to Christ. They opened their hearts and home to students from the University of Texas and Texas A&M. The 6T Ranch Retreat became the happenin' place for college students. C&A weren't sure they were running their ministry right, so flew to L'Abri in Switzerland to see how Francis and Edith ran their place. One day on a drive in the surrounding Alps, there was Francis, dressed in his knickers and walking along the road. They offered him a ride, he accepted and crawled into  the back seat of  their rented Fiat. Ann turned around and blurted out: "Dr. Schaeffer, What is wrong with me? Sometimes I feel so insecure".  This Ravi Zacharias of a generation ago replied: "My dear Mad-a-a-am  (rolling his "r's), " all of us feel 'insecure'. That's why we run to the Word of God!" Charlie and Ann Towery spent a chunk o' change to travel half -way around the world to ask a question and discover that they were running the 6T in Tomball, Texas exactly as they were meant to. Each of us runs our "retreat" according to His individual direction.  Take the Shattucks, for instance. They stopped by Round Top when Ted and I were speaking for a Marriage Retreat. Later, Bill and Jinny came here to our retreat, returned to Houston, then moved to North Carolina,  built their magnificent Whispering Pines Retreat on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and welcome pastors and wives who need counselling and encouragement. I am so proud of them. Pastors so desperately need a place of safety and recovery.

We joined Search Ministries for a couple of years and conducted many discussions on Life and God around the sprawling city of Houston. Sometimes we drove out to "The Barn" on a Sunday night to sing without instruments with a bunch of maverick Church of Christ folk. Their harmonies thrill the soul  There we met Buddy who had a dream about launching a radio station for young people that played only contemporary Christian music. He did it. I listened, and called him."You need something to break the sameness. How about letting me do an interview show?" I carted my little tape recorder around Houston and recorded the testimonies of many fascinating people.  A couple of young women drug runners heard my broadcast and called in. One lived two lives,  playing in a performing Christian band while using her cover as a UPS employee to deliver drugs. The other led only one life. She was the live-in girlfriend of the leader of the whole drug running outfit. She would never allow me to meet her, even sfter she came to Christ when she called me from a phone booth. "Who is this Jesus Christ you are talking about? I have never heard His Name!"  I told her to go buy a Bible and call me back. She did. In about twenty minutes. She came to Christ. "Let me come and get you. Where are you?" "No, Mrs. Stone, they will kill you,  You will never meet me. I will call you at the same time each week." And she did. For weeks. We studied scripture. Then one day, after not hearing from her the other girl (the one leading two lives) called: "Her boyfriend caught her reading the Bible. She was terrified and tried to call you, couldn't get you and called me. I heard the gunshot. She's dead!" I never met the young enslaved woman face-to-face.  I don't even know her real name. "Aw, come on, Jo, that didn't happen." Yes, it did.

...and then came Gratia.. Twice, her husband Jack, was the Commander on the Columbia. We went to Canaveral to watch him lift off, then sped back to Mission Control in Houston to watch him come in. All around us was the whole launch crew. Jack was still  up in space. At the consoles in front of us sat Steve, another Christian astronaut.. "What are you doing, Jack?" "I'm opening my Bible to have devotions with my crew"." What are you reading?" "Proverbs 3:5 and 6!" The media does not report such heaven-news. Long after Jack was formally out of the Space Program he continued to speak to dignitaries around the world and returns to the Cape a couple of times a year to lead tour groups.

Now, about Jack's wife, Gratia: She would call.  "Jo, I have this idea! I have a group of teenagers I want you to speak to."  I showed up and walked into a crowd!  Another time she invited wives of former astronauts for a weekend in Galveston. She had us lead discussions about Life and God for teenagers. About eight years ago her ideas lured us back to Ann Arbor where they lived at the time.  She had lined us up to speak for street kids, Chinese students, faculty and other students on the campus of one of the Big Ten. Gratia probably never will run out of "ideas".

... back to Kingwood where we lived for a year and a half. I continued an every morning interview program on KSBJ. Ted was meeting with commuting business men in early morning Bible studies as we both continued to meet and teach small groups around the city. A dear attorney named Bill Lange helped us launch Family Life Resources, my continuing non-profit ministry. The people who had rented our home in Spring Branch trashed it.  Our family labored to restore it so we could move back in, but the night before the move an  arsonist broke in and threw a lighted match in a bucket of varnish. Sticky, oily black soot covered every inch of our hard work. No, I didn't strike the match but the thought did cross my mind. Insurance paid. I had our contractor knock out every wall possible to open our once closed-in home to the beautiful forest that surrounded us. Oil prices were abysmally low and had forced foreclosures all around us. We put our newly remodeled, open  home on the market and it sold to the first people who came. My sacrificing husbnd brought me back to the dry, mountain air of Caifornia.

     A not-so old-hymn by John Peterson, slightly tweeked

JESUS LED US ALL THE WAY
Step by step along each day.
I will tell the saints and angels when I lay my burdens down:
"JESUS LED ME US ALL THE WAY."

Love,  Jo