“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength.” Deuteronomy 6:5

God has been by my side since I was born, an identical twin, with two brothers, eight and ten years older. We grew up in an E & R church, on the Eastside of St. Paul. Three generations attended that church, and we had youth groups and an active congregation.

We were shy girls, got jobs at the same insurance company and got mixed up there, too. We were very close until her husband moved her and their four children to a farm in Clear Lake, quite a shock.

My sister was sick for maybe a year with ovarian cancer and died at age forty-six. “Okay God,” I cried, “What now?” I had lost my mother, then my twin, and finally my dad – all in 1989!

I hardly remember two years, and finally one day I said to God, actually begged, “Help me heal, and I will serve You.”

We went to church on Christmas Eve; Pastor Karen Johnson was serving with Pastor Dennis Nelson and wife, Sue. Each week, Sue talked to me and pushed me into a congregational life group that was meeting. I was scared to death.

Soon, I made friends my age; we organized banquets; I made paraments with Sue and that was the beginning of peace, friends, and serving my Lord! Thanks to a kind, caring pastor, and friends, we were working to make Bethel a friendly, welcoming church. It has given me a life of believing that for everything there is a purpose and in talking to God, I can find peace and love.

Prayer: Dear God, thank You for bringing me out of grief, to heal and serve You. May other friends lost in grief find You and have peace. Amen.