Let The Cold Winds Blow

It was snowing. And snowing. And freezing. And I had to attend classes on crutches. We had to let some loan payments slip in order to buy food and medicine. But an amazing thing began to happen. Even though we were careful not to bemoan our plight to other student families, it seemed that several times when we could barely scrape up enough for the next meal, a little bit of money would show up.

Sometimes it would be with an unsigned card, in an envelope, put on the inside of our storm door. Other times we would find an envelope with money in our campus mailbox. I'm not sure if my wife was working there at the time, but if she was, she was never aware of anyone placing gifts in our own box. Birthday, Christmas and anniversary money always came at the right time.

We also got to know a couple, Mike and Jane, who were a great encouragement to us. Mike worked full time as a machinist, so that Jane could get her degree. They were not professing Christians, but surely showed Christian love and obedience to Christ's teaching. Once, when our car broke down, Mike cheerfully crawled under it for an hour or so, on a bitter cold day, and fixed the problem. And this after having just gotten off of work on third shift. Sadly, however, as we had done with so many "friends" before, we didn't develop a close relationship with Mike and Jane because they didn't believe as we did. Even among fellow believers the doctrines had to match, or we couldn't bind together. The Lord would begin to set that straight later on in our lives.

The most memorable of acquaintances, though, was a long-haired hippie-looking fellow named Jim. He approached me one day when I was trying to manipulate my crutches and dropping books. He was wearing a rumpled khaki outfit and asked if he could carry my books. I reluctantly agreed, but warned him that it could go no further, as I was married. (Kidding!) Jim was a student at Judson, and he and his wife, Rosie, would often house-sit around the area, including the home of the noted Christian childrens book writer, V. Gilbert Beers.

Jim wanted to become a full time youth pastor at a large church. Being at a Christian school in the north presented a first for us, in that the students chose Christian careers, rather than being "called," as I had been taught. As our friendship grew with Jim and Rosie, our discussions centered on the fundamental faith. But I don't recall any judgemental behavior, which often comes with the territory. We certainly did it enough.

Jim was my sound technician for my senior project, which was a stationary stage setting for Robert Bolt's "A Man For All Seasons." We destroyed Lois's curling iron to carve grooves in styrofoam to simulate castle block and recorded roosters crowing, wind howling and dogs barking. All in all, it was great fun, and I got an A+.

Having visited a number of churches, we finally settled on a fairly large non-denominational church. More song-leading, choir-directing and solos. We would meet a number of interesting and loving people --- especially one amazing man, Norman Jonsson, the creator of Tony The Tiger and The Jolly Green Giant.