WHILE I STILL Remember—Lessons and Stories IStill have in Storage

09/06/2025

06/07/2024

I am about to lose this story, but it serves well in a Sunday Morning Sunday School Class. At the time I was serving a small church that I really enjoyed. I was in Seminary, I was studying long hours, and visiting church members as I could. A young mother asked me to meet her at the hospital to pray before her surgery. When I arrived she explained they were removing her ovaries due to cancer and she was scared. I prayed with her that she would have peace and comfort knowing The Holy Spirit would be with her throughout the procedure and regardless the outcome it would be in God’s perfect will.
She said she felt a calm and would try not to be afraid. I told her I would be in the waiting room, praying.

The nurse took her back to prep her for surgery.

I waited what seemed longer than expected and prayed harder.

No news is not always good news.

Then the lady at the desk told me she would be out shortly. More waiting no information.

Then the young lady walked through the door fully dressed - smiling ear to ear, grabbed me in a bear hug, and said they did another test required by the insurance company, and found no evidence of cancer or any problem, illness or whatever that would require surgery or medication or anything. She is healthy and may go home no charge. ??????????????????

For decades no further illness related to her ovaries to my knowledge.

I moved from Oklahoma to Kentucky in June 1,1991

09/28/2023

Many years ago Carolyn and I decided we would sponsor a small group Bible study in our home. I felt this would be another small step toward what God wanted me to do for Him. It started small but grew. I enjoyed discussion in this closed environment amongst other believers, some were new believers that joined us.

We consciously used different versions of the Bible and some even used multiple versions. This brought a richer understanding, yet, We never drifted beyond the intention of what we believed God had said. We continued beyond the first study and some left the group to either join other groups or return to take care of their families.

After several different studies from the same publisher a bold commanding question ended the series. What is God asking you to do? And What are you going to commit to God’s request.

At least I think that was what I remember. Carolyn and I had become especially close to another couple - Jeff and Rita Osborne. The attended a Mission conference in Urbana, Illinois and returned to announce they were going into Foreign Mission Service, It would take them through different schools and colleges and training until they find the proper channel as they were not in their 20’s any longer. But they were committed.

While serving in the Turkana region of Kenya, Rita contracted cancer and Graduated to Heavenly Service, Jeff is still in Africa, a “retired” Missionary. He remarried to a beautiful Christian Kenyan Woman named Lucy. They continue to work to serve the people where they live now, near the Kenya-Tanzania border.

Carolyn and I are still in home missions.I am Retired. Forced into retirement because of health issues effecting everything from memory recall to vocal loss to strength and use of arm and leg. And pacemaker installed because of wild rhythm issues.

More later. . .

08/13/2023

Two UFO’s disappear in an instant even as I photographed them. Sorry about the poor quality. An instant with no time for setup and an iPhone as a camera. I can remember when this would be impossible to capture. But many have captured the impossible before me.

In truth - without the IPhone capability for motion capture I would not have this video. The two flying saucers are ceiling lights behind me. The motion is simply turning the iPhone slowly from my right to my left. The screens outside the windows distort the scenery outside.

“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭103‬:‭13‬

My video was not meant to fool anyone or I wouldn’t have told you how it happened. Yet, I am sure many of us have looked at videos and real life situations or movies and wondered? Truth or fiction. Can an iPhone capture a short event and without truth-full explanation deceive others?

God demonstrates compassion to his children so they might pull close to Him and in turn pull his children in close and be full of compassion for them. Compassion falls like rain on all - that they may share that compassion.

Watch for the Lights of inspiration that you also might light up another’s inner Light.

08/05/2023

“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭19‬:‭21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

When I was in Jr. High and High School my parents owned a TV - Stereo shop. They sold Setchel Carlson console units that were elite. To service a TV most of the time we located the tube that was failing and replaced just that tube. If the problem was in the circuitry we pulled that particular module and replaced it on the spot. Most of the time just swapping out was quick and easy. No carrying the whole TV or stereo into the shop. Customer was back watching or listening in less than an hour. Try to get that kind of service today. The quality was awesome.

I went to their schools and became a certified TV - Stereo repairmen before I graduated from High school. The time I spent working on Juke Boxes and PinBall machines in the years previous were not wasted. And I thought Electronics Engineering would be a good field of study in College.

I was not an easy student. Most of the Electronics texts available at that time were in German. Translation was tedious at times but I found technical German remarkably sensible. I could understand more than I could translate.

I also got to tag along with my Dad every once in a while when He wanted to show me something special he was working on at work. I got to see the first full size computer the Petroleum Co. put in to use. It covered the whole second floor of the Research Center. It had so many tubes that it would take my dad all day to check them and replace all the bad ones. Then they would run a program for about 15 minutes and have to start over. The air conditioning for that floor alone was massive. By the way, they programmed the computer using jumper cables like a telephone system.

When I went to Oklahoma State University the new IBM machines were the size of a large desk. We programmed it with decks of punch cards. Technology changes so fast. Our phones are far more powerful and they fit in our pocket. And make calls all over the world. And they continue to obsolete computers and telephones at least once or twice a year.

I was introduced to my wife, Carolyn over a dail up telephone mounted on the wall of our apartment. Our first date was blind and confusing. Still she did not jump out of my 1950 Ford Custom four door and run for her life. I was committed at the first phone conversation. Seeing her in person with her hair in curlers and a scarf over her head did not change my mind.

I believed God had a future for us. He told me He would direct my feet. I thought this brilliant girl had to be a part of our destination. Nothing is wasted in God’s plan and Kingdom.

07/29/2023

“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.””
‭‭Joshua‬ ‭24‬:‭15‬ NIV

It is so easy to get distracted. I know what has First in my priorities, or I should say Who is First. God is First. But I find to get to my devotions First in the morning I set my alarm to 6am - wake up and take my Thyroid pill (with at least 10oz of water and nothing else, then often go back to sleep. Till 7am wake up alarm - coffee and morning devotionals. I am back on track, I wish. Yes, before I got to the coffee pot I dressed for the day (just in case) - I also noticed on the floor in the closet a business travel bag used long ago by my wife just wadded up and collecting dust - all zippers open and empty. Decades and a Thousand miles from actual use. I was trying to close it up and wrap it up before something crawled in and died. My wife came in and asked what on earth I thought I was doing. I explained and she released me from my effort as unnecessary. I had also been thinking of things that had been put on hold when days ago I had to forget everything else for a day in the ER - Asthma Flare unable to draw a decent breath. How quickly I had been distracted.

This usually this does not happen when I am in Church - In Worship or on the Porch at Home with the Sun rising again in the East and the Holy Spirit whispering in my ear. (I Am Here Terry) block out all else and hear in the songs my voice and in the prayers my voice and in the sermon my voice. Let My Voice show in your face and your actions with others and in your writings. All the distractions cannot stop our relationship or change your mind from (My Great Mercy, Grace, and Love) God is Blessing You even Now.
Have a Blessed Day.

Yes, for Me and My House I Still Choose God Every Day!

07/29/2023

From my fellow:

“For no word from God will ever fail.””
‭‭Luke‬ ‭1‬:‭37‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Get ready. Mimi posting the day’s events on the daily chalkboard. Get set. I had taken my first required pill before entering the porch. First things first - morning devotions , check chalk board for daily events, oops - something did not feel right. I could not get a full deep breath. My upper chest was tight. Not uncomfortable but not right. I went back for my asthma maintenance inhaler and was able accomplish the task. Yet, as I walked back into the porch I was not sure. So I asked Carolyn what I should do and off to the races (ER). So much for the chalkboard left behind - no word from man or woman, even if written in Chalk can hold a candle to God’s Word.

After multiple tests and ages of listening to the monitor by my ear sounding alarm after alarm after alarm and then silence almost a second or too (surely I exaggerate - maybe) that my heart was doing it’s abnormal dance - was not my problem. Asthma Flare - due to allergies, pressures from heatwave, etc. and etc. also somewhat maybe partially two injections in right shoulder and one in left shoulder three days before (preventative meds). Shingles, pneumonia, Covid, sure hope they work.

No matter how good they work, and I am Praying For Very Well! They can’t beat God’s Word. God said “Don’t eat from the tree of good and evil.” How clear is that? Adam and Eve ate - Death and Evil entered into the World.

Still here, we have seen and experienced it. We can live through it for a lot years, if we read the book, listen to the Holy Spirit and get the proper help when instructed. Oh, and always eat the fruit of The Tree of Life, being fed by The River of Life in the Center of the Garden. Praise The Lord!

07/28/2023

“For no word from God will ever fail.””
‭‭Luke‬ ‭1‬:‭37‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Get ready. Mimi posting the day’s events on the daily chalkboard. Get set. I had taken my first required pill before entering the porch. First things first - morning devotions , check chalk board for daily events, oops - something did not feel right. I could not get a full deep breath. My upper chest was tight. Not uncomfortable but not right. I went back for my asthma maintenance inhaler and was able accomplish the task. Yet, as I walked back into the porch I was not sure. So I asked Carolyn what I should do and off to the races (ER). So much for the chalkboard left behind - no word from man or woman, even if written in Chalk can hold a candle to God’s Word.

After multiple tests and ages of listening to the monitor by my ear sounding alarm after alarm after alarm and then silence almost a second or too (surely I exaggerate - maybe) that my heart was doing it’s abnormal dance - was not my problem. Asthma Flare - due to allergies, pressures from heatwave, etc. and etc. also somewhat maybe partially two injections in right shoulder and one in left shoulder three days before (preventative meds). Shingles, pneumonia, Covid, sure hope they work.

No matter how good they work, and I am Praying For Very Well! They can’t beat God’s Word. God said “Don’t eat from the tree of good and evil.” How clear is that? Adam and Eve ate - Death and Evil entered into the World.

Still here, we have seen and experienced it. We can live through it for a lot years, if we read the book, listen to the Holy Spirit and get the proper help when instructed. Oh, and always eat the fruit of The Tree of Life, being fed by The River of Life in the Center of the Garden. Praise The Lord!

07/22/2023

“Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.”
‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5‬:‭15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Have you ever received something you were sure you wanted. You paid for it in advance. You looked forward to it’s arrival. Then when it arrived, it was destroyed? Like the pictures below, if you just looked at the pictures, you might say “Wow, our last shipment was fine. This intense heat wave we are going through can destroy almost anything. I guess shipping perishables under these conditions is not wise.”

But walking up to the front door and finding this trying to melt off the step might be another issue. It was neither cheap nor poor food. We like the variety and taste. This company made Carolyn an excellent cook. But this just stopped our great “at home meals.” We did receive a refund immediately. Does that make up for a great “home cooked meal” - TRASHED?

Long ago and far away I had a coworker and best friend whose favorite saying was “I don’t get even, I get REVENGE!” He had been a football player in High School - and a good one. This saying probably got him through high school with minimal damage. It seemed to reassure me while we were working together. I’m not too sure about later in life, I moved away and we lost touch. I still miss having and working with my Best friend. We changed jobs and went our own separate ways. My fault we parted.

What Paul said in 1Thessalonians have solved a lot problems when dealt with immediately. What Jesus said strikes home more effectively to me. Forgive 7 times 70 and Love as a Priority. “My translation”

But sometimes we need to part relationships to grow and accomplish what God intends for us and the many people we touch every day. Forgive and Love anyway. Then they might see Jesus in you.

07/08/2023

This is Carolyn.

Memory takes the actual events of life, twists them into individual perspectives, then stores them for later remembrance. That is why Terry can relate actual facts from the past and while I recognize the details I don’t remember it exactly like he does. Ask investigators at the scene of an accident with several witnesses if the stories match up. They don’t but each viewpoint provides important information. The truth requires some piecing together.

It is true Terry did purchase a motorcycle and a parachute for the first two birthdays I celebrated after we were married. Yes, he did try to convince me they were for me—well, sort of—it is hard to convince a woman, even a gullible, naive one, who is terrified of heights, that throwing oneself out an open door of an airplane might be fun. The motorcycle did not exactly do it for me either. Trust me on this.

It is true I accompanied him to most of his jumps and I did learn to pack his parachute, which drew a bit of praise from the others jumping—astonishment too. Who lets their wife pack their chute? Some of them were already divorced and remarried by that time. I did watch him jump—ONCE. That was enough. His jumpmaster actually leaned out the open door and shouted—OPEN YOUR CHUTE! YOU ARE TOO LOW! Such reassurance to a young wife with a toddler and a baby at home not to mention a vivid imagination of being a widow at age 22.

Such were the early days of our marriage. We married in 1965 and by 1969 all three of our children were born. I was not prepared for motherhood any more that I was for being married to a man who embraced risk and adventure while I struggled to keep my sanity. When Terry broke his neck in a water skiing accident in 1972, I had come to understand that while our life hardly mirrored the marriages of the people around us, it was not DULL. Oh, for a little boredom.

Looking back gives me pause. Sometimes I am overwhelmed by all the missteps and mistakes I made back then. My choices of dealing with Wild Man hardly could be called admirable. Believe me I can be the Queen of Passive/Aggressive. I also pulled into myself until I went back to finish my education at the University of Tulsa in 1974. I give thanks to God for that opportunity, because I discovered going to school was something I was good at. Go figure.

Wild Man continued, but subdued. He continued water skiing and together we taught our kids to ski. He gave up skydiving and earned his private pilot’s license. He worked for a Security/ Alarm business in management before embarking on a short career as a private investigator for an independent oil company. Then at loose ends he went back to college, finding the more mature version of himself excelled at education. We both had separate but important spiritual awakenings leading Terry eventually to seminary and ordained ministry.

Over fifty-eight years later we still find loving each other worth the rough periods which God has used in some ways to keep us in check. Another example of God’s economy is that having been there, done that, even if you are never going back keeps Grace at the forefront not judgement of self or others.

Carolyn—out

07/06/2023

Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

If that’s the case I thought “Love your wife better than your neighbor should actually be better. We had been married a little over a year. I got an offer to purchase a 250 Montesa Mountain climbing Dirt Bike street legal that I could not refuse. I told her it was her first birthday present with me. I took her out to the strip pits and tried to give her a thrilling introduction. “Not Her cup of tea.”

The next year I wanted to take parachuting lessons and bought her a parachute A nice starter canopy Blue Double L modified and an emergency canopy with an altimeter both retired military. She enjoyed going out to the airport and watching me pack my chute and hop in the plane to go up and jump out. After going through all the training and static line jumps (where the static line is attached to the plane and opened the canopy right after I jumped.) I was able to fly higher and free fall before pulling the rip cord to open the canopy. Carolyn had learned to pack my chute and I was packing my Jump Master’s chute (Expensive top of the line canopy that looks like a bunch of handkerchiefs tied together)

My jump master said I could jump his canopy and Carolyn could go up in the Jump plane and watch. This was her first airplane ride. She was strapped in with her back against the control panel so she could watch me jump off the step. Everything went well till I left the plane. I was known to open low(slow count) but this time I was having trouble opening the chute. I had pulled the rip cord, but nothing happened. I finally decided I would try rolling over. It worked. The canopy was pulled out by the wind and opened correctly. I was low but this canopy was fast forward and flew like it never wanted to return to earth.

Meanwhile, the Jump Master got tired of watching me free fall saying come on Terry OPEN, and had closed the door and told the pilot to go to a higher altitude for his jump so he would have a longer free fall. When they reached altitude, he jumped, the pilot closed the door and put the airplane in a sharp dive. Carolyn did not see me open or hear anyone say that I opened.

The plane landed and the pilot pointed out that I was still flying a couple hundred feet above the ground. He told her she could drive our car out to the landing zone and pick me up. She did and was waiting as I touched down on Mother Earth with a standup landing. And Yes she helped collect the canopy and repack it. I only weighed. 130 lbs at the time. I had learned that free fall was “fun time” - summer salts, etc. I could fly and do nearly everything a plane could except go back up. Gravity still rules.

It was the first time I experienced being truly close to God. Totally dependent. Totally relaxed 😎 Totally Loved and Totally in Love with the one who Loves me most. And I thought Carolyn was committed to me, as I was to her.

Yes I was Baptized when I was 8 by Reverend Outlaw. I did not stop growing physically, mentally or Spiritually. I committed and learned over and over again that every day is a commitment. To my Faith and to my wife and to living.

Later, I met two new students that had passed their ground training with the same Jump Master I had trained with. They were sharing equipment because they were about the same height and weight. The Jump Master asked if I wanted to go up with them since they had an empty space. Of course I was ready. We each climbed in as usual. We were assigned positions according to altitude of jump. The new student would go first since he was a static line jump. We reached his altitude and he climbed out on the step and froze. Jump Master said go. But the student looked like he was a statue. The jump master tried to talk him into climbing back in the plane. NO!
We discussed prying his hands off the strut. We started to edge toward him when he jumped with his feet and held on with his hands. He was hanging between the strut and the step. We started to move closer when he lost his grip and fell. The Jump Master immediately pulled the static line and the canopy opened. Surely under the canopy floating gently in the beautiful surroundings and peacefulness he will come to himself. We waited till he was on the ground before the pilot started to climb again. At my designated level I jumped and started whirling and doing other maneuvers I would never try on the ground or even off a diving board. I was comfortable with myself.

On the ground I found that the student never really woke up. They said when he got close to landing, he pulled his feet up under him and bounced like a ball. He was taken to a hospital where he was treated for compression of the spine. This bothered me all week.

The next weekend I was back at the airport and it seemed like deja vu. The other student that trained with his buddy was clothed in the same overalls. The same parachute. The same boots. The same helmet. They both were trained by the same Jump Master as I had. We all had the same training.
We had the same plane and pilot as last week and many weeks before. This time the new student stepped out on the airplane step when he was told. But, when the Jump Master said GO, he jumped and the static line played out and pulled the pins and the canopy opened like it had for me and so many others. He floated away as we elevated to the next drop - which was me again. I stepped out and waited for the Jump Master - - GO —
I jumped and watched the plane fly on. I flipped and whirled and pulled my ripcord, the canopy opened and I floated to the ground once more. I did a stand up landing. Packed up and ended my 🪂 with fond memories and one irrational deja vu. My equipment burned beyond repair some time later in a house fire. I still have the altimeter and the rip cord - and maybe some of the desire to “do it again - Jump”

I have learned that “to Love my neighbor can include those I barely knew.” In situations that were sometimes dangerous and sometimes physically necessary. Wanting others we come into contact with to experience Jesus Love - Prepaid Grace is different from any other experience. Accepting that Grace is life changing and eternal. But not forced. My choices have not always been easy or safe, but I have Spiritual Guidance and Protection. Some of my off the beaten path experiences have helped people I never would have met otherwise. Nothing is ever wasted in God’s Kingdom.