Jay & Donna's 60th Anniversary, Donna's 90th Birthday Celebration

Donna & Jay

Passing on the Baton

Guy honored his parents and prayed for them.

His music and singing made the evening a delight.

David & Esther

We had a lovely time.

Mary (Frances) Bailey Stoops

Mary (Frances) Bailey Stoops was born 100 years ago. The Bailey family got their water from a spring, and hauled it down not too far from the house where they held it in a cistern, something like a small pool.

The Great Depression was not too bad for them since there was very little they needed to buy. The administration paid farmers to shoot their cattle, evidently to create shortages. Seems to be a parallel with the one we are diving into.

Mom made her wedding dress.

One photo of Mother, when she was about 40, shows her hiding behind a very young cypress tree. She was small in her own eyes, like Saul hiding among the baggage when they went to crown him as king. But the good part is, she never became proud. Mother walked with God. Several in the retirement home in Visalia rebuked us for taking her away, when my sister-in-law had her transferred to Fresno.

Mother loved vegetable and flower gardening: roses, irises, black-eyes, green beans, corn, okra... She jarred apricots, so we could enjoy them all year. She blanched corn and headed up her children to help cut it off the cob to freeze for the winter. Mother or Daniel who milked the cow each morning and evening at six. Mother was a faithful neighbor, visiting each of the five homes surrounding us, and sold certain ones a gallon of fresh cow's milk for 30 cents, though she was allergic to it herself. 

One day, Mother was transferring our “Bossie” Guernsey cow up our road toward the highway, when it broke into a run, dragging Mom down the side of the road. Mom was about ten feet behind, holding onto the chain.

Mother faithfully bathed at the end of her life, Mrs. Cole, an old Indian woman who claimed that she was 119-years-old.

Neighbors, John Whittington, Sr. and Mrs. Cole, also it was Mr. or Mrs. Myers, I don’t recall which, who prayed with mother, to receive Christ as their savior, when their life came to an end.

Sometimes people gave us used clothing. Once, when Mother was out, I put on a pair of short-shorts and a matching sleeveless top that did not cover my abdomen. When Mother spotted me, I was down the street attempting to sell orders for imprinted Christmas cards. Boy, was I in trouble!

Here Samuel and I are with Grandma Bailey, Mom's mother.

During my years in college and beyond, Mother’s words never left me. I knew in each circumstance, just what Mom would say: “I wouldn’t want to be in their place on the Judgement Day...   Marry in haste, repent at leisure... Babies would not take so much of our time if we did not spend so much time looking at them... Necessity is the mother of invention... A stitch in time saves nine... A willful waste makes a woeful want... Esther Lee, as sweet as she can be... Notice that all the food on the table, we have either raised [beef, milk] or [garden] grown.”

Mother encouraged me when there were heartbreaks, “If you are not the right one for him, then he is not the right one for you.” Or, cautioned me, “Esther, I don’t think he is the right one for you.” When David asked Dad if he could marry me, Mother said, “I’m so happy for you.”

And it was Mother, who pressed us in 1982 with urgency that we listen to Focus on the Family. There we learned from Raymond & Dorothy Moore that homeschooling gives more interaction with adults, therefore can be like the "making of kings." 

Here are our first five children with Mom & Dad, their grandparents.

Mother’s favorite chapter in the Bible, Psalm 103, is also mine: “His kingdom rules over all.”

Here is Mother with six of her seven grown children.

Rembering Uncle George Stoops

Gathering with Cousins
Letters from George's three daughters (center in photo) and his one biological grandson were the best part of the memorial service.
I remember Uncle George most for his delightful humor, sensitivity, prayers, singing with gusto and his stories.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/idahopress/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=187187222

George was born on April 26, 1922 to Matie (Jones) and Clifford Stoops at Viola, Wisconsin. He was the youngest of three brothers (Marion, Westley, and Norval), and one sister, Pauline. Brother Marion drowned at 17, and sister Pauline died at 19. His father passed away at 43 years old, so his mother was left to raise the 3 remaining boys, Westley, Norval and George. Matie moved the family to Nampa, Idaho in 1936 where George first attended junior high school in Nampa, then graduated from Nampa High School in 1941. After graduation, he attended Northwest Nazarene College for two years where he met and married Betty Jane Dillon on June 28, 1943. George worked on a dairy farm for a brief time and also received schooling in welding and meat cutting. He was inducted into the U.S. Navy in 1943 but transferred into the army in 1944 and ultimately was stationed with company F 383rd infantry on the island of Okinawa. Not long after arriving on the island, George was severely wounded in direct combat by a hand grenade but miraculously survived his wounds and was later awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. He was honorably discharged in April of 1946 at Fort Lewis, Washington, Madison Hospital Center. George started working for the Idaho Department of Employment soon after his discharge from the service and worked for the state for 34 years before retiring. During those years with the state, he worked for the employment office in Nampa and was responsible for placing many local individuals into their lifetime jobs, as well as many teenagers with summer jobs. George's later years were spent in the Boise office. In addition to placement of individuals in various jobs he served as secretary to governor's committee on hiring the handicapped. Part of his duties were to oversee statewide contests in the schools where students would compete by drawing posters or writing essays, all promoting the theme of hiring the handicapped. When the contests were concluded, he would travel to Washington, D.C. with the student winners. George was also instrumental in the passage of a bill to designate handicapped parking spaces, not knowing that one day in the future, one of his own daughters would benefit from this law.

George was a member of Bethel Nazarene Church & taught Sunday School for more than 30 years. As a younger man, he was also a youth leader.  George loved music. He loved to sing with several quartets and also as a soloist and did so, often in church, as well as other special occasions.

George is survived by 3 daughters; Judy Rice of Caldwell; Connie (Terry) Rogers; and Georganna (Jim) Bower of Nampa; a sister-in-law, JoAnn (Roger) Wilcox of Nampa; 8 grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren and a number of nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his wife, Betty of 73 years; 3 brothers, Westley, Norval and Marion; a sister, Pauline and an unnamed baby sister.

Walking in the Spirit

If we say, "God told me..." is that a biblical statement? Let us walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the deeds of the flesh. [Please bear with the first 60 seconds. David got off to a slow start, but the teaching is excellent.] Here's David's teaching from today:

Trinity Covenant Church Sermons

Grandma Seppi

Gma Seppi showed us a very old bible she has had for many years but we did not recall seeing it before. She asked Lance what the bible says about women. 

Lance read to her: Titus 2:3 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; 4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed." 

She assented that this was good.

Pray that God will draw her to seek Him before it is too late. She anticipated a last minute conversion. Perhaps God will open her eyes so that she will see and understand.

Travel

Melody shows Mercy to Grandma and Piccolino 

Grandma, Mary, Regina, Mercy

Ralph & Carol

Jonathan & Sharon

Shower for Mercy

 

Greg & Regina and Mercy, Abigail