Sis. Ruth Nichols, wife of VP Rev. Don Nichols, has been a Pastor's wife for over 30 years, and has a true heart for those in Ministry.

You will love her insights as she draws from her many years in pastoral work. 

She is the mother of 3 children, and is also a registered nurse.

    

A Challenge From The Conference Parsonage

Dear Preacher’s Wives,

I would like to wish each of you a Happy New Year!  May 2010 be a year of Revival for our Pilgrims and for America!

God has laid it on my heart to send out a cry for prayer for revival among our own people, the Pilgrims, and for America.  We are setting 9AM every Tuesday morning.  If possible, gather your available ladies at your church or in a home and begin praying.  United prayer has brought revival and conversions in the past.  It will do it again.

Let us pray and believe God for revival in our churches, and to set our hearts on fire for Camp meeting, and to bring a mighty awakening to America of sin, of righteousness and of judgment.  John 16:8.  Revival is the only hope for us and the only hope for America.

~Patsy Southerland

HOW DID THEY MEET?

Have you ever looked across the Conference and wondered how some of the pastors and wives met?  I have taken a little survey of some, and this is what I gleaned!

Steve and I met at GBS.  He invited me to go to the school fall picnic with him, then we decided to date.  On our first real date Steve parked his car on Channing St. so we could go down the steps on the side, and wouldn’t have to walk all the way down the ramp in front of everyone.  Unknown to us, John Parker and Steve Vernon had roped off the steps.  When we realized what had been done, I just stepped around the rope and jumped off the end.  When we drove off, Steve and John were looking over the wall with their mouths hanging open.~Sheryl Clemens 

When Mark got saved, he was attending a church in another town.  The children from that church attended our Christian School.  We met during one of their revivals.  Our first date has held many different and interesting memories.  It was a wonder Mark ever came back!  My uncle, who was always teasing and joking around, and his family, had come to visit.  When Mark walked in the door, the first words from my uncle’s mouth were, “Hi, uglier than I am!”  Later that night while we were playing a game, his 3 year old daughter walked over to Mark and stuck her finger, which had a big glob of butter on it, up his nose.  Sadly enough, that was the last time any of us saw my uncle, because on Monday afternoon, he was standing by the road talking to his boss when a drunk driver hit both of them and killed Uncle David.  I am very thankful that Mark was able to overlook some of the circumstances and come back.  That has been 32 years ago and we still laugh about that first date!

~Diane Ranke 

My family started going to a holiness church that started just down the road from where we lived.  We had always attended the Church of God (Anderson).  Soon after we started attending, the church had a contest to see who could invite the most people to church for so many Sundays and they would win a prize.  Don’s Uncle Leo and Aunt Grace attended, and his Aunt Grace went to Brown County, IN and invited the Waldens to church.  Don was the only one who would come.  He wanted to help her win the prize, which she did.  He liked the services so well that he came back the next Sunday and was gloriously saved.  He was 18, I was 12, and certainly had no interest in him.  He dated another girl his age for a couple of years.  I always saw him at church and then I grew up!  A really good friend of mine at church was 3 years older than me, but we had a lot of fun.  She wanted to date Don so badly, and asked the pastor’s daughter, who was my age, and me to help her pray that Don would break up with Sandy and date her!  We did , and he broke up with Sandy!  But, he didn’t ask her for a date.  Don and his brother joined the Guards and went to Ft. Leonardwood, MO  for 6 months training.  My friend, Carol Lee, wanted to write to Don, but didn’t want to be so forward.  She talked Shirley and me into writing a letter each to Don and she wrote a letter and we put all three in one envelope, could hardly close it, and mailed it to him.  Boy was he shocked!  He answered all three of us, and we all three wrote back.  Soon Carol Lee met some guy at work and quit writing to Don, then Shirley quit writing, but I kept it up.  When he came home, he would talk to me at church, then that November he asked if I would go with him to a Christmas program at a Christian Church in Columbus.  Mom had to think on that because I wouldn’t be 16 till January.  She did let me go, and that was our first date!

~Fayrene Walden  

Ken and I met in Colorado Springs.  My brother, Dale, asked Ken to help him drive from UBC to Colorado Springs as he was very tired.  On the way Dale said, “…I have a sister about your age...”  Result:  we both avoided each other – that did not work for long.  We became friends at UBC and are now happily married.

~Joan Christy

Don and I met at GBS.  We went at the same time and were acquainted, but didn’t start talking until the 4th year.  In fact, it was IHC time!  Don, dressed for the convention, missed his ride, so he spent the afternoon visiting with my sister and me.  A couple of days later we were again found on the same bench “visiting”.  And the story goes on!

~Sharon Raines

I met Ken at GBS through his sister, who was one of my best friends.  She was trying to get him to come to GBS to fulfill a call to preach, so she invited him to the Spring Picnic.  Since Elaine was dating, Ken refused to be a third wheel so he told her he would go ONLY if she could get him a date!!  She asked me…I said “NO blind dates!!”  To make a long story short, she told me it WASN’T a date, she told Ken it WAS a date, and we were very confused about each other’s behavior for that entire day.  But we must have seen something that we liked in each other, because…here we are, 28 years later!!

~Lorna Miles

I was 17, and we were attending the Pilgrim Holiness Church Camp near Maysville, KY.  We got a little better acquainted during that August camp.  Jim got saved during a revival meeting at his home Pilgrim Holiness Church in Paris, KY the following January.  He came to our church in Maysville with a car load of young people and visited our revival.  I was impressed!  Jim and Charlie King came from Frankfort Pilgrim College to the Kentucky Camp again and picked up Charlotte and myself.  We visited friends at a youth camp at Goddard, KY.  I laughed harder during that date than anytime in my life.

~Patsy Southerland

Bob and I were distant acquaintances since we both were from the same area.  Bob lived in Madison, and I lived just across the Ohio river in Milton, KY.  His grandparents lived in the same small town as my family. As young adults, we found ourselves hanging out with the same group of those our age.  Thru this situation, we became well acquainted and began dating.  Our first date was to a movie…we were not Christians in those days.  From there our relationship escalated.  He came to see me every day for a year, with the exception of one time.  After dating for one year, we were married on May 11, 1962.  It was not long after the birth of our first child that we became Christians, and have now served the Lord for forty-five years.

~Janis Leach

Gary and I have always known each other, because our parents were friends.  We did start our ministry together at the ages of 9 & 11 when we were both at his aunt’s house.  Across the street was a group of hippies that we tried to convert by singing at the top of our lungs!  Wouldn’t it be something if we got to Heaven and one of them was there?

~Linda Hopkins

I don’t have any BIG fancy story to tell.  My Mom always told me not to go seeking after a guy, but just to “let God drop one in your lap”.  I always thought that was safe advice.  It was one of those slow, gradual relationships that turned into something slowly.  We got to be friends, did things with other friends…and it went from there.  Oh yes, and it mostly happened around the fishpond at GBS!!

~Jo Dahler

The first time I met Jack was at orientation at HSBC.  He stood out in the crowd to me; I didn’t notice any other guy.  I lost my heart that night before I even talked to him.  Our first date was the Thanksgiving Banquet.  We had a great time; I never laughed so much.  We continued dating and married that August 12, 1971.~Ruth Hart

In the spring of 1975, I was able to get a job at Lee’s Nursery & Greenhouse for the season.  Charolette Miller, one of the gals that worked there, was a neighbor to Gary’s parents, and in the spring of 1976 she got Gary a job there.  I, of course, worked in the greenhouse and Gary worked in the field, but the guys would come in for breaks and lunch.  Charolette thought we would make a good couple and encouraged our budding relationship.  That was 33 years ago.

~Nancy Grisson

August of 1970, my brother-in-law and sister opened a Pilgrim Home Mission work in Mattoon, IL.  My dad preached the opening revival and my sisters and I sang.  Visiting the revival was a group of Pilgrims from the Asbury Church in Greenup, IL.  That was the first time to see, and meet, Don!  I don’t think either one of us was too impressed!  The following June, 1971, was Pilgrim Camp at Illiana.  The last Sunday afternoon of Camp meeting, we met once again.  Impressed this time, he asked me to sit with him in the evening service.  We have sat together in every camp meeting since then!

~Ruth Nichols

This is the month that we think of romance, love, and relationships!  In the busyness of ministry, it is easy to neglect spending time together, and taking the time to keep our marriages strong.   Our society does little to encourage strong homes and families, but rather seems to work at destroying them.   Some positive ways to encourage your husband are:

•Look for the good in your husband

•Use words that encourage him

•Spend quality time with him

•Pray with him and for him

•Write him encouraging little love notes

•Stand beside him…and stand up for him; be his strongest supporter!

•Love him unconditionally

•Affirm him often

Sometimes we find it hard and expensive to get away.  Nancy Grissom submitted an idea that may benefit you.  Each year, she and Gary try to go to one of seven Indiana State Parks with Inns.  During the weeknights of December through February, you can stay 2 nights for the price of one.  The Grissoms have enjoyed the historic and quaint atmosphere of the Inns and have found them to be mostly unoccupied at this time of the year.  They have excellent food and many have attractions nearby. 

Trivia question…I wonder…how many Pilgrim couples met and started dating at Pilgrim Camp?  Please email me any names you know of and I will post them next month!

Blessings!

Ruth Nichols

February, 2010

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