Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / January 10, 2023 | Expresso - Shirley Grist

Transcript

January 10, 2023 | Expresso - Shirley Grist · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, I want to thank all you ladies that's done this m before because each and every one of you has touched my heart in one way or another.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you for that.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: And when Connie asked me to do this in November, I I agreed.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: And for the last couple of weeks, I have just dwelt on what am I going to say?
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: What am I going to say?
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought I would be really nervous.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: But for the last week I've been reading.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Second Timothy.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Can't even read my own writing.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's 1-7.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: God does not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's helped.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: I just keep saying he's not going to give me a spirit of fear tonight.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: And anyway, um, I'm going to bounce around because this, I might have said shared this later on, but I don't know.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Since I was talking about fear, I'm going to share with you about the fears that God has taken away from me since I accepted Christ as the Lord.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: I used to be very scared of bridges.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: When I was about four or five years old, I walked to school in Rossville, and we had to cross this bridge, and I remember crawling across it.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: I felt safer down on my knees.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: And he took that totally away from me.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I also had a fear, whether I was alone or not at night, that somebody would break in and do harm to me.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: I just thought of I had nightmares even.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I haven't had a nightmare in I'm trying to think how long ago.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: I've known the Lord for 51 years because I've been going to church for that long here.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I just wanted to share with you at that point because I did say the word fear, and he did erase several fears for me.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And he gives me a piece about a lot of things when I have losses, I have comfort and peace from him.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm going to go back to uh the beginning and I need my glasses.
• 2:15
  unknown: I can't even read one of mine.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, they're laying right.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Don't worry about it.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: Don't forget to hit the space bar whenever you want to show your picture.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Are you hearing okay?
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because I have trouble sometimes hearing.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, I'm going to go back to the beginning of my life.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: I am one of eight children.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: I have two brothers older than me, and I'm the first girl.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: I have three sisters and four brothers.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Which one of them, my brother closest to me in my age, uh, in fact, we went to school the same grade from second grade on.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: He passed away 26 years ago.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: He went home to be with the Lord.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: And we weren't raised in a Christian home.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Although some of us went to church with neighbors.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Did you, Winola?
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Some of us went to church sometimes, and neighbors would take us.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, we do vacation Bible school.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: I don't remember how often.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: I just remember the year I was 12, I was in vacation Bible school at North Beek Baptist, and I was baptized at that time.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Although I don't know that I really grasped what it was being baptized at that time.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: So back in 2017, I was now I'm skipping around, I'm not even looking at my notes.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I had a friend at that time.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: We was going to go to Silver Lake to play cards, and we weren't very far out of town.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, you know what, I'd like to, I'd like for you to take me back.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: I want to go to the baptism.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I get out there and I went up to Jim Condon's and Doug Well, and I said, Is it okay?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'd like to be baptized tonight.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I re-baptized, I got baptized again and rededicated my life at that time.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so now we'll go back to.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: I can remember her doing that.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And only one time can I remember us going to church as a family, and I believe it was Mother's Day, and I think maybe Dad went to please mom.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: We all went.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it was at um East Side Baptist, and that's when they were still on 6th Street, so it had been years ago.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, one thing I remember we were standing there and they were having an alder call, and I know God was working on me even then, because I was standing by my dad, and I said, in my mind, I was saying, Dad, if you'd go forward, I'd go forward with you.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he didn't, so I didn't.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: But see, I know God has always been working on me.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: And uh let's see.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Later on, my parents, oh, and my mom went to church later on in her life when they moved back to Dover, Kansas.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: They went to that little church.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I suppose did Dad go occasionally?
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I do believe Dad was a believer from TV ministry.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: I really think he accepted Christ somewhere.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: I do not have a worry about where he's at.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Same with my mom.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: I really believe they're all in heaven.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, the liar, the liar, Satan wants you to doubt that.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I think about, I just go back to John 3.16 when I get when he's wanting me to doubt where my loved ones are at.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then another another verse that I go back to is I'll read it if I can find it here.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 2.8.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: For by grace you have been saved through faith and not of yourselves.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: It is a gift of God and nothing, plus nothing.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: I to it the plus nothing.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: There is nothing more.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you believe in him, you believe in the birth, the resurrection.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: I believe you're saved.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, um yeah, the liar gave me doubts about my brother Melvin too, but I believe he's in heaven.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: I really do.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: God has comforted me in that.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: I do want to share with you, I had a little fear of my dad, and I think my younger sister did too.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about the others, but I feared my dad.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, I took that fear into my marriage of men.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: I took it in a fear of God that he was gonna clobber me every time I made a mistake.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: And dad never laid a hand on me ever, but I had a fear of him.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: And but later on I knew he loved me.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you get married and you have children your own and you're you're busy with life and you're doing things, you realize he was so busy trying to support eight children, and so we didn't really have much of a relationship, but I did come to know that he did love me, even though I didn't know that when I was growing up.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think that fear of my dad was one reason I always dreamed of getting married and having my own family.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I started dating at 15.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: I only dated two other guys a couple of times, and then Cecil came into my life and we started dating, and he had just turned 18, he wanted to get married, and I wasn't 16 yet.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: We got married in June of 58.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: I turned 16 in September, and you know, it wasn't um we got married, but all I did was move from one family into another family.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm not showing pictures.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: You want to stand up here and do pictures?
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: You talk and I'll show pictures.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is my parents.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, not sure what year that was taking.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't my dad handsome?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: But and this is her, this is my mom and dad's first four.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Two boys, two girls.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: I figured we'd get to Cecil and then you can keep going.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is a picture of me at 15, and this is a picture of Cecil and I the day we got married.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um like I said, I I didn't get my own home at first.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: We lived with his parents.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know how long we were there.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Our first home was in Wichita, and I was pregnant with my firstborn.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, then we were back and his parents, and that went on off and on until Cecil turned 25.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: From that point on, we were on our own and we supported ourselves.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't easy getting married that young, I wouldn't recommend it.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I had four little boys by the time I was 22, and Cecil, of course, was only 24 when we had four little boys, and but we made a break from moving in with his parents when he turned 25.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: It seemed like we were able to take care of ourselves a little better, but I don't remember the rough times bothering me.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: I I even had friends at one time.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: How come you're so happy all the time?
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know, I'm just a happy person.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that was before I even knew the Lord.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: So can you imagine what I was like after I accepted Christ?
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, I'll never forget it.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now I have to share with you how I come to do that, how I come to be part of Topeka Bible.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Back in 71, maybe it was early 72, I really can't remember.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: I just know I was pregnant with my number five.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: So he's eight years, he's eight years younger than the next one.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I decided I had all the boys in school, the other four in school, and I had some time.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I think I'll try selling Avon.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it didn't last very long because the clones and stuff got to me during that pregnancy.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, I couldn't stand that.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: But during that few weeks that I did do it, a little bit of time that I did do it, uh, they assigned me to an area in Brookwood shopping area.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know where Brookwood is?
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the first day I walked for blocks and I got one order, 75 cent perfume deodorant.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, oh well, I got up the next day and plundered back into the neighborhood.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Wasn't much better.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: But I come to this one door, let me see where I'd end up.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: There it is.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: I came to a door, I think it was on maybe 31st Street, I can't remember.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Went over there many a time, so I knew how to get there.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: I knocked at this door, and this lady came to the door, and of course I was 29, so and she was, I decide she must have been 60, so she was old, right.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, she invited me in, and one of my, well, the oldest TBC friend of mine, she's here with me tonight.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: I met her the same day as I met this lady.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: She was doing Martha Rook's hair.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I know probably not many of you here would know who Martha Rook was.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't think it was the first day that we visited that I found out that she did uh Harold Williams's books for him, Rosie Williams' father-in-law.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: And we got to visiting and found out, hey, you know, the Williams are related to me now.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm married into that family.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: My mother-in-law was a Williams.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: And uh she was telling me about that she had a Tuesday morning Bible study over here at church, and invited me, and I said, Well, you know, if I can get Martha to come with me, I'll do that.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I called Martha, Aunt Martha, when I got home, and I said, Hey, I met this lady, and she invited me to a Bible study at the church you go to on Tuesday mornings.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want to go?
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, Yeah, I'll go.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that changed my life.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: This when I went to that door, my life was changed.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, she led me to the Lord through that Bible study.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, I was on a high for seven years, and uh a verse comes to my mind from Psalms.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: My notes are not very good.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's from Psalms 42.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: He brought me up out of a horrible pit and set my feet up on a rock.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: That rock, which, of course, was Christ, put a new song in my heart.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: That verse grabbed me for the time I was doing things that I'm not proud, proud of.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I need to go into details, but I knew I wasn't living life pleasing to God.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: And there's been times I've slipped off that rock, and over the last 50 years, I'm ashamed to say, there's been times I drug him through the mud, but he never stopped loving me and he's never given up on me.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: And you know that's something we all need to remember no matter what we do now, tomorrow, whatever.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's not gonna give up on you if you belong to him.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: And uh now I'm going to share the blessing God's have given me in these years.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, he blessed me with five sons, and on most part they were healthy.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, one of them I had one of my second son, he's giving me some heartaches, but he's doing great now.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: He's 62, and he's had some problems.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: And uh like I said, life with Cecil wasn't always easy.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, I wasn't a perfect wife either, but we made it through.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: We hung in there.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: We were from the old school.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: I believe when you get married, you are you're you're committed, unless I think there probably are times that you need to get out.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: But I just I made that commitment, he made that commitment, and uh we hung in there for 53 and a half years.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm not changing pictures again.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see, that's the day we got married, and that's probably what I looked like because I was 15.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Oh this is my mom and dad's family in 1920.
• 16:16
  unknown: No, Danny.
• 16:18
  unknown: 62.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: You're right, 62.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: How'd you know?
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's just a drop in the bucket before she passed on out of this life.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: That was just part of it.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, our spouses are with us, as well as our kids.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: I only had two.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: This one, oh you're not gonna know.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Cecil's holding James, my oldest, and my dad is holding my second son, Danny.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then that's my little brother.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, my little brother's only three years older than my oldest son, so anyway.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'll help you.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: The online crowd, oh no, this is Cecil right here, and that's her dad, just so you know, since we don't have pointers on our computers.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, you can keep going.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry about that.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Cecil looks pretty good there.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: He always made me think of Chuck Connors.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: He always made me think of Chuck Connors.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, um Kane someone in a neighborhood.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: I lost Cecil in um 2012, January 7th of 2012.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: And um that following September, I think I a man came into my life that I knew when I was ten years old and uh started seeing him.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: And we played cards, we went out to eat, we went to not many movies, but he was just a pal.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: And um he passed away th in 2017.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: And oh I think before we talk about Cecil passing, we should celebrate some anniversaries, don't you?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: This was our 30th anniversary.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then oh, and that there's okay, okay.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: I've never uh this is awful, but you know I've never had a group picture of my boys, the five of them together.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: So Leah, my daughter-in-law, who's over here.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: I said, well, let's just take a picture of the wall.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because everybody oldest second, third, fourth, and fifth.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, second, third, fourth, fifth.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm awful.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: I just didn't.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: You're not I just keep forgetting that.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: You were busy, you were the mother of five sons.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: And you didn't have a cell phone at the time.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: What are you gonna do?
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: Honey, there was times I had nothing.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: No telephone.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: One time we lived where there was no utilities, even.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I lived.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: It was rough, but I never remember dwelling on it.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: I just don't ever remember it.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: And okay, how much time have I got?
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: I thought we oh, you know what it's I think it's I thought we had a 50th anniversary picture of you and Cecil too, but maybe that got sidewise.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: We did celebrate 50 years.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so sorry about that because I should be in there too.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: So there's your whole family.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: So you shared about Cecil passing.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: You want to talk about your your youngest?
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I want to go into talking about my youngest son, whom he's adorable.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: He was adorable.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I lost him back in June, June 12th of this year.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, 22.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's a new year.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um I want to share about his last couple of weeks of a of his life.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: In March, a young lady came back into his life that he loved when he was a teenager, and she came back in his life, and she was driving cross country.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you might have known Darcy Zimmerman, but her her name was Ferris, really.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, she came back in his life and she was driving cross country.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: So she encouraged him to get his CDL and hit the road with her, partner up.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: And um, his brothers, Tom and Marty, both thought, oh, this is the craziest thing.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Mom, he can't be doing that.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: How's he gonna get a CDL?
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he did.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: He shouldn't have, but he did.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: He got his CDL.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: And um, but what his brothers were worried about, I never had, I always had peace about it.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: That they was afraid he'd well, I didn't share with you, he started having problems at 24.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: He had an brain aneurysm um at 24.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: He we were blessed.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we were blessed because if had had this not been detected by a doctor here that's no longer in this town, he was seeing a doctor, and the doctor was explaining his head the way, excuse, you know, going on, oh, you're probably not eating right, and you're probably under stress because he had headaches all the time.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he decided to try out his wife's doctor at that time.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the guy, Dr.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: Patel, was his name, he did not hesitate to do a CAT scan.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: Him and his wife had not even got back home to tell us what was going on.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: The doctor called me and he said, I want those kids back up here.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, I want to tell you something else.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this is amazing how many doctors would say this.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: If you know a prayer chain, you you need you need to get him on a prayer chain.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: He had an aneurysm at the base of the brain.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: And we ended up in Arizona for that.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: The day before surgery.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Mom, I don't know if I want to go through with this or not.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Honey, God didn't bring us all the way out here for you to go home in a box.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to go through with this.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Okay.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it went well.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: He had a stroke, of course.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's common, I guess, to have a stroke when they go in there like that.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then at 29 he started having heart attacks.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Had stints put in at 29, had another one put in, I think a year later.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: And the year Cecil passed in January of 12.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: I was here at church in February.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I had seen he had called me.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, oh, I'll just call him when I get home.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then I said, nah, I better call him.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm right here.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'll just call him now.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: And he was over at Stormont in the emergency room.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: And he had four bypasses done at the age 39.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: But God blessed me with him a lot more years than I probably should have had him.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, back to the story of his trucking.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: I had a piece about this.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted him to go ahead and have that time with Darcy.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: He was so happy.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: He had been married and he has two children and has one granddaughter.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: He did get to see the one granddaughter, but he didn't get to celebrate her first birthday.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, they hit the road.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: I remember I had to run something over to the truck stop that he forgot.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was his driver's license.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: His CDL.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: I know that's what it was.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, I love you guys.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: Be careful, you know.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I still had a calmness about him being out there.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: But yet I had another feeling.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I can't explain it.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: June 12th, about 8 30, I got a phone call from my son Marty.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Mom, you get a bag packed.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: Jared's come to get you to take you to a little town by Yukon, Oklahoma.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: I can't remember the name of that town.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: Can you, Leah?
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, you get a bag packed, so you can go down there.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, I guess I called Leah back to get a hospital phone number.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I called the hospital to see what was going on the circumstance.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he was already gone.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it didn't happen on the road.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: And when I heard they were at Wendy's, at a Wendy's there in that little town when he had this last heart attack.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I could say, was God is good.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Is he not good?
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I just I know I'm gonna miss him terrible.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: But it was just a blessing that they were eating hamburgers.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't out on that road.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: But I had a piece about him being out on the road.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted him to go.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted him to have that time with Darcy and because he was so happy.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, and the Friday before that, this was a Sunday he'd pass.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: The Friday before he asked her to marry him, and they bought rings.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I hurt first, I hurt for her so bad because she was down there alone in the big rig.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, the next day she drove that rig back up here to Topeka.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: And um, anyway, I just think God's always been with me and carried me through so many things.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I'm gonna close with some verses.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh a verse that I used when I was baptized the second time.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, my birthday.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um that's okay.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: You can close, they can just see you celebrated your 80th birthday this year and share your verse.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: And some of the pictures are horrible because they so my they totally surprised me.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was so surprised.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: Shirley's the crying queen in this image.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: For those of you online, they they all surprised her and she was crying.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: So every picture of her at her 80th birthday looks like she's been crying because she has.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: She was so happy and surprised by so many people who were there.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it was pretty awesome.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I've been telling everybody I want to do 80 again.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do 80 again.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, the verse I'm going to close with.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I want to read the one I used at baptism first.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: Jude 24.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory in majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: And also I want to share, I want to share with you 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18, because this goes through my mind.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: It says, rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: New Year's Day, I did a little prayer at our dinner, and that came to my mind that even give thanks for the loss of Travis through hard times and losses, sometimes it brings us so much closer to God.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you believe that?
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I just truly believe that it was it just brought me closer to him.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't think of anything else.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much.