The Making of a Wonderful Life: Joyous Journey

By Cherie Y. Mullins

Cherie Y. Mullins is the wife of Evangelist Roger Mullins. She is the daughter of the late Leo and Beverly Forse, of Binghamton, NY. As she grew up, they were members of the well-known Lit-tle White Church of Conklin, NY. Her family and church foundations play a tremendous role in her life of ministry with her husband today. As a couple, they have served the Lord faithfully in full-time evangelism, Christian music, and missionary work since 1969. They reside in McDonough, GA and are members of Glen Haven Baptist Church. She studied piano from first grade through high school and continues using her musical talent today. During their years on the road, she sang and played the piano as Mama in The Mullins Family as they traveled America in evangelism and gos-pel music from 1978 1994.
Her family has recorded forty music projects which include a piano solo CD by Cherie. To-day, she works daily in the office of Hope for the World Albania with her husband, Roger and their daughter, Cindy. Since 1994, they have been ministering to thousands of orphan children of Albania, hundreds of senior citizens and the handicapped through Hope for the World as Directors of this
ministry.
This book is her third in a series under the title of The Making of a Wonderful Life . The first was subtitled Recording Reflections and specifically pertained to two of the familys recording projects produced in the 90s. Her second book was subtitled Family Foundations and covered Cheries childhood days through the beginning of Bible College for her husband. This book, subti-tled Joyous Journey takes you through their lives from 19701994 in which they were involved
full-time as a family in church ministry, evangelism and gospel music.
Cherie believes she has one more book to write which will portray their years since 1994 in the field of foreign mission work in the country of Albania with Hope for the World. They have fo-cused on assisting orphans, widows, and handicapped and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. She believes that book will be subtitled Mission Memoirs, or something very similar. She hopes to have that one published within a couple of years. It is her desire that as you read this book, you will get to know her family personally and understand all that went into The Making of their Won-derful Life through this volume subtitled Joyous Journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 9, 2013
• ISBN: 9781493143788

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Copyright © 2013 by Cherie Y. Mullins.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 12/28/2013

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CONTENTS

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Introduction

Honeymoon Pancakes

Bible College Beginnings

Angels All Around Us

Singing With ‘The Good Samaritans’

Preachin’, Prayin’ And Singin’

Trials And Temptations

Staff Infection

Louisiana Bound

All God’s Children

Teenagers, Teenagers, And More Teenagers

Strange Encounters

Unfit Words Fitly Spoken

Buddy’s Misdemeanor

Winds Of Change Began To Blow

Sad Goodbyes

The Greatest Church On Earth

Wsof Radio Station

Growing Pains

The Templemen

Something Unmentionable

Roger Wore Many Hats

Buddy’s Indian Shows

Cindy’s Interests

Ladies’ Ministry

Going To Trinidad, Kentucky.

Special Ed Class

Exercise Rope

Hyster Sisters

1977—The Fire

The Call To Evangelism

Doors Begin To Open

Big Brown Bessie

Pepper The Poodle

Gettin’ Ready To Go

The Old White Van

Cowboy Boots And Buddy’s Shoes

Good Advice

Bus Legs

Wanted: Good Mechanic

Moving Days

Mullins & Mcclures

Water Ministry

Foreign Missions

San Pedro Island—(Not A Mission Trip)

Spanish Wells, Bahamas

Honduras

My Mom Goes Home To Glory

The Philippines

Laundromania

Tests Of Faith

More Texas Connections

Cindy’s Love Story

Bus Mishaps And Breakdowns

Bus Life In General

Sowing And Reaping

Buddy’s Love Story

Add A Brother

Paul Lancaster

Flash And Flash-Lite

Mike ‘Tiny’ Bishop

Joel Huggins

Glen Haven—Home Of The Jubilee

Other Jubilees

Homecoming Jubilee In Hillsville

Our Evangelism Pals

Timeline

Our First Trip To Eastern Europe

Epilogue

DEDICATION

I would like to dedicate this book to my home church, Glen Haven Baptist of McDonough, GA where we have been members since December of 1990. We were also involved with Glen Haven in the 80’s when we were on the road. There are not words sufficient to say what it has meant to us as a family to have the friendship, support and prayers of Pastor and Founder, Randy Hardeman, Pastor Emeritus Ralph Easterwood, and our current Senior Pastor Stan Berrong as well as the entire church staff. Our church family has ministered to us through the years and we could not have asked for a better place to call home than Glen Haven.

I would also include in this dedication the hundreds of pastors in America who invited us to come and minister to their congregations during our years in evangelism. You are so numerous that I could not possibly name all of you, but it was because of you that we were able to serve the Lord in the field of evangelism during the years of 1977—1993 traveling from church to church, town to town, state to state, and even to some foreign countries.

We were blessed to become personal friends with all of you wonderful men of God, your wives and children through the years as well as many members of your congregations. You have blessed us, fed us, entertained us, repaired our buses many times while we were on your property, and ministered to our family in more ways than I can count.

Without you special servants of the Lord, this book would not have been written because we would not have had the ministry we have had for so many years. Many of these wonderful men of God and their wives have already gone on to their heavenly home. I dedicate this book to their memories as well. They will never be forgotten in our hearts.

I thank all of you on behalf of my husband, Roger, my children, Cindy and Buddy and all of the other young men who were a part of our ministry. You are the ones who helped make this such a JOYOUS JOURNEY.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I HAVE FOUND THAT whenever I write a book, it is impossible without some input from a lot of different people. Writing this one has certainly proven to be no exception. I have had some great help from my husband, Roger, of course. It takes both of us to remember sometimes, and I have played the game of Do you remember this? Or that? with him all during the writing of this book.

Of course I have also had some input from my daughter Cindy Howard and my son, Buddy Mullins on a number of things. And I thoroughly enjoyed reading what they wrote as their own fond memories from the road.

I first would like to mention a very special friend and photographer, Gina Marie Vidamo who we met while at a missions conference at New Life Bible Church at Man-O-War Cay, Abaco, Bahamas. She took me all over the island one afternoon and took many photographs, and I have chosen to use several of them in my book, including the one on the back cover. I truly appreciate her time spent with me and she has added so much to this book.

I have called on a number of people to help with some details concerning some of the incidents in my book. I want to thank Tom Bowen for coming across with a photo that really spurred memories when it came to our third bus. Thanks so much Tom, you are a blessing and a wonderful friend from way back in our earliest years of evangelism in the Indianapolis area. I love you and your family.

Our friend, a pastor from Florida, Rev. Ken Hardee was so good to help me with the story of one of the first times we came to his church in Florida. Thanks, Ken. How could we ever forget that?

To our Sweet Cousin Harry Beadle for all of his assistance with family history details and for making a special trip to my home with photos to enhance the stories. Love you Harry….both you and Nancy.

Brother Bob Howard and his wife Annie Ruth were kind enough to help with some statistics concerning the Philippines, and also some photos. They are our daughter’s in-laws, and we couldn’t be happier to have them in our family.

Dr. Jimmy Wilson was kind enough to assist with some facts and figures concerning the Jubilee at Glen Haven Baptist years ago, as was Brother Ralph Easterwood. Jacki Berrong took me to the Glen Haven archives and provided me with old posters to view from Jubilee days. I wish I could have displayed all of them in my book, but it was not possible.

Kretha McClure reminisced with me by Facebook and then mailed me some photos of her family. What a history we have had with her and Jerry.

Our daughter-in-law Kerri and her mother Merleene King furnished some photos and information concerning the wedding of Buddy and Kerri and I appreciate so much their help on this.

I have had some wonderful communication in past months and personal visits with a couple of our original All God’s Children from Louisiana. They have blessed me with memories from Merrywoods, as have my special friends, Mary Mong Maddox, Linda Cox and Elsie Alley. Also another dear friend for many years, Esther Maddux has been a part of my reminiscing.

I have shared phone conversations with my friend, Vernice Howard from San Antonio, TX and her son, Charleston from Houston about our days in evangelism in their state. They have both been a great help and blessing and I thank them for their time in sharing these sweet memories with me.

I want to thank Paul Lancaster and Marvin Sims, two of our former road family members, for their contributions to my book. Also the cooperation of April Willett for furnishing me some much-needed information, and the rest of ‘our guys’ who were a part of our ministry on the road, Ken Harvey, Mark and Wes Willett and Joel Huggins for furnishing me with so many wonderful memories and experiences on the road as their Road Mama. I would not take anything for these times shared with each one of them.

A very special thanks to all of our evangelism buddies who were kind enough to send me a photo from back then! You all are so special to us and will always be like family.

To our former home churches, pastors, and friends during the years covered by this book. You will never, never know how we thank God for every one of you and for your faith in allowing us to serve on staff.

To my very special GIG (girlfriend in God) and friend, Pam Godfrey, for painstakingly editing my book and acting as though she was enjoying it. You have been a great encouragement and an awesome help in completing this project that has been on my heart for so many years. I could not have done this without you.

And last, but not at all least, because He is first in my life, I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who I have known personally as my Savior since I was sixteen years of age, for giving me the opportunity and privilege to serve Him with my family all of these years. He answered the prayer of my heart when I was just a teen-ager praying every night that God would give me the right soul-mate for a husband and that we would one day serve the Lord full-time as a family. He did just that, and we have been in His service by His grace alone, since 1969, full-time. I can not praise Him enough for taking us on such a "JOYOUS JOURNEY’.

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My editor Pam Godfrey & Husband Terry

Life-long friends in our Ministry

FOREWORD

W HERE DO I begin? When Cherie asked me to write the foreward to this her second book, I was a little shocked, but mostly terrified. See in our family, she’s the writer, not me. I’m the one who gets up on the stage and tries to convey through song, sermon and jokes my love for the Lord, but now Cherie, she’s always been the one behind the scenes taking little or no credit for all that’s accomplished in this ministry. So, this is my feeble attempt to introduce this gifted writer, and wonderful woman that God has allowed me to share life with for the past 51 years.

Outside of my Savior, Jesus Christ, this precious woman has been the greatest gift in my life. She has stood by my side through all of the trials, troubles and victories that came our way. Each and every morning, faithfully I see her at our kitchen table praying and studying God’s Word. She is a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother and example to all of our family. She has been a counselor and guide to me personally, our family, and many other women she’s come in contact with through the years. Her wisdom in areas of scripture and sound bible counseling has been a blessing to so many I can’t even begin to count. Only time will tell how many lives have been touched and changed because of her gracious words of wisdom.

God has given her so many talents that so often go unnoticed and are beyond my understanding. She is a gifted pianist, songwriter, speaker, secretary, soul-winner, prayer-warrior, cook, author, and most importantly to me, encourager. The life I have seen lived out through this precious lady every day can be summarized in three words: Worshipper, Interceder and Servant. The following verses describe so much better than I can how I feel about Cherie;

Proverbs 31:25-28 (KJV)

Strength and honor are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come. She openeth her mouth with wisdom and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.

And I do praise her. She is all of the above and more. I pray that you will enjoy the following pages as she so vividly recounts our Joyous Journey of ministry together. Hopefully you will get to know our family better through the eyes of The First Lady of this family. She has and will always be the love of my life.

Your Hubby,

Roger

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Roger and Cherie—Man-O-War Cay Abaco, Bahamas

INTRODUCTION

H ERE WE ARE in the Bahamas! What a beautiful place to begin writing my second book! Not just anywhere in the Bahamas, but on a tiny island in North Abaco called Man-O-War Cay. Population 200. The main street that runs through the island is just wide enough for two golf carts to pass one another. The side streets can safely accommodate one golf cart at a time. If you see someone coming, either you, or they, will pull over and allow the other one to pass.

As I begin this book, I am seated at a little corner table in an adorable beach house just two doors from the sea itself, holding a large glass of iced tea with a slice of island-grown lime perched precariously on the edge of the glass. I can look right straight out the windows and four paneled glass doors of the living room at the beautiful aqua blue Caribbean Sea. We actually open the center double doors and feel like we are living on the beach, but instead, we are inside sitting in comfortable chairs, sipping on iced tea or fruit punch as we soak in all of this beauty and grandeur created by our totally awesome and artistic God.

Oh, how magnificent this view is—the sound, the breeze and the smell of the salt water! Fortunately they have a lot of rain in their forecast this week, which means it will be much easier for me to stay inside and write. This is not our first time to visit here. We have been guests on this island a number of times over the past fifteen years or so.

We keep most of the windows open throughout the cottage. There are nice ceiling fans in every room. In our bedroom, which is also on the front facing the sea, we can listen to the waves quietly lapping the beach as we go to sleep, or, if we choose, to just lie there and listen and not go to sleep!

Although this is just the second full-length book I have written, I feel like I might be a seasoned author just because of the special place I am privileged to begin this particular volume. I am an avid reader, and I have always been so amazed by writers who can go anywhere they choose in this world as their writing post and stay as long as they need to in order to complete their current project. They have earned millions of dollars from their writings and that enables them to travel to far-distant exotic places where they can actually prop their computer, or their I-pad, up on a rock, or a sand dune, or a railing overlooking an antique village somewhere, and let the words spill out of them from deep within the recesses of their mind and soul. I so admire their gift to express themselves in such a way as to completely take me away to their descriptive destinations.

We are making this trip a combination visit, vacation, missions conference, and also an early celebration of our fiftieth wedding anniversary that is coming up later this year. We like to celebrate early, and have lots of celebrations since this is such a milestone in our lives. We are rare birds these days as not a lot of couples ever stay together this long anymore.

Here on this beautiful replica of Fantasy Island, the bougainvilleas line the streets of the quaint little island village with an array of vivid breathtaking colors. Only about two hundred people live here on a regular basis. There are probably three or four hundred actual residents or home owners on the island, and some of them also have homes in other places. Much of the property is surrounded by their own privacy fences or low concrete borders painted to match the stucco houses. The colors of the houses and walls are painted harmoniously so as to beautifully showcase the flowering bushes and tropical trees and flowers. It is truly a perfect postcard look in any direction you choose to turn here on Man-O-War Cay.

The beautiful cottage we are enjoying during our stay is actually a very comfortable two—bedroom house. It is painted a lovely Tiffany blue on the outside which is one of my very favorite pastels. There are white shutters on the windows and white posts march along the very large front porch. There are two or three round, white, metal tables with large, comfortable deck chairs placed around them. The cottage provides a spectacular gathering place for friends and family. It is also perfect for my early morning Bible study.

Inside this lovely house, all of the walls are painted white, and there are white tabbed curtains made of sail cloth that may have been made right here on the island at Albury’s Sail shop. I am not sure of that, but I know they work with this material making very durable bags of all types, styles and colors. I have several of them and plan to get another this year. The furniture is made of bamboo with sea-blue cushions. The glass-top coffee table and end tables are also of bamboo. All the pictures on the walls are scenes, or actual photographs, from here in the Bahamas, and, of course, decorations all around the house are baskets of unusual and beautiful seashells and coral fans collected from the water and the beach.

There are two very comfortable couches available in case we both want to crash for a nap during the day as we are lulled by the music of the waves rushing to the sandy shore. There is a large-screen TV with a DVD player. The well-stocked kitchen is very large and includes a nice refrigerator-freezer and microwave. We feel like we are at home here. Definitely not a camping out atmosphere!

Roger and I were invited here by the New Life Bible Church as guests of their Missions Conference this year. We have been visiting this church for probably 15 years or so. When we first came here years ago, they wanted us to provide special music in each service and Roger to preach for them. The church was in its beginning years then, and had formerly been a part of the Brethren church on the island. In the Brethren church, instead of a pastor, the elders of the church take turns leading the church meetings. New Life Bible Church continued with that same tradition. However, they had begun a practice of having guest speakers come in from America, from other islands in the Bahamas and even other countries around the world. This is something that had been done successfully for a number of years on another Bahamian island called Spanish Wells where we had been ministering, with our family, since the 80’s. That is how this particular group of people learned about us and invited us to come.

As I begin to unwrap some of my favorite stories from our past, when we first began our lives of ministry, I hope you will be blessed in some way as you come along with me. I will no doubt return to this lovely tropical place on our journey, so please be my special guest now and let’s get started. Thanks for coming along!

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Cherie Y. Mullins

Man-O-War Cay Abaco, Bahamas

HONEYMOON PANCAKES

(By Special Request from my family)

A FTER I COMPLETED Volume One of my life story, my children read it and when they got to the part about our wedding, they noticed that I had left out a very important story that took place on our ‘honeymoon’.

If you have already read Volume 1, you know that Roger and I were married without a lot of hoopla and fanfare! We had a very, very simple wedding on October 12, 1962 in Pittsville, Maryland at a Methodist Church and only our best friends stood up with us when we married. Other than these friends, no one attended our wedding with the exception of my wonderful Grandma Margaret and her sister, Aunt Tee Tee. I went into quite a bit of detail in Volume 1 explaining situation so, if you are inquisitive and want to know why no one came to my wedding, you’ll just have to get that book and read all about it.

It is obvious that the size and cost of a wedding has absolutely no bearing on the length and quality of a marriage as we are celebrating our fiftieth anniversary this year in October, and as this book will describe to you, it has been a very, very exciting and WONDERFUL fifty years. I hope the next fifty are as adventuresome and awesome!

Well now, back to the story I am telling here… . the one about the honeymoon pancakes.

We did not go on a honeymoon. We did not even do a honeymoon night in a lovely hotel on the beach. Really, that was what Roger wanted to do. We had our first date at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and he wanted to make our honeymoon night very special and stay at one of their fine hotels on the beach. I was the reason we did not do that. If you will remember, Roger was in the Air Force in Dover, Delaware when we met and married. We had already found a really nice large (for us) mobile home which was a double-decker. He had moved in and lived there for a whole month before we married. I was a very bashful preacher’s daughter and not very worldly-minded at the time we met, just six weeks prior to marriage. It bothered me to think about going to a motel to spend the night. Motels and hotels were unfamiliar territory to me, and I just thought I’d feel embarrassed checking in. Maybe they wouldn’t really think we were married. You know, that sort of thing.

So, it was my desire to just drive from Pittsville back to Dover that night after we had our wedding ceremony, and our celebration at the restaurant with our wedding party and attendees, all six of us. So, when we had said goodbye to Grandma Margaret and Aunt Tee Tee, and thanked them for being the only family members who came to see us married, and then said good night to Ted and Marlene, we drove away to spend our honeymoon in our rented mobile home in Dover. It was about an hour’s drive from where we were married.

Since I did not elaborate in Volume One about just how neat our mobile home really was, let me describe it to you. From the outside it had a very unusual design as the front part of it was single-story, but, midway down, the body of it fanned upwards and downwards making the back part two stories. This was just beyond the kitchen. The double-decked part actually provided three bedrooms. There was one bedroom in the very back on the lower level. It had two bunk beds and was very cute and made a great place for company to come and spend the night.

There was a cute little stairway up from the hallway that was only about six steps with a darling little wrought iron railing. At the top of the stairs, if you turned left, there was a double bed sort of lofted in… not a lot of head room because there were some extra cabinets built in above that bed. Then there was a teensy-weensy little bathroom next to that bedroom equipped with a tiny little sink and toilet.

If you turned right when you came up the stairs, you were in our master bedroom. It was very nice with a queen-sized bed in it. This room had enough head room for Roger to stand up and he is six feet tall. It also had two large built-in closets for our clothing. There were a lot of nice drawers, also built in, along the back wall between the closets as well as some overhead storage space. I was amazed at how much actual storage space that little bedroom contained.

I never will forget how uncomfortable it was for me to actually move in though, knowing that now I was a married woman and would share my bed, my bathroom, and my privacy, with Roger. Even though I loved him dearly, I still had a lot to overcome when it came to being comfortable in a marriage setting. Remember, I was brought up in a very strict household, and even though my sister Dolly and I shared a room when I was single, my Mom did not like for us to go around ‘scantily clad’ as she called it. Hence, she always made sure we had nice robes with which to cover ourselves. So, to say I was ‘shy’ and ‘overly modest’ would be a great understatement.

Well, it was honeymoon night at our new home. Roger went upstairs to our room (where he had been living for a few weeks), put on a short white terry-cloth robe over his underwear and came downstairs. I can remember right now how strange it felt for me to see him like this. Now mind you, we had been to the shore a number of times and hung out in our swimsuits on the beach and boardwalks, but somehow there was just something ‘not the same’ about knowing he was in his underwear under that cute short robe. And, oh yes… . Roger has always had what I would call ‘beautiful’ legs. I believe the reason they were so beautiful is because he has never had a hair on his legs. He says that is because he has some Indian blood in him, which causes him to be an un-hairy man. He had very nicely tanned, smooth legs. I actually felt like his legs always looked as good as, if not better than, mine—maybe even made me a tad bit jealous.

Ha ha.

Roger dropped down on the couch and clicked on the TV. I stayed fully dressed and just sat there in the living room with him until I thought I was tired enough to go to bed. I excused myself and went upstairs to our honeymoon suite in our own private hotel on wheels. I undressed quickly, fearing he would follow me up there. I donned my beautiful nightgown and negligee set that had faded in the store window. Because of the fading, they had priced the set low enough so as to be affordable. The original color of my honeymoon lingerie was dark taupe (I could tell by the stitching inside), but the color it had faded to was a light beige. At any rate, it was still very lovely to me. I donned my gorgeous honeymoon outfit and wondered if I should go downstairs in it and join my husband (whom I had only met six weeks prior to this night), or if I should just climb into bed wearing the nightgown and the negligee. I chose to do the latter, figuring he would find me sooner or later, which he did. Enough said.

In the morning, I awakened pretty early. I took my clothing into another room, dressed, and tiptoed down the few stairs into our cute little kitchen where I had stocked some groceries a few days ahead of time. I had been used to cooking frequently at home for my family, so I had no qualms about cooking a nice pancake breakfast for my new husband.

My mom had always used Bisquick for pancakes, as well as for biscuits, so I made sure to buy some, along with a bottle of thick, delicious Mrs. Butterworth’s pancake syrup. I had bought real butter, too, for this special honeymoon breakfast I had planned. (I had not yet made my first trip to the commissary as a military wife, but was so looking forward to it as I had heard that food was so much cheaper.) We had stocked the kitchen with a few necessary items of cookware, so I pulled out a mixing bowl, grabbed the box of Bisquick, followed the directions on the box and heated up the nice new little pancake griddle we had bought. I knew that pancakes would be something we would have quite often, as it was one thing that I felt confident in making for breakfast.

When I had the griddle all nice and hot, and the pancakes mixed up, Roger was still upstairs in bed. Many of you will remember that he was actually still Kenny to me, but I will call him Roger since I am writing this book well after I had learned in early marriage that he was actually Roger to all of his family in Tennessee. I had no idea when he was going to get out of bed, and I wasn’t planning to go up and awaken him, so instead, I cooked myself some pancakes and ate breakfast on our honeymoon morning all alone. They were yummy, and I could eat all I really wanted if he wasn’t there watching me!

It seemed that everything we did as newlyweds was somewhat embarrassing. At least it was for me because I had never been in any type of long-term relationship or situation where we were, in any stretch of the imagination, living together. It wasn’t nearly as popular back then as it has become through the years. Of course, as a Christian, and having grown up in a pastor’s family, this would never have been an option for me anyway. I was still living at home at age twenty-four when I got married.

After enjoying my pancakes by myself, I actually turned off the griddle and waited a little while until, finally, my groom appeared. He had gotten up, combed his nice, dark-brown, wavy hair, put on his sexy short robe again, and sauntered into the kitchen of our cozy mobile home. He looked s-o-o-o-o-o handsome! I only hoped that I looked that good to him, too. He had brushed his teeth so he would be able to give me a nice good-morning kiss and not gross me out. I have always appreciated that about my husband. He keeps his breath kissing-sweet all the time. He always has some Altoids, or a breath spray, in his pocket.

I was about to learn some life lessons about my new hubby. I learned that he liked orange juice every morning for breakfast, no matter what he was eating. I had grown up drinking milk with pancakes myself, as I couldn’t combine the sweet and sour. I found it strange that he would want orange juice with his, but hey, to each his own, right?

I turned on the griddle again, and then I proceeded to make my honey some wonderful pancakes for his breakfast on the first morning we were husband and wife. These pancakes looked just perfect. They were light brown and had the little circular stripes in darker brown circles. They actually looked like those you would see in a magazine ad for Aunt Jemima’s pancake mix. I was so proud as I presented them to the love of my life for his first chance to eat his bride’s cooking.

As I think back to these firsts in our marriage, I remember how shy I was about everything, but it didn’t seem as though Roger was shy or bashful about anything. Maybe it was because he had been in the service already for three years, had traveled overseas, and met many more people in his life than I ever had. I had lived the sheltered life of a preacher’s daughter up until then.

I stood nearby and watched expectantly as Roger put butter and syrup on his stack of beautiful pancakes. He winked at me and told me they sure looked good. I was the blushing bride, but I took the compliment with a little grin and watched to see how he liked them. Well, he made a cut into the stack of pancakes and put some into his mouth. He immediately spit them out and said, Cherie, I’m sorry, but I can’t eat these, they’re not done, they’re all gooey inside.

Infuriated, I snapped back, "Well, I ate mine, and they were delicious!".

Well, yours were done inside, then, and these aren’t, he said. I’m sorry, honey, but I just can’t eat these. He was speaking very politely and really trying not to be too offensive or uncomplimentary of my attempt at honeymoon pancakes. However, this Yankee bride was so upset and so mad, I figured he was just too picky. So, I grabbed the plate of pancakes and threw them at him! Butter, syrup and runny pancakes hit their intended target as well as several other places in the room.

I think back at that incident, and I cannot believe I was that mad, or that I flew off the handle so quickly, and so violently. I have no idea why he stayed married to me beyond that day, but he did. That was when he realized that he had indeed married a Yankee with a hot temper and a short fuse. That is not something for me to be proud about, but nevertheless, it’s the truth. I will have to say that, through fifty years of marriage, the Lord has greatly helped me to get that temper under control so that it doesn’t pop out and embarrass me anymore. Or hurt Roger!

In spite of getting off to such a difficult start on our first day of marriage, and even though we have had many altercations through the years with similar outbreaks of anger (usually on my part), we have stuck it out and stayed together. I do have to tell you though, that we have had many a good laugh whenever we have shared this story with family and friends about the infamous Honeymoon Pancakes.

Did I ever make him some more? Ones that were done inside and that he could eat? Yes, I did. I redeemed myself right away, after apologizing for my temper tantrum. That was just the first of many times when I would have to apologize to my hubby in order to keep the ‘honeymoon’ in our marriage. We learned early on that next to the three little words I love you, probably the next most important words to include often in your marriage are, I’m sorry. Making up may be hard to do, but it is always so sweet and well worth it. That is why, I assume, there have been so many songs written about ‘making up’.

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Roger & Cherie

A kiss after the wedding Oct. 12, 1962

BIBLE COLLEGE BEGINNINGS

N OW THEN, SINCE I got that honeymoon story completed, I will now proceed with the actual beginning of this book which I have subtitled, Joyous Journey.

I left off in my first book with telling how Roger had enrolled in a Bible College in Memphis, Tennessee where he would attend classes three days a week, commuting back and forth from Milan, Tennessee where we were able to live rent-free in a home owned by his parents.

At this time, Cindy was entering second grade in school, and Buddy was two years old. We were blessed by being very close to the school Cindy would attend. It was K. D. McKellar Elementary School and it was just at the end of our street, so it was very handy for her to be able to walk to and from school.

Since Roger would be traveling back and forth to Bible College, it was necessary for me to get a job in order to pay our family’s expenses, and buy the fuel for him to travel to and from Memphis three times a week. We were about 90 miles from his college. Thank the Lord, the price of gas at that time was not exorbitant like it is these days. The price was probably about thirty cents per gallon. That was in 1970.

I began looking for a job, and was able to find one with an old friend I had come to know when I lived in Milan and worked for Attorney Jerry Flippin. This man was also a good Christian man and was involved in music at his church in Trenton, Tennessee. He was also named Jerry. When I contacted him I found that he was in need of a secretary and bookkeeper at his sewing factory in Trenton. I was happy to have a job, and happy to be working once more for a Christian businessman.

I enjoyed getting to know the sewing business. Part of my job was to keep up with the hours and the number of pieces sewn by each of the ladies in the factory. They were paid by the pieces sewn, if I remember correctly. I used to love to go out into the factory and watch how speedily they worked. Their hands would literally fly as they fed material into their machines.

We did have one very urgent need at this time, as we only owned one car and Roger had to drive it to Memphis three days a week. We hardly knew what to say when Roger’s Aunt Naomi and Uncle Red told us that they wanted to give us a car that had belonged to Roger’s cousin Jimmy who had met a tragic death about a year or year and a half prior to that time. It was a 1961 Pontiac and they gave it to us absolutely free. They insisted that we have it. Jimmy had been their only child, and he and Roger had grown up together and were as close as brothers although they were just first cousins. Having this car was actually very bittersweet for us, as it was a constant memory of the loss of Jimmy.

That was one more blessing that God provided for us as we embarked on this new life of serving Him wherever He was to lead us. We had heard many sermons in the past telling us that God’s calling has His enabling. We were seeing this come to pass for us. We knew very few people in ministry, knew nothing about doing any type of ministry, but were ready and willing to be used in ministry. I am thanking the Lord as I am writing these words for these wonderful provisions He gave us.

There are a lot of interesting things that surrounded our time during Roger’s first year of Bible College. Buddy, who was just a little guy about two years old, needed to have a babysitter each day when I went to work in Trenton. We did not want to put him in the care of strangers, so guess who God provided to be his babysitter? It was none other than Roger’s Aunt Ethel Scott. She was Roger’s dad’s sister and she lived halfway between our home in Milan and my place of employment in Trenton. I literally had to pass by her house on my way to and from work every day! Aunt Ethel was such a wonderful jolly lady. She and her sister, Evie Lee, were both so much fun! I loved these two sisters and they always had something up their sleeve to laugh about. I remember that Aunt Ethel would not take much money at all for keeping Buddy five days a week. She also kept another little girl who was in the family named Mary Anne Ing. She belonged to Glen and Beth Ing, some more of our favorite cousins in Roger’s family.

Aunt Ethel was known as Mother Scott by her own grandchildren, so it just became natural for Buddy to call her that as well. She loved having Buddy and Mary Anne there each day to play together and to entertain her. She would tell us how they would play church and Buddy would preach and Mary Anne would be the singer.

We had always taught Buddy that it was very, very impolite to ask for anything to eat or drink when you were in someone else’s house. We taught him that it was all right to eat with them if they invited you, but you never looked for things in their refrigerator or in their cabinets and asked for them. He knew he would be in trouble with us if we ever heard of him doing this.

That being said, there was one funny incident that happened when Mother Scott was keeping Buddy that she so enjoyed telling over and over again and getting a laugh each time. It seems that she quite often bought the kids special treats like Ding Dongs (those round chocolate cakes with white creamy filling inside and a waxy chocolate icing on the outside.) Buddy knew she had some Ding Dongs in her cupboard and he really wanted one, but he also knew he would be in trouble if he asked outright for Mother Scott to give him one, so he came up with a clever method of achieving his goal. He said, Mother Scott, why don’t you say, ‘Buddy, would you like to have a Ding Dong?’ Well, she got so tickled and she said she laughed out loud a few minutes and then she turned to him and said, Well now, Buddy, would you like to have a Ding Dong? Buddy quickly replied, Yes, Mother Scott, I would LOVE to have a Ding Dong and thank you very much for asking me.

I was so blessed to have Mother Scott loving Buddy and bringing him up daily in her sweet Christian home. I would hear many funny tales about what he and Mary Anne had been doing each day whenever I would pick him up in the afternoon. I am thankful to this very day that the Lord put Mother Scott in Buddy’s early years, as she was a wonderful grandmother to her own family and she treated Buddy the same as her own grandchildren.

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Our Family-1969

The Year Roger Entered Bible College

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Uncle T.J. & Aunt Ethel a.k.a Mother Scott

THE SOULWINNER’S FIRE BEGINS TO BURN

I N THE MEANTIME, Roger was beginning his Bible College schedule, and he loved every single class he was attending. I remember it wasn’t too many weeks into Roger’s first year of college when he really began feeling a burden for soul winning. He would come home with some of the books he was reading, and he would tell me about his classes, and about how much he was feeling a burden for lost sinners.

I remember one time he was sitting on our little side porch which faced our next-door neighbor’s house. He was reading a book by Dr. John R. Rice entitled "The Soulwinner’s