My Son used this story in his Fathers Day sermon at Jefferson Avenue BC. It will take your breath away. Charles Francis Adams, son of President John Quincy Adams, and grandson of President John Adams, wrote in his diary one day in 1846: “Went fishing with my son today–a day wasted.” His son, Henry Brooks…

Ruth and I graduated from SEMO University in Cape Girardeau. She has a music degree. I have a math  degree. We moved to New Orleans Seminary in August 1972. I soon became Pastor of Airport BC in Grenada MS. For over three years we drove 600 miles round trip on weekends. John II was born…

Ruth and I married on March 20, 1971. I was on college Spring break. Ruth was on Spring break from teaching music in grades K-12 at Marquand MO. We spent our first two nights at the Frontier Motel (Room 10) in Jackson MO. Years later, the building was gutted by fire. I had my Uncle…

When on my 19th birthday, December 22, 1970, I asked Ruth to consider marrying me, she asked when was I thinking the wedding would be. She expected me to say two years, since that’s how far I was from college graduation. When I said August, she was totally caught off guard. We kept moving the…

I proposed to Ruth on my 19th birthday, December 22, 1970. If I had it to do again, I would have asked her two years earlier, and saved myself a lot of grief. That day I first asked permission from her parents. Her dad was with his brother, who said, “If you are ever unkind…

It is significant I am telling this story while I am an Interim Pastor. That’s the role I had when I met Ruth. I was serving at Calvary Baptist Church in Dexter MO. Sunday night church finished a little early one evening (a short sermon?), and I decided to drive to my home church, South…