by Gwen McMath
This story is a sequel to “And a Time For Every Purpose Unto Heaven”
Have you ever had an idea that made you think “Why didn’t I think of this sooner”? That was how Charley and I felt after his working for three years at Judson High School. While lIving in Universal City near San Antonio, Texas and just scraping by, my brother-in-law Phil Hart who worked at the General Motors Plant in Arlington, Texas called Charley one day with a terrific offer. He told us that General Motors was hiring extra people for the summer months and that he thought he could get Charley a job if we were interested. That sounded great to us, so we packed up to live with my parents for the summer in Grand Prairie (which is very close to Arlington). It was so great to have some extra money that it made Charley and I take a hard look at teaching and we realized we were never going to get very far financially unless Charley decided to get more schooling. So during that summer we began to try to figure out how Charley could work during the day and take classes at night to get mid-management certified. The plan was that he could become some kind of school administrator and put us in a higher income bracket. I think the story of how this came to be bears telling and glorifies God in that he works in our behalf at all times, even when we fail to see his direction at first.
We knew from word of mouth in the education field that North Texas State University in Denton (now called University of North Texas) was a great place to go for mid-management training, so Charley applied for and was accepted to start classes in the fall. We were excited because we had always loved the small town atmosphere of Denton. It was a college town that had much to offer students beginning with two universities, North Texas State University and Texas Women’s University. I especially loved the city library that had lots of funds for current novels to read and pre-school events for my daughter, Vanessa. The downtown area was beautiful with the Campus Theatre and close by to some great drive-ins for food, and a Mr. Frosty for ice cream! There were also great parks, one had a slide shaped like a boot which my children nick-named “Boot Park.” There was another park that had a great big hill and when it snowed (which was rare) everyone from preschoolers to college kids got out their sleds or pieces of cardboard to go sliding down the hill. I also have to thank the city of Denton public pools for teaching all of my children to swim, which took many years! Another benefit of living in Denton for our us would be that it was closer to our families than we had lived to them for eight years, and we were grateful to have the opportunity to spend more time with them.
Now that Charley had been accepted in school, we had to find a place to live in Denton before the fall semester began (we also would have to move the rest of our things from Universal City). Since Charley was working all the time, I would have to find a house to rent on my own. This meant getting up very early and driving to Denton with Vanessa in tow, and being in Denton early enough to go look at the houses that had been advertised in the paper the evening before. We had to go look at the houses faster than the locals did in case we wanted to rent one. Well, of course, I was nervous that I would miss the right house so I didn’t think much of being so nervous that I threw up my breakfast on the way to Denton two days in a row. By the end of the second day I was discouraged because I thought I had found “the house” but when I knocked on the door a lady came to the door and told me, ”You are too late, I have already rented the house” and she slammed the door in my face! I felt like a beggar with a hungry child who had been thrown aside by society. I did not know the scripture in Psalm 37:25 that promised, …”I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.” I knew I was not righteous within myself but I also knew that I had God’s righteousness by having accepted Jesus. As I walked back down that sidewalk with little Vanessa in hand, I felt discouraged all the way to my toes. I heard in my mind the Lord quietly call my name and say, “Gwen, if I want you to have something, there is not a demon in hell that can prevent it.” There were two reasons I thought this to be unusual. First of all, the Lord didn’t call me by name very often, and secondly, the Lord didn’t speak to me directly very often! Anyway, I put it away in my heart for later. It is a great blessing to me now to know that the Lord called my name because in Revelation 3:5 it says, “He who overcomes(knows Jesus Christ) will, like them, be dressed in white(during the rapture of the saints). I will never block out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.” Add to that John 10:3,”The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his sheep by name and leads them out.” (he meaning Jesus Christ). Jeremiah 29:11-13 says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall you call upon me, and you shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when you search for me with all your heart. ”When I got back to my mom’s that afternoon I was still upset and sick to my stomach. I got a phone call from a friend of mine, Melody Robinson, who lived in Denton. I had asked her to keep her eyes open for us if she saw any property for rent. She told me she had been driving down a residential street that day and noticed a man placing a “For Rent” sign in front of a brand new house. She stopped and talked to the man who promised I could come the next morning to look at the house if I got there before eight o’clock. So I got up early again the next morning and flew up to Denton in my car and rented the house. It was perfect and I was grateful to God for giving us the house as a confirmation that we were on the right track in following his direction. Now, all we had to do was to move all our stuff from Universal City to Denton and for Charley to get a job and start school. I know it looks a little backward to save getting a job for last but Charley was special education certified and we knew from experience that there were never enough special education teachers to hire in a district, so we were pretty sure he could get a special education position if he could find nothing else.
So, now did my stress level decrease? No, oddly enough it didn’t, I was still throwing up. Could it be? Yes, it could, I was pregnant! A trip to the drugstore confirmed this! Charley and I were over the moon at the prospect of having another child but the rest of our family probably thought we were crazy considering our circumstances. The timing was right as to spacing of my children, Vanessa would be about two and a half years old before the new baby would be born but it was a little frightening to be pregnant with Charley having only a job for the summer. The scripture from Isaiah 40:11 that says, ”He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young”(he being Jesus Christ) and was always a great comfort to me while I was pregnant and raising children.
Forgive me for getting a little out of sync here in my story but I must add a little more about the birth of that second baby. I don’t know why it is but women always have to tell their stories about birthing children. When I found out for sure that I was pregnant the doctor told me I was due in January. Early in December I began to get a terrible backache and spent about two days in the bathtub trying to relieve it. On the second day I realized I might be in labor so Charley and I went to the doctor and he looked me over and said, “Go home and get your things together, and don’t stop for lunch.” Our darling Amber was born that day, December 13, 1978 and we brought her home in a Christmas stocking. Now we can go back to the original story. Charley was so good to me, he went back to Universal City and packed up all our things and moved us into the new house without my doing anything since I was pregnant. Did I say my parents were happy to see us go from their house since we had kind of over stayed our welcome with them!
Charley was commuting back and forth to Arlington every day to work at General Motors and we were ready for him to start school soon so he could quit making that long commute. Then a strange thing happened. General Motors started laying off people! Charley was well liked at work so when he received his notice to leave, his boss went in and got his job back for him. The next day he went back into work only to find he had been laid off again. So again, his boss intervened and got him his job back. But, alas, he received a lay off notice at the end of the day and his boss could do nothing about it. This was the first time he had been hired and fired twice in two days! He came home discouraged because he had wanted to work all summer, not just half of it. The next morning he had to go back to General Motors to pick up his check and I saw his papers from North Texas sitting on the desk and decided for some reason to look at them. As I looked over them, I realized if he didn’t go to school the second semester of summer school he wouldn’t finish in a year because he would be one course short! When he got home, I showed him the papers, and he ran over to North Texas to register because the second semester started the next day! When he went to class for the first time the following day he asked the class if anyone knew of a school in the area that was hiring teachers. A lady answered and said her district was hiring, and gave Charley the name of her principal and his number. Charley called him that night and went for an interview and got a job teaching special education in Argyle, Texas. He was employed and the timing of the Lord was unbelievable! During the interview stage Charley had the choice of two jobs, one paid more and was a little more prestigious than a regular teaching position, and the other was the one he took. He told me he felt he should take the regular one instead of the one with more money. We certainly could have used the extra money but realized later down the line that his being hired at Lake Dallas later was tied to the smaller job, so we benefitted much more from his taking the lesser job. Only God could have known this and led Charley to take the right job.
There were two more events that happened while we lived in Denton that were connected to the house we rented on that little street in Denton. As usual, God didn’t place us in that particular place just to bless us, but to bless the people around us also. While we lived in Denton, which was only a few years, we did not belong to a church because we would get up early on Sundays and go to church with Charley’s grandparents at Lakewood Assembly in Dallas or occasionally go to the Methodist Church with my family. We were always encouraged when we went, and the grandparents always took us (and anyone we would bring with us), out to lunch afterwards (a tradition I now enjoy doing as a grandparent). I liked to say that we were fed both spiritually and physically during those trips to church. One of the things amiss in my life spiritually at that time was that I didn’t feel I got much acclaim from anyone for being a stay at home mom, even if it was the hardest job I had ever attempted to do. So I was always praying for opportunities to witness of the love of Jesus to those limited few people that I saw each week. One day when I was at home I heard a knock at the door and when I opened the door there was a nice young college student that was selling books for kids. Of course, today we wouldn’t even let someone in our home, but things were different then and it was acceptable to let salesman in. It was hard for us to have a conversation with Vanessa talking every few seconds but he had managed to show me his books and I had ordered some. I then began to talk to him about his life, and then I talked to him about Jesus. He told me that he wasn’t a Christian but that other people had been talking to him about becoming one. In a few minutes our conversation ended and he left without his making any kind of commitment. I watched him go down the street, stop, turn around, and come running back up to my door. I let him in and he literally knelt down on the floor and said, “I’m tired of fighting this issue. My life is in shambles and I need Jesus. Would I pray for him?” I did and he left a changed man! The neatest thing about it was that I needed that experience as much as he did. I needed to know that I could still serve God while being a little stay at home mom. The house I lived in had also been built and placed there for that young man to walk up to the door and leave forever changed!
The second incident that happened on that street resulted in a long, ongoing friendship and provision from God. My next- door neighbors were Baptist and they began to tell me about a couple in their church who were becoming “too religious” because they were believing in healing and the gifts of the spirit. I didn’t think much about it then except they sounded like my kind of people spiritually and I felt sorry for their situation. A few weeks later my neighbor told me that the lady was really sick and might have a brain tumor. I got her number from my neighbor and called her, introduced myself over the phone, and told her I would like to bring her family a meal since she was sick. Her name was Donna Jensen and with her husband Dennis, they had four boys and she was pregnant again. When I took the food over, we all became instant friends. Donna was indeed sick, the tumor in her brain had been found when they had done blood work for her pregnancy. The type of tumor she had would have to be removed through her nose, and most of those types of tumors grew back again. The worst prospect was that her husband had just quit his job to go to Bible College, so they had no insurance! This seemed like an impossible situation to me and at the time we had no extra money to help much nor did I know anyone with money. I kept praying for her because she needed an operation soon. One day I was reading a column in the Dallas Morning News by Bob St. John who wrote a regular column five days a week, and I always read it because it was human interest oriented and usually funny. As I finished reading the column I wondered what would happen if I wrote Mr. St. John about Donna? Could he help? I decided to write to him and see. I wrote him a letter about Donna and then forgot about it. A few weeks later he called Donna and asked her if he could do a story about her. He interviewed her and wrote a very moving story about her. He set up an account to pay her hospital bills and money came pouring in to pay for her operation. I couldn’t believe it! God had provided! There was one man who read the column about her that helped her financially for over twenty years, even providing funds for her children to go to college. The column about her was so good that later when Bob St. John wrote a book about some of his columns, he included her story. She survived her surgery and gave birth to a healthy little girl, after four brothers. This was another case of the Lord directing a man to build a house for us to live in so I could hear my neighbors tell of a plight of a woman in need and God could answer her. This is not the end of her story. Donna went on to have surgery to remove the tumor two more times, and still lives with the tumor today. She has been the longest survivor of this particular type of tumor ever to be documented. She has lived to see all of her children have children. Donna taught me a lot about being a friend and she has always been a true friend to me. The scripture tells us how to be a good friend in John 15:13 when it says, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Donna is still active, raises Chihuahuas, and last year one of her dogs won the Westminster Dog Show for that breed.. She texted me last week with the sad news that she has developed breast cancer. Time to seek God and pray for her again.
There were two other sets of neighbors that God blessed during the time we lived in Denton. One was the neighbor’s who lived on the other side of me. The lady who lived there was kind of odd but was raising two children and friendly enough, her husband traveled a lot with his job. She began to tell me about her background of being horribly abused both physically and sexually. I took a walk with her one day when she was upset, and right before my eyes she changed her personality from a normal lady to a small child. It was chilling and something I had never seen before.
In the coming months I would witness many quick personality changes in her where she would appear as an infant sucking her thumb or lying on her floor in the fetal position, and then back to a somewhat normal person. Of course, my main concern were her children, who were beginning to show signs of being mentally unstable themselves. What do you do when you meet someone like her and realize that she needs much more help than you can give? You pray and do what you can. She ended up in psychiatric care, which is where she should have been. I was sorry I couldn’t do more for her. I knew from the beginning that I couldn’t do a lot for her, but I did try to help make her life better. The Lord loved her too, and had a man build a little house by the side of the road next to her so she could know how much the Lord loved her.
The last neighbors helped were the ones across the street from me. The lady was from England and had met and fell in love with her husband while he was stationed in England, and then moved back to Texas with him. She did not like Texas very well and they were on the brink of splitting up when we met them. God had other plans. We began to include them in all our gatherings and before long both she and her husband had become Christians. She had such a personality change, from complaining all the time to enjoying life.
So you see, there were lots of providential things that occurred from my friend Melody stopping on that street that day and helping us to get a house to live in. I believe the Lord blessed Melody for stopping that day (she didn’t have to), I believe the Lord blessed the man who built the house though he might not have known God’s motives for having him build it, and I believe that even before that house was built that the Lord worked to place all those people on that street because he wanted to bless them. I believe that that young salesman walking in my neighborhood that day had someone praying for him or he was praying, and that the Lord led him to my door to bless not just him but me because that is the way the Lord works, he never blesses one in a situation without the opportunity of blessing the other. He loves us all.
Remember how the Lord spoke to me about losing that house and said, “Gwen, if I want you to have something there is not a demon in hell that could prevent it.” I believe that the Lord was telling me to always wait for his plan because it is better than my own plans, not to underestimate the power of evil to try to thwart God’s plans, but to believe that nothing will keep me from finding God’s perfect will in my life if I will but seek it. The scripture says in Luke 8:12, “There are those along the path that hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so they may not believe and be saved.” So I must remember to pray work with others so the devil will not take the ones that God has saved. 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” Don’t let it be me or you. I am a plain, ordinary person but I serve an extraordinary God who makes life an adventure if we trust him to lead us. If you are living a boring and unfulfilled life, consider a relationship with Jesus Christ. You will never be the same. This is one of the secrets in the life of the Christian. I have lived without a relationship with Jesus, and a life with one, and living with one is far more exciting and fulfilling. Why don’t you try following Jesus into the life he has created for you, I promise it will surpass all your expectations!