August 22, 2008

• julie & jim

  
  

  
  

  *  sorry about the quality of my
  pictures.  obviously they’re old.

  it was the amazing, wonderful JESUS
  PEOPLE days, late 60′s~early 70′s,  where hippies were getting saved and sitting
  indian-style on the floor in the  aisles of crowded churches with their
  ripped-up jeans and bare feet…..worshipping Jesus.  God was soverignly calling
  out first generation Christians, such as keith green and larry
  norman…..giving  them new songs and birthing something completely foreign at
  that time…..something we now call contemporary Christian music.  i was
  privileged to live during this wonderful time of the outpouring of the Spirit of
  God! 

  it was in this era, during my senior
  year of high school that i became desperate to KNOW God.  i wanted Him and Him
  alone!He so faithfully came and filled me full to overflowing!  i was
  transformed!  completely!  my desires changed.  my music changed.  my spare time
  changed.  what i wanted to do with my life changed.  i was a brand new
  creation! 

  around this time, someone had snapped a
  picture of my sister and i at a festival….which ended up on the front page of
  “eternity” magazine.  (i’m on the left.  wire-rimmed glasses and long dress).  
  

  

  MY BACKGROUND:
  i
  was raised in conservative lancaster county, PA, in a Christian home and
  attended a mennonite church with my parents all my life.  i had 3 sisters.  we
  were very close…..and my family was very close and a huge part of my life.  i
  had many relatives who all lived within a 30 mile radius.  
   
  JIM’S
  BACKGROUND:
  jim was born and raised on key biscayne, FL. in a
  non-Christian home.  the only time he remembers going to church growing up was
  on easter sunday.  he had one sister who was 18 years older than him.   his
  stepfather managed crandon park on key biscayne so with that job came a beach
  house.  when he walked out his front door, he was on a pristine white  sand
  public beach.  he barely remembers one relative….an aunt in
  CA. 
  

  

  jim has such an interesting testimony that entangles its way into our
  story.
  as i said before, he did not grow up in a Christian home.  he dappled
  in drugs.  surfing was his life.  so he dropped out of college and headed off to
  hawaii shortly after graduating from high school.  he lived in lahaina, maui in
  an abandoned beach shack, living off of beans and rice cooked over a camp fire. 
  he surfed by day, and built a railroad by night.  one day, jim literally bumped
  into another surfer who shared his testimony with him.  that very night, he went
  to church with this guy and walked down the aisle repeating the sinner’s
  prayer.  from that day, he was transformed!  he stayed on for years at that
  church and grew in the Lord.

  

  and with this background, i’ll
  begin….

  OUR LOVE STORY

  is anyone out there old enough to
  remember JESUS ’75?  

  (it has since changed its name to
  CREATION.)

  i was 24 years old.
  and i was
  secretary of JESUS ’75,  a 3-day camping festival….. held in morgantown, PA. 
  a farmer’s potato field was transformed into a tent city overnight…..as 40,000
  people gathered to hear teaching and musicians and worship Jesus.  
  as i was
  working in the office under a huge tent several days before the event, someone
  came up and asked me if i could find some work do to for this guy named jim.  i
  found out that he was from FL and had arrived early for the festival to visit a
  friend.  he had just been laid off his landscaping job, so he had loaded his VW
  squareback station wagon, with all his earthly possessions, and surfed his way
  along the coast  up to PA.

  

  i couldn’t help but notice his appearance.  he had long, curly bleached-out
  blonde hair and blue eyes.  he was wearing corduroy OP shorts and a long sleeved
  t-shirt.  and brown flip flops.  and i was attracted to his hands…which were
  tanned and weathered by the sun.
   
  as i remember, we talked very little. 

  for anyone remembering Jesus ’75, it was called “the year of the mud”.
  torrential downpours had people  walking around with plastic bags over their
  feet and legs…..so deep was the mud!  amazingly, God’s grace so covered all
  who attended, even forming a greater bond and unity between us because of the
  mud.
   
  after the event was over, i found jim staying on. he wanted to
  serve wherever God wanted him.  he ended up with the nasty job of dismanteling
  the porta-pottys.  he also became part of the general clean-up crew…..who were
  finding all sorts of items that had been lost and left behind in the mud.
   

  he tells a great story….how God, unknowingly was preparing him for what
  was ahead.  and giving Him the desires of his heart.
   
  as he was picking
  up the various items left behind in the mud, he was wearing a pair of adidas
  blue and white tennis shoes.  the heel had worked its way loose….so that with
  each step it stuck in the mud and flapped.  he started praying, asking God to
  supply him with some string, or something, to tie his heel on so he could walk
  without the annoying mud flapping.  shortly after, he found a whole tennis
  shoe!  his exact size! white and blue in color!  God immediatley spoke to him
  saying, “how often have you asked for a shoestring when i wanted to give you the
  whole shoe?” 
   
  so….the event was over.  jim still stayed on…sleeping
  in his VW wagon, taking showers in the pond.  

    
  i remember talking with
  him and telling him that if he’s going to stick around, he should be in
  fellowship somewhere.  i just happened to be a part of a wonderful small group
  that met almost nightly.  so i brought him in and introduced him to everyone. 
  we were all about Jesus! 

    i remember one evening after
  eating cantelope on the porch,  he picked up his guitar and our spirits
  harmonized as we began worshiping our Creator together.  
   
  i had to
  leave.  my parents and i had previously planned a 3 week camping trip together
  out to CA.  i couldn’t understand why he was still hanging around.  i gave him
  my sister’s address, who lived nearby, saying that perhaps he could stop in for
  a meal or two with them while i was gone.  IF he was still here…..
   
  on
  our way out west, i remember writing a letter to him, by the campfire,  in CO. 

  i called my sister and found out that he did indeed come by her house for
  some meals.  on the phone, she said something to the effect, “julie, he likes
  you.  why else would he be staying on?”  i said, “oh, no!  it’s not like that at
  all.  he’s just my brother.” 
   
  my mom, dad, and i had the most
  wonderful  vacation together….seeing all the coast of CA ~from yosemite down
  to san diego.  we took a boat to catalina island.  we bargained for  blankets,
  jewelry, and embroidered shirts in mexico.  we sat in a hot tub underneath an
  endless starry sky in the desert….talking with other campers  about their
  day’s travels.  it was a memorable, special, and precious last trip together. 

   
  when i got home, jim was still here.  in fact, he called me and said
  he bought tickets to see larry norman at the fulton opera house in
  lancaster….and would i like to go?  that very night!  i wondered what he would
  have done with the tickets had i said no.  but i gladly said yes! 
   i guess
  that was our first date.  although we wouldn’t have called it that back
  then.
   
  shortly after that, he rented an above-the-garage apartment and
  was doing side jobs working for the event co-ordinator who had his own
  business.  he was still sticking around.  and i was wondering what was going
  on.  with us.  
   
  when we got together, all we did was talk about
  the Lord, attend Bible studies, pray, play guitar, and worship.  but…we DID
  still keep getting together.    
   
  one night, he said to me, “do
  you think God is doing something?  like perhaps bringing us together?” 
  i
  shyly said, “it seems like it.”
  up to this point, we never talked about our
  relationship at all.  we were just a brother/sister to each other. 
  our
  conversation just flowed, late into the night, early into the morning, as we sat
  in the sunroom of my parent’s home.  me on a chair.  him on a sofa.  so in awe
  were we both over what we felt was surely God’s supernatural leading in bringing
  us together.  to spend the rest of our lives.  together.  it was a surreal
  evening!  and we didn’t want it to end!
   
  as was my custom after dates, i
  went into my parent’s bedroom to share my evening with them.  i was on cloud
  nine!  i literally floated into the room announcing what a wonderful night we
  had!
  apparently, my dad was watching the clock and he angrily said, “what
  kind of a guy would stay THIS late?” 
  i felt like i had slammed into a wall
  and had the wind knocked out of me.
  immediately, instead of getting mad at my
  dad for ruining what was the best night of my life, i know that God gave me a
  Holy Spirit check.   because, out of my mouth, came the words, “you’re right,
  dad.  and i’m sorry it got this late.  but can i tell you why?  and what
  happened?”
  from that moment on, my dad kept quiet and he and mom listened. 
  and shared my joy.  they both knew that God was up to something!
   
  i
  remember driving around one night shortly after that.  jim said he wanted to
  call his best friend in miami and tell him about us.  we stopped at a pay phone
  and he made the call.  when he got back in the car, i asked what his friend
  said.  he told me that he said, “kiss her for me.”
  we shyly laughed.  we
  hadn’t even held hands yet. 
   
  this was september.  four months later, on
  january 1, 1976,  we were married.  in a simple, meaningful wedding.
  

  

  we drove to FL on our honeymoon.  i had yet to meet his step dad.  (i met his
  mother and sister for the first time a day before our wedding.) 
  i fell in
  love with the beauty of the greenish-blue waters and swaying palm trees that
  surrounded the home he grew up in. 
  

  

  the necklace i have on here is made of
  puka shells.  it was an engagement gift to me from jim.  he snorkeled for every
  one of those shells and strung them himself.  i still have it.  and treasure
  it! 
  

  

  

  when we returned home from our honeymoon, we moved into our little love
  shack.
  

  

  jim had just received a small inheritence, before we
  were married, from an aunt he barely knew.  both of us lived frugally off of
  that money for an entire year.  neither of us worked.  we just spent time
  getting to know each other, adjusting to our new roles as husband and wife. 
  looking back, we wonder about the wisdom of that year; however, we do believe
  the time was needed.  our parents graciously shut their mouths although i’m sure
  they were questioning the wisdom of our decision. 
  

  

  

  two years after we were married, God blessed us with twin girls.  we named them
  jennifer leah and jessica lynn. 
   jim was having a hard time adjusting to the
  cold winters in PA.  he wanted to move to HI.
  he wanted to show me his
  spiritual birthplace and introduce me to his spiritual family.  so when our twin
  girls were 2, we moved to lahaina, maui.  it was one of the hardest years of my
  life….but also one of the best.  isn’t that how it goes?  i was
  stretched…..and grew more during that year than perhaps my entire life.  it
  was a very interesting season! i was grateful to learn and understand my husband
  so much better by seeing his spiritual heritage…..as well as adapt to the
  laid-back hawaiian life style that was so much a part of his personality.
  

    jim worked as a bellman at a hotel. 
  i put my name in to babysit at the huge resorts and many times i asked if it
  would be OK if  i would bring my girls along as playmates for the children.  we
  worked and helped where we could at our church, lahaina christian fellowship.  i
  drove the church’s VW bus…picking up children for sunday school.

    things happen in hawaii that never
  would happen anywhere else!  it’s just that kind of place.  jim ended up being
  in the wedding of the producer of the musical “hair”.  we traveled the winding
  road to hana where the wedding took place under a waterfall with a camera man
  hanging out of a helicopter filming overhead.  barry mcquire sang “the wedding
  song” while a local girl did a hula dance to it.  where, other than hawaii,
  would this ever happen?  i could write a book on our year spent
  there.  

  two years later, we added another
  little girl, jericho lei’lani,  to our family.  who, interestingly enough, would
  end up in YWAM in hawaii nearly 20 years later.  

  here is our family as it appears
  today…taken at our daughter, jen’s wedding:

  left to right back:  jericho, me, jim,
  tim (jess’ husband) holding donika.

  left to right front:  jen, ryan,
  jessica holding emersyn.

  

  
  

  THIRTY-TWO YEARS and jim and i
  are still loving each other!

  JESUS has been our glue.  our center! 
  HALLELUJAH!

  
  

  ~ julie
  

  

  
  

  1.How did you know this was the ONE for you?

  jim and i will both attest to the fact that we had never before
  felt God’s Spirit leading and guiding us so strongly as during that time.   we
  almost heard God say, “this is the way.  walk ye in it!” 

  2.What was
  something you never expected in marriage?

  i think women, in general, are romanticists.  when it came to
  love, i grew up with such a fairy-tale perception of it.  that, of course, came
  crashing down hard!  along with arguments of which way the toilet paper roll
  went on, how to squeeze the toothpaste correctly, and why i’m hot and he’s
  cold.  it didn’t help, either, that i grew up in a family with all girls.   

  3.What do you think has been the most valuable thing in helping to
  strengthen your marriage?

  without doubt, it would have to be the fact that we both are sold
  out to Jesus!  jim and i see things very different.  we can almost count on
  being opposite on everything.  if i say WHITE.  he says BLACK.  if i say HOT. 
  he says COLD.  many times in our marriage we would have no way of coming
  together if Jesus wasn’t in the center.  with jim on the right and me on the
  left, we can always count on the fact that submitting to Jesus, he will bring us
  together….to unite with Him in the center.

  4.Marriage is HARD WORK!  i
  think many would agree that it is the hardest thing you’ll ever have to work
  on! 

  (i’ve just fallen in love with the sweet heart of this woman of God – learn more about her right H.E.R.E.)

  • 10:59 am
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