Moving to Harlingen

Graduation from seminary in the spring of 1995 was a welcome relief from what Deanna and I called the valley of the shadow of death.  The seminary years were hard years.  The whole culture of Texas is so different from what we knew in New Mexico.  It was a hard adjustment.  Both of us liked Fort Worth and we even liked the seminary.  It was the Christian people that we had a hard time with.  So many hard things happened in that last year of school:  losing a church job (they asked me to leave – but that is another story for another time), financial problems (another long story – one I probably will not tell), rejection from another church opportunity in Oklahoma, and deep depression.

One of my professors suggested that I do a year of CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education).  He thought it would help me get a grip on who I was and find my niche in ministry.  He had a friend in Harlingen, Texas who was a supervisor in CPE so he recommend me to his friend.

It is not the easiest program to get into, but they called me for an interview and I traveled down to Harlingen with Deanna.  Harlingen is way down at the bottom tip of Texas.  It is not the furthest south that you can travel and still be in Texas but it is close.  I was scared about what I would do if they didn’t hire me and I was scared about where we would live if they did hire me because it cost a fortune to live in Harlingen due to all the winter Texans.  Winter Texans are people who spend the winter months in south Texas and the summer months in northern states.

The interview went well and I was accepted into the program and hired as a full time chaplain at the hospital.  We looked around at places to live but the only places that we could afford were dumps.  We kept hanging on to the promise that He would provide.  So we prayed but we did not know what we would do.

Dad had asked me to check in with his old friend Dr. Rivera at the Valley Baptist Academy but I was anxious to get back up to Waco where we had left my one year old son, Kenneth, with my sister Audrey.  I didn’t like being away from my son.  So, we had decided that we would just take off and head back to Waco.  However, dad called before we left Harlingen and asked if we had gone by to see Dr. Rivera.  We said no and he told me that I really needed to go see him, that he might have a place that we could rent for not to much.

Dad seemed kinda forceful here, so off we went to see his friend.  It turned out that he had an unexpected opening in the girl’s dorm director position just the day before we got there and school was starting in two weeks.  Doctor Rivera was asking Deanna all these questions and both of us thought it was kinda strange until we figured out he was actually trying to see if she would be interested in the job.

So on the same day that I was hired as a chaplain for the Valley Baptist Medical Center, Deanna was hired as the girl’s dorm director for the Valley Baptist Academy.  This had some unexpected benefits for us.  For example,  we had to live in an apartment in the girl’s dorm so we did not have to pay utilities or rent.  We were required to eat with the girls in the school cafeteria so we didn’t have to buy groceries.  And Deanna received a $1000.00 a month.  What a deal!  Both of us grow close to the girls and we felt as if they were our own children. The girls loved our son Kenneth and everyone on campus watched out for him when he was out playing.   Even today we are in contact with many of them on Facebook and through the mail.

Our life was so blessed while living in Harlingen.  I learned so much about ministry and thoroughly enjoyed working with people in the hospital as a chaplain.  My CPE supervisor, John Teer, was one of the greatest influences of my life.  He taught me and blessed me more than I can express.  He helped me through one of the darkest times in my life and helped me to see the light again.

I overcame my depression and learned coping mechanisms for dealing with difficult situations.  And right before we moved away my daughter was born.  Her birth and the trauma that went with it are another story that I will share soon but for now I will say that in the dreaded state of Texas, God gave me two of the greatest gifts that I have ever been given:  my son Kenneth, and my daughter Abigail.

I praise God for his provisions for us.  God knows the plans He has for us and they are plans for welfare and not calamity plans to give us a future and a hope.  –Jeremiah 29:11  I am so glad that He does and He did. J