The Manual for Living a Victorious Life

By June Mendenhall

This book was designed to give people hope and encouragement through the Manual for Living, which is the Holy Scriptures. June shows through her bout with stage 4 breast cancer that the Manual gave her hope and a bright future. It gave her strength when she was weak. The Manual gave her peace and joy when their son passed away suddenly, knowing he was in a far better place. She had trained him in Sunday school to love the Lord and he asked Him into his heart as Lord and Savior.

It is hard to find time these days to read the Bible and know just what is in it for me. This book helps you find out many of the benefits in the Bible and how it will make your life so much easier. God can speak to us through reading His Word because it is alive and powerful to change our lives for the better.

God has a plan for your life, and it started before the day you were born.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord. “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

This is straight from God’s Manual (the Holy Scriptures). Take advantage of this plan He has for you and find out what else He has in store for you in this book, The Manual for Living a Victorious Life.

Our Utmost for His Highest June 27

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638441052

Book preview

1

My grandfather Henry Schultz was born in Silesia, Germany, and at the age of sixteen, he asked the Lord to be his Savior. His family never went to church. Henry came home so excited about this new life he had now. He asked his dad if they could say grace before they ate. His father said, No, and I don’t want to hear another word about your new religion.

God’s Manual says:

Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me. (Psalm 27:10 NIV)

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. (Matthew 19:29 NIV)

Henry was so upset that he packed up his belongings and moved out. He must have found some people from his church to give him a place to live. He found a way to make a living and save up enough money to buy a ticket on a ship that was going to the United States of America. He somehow ended up in Kilgory, Nebraska. He met a girl with almost the same name, Louisa Schulz. They got married and homesteaded in Nebraska for a while then moved to De Moines, Iowa, where my father, Robert, was born. The family continued to move out west to Tacoma, Washington. The Schultz family bought a house next door to the Hostetter family. The Hostetters just happened to have a daughter named June who is the same age as Robert. They were both shy, and it took a while for them to even talk to each other. June was impressed with the wild streak in Robert and how he would race his car up and down the street. Robert got a job on the railroad because he only went to school to the eighth grade. When June was going to Lincoln High School in Tacoma, Robert would pick her up on the way home from school in his car. He would make sure he was off work from the railroad just in time to catch June on her way home.

Henry and Louisa were strong German Baptists and raised their family in the German-speaking Calvary Baptist Church. They had six children: Lydia, Elmer, Ellen, Esther, Robert, and Walter. Robert became very wild after his brother Walter died as a teenager. They were very close, and they never did figure out what he died of. Robert started drinking heavily and driving fast cars. Henry prayed many a night for his son Robert.

God’s Manual says: Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6 KJV). Henry never got to see Robert’s miraculous deliverance from alcohol and his commitment to the Lord.

Needless to say, Orville and Emma Hostetter were very apprehensive in having their daughter marry this wild boy. June on the other hand was very anxious to get out from under her strict Pentecostal parents. She was not allowed to go to dances, and June loved to dance. After trying very hard to discourage June and sending her back to Nebraska for the summer to relatives, hoping she would find someone more suitable to their lifestyle, they finally gave in. And Robert and June were married on January 19, 1924.

God’s Manual says: Do not be yoked with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? (II Corinthians 6:14. NIV). June never asked the Lord if she should marry Robert. She was too eager to get out of her parents’ house. Little did she know she was jumping from the frying pan into the fire with wild Robert.

They wasted no time in starting a family. Robert Jr. was born on December 13, 1924. June was very run-down and tired after having Bobby and was having a hard time keeping up with motherhood. When all of a sudden, she found out she was pregnant again. She was in dark despair. How could she possibly have another baby?

I can’t! she would say. I can’t! June was skin and bones and didn’t have much to give the baby developing inside her. On May 25, 1925, she delivered Lewis Walter. He was very thin and sickly but had a wiry disposition. He would stick up for his older brother that was being chased home and bullied. Lewis would tackle a buzz saw, when it was needed.

God’s Manual says: Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you (Deuteronomy 31:6 NIV).

On July 22, 1931, Jimmy came along. June thought for sure it was a girl; she felt totally different with this baby. When they told her she had another boy, she said, Oh no, you’re mistaken. I had a girl. He was a beautiful baby with black curly hair and cute as a button. Everyone thought he was a girl.

When Jimmy was five years old, Robert and June moved from Tacoma, Washington, to Sioux City, Iowa. It was worth the move across the country because Robert doubled his salary. He was now the electrician foreman on the Milwaukee Railroad. Robert’s dad, Henry, came out to visit them. Robert was on his best behavior while his dad was visiting. When it was time for his dad to take the train back to Tacoma, Washington, Henry had a dream the night before. He came down to the breakfast table that morning and told everyone there about his dream.

I dreamt all my brothers and sisters and me were kittens drinking out of the same bowl. All of a sudden, I fell into the bowl and drowned.

Robert took him to the train, and off he went back to Tacoma, Washington. Before he left, he said to Robert, But seek ye first the kingdom of righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you (Matthew 6:33 KJV).

On the night of June 19, 1938, as the train got closer to the bridge over the Yellowstone River on a rainy night, little did the engineer know that there was a flash flood and the bridge was washed out. The train plunged down the canyon to the river below. Two sleeper cars were totally buried in the mud. Henry Schultz was in one of those train cars and drowned in the Yellowstone River that night just as his dream foretold.

Henry left a spiritual legacy behind of godly living and always putting God first in your life. This was carried on by Lewis Schultz, his grandson, who became a Baptist minister; myself, his granddaughter who has always been drawn to serving the Lord and walking with God; and my son Michael, his great-grandson who also has a deep spiritual walk with the Lord and of serving in his church.

God’s Manual says: We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace (1 Chronicles 29:15 NLT).

My dad was an alcoholic before I was born. My three brothers were afraid of their dad when he came home from work because he was drunk and yelled a lot and made life hell for my mom and the boys.

God’s Manual says:

Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path. Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags. (Proverbs 23:19–21 NIV)

Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?