My Home, My Heritage

My home and heritage came from two loving parents and a half acre piece of earth not far from where I live now. It was in the countryside of Oregon near a small historic town. My mother was from Southern California and my dad from Kansas. They met in a small Bible School in Portland, Oregon. After living in Portland and in Southern California they ended up in Southern Oregon where I was born.

My folks had a small trailer (8 ft wide and 22 ft long) that they lived in. It was on the land they purchased shortly before I was born. There were 4 children in my family, my oldest sister was 9, my next sister was 7, my brother was 14 months and I was newborn. Yes, we all lived in an 8 ft wide and 22 ft long trailer. My father did add a small bedroom and dining room a little later on the side of the trailer. A recession was going on there and my father could not find steady work. He was a blue collar worker having done a bunch of different things, but jobs were scarce. My parents plan was to build a house, but that was put on hold for a few years. Mom said is was the hardest financial struggle that they had gone through in their whole married life. They lived from paycheck to paycheck, counting every penny and making it stretch as far as it would go. Many times my mom only had 50 cents to pay on the hospital bill that they had gotten when I was born. We only had simple gifts for birthdays and Christmas, many were handmade, my father did not own a rototiller, so he hand spaded the land to keep all the weeds down. Many times he had to walk to the jobs he had because he had no money for gas and he would have to wire the soles on his shoes because there was no money for new ones. Though our material possessions were small, our joy was great! My folks loved each other and us kids so much. They were so happy to take us to church and be with God’s people. Mom said that when they would load us kids up in the car to go to church that she felt like she had 4 million bucks! Her heart was full of love and hope in the Lord.

A plywood mill opened up and my dad got a job there. It was a good steady job. So they were able to get a loan ($8000) to build our house. My dad laid out the plans on a white piece of butcher paper and got a lot of books from the library on how to build. He also had grown up on a farm and had learned to be handy with a hammer at a young age. So, they began the work. It was mainly in the evenings and weekends. As mom had to care for my brother and I while my older sisters were at school and my dad worked. They had many adventures in faith in this endeavor to build a house. When my dad began to build the trusses for the roof, he didn’t know anything about the crown of the wood. A man came by who was a builder the very day Dad began. He asked him if he knew about the crown and Dad didn’t. He explained it to him, my father was able to build the trussed correctly, so that they would not warp and a flat sturdy roof would be the result. Every time they needed new supplies, they made a list, prayed over it and when they got the paper with the sale ads for the week, everything they needed was on sale! My dad was going to start out sawing all the wood by hand for our house and a neighbor came over and gave him a new electric handsaw. Told him to use it as long as he needed it. Dad wore out the saw by the end of the whole building project, but he had plenty of money at that time to buy the neighbor a new saw. One time when my dad was doing the wiring in the house, something stumped him. He wanted to make a 3 way switch and didn’t know how to do it. He prayed and asked God to help him. He began talking out loud to himself on how to do it and followed what came out of his mouth but it wasn’t from his knowledge. It worked perfectly! A similar thing happened to my mom when my dad had her doing the taping of the dry wall. Dad had gotten general instructions from the building supply store and told mom. She tried it and made a huge mess and it looked terrible. She sat down in total frustration and asked God to help her. She got up began to talk to herself, ideas came into her head that had never been there and she was able to do the job without a problem. Several people saw her taping job and they said they had seen professional work that was not as good as Mom’s.

They were able to build a small 4 bedroom home in 2 years and stayed within their budget of $8000! So at the age of 4 years old, I remember putting all my things in a cardboard box and walking with my brother and sisters into our new house. I can remember twirling around in the middle of the house and being thrilled that I could do that with out touching a thing!! We were home and I lived there all my growing up years, feeling safe, warm and loved. My folks had not only built a house but they had built a home, resting on a strong foundation ... our Lord, Jesus Christ. I grew up in the knowledge of Him and for that I am most grateful!