The Facts, Ma'am, Just the Facts

Way back in the little town of Sodus, NY, smack dab in the heart of apple country, lived a tiny family. I was the wife and mother. Actually, I still am, but no sense of "tiny" exists any longer.

I don't know if we were typical or peculiar, but although Jim worked for the Establishment--we protested the Vietnam war and that Establishment on the weekends.

Chronologically, I may have the following details mixed up, but in retrospect they happened, and surely according to God's plan.

I remember sitting in our first little home, rocking our second baby, scanning our simple belongings but thinking, "I have everything I ever wanted--a husband I love and who loves me; an actual family of my own; our home in the country, even a second-hand pool--but what was this empty feeling inside?"

Jim went along with all my "ideas" as we became temporary vegetarians, attended childbirth classes, then LaLeche League meetings. It seems as though 3 things happened at once:

*one of my new friends from the classes excitedly loaned me her Bible;

* My LLL mentor began telling me that there really is a devil (I was surprised she still believed this) I mean, after all, I was educated now;

* And an old friend gave me a book to read called "The Cross and the Switchblade".

I had seen David Wilkerson on a talk show. When he said that the only hope was to accept Jesus Christ as Savior, I set my iron down, pulled up my hassock and waited for him to explain what that meant. My confusion was that I had been a pretty religious person, but had never heard that terminology.

In the midst of these incidents, Jim and I decided to visit every church in town. Maybe we'd find one that simply used the Bible, since we were getting back to the basics in every other area.  And so,we,a very hippie-looking couple began our search, as God Himself was "searching" for us.

After our second visit to a Baptist Church, the Pastor greeted us with a jovial, "You folks sure are hard to get a hold of. I've been to your place 3 times and you weren't home."

We were so impressed that he cared that much, that Jim asked me to call him and invite him and his wife over the following night. Being a Cross and the Switchblade "scholar", I quipped, "Maybe we'll even get saved." Of course, I was joking. I still couldn't comprehend it's meaning.

The next morning as I called the pastor, I had no idea that at that very moment, he and his wife were asking God if they should try to visit us again.

That night, April 12,1971, thanks to Pastor and Mrs. Bate, a borrowed Bible, some curiosity about this strange "saved" terminology, and a dawning on this young wife that,yes, Marilyn, there really is a devil...God brought peace through our Lord Jesus Christ. Truly, peace.

These are the facts, but what I can't convey to you is the love and gratitude to my Savior, Jesus Christ, for saving my soul, and changing the whole course of my life. That itself will take a lifetime.

--Marilyn Cunningham
Pastor Jim's wife