Dear Becky,
So…you have just turned 12 in the spring of 1961. School in the fall will place you in 7th grade! Changing up a bit, you’ll have more teachers who will rotate from class to class. Still you will have the bus rides and the stack of books to haul back and forth. You always loved school. I still do.
Do you remember thinking and praying (near where the pump house now stands) that you wanted to choose the right and the good? Oh, you were far from perfect, but the trajectory of you life headed in the upward direction. What an advantage you had with parents who loved the Lord with all their minds, hearts and strength … and their neighbors as themselves. Now at 71, I am going to tell the world (by God’s grace) how HE worked through Marshall’s and Lizetta’s lives to make the Bible come alive and to demonstrate authentic relationships with Jesus.
Do you recall wondering how the years would pass? Would I get married? Would I have children? Now after 46 years of marriage to David L. McMillan, we have six birth and several in-law children, and 20 grandchildren. Hasn’t God been wonderfully benevolent and gracious?!!
Besides raising our own children, we have been blessed to share our home with other children whose families have not been able to care for them. It’s been a humbling, enriching, challenging, joyful process and we still have much to learn.
Remember when I begged Mom to let me use her sewing machine? That stands as one of my better choices in life–still serving me and others well. Nearing the end of life now, I am asking our Father in heaven to help me nourish and protect that servant spirit of young Rebekah of old as long as I have breath in this body: “I will draw also for your camels until they have finished drinking.” It’s still quiet here in the woods where we both have lived. I haven’t heard a whip-poor-will lately–come to think of it–but they were a wonderful connection back to your years here and when I moved back to Bible Witness Camp as an adult. Now on our deck–overflowing with hot pink impatiens–the wrens nearby delight us with their song.
My prayer for this season of my life comes from Psalm 71:17-18.
“O God, You have taught me from my youth, and I still declare Your wondrous deeds. And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to all who are to come.”
Yours truly.
