Oklahoma is OK, but I’ll take NEW ENGLAND anyway!

The Institute asked me to sing the following morning for the chapel service, but by the time I walked from the mobile home Jim and I were staying in to the chapel, my voice had frozen up. I struggled through one song, then began to share my experiences with Teen Challenge. As it turned out, the students were doing a play based on, “The Cross and the Switchblade,” and they were more interested in my experiences with Teen Challenge than my singing anyhow! So all was not lost.

Jim had lost his job with a wire manufacturer in Massachusetts and had placed applications with several companies, so he was eager to call Liz to see if he had received any calls. He had, so rather than going to Maine we returned to North Brookfield, and I went back to Charlotte.

Jim proved to me on that trip that he is a great salesman! When he called me later, telling me he had been hired by a chemical company in New Hampshire, I was thrilled to hear from him again. He called to ask if I would consider coming to New Hampshire to sing in concerts if he would schedule them, and help me with my expenses.

He began contacting churches as he made his chemical sales calls, and in these churches I was his product. He, unlike myself, didn’t believe in taking “no” for an answer. When he asked pastors if they would schedule me for a concert they could agree to a tentative date and “go ask the deaconate,” but “NO” was not a part of Jim’s vocabulary.

As a result of this one man’s influence upon my life I sang in churches across New England. His family became ‘MY’ family; his friends ‘MY’ friends. We traveled together many miles during those early years of our friendship. At the Idlenot Restaurant in Peterborough, N. H. he introduced me to Russ Bryant - director of Monadnock Bible Conference.

That introduction not only had me singing for nearly 25 years for Labor Day Week-ends, it resulted in more singing engagements than any other contact in my life! In addition, many precious friends who would remain among my favorite people - even until now. It didn’t stop in New England, but spilled over into New York, Pennsylvania, Washington State – and Alaska!

During those early years there was no such thing as “music tracks” for everyone to sing with. I would buy instrumental albums and if there were any songs on them I could sing with, I would make a tape copy and sing with the tapes in churches. The time has come that music tracks are owned by every singer and would-be singer, in America! Today, there are singers across New England who do what I did for more than 25 years!

Jim, Elizabeth and their three biological children, plus dozens more from their foster care home, became my extended family. Liz was New Hampshire’s “Mother of the Year,” and all who know Liz, know she deserved it! She has helped children who came from abusive backgrounds, hearing impaired, and did it all “in the name of the Lord!” She has cooked more meals, wiped more runny noses, dried more tears, attended more soccer games and school functions, than most would want to think about.

Jim distributed Bibles “free of charge” across New Hampshire, and to the State Prison in Concord. His generous and loving spirit caused him to reach out to people who may never give him the thanks he deserves, but God keeps the record!