Latest / Join With Me Podcast / Episode 4 - Part Three: The Journey of Rayburn & Donna Hare
Transcript
- Joey Moralez: We are honored that you have chosen to listen to this podcast. Join with me, where the information will be biblical, filled with joy, and very helpful. Stay tuned to the end where you will learn how to communicate with Rayburn and Donna about today's episode. Hi, I'm Rayburn here. And I'm Donna. And this is Join With Me Podcast. By the way, Don and are doing these outside. So I hope you enjoy maybe the sounds of a nearby horse or the rustling is a little bit breezy. But anyway, I hope you enjoy our setting. We'll talk more about that later. But you've heard hopefully you've been, you know, kinda sticking with us. You've heard my story is how I came to Christ in my early years and of struggle and darkness and how wound up really headed to Bob Jones University. You've heard Donna's wonderful testimony of coming to Christ, how God used people to bring that about. So now I want you to hear once again, continue the story. if you remember in and when I shared my my testimony of how when I laid in the floor, very prostrate, very broken, and just said, Father, if you'll if you'll if you'll make my choices, if you'll lead me, I'll follow you the best I can. And how that led me to changing my looks, changing memorizing scripture, changing my direction. Everything changed because I was following the Father and it was happening very quickly. But I go to Bob Jones. Now that's a whole nother story. I I didn't even finish high school and I wound up in college doing trying to do college level work, which was a major challenge for me academically. And but I was I was finding my way. now y you have to remember I I was I was twenty three years old, at at that point and y you kind of heard some of my story and And and listen, I don't misunderstand me. I knew looming was one of the greatest decisions and choices I would ever make because I wanted I wanted to be married. I wanted to find someone to share my life with, but I won't about to jump at that. I r I really won't. I mean that. I I I had I'm not very smart. I made a lot of bad choices, but I was trying to make right choices. So here I am in in in literally January of nineteen seventy-eight. And and I go through, you know, first semester at at Bob Jones, I go through the second semester and which was, you know, late nineteen seventy-eight. And and and look, I I don't misunderstand this. I was in the middle of thousands of of you know beautiful young ladies from all over the country and And I'd met a few, didn't you know, all that type of thing, but I had not had any type of really any serious relationship that even remote remotely approached serious. I was very guarded and and and that was purposely because once again I I just knew that was that was the big that was gonna be a big decision. Well, here's a part of my life that you need to understand. We come to Late seventy-eight, and and and this thing was real the one thing that was really bothering me. A lot of people don't know this about me, but as a seventeen year old in one of my dark periods of life, I made a crazy, crazy decision and I wound up getting married to a a young lady that crazy, crazy. But anyway, I was only married for four months. four months and wound up she whatever she wanted out and I wouldn't get a divorce. I just thought no I'm not gonna do that and then later she wanted the divorce and I didn't contest it. We got divorced. Anyway. So I always had that plaguing in my mind, you know, about what was right, what was right to do and and and and I sought the father, I read I read scripture, I read books about remarrying because I wanted to do right. Now, I I tell this because a lot of people maybe at times might think, Raymond, this is bizarre. This was not even but I'm telling you, this is how God approached me to handle this. I had decided I was trying to make right everything in my life that I had made wrong. And and I decided That what I was going to do, I was going to reach out to this lady, this young lady that I had married, that at that time I didn't even know where she was. I hadn't seen her in several years. Really didn't know. Had no idea. But I said, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna reach out to her and I'm gonna try to reconcile that marriage. Now you may think, wow. Because I didn't love her. I didn't really want to do this, but I thought if I ha if I could reconcile the marriage and go forward, that's the right thing to do. In my mind, it was. Join with Me Podcast is thrilled to have our first sponsor. Hydro Poolin and Spa, located in Blue Springs, Missouri. 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Here's what they're willing to do. They will then come back next spring and open your pool for free. That's right, for free. So you have to call in October and let them close it for $455 and then next spring. You're already covered. They'll come back and c and open it for free. Now that is a deal, especially to have it done right. So please call my friends at Hydro Pool and Spa at 816-875-7171. Get it scheduled. Get in on this deal. It's only for October. October 1st through October 31st. So please call them. Thank you. And tell them that you heard about it on the Join With Me podcast. And that will be an amazing opportunity for you. Once again, thank you. So here's what I did. Boy d was I scared about that. I'm telling you, I struggled because I thought, my goodness, what if she does? What if she wants to? I thought, no. I mean I but I'm telling you, I was committed to it. So here's what I did. I called my dad. In in Goldsboro, North Carolina. I was in Greenville at Bob Jones and and I I knew where her mother lived in Goldsboro or my mom and dad. So I asked Daddy, I said, Daddy, here's something I want to ask you to do. And of course when I asked him, I said, Would you go to her house and would you find out where she is and ask if I can you get a contact? I want to contact her. I didn't necessarily say why. I just said I want to contact her. And of course, Daddy, are you sure, son? Are you sure that's what you want to do? Daddy, I'm sure. I'm sure this is what I need to do. So Daddy did. And it was about a week later. Now in that period of time, you have to know that I'm thinking, Raymond, what what if? It was really an interesting time. But about a week later, Daddy calls me. He said, Rayburn, I did go see her mother. I did talk with her, and she is married and has two children and living in Chicago. I said, okay. I said, thank you, Daddy. Listen, that was a great relief for me because I just simply said there's no reconciliation. None. And I was content with that, and I felt I don't know, free. I just felt, okay, father, I've done what I thought I should do to make this right. Now I'm going forward. So you have to understand my mindset. I just said, this in your hands. So here we come into 1979, early in this in the spring of 79, April to be exact. And there's this talk about a college and career retreat at the Wilds of North Carolina, which was a beautiful camp situated in the North Carolina Mountains. And and I had known about the camp. I'd never been, but I knew about it. That this college and career retreat and and of course, you know, everybody said, this is, you know, you're your prospective mate. And I thought, nah, no, no, no, not not not me. I'm not going that's not what I'm going to look for. I can promise you that. So I was still very guarded in everything. But here I go. And of course everybody'd say, well, you know, a date is a prospective mate. And I'd say, well, I'm not interested in dating and but so here we go. I go to the wilds, I get there on a Friday afternoon. kind of wandering around. They have this area that is kind of downstairs. There's ping pong put tables, there's activities going on, and and I'm just trying to, you know, s really just kind of see what's here and what's going on. And and I wind up, I wind up there there's a ping pong table and there's a young lady playing ping ping pong that I was I just wow she she she's pretty good at ping pong. That was one thing, but she's pretty, she's very pretty. And so I just sat there and really lit the the net's here and I'm sitting right here at the net, just kind of, you know, back and forth and and and and as it would have it, the guy that she was playing with, which was an older guy. i if he'd been somebody, you know, I thought might be her boyfriend, then I I don't know. But any I knew he was not her boyfriend, he was an older guy, at least that's what I thought. All of a sudden he literally says, Hey, I have to leave and does anybody want to take my place? And and I'm standing right there. I said, Yeah, I will. And so literally, I picked up that ping pong paddle and and Don and I start playing ping pong. And a and as we've said many times, it was the beginning of of a a relationship that is now forty seven years. So but here we were, as as would have it at the whiles. And and and so we're trying to find our way around and trying to find, you know, what what is you know, what's going on and and and I guess at this point I guess we need to kind of bring it to a close. We're we're trying to keep these to a place where you can listen and maybe to keep you listening. So if you'll come back so much more to Yeah if you'll come back to the next episode. We're gonna continue this story so you just get a an understanding of our how we started, you might say and and ultimately will lead up to ministry and join with me. So thank you for for listening and bearing with us and learning about us. If you hey by the way if you ever have a question Comment about what we do or who we are or something to happen, you can always reach us at Rayburnhair at gmail.com and so we're always willing to discuss and and so you can learn more. But I'm Rayburn Hare. And I'm Donna, and this is Join With Me Podcast. We trust you enjoyed today's sharing from the heart. If you want to learn more. Please feel free to contact us at Rayburnhair at gmail.com. Or you can go to our website, joinwithme.life. Thank you for listening. Be sure to share with a friend and have a blessed day on purpose.