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Gloria’s Testimony, Part 3 On Thanksgiving Day the year after I graduated from high school, Allen told me his plans for the future. He wanted to be a missionary pilot. “I’m going to Moody Bible Institute for 2 years,“ he said, “and then come home for a year to earn more money before I finish my education.” Then he asked me if I would wait for him for two years. I’m not sure what happened with that idea, but we were married the following April and moved to Moody Bible Institute in September. Allen became a full-time student, and I got a job as a nurse’s aide and took a few classes in Evening School. We had one room in the married couples’ dorm across the street from the campus. There are a lot of mixed emotions about our time at Moody. I was glad we didn’t wait to get married. We met some wonderful people. I also learned about trusting God and knowing his will. After the first year, Allen decided to get his flight training on his own. He said we could get the Bible School training closer to home in Michigan. We came back to Michigan, and Allen started school at Grand Rapids School of the Bible and Music (GRSBM)—now Cornerstone College. Allen had already taken some flying lessons while he was in the army so he continued to work toward getting his private license while being a full time student at GRSBM. I found another job as a nurse’s aide at Saint Mary’s Hospital. Working in a Catholic Hospital was very interesting. After the first year in Grand Rapids, Allen suggested that I go to school for a year and he would work. I tried to continue working afternoons and going to school during the day but that didn’t last long. Shortly after I quit working, I woke one morning feeling sick to my stomach. I couldn't even stand the smell of food—very unusual for me. I continued to go to school for the next four months feeling sick most of the time, sitting in the back of the classroom for an easy escape. Our first daughter Lisa Dawn was born in August. Three weeks late and just in time for me to be a bride's maid in my sister Linda’s wedding. Shortly after Lisa was born, we moved back to Allen’s home town of Williamston and into a little house. Someone had built the living room and two bedrooms onto a chicken coop. The chicken coop had been turned into a dining area, kitchen, and bathroom, in that order. We did have a bit of a mouse problem, so I learned to stand on the bed and reach for the light chain before stepping onto the floor. Then I would make a noise into the living room before running in to pull that light chain, then repeating that on my way through the dining area, kitchen, and finally into the bathroom. I tried to avoid making that trip during the night but since Nathan Allen was born thirteen months after Lisa, it was usually a nightly trip. When Nate was eleven months old, we moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, so Allen could attend Spartan School of Aeronautics to get his aircraft mechanic training. That was the farthest I had ever been from home and it was difficult. God placed some fantastic people in my life to help me during that year. The church ladies always saw to it that I had a way to get to church and Bible Study and anywhere else I wanted to go. God continued to teach me about His loving care and His patience with me. How easily we forget what He has done for us in the past and complain when things get hard. He provides for us in so many ways that it would take too long to tell them all. After those thirteen months, we came back to the Lansing area. Holly Elexa was born in 1971. I started a Good News club in my home. I loved working with the children and teaching them about Jesus. Most of the mothers were glad to get them out of their hair for a while and were happy to let them come to my house. Most of them had never been to Sunday School or church....
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“Welcome home, thou good and faithful servant.”