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We called our mother Marmee after the mother in the novel by Louisa May Alcott entitled "Little Women." On our mother's father's side of the family, they were French, through the L'Ain and Russell (Roussel) surnames. These surnames came to England with the time of the Norman Conquest. Marmee's mother was Danish, born in the South Pacific.
As a child, I can recall predictions that Marmee made about my life. Many of these have come to pass in a remarkable way, unfolding as the petals of a rosebud in the summer sun. Marmee was fond of dispensing that God given wisdom of hers to her girls.
The books of Psalms and Proverbs speak of what scripture terms "dark sayings."(Prov 1:6; Ps 78:2; singular, Ps 49:4(5); chidhoth, singular chidhah, elsewhere rendered "riddle," "proverb"): In the heading to the canonical Book of Proverbs, the general term "proverbs" is made to include "a proverb mashal, and a figure (or, an interpretation, melitsah), the words (singular dabhar) of the wise, and their dark sayings (or, riddles)."
It is in short an allegorical sentence requiring interpretation. Prophets and psalmists avail themselves of these. The word of God comes to the prophet in the form of a vision (compare the visions of Amos or Jeremiah), i.e. the truth presents itself to them in the form of a simile. Apostle Paul, in 1 Cor 13, distinguishes between the childish manner of speaking of things spiritual and the manner of a man: "For now we see in a mirror, darkly (Greek "in a riddle"); but then face to face."
The Psalmist David spoke of opening dark sayings upon his harp. We see that praise therefore, is an environment in which revelation flourishes. The thing that seems to puzzle some people about prophecy is that when they hear it, and it's predicting future events, they miss this point and feel it doesn't fit them. Marmee's words were at the same time, revelatory and relevant. But the prophetic spirit can at the same time be "penetrating." It requires a certain heart response. Why do families become "inquisitive?" Why don't they just let well enough alone? Because they are bringing forth an "anointing" that is their very own birth-right in God's destiny for them. Sometimes one's response is to ignore and perhaps it will go away.
In our youth--our teenage years, it requires an "excellent spirit" to lay our very hearts open before the Lord on a continual basis. The Patriarch Job found such a heart not in his three miserable comforters, but in a young man named Elihu. Apostle Paul considered Timothy a youth of this sort, and exhorted him not to allow people to dispise his youth. In our growing years, we learn at times to minimize the conversation with closed ended statement. What have you been doing? Nothin! Where are you going? And they retort Out! As they go down the stairs at a virtual gallop, so as not to be apprehended. This game of hide and seek can become a life long and trivial pursuit. No man can serve two masters. The Master is being set aside. Another is being embraced. We must learn to seek truth and pursue it.
And most of all, to pursue God's agape or self-sacrificial "love." Some of life's events demand an instantaneous response. But at times it is not disrespectful to acknowledge that we will have to think about that for a while. Why do you do this? Why do you think that? I don't know exactly. I am on a journey of discovery myself, just now that you mention it. Does it need an answer? Is it an intrusive spiritual force seeking to gain access to our lives? Is it Jesus, the Lamb who sits on the throne, with all-seeing eyes, and a fan in His hand to purge us like gold tried in the fire? Are we in a comfort zone, and God is in a phase with us like the mother bird teaching her fledglings to fly?
"For the Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and... a waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings; So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him..."
Are we overly inquisitive ourselves? Do we say: The reason that prophet didn't give me a word from the Lord at that meeting is because he doesn't have anything from God! The Prophet Ezekiel was told to be mute before Israel. There was a time you know, when Jesus answered them not a word! We can learn to listen for even those little things God would say to another, and in it we see something that applies to our own lives. Some people too quickly say: Nothing in that applied to me!
I was in the back of the church following class. The room was nearly empty, but another student was there. We began to talk about what the Lord was doing in our lives. He reminisced about his teenage years. You know he said: My Dad used to say to me: "Ya know? You just don't listen!"
True prophecy speaks to us "beforehand." Words of knowledge spoken of in scripture can speak of things God reveals from ones past, present, or future, but otherwise unknown to the speaker, except for what God shows to them. It may be years before prophecy comes to pass in our lives. But as the Prophet Habakkuk said: For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie; though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Habakkuk 2:1-3
As an artist, one of my interests is in the spiritual lives of the Masters and I have studied these. Vincent Van Gogh for instance had an tremendous hunger to know God and to do His will, from his early years. However, he allowed a series of negative events in his life to cloud his sense of God given purpose for his artwork. There was a genuine calling of God on his life. Yet he seemed to feel at times that he didn't "fit in." He was a maverick of sorts. He was a prolific painter, but in his lifetime sold just one of his works. Today, his paintings sell for millions of dollars. He put his message out there in the pictures he painted.
Do people listen and really try to hear what is being said through the lives of others, and hear their message and judge them by the fruit? The scriptures state: "By their fruit you shall know them!" People look at Vincent Van Gogh's paintings and derive enjoyment from them. If Vincent was alive today, he would not have lacked finances for his evangelistic work. He had a family so sensitive to hsi talent, that they refused to sell his work after his death, but inventoried it and held onto it, for a specific purpose. This has made the bulk of it available to todays public to view. People are often aware they paintings speak! They stand in front of a painting in a gallery and try to interpret what they see. This makes art a marvellous medium with a people who aren't listening any other way.
God painted his message into the very heavens themselves, and states "Therefore the heathen are without excuse!" (Psalm 19:1) For the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament His handiwork!"
The Lord gave Ezekiel a prophetic message to enact. He lay on his right side for 390 days for the 390 years of iniquity of the children of Israel. Then he lay on his left side for 40 days for the 40 years of the iniquity of the people of Judah. The total years of iniquity were 430 years. (390 + 40 = 430).
“Lie also on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. According to the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days; so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when you have completed them, lie again on your right side; then you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. I have laid on you a day for each year.” Ezekiel 4:4-6.
For 430 years God’s people refused to keep the sabbaticals and the Jubilees holy to God. The land was kept from its rest during the 70 sabbath years.
The land was not allowed to rest for eight complete Jubilee cycles plus part of a ninth. Remember how each 49-year Jubilee cycle contains eight sabbath years?
EZEKIEL'S VISUAL PROPHETIC MESSAGE ON TILE
The prophet Ezekiel was commanded by God to "portray" the word of the Lord on tile, and this he did very effectively! God told him to do this! Israel needed a visual demonstration because they weren't hearing well the Prophet God sent. (Ezekiel 4) And then God said to him: Pack your bags! The message was that Israel, who believed themselves so secure exactly where they were would be moving soon! The Lord said: "Therefore, thou son of man, prepare thee stuff for removing, and remove by day in their sight; and thou shalt remove from thy place to another place in their sight: it may be they will consider, though they be a rebellious house." (Ezekiel 12:3) It's similar to the abusive but co-dependant relationship in which the wife says: I'm leaving! And he says: Yah! I've heard that before! One day she gets a word from the Lord and he comes home to find that she's gone! Even the rugs were rolled up and carried out the door! Or perhaps God just told her to go, get out of there fast, and to trust him for provisions. Life can catch some people unaware! But not God'
s prophetic people as out lined in Acts 2:38! They read God's word, pray, and listen for the Lord's voice, and they know Him as The Heavenly Father! And He knows them, and sys He calls them forth and then goes before them! (John 10) In scripture, the Apostle Paul makes reference to that which "certain of your own poets have said..."From the song Starry, Starry, Night, these words returned to remind me of the words of a song...Starry starry night, Paint your palet blue and grey, look out on a summer's day, with eyes that knew the darkness in my soul, Shadows on the hills. Sketch the trees and the daffodils, catch the breeze and the winter chills, in colours on the snowy linen land. Starry, starry night, Portraits hung in empty halls...And I ponder the various portraits and artwork of my childhood home.
I have learned to appreciate Marmee's godly insight. As time has unfolded, God's purpose for me has been revealed, as I have sought to do His will. As the fulfillment of prophecies predicted beforehand drew near, these were clarified in still greater detail. Those things which at the time were to me riddles and enigmas have been things which God has used to hone my listening and responding in obedience skills. My hearing ear. Jesus said: "Take heed how you hear!" How frequently we think we've heard a matter. And God's word tells us not to answer a matter until we've heard it. It's been necessary for me to go to God and to pray for insight into a situation, so that I can hear correctly. Marmee was representation of the Lion and the Lamb. The manifestation of which would suddenly appear. She was the product of generations of God's work, and God was at work in our family both to "will and to do of His good pleasure." My mother taught me to value a "good reputation" more than great riches, because God's word says this is true and it was an important truth taught to her by her own parents. There are traditional values that a family passes on which are of extreme importance. She valued the spiritual battles fought by our ancestors, and the stories of the lives they lived set forth family admonitions, as the scriptures state," "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." (1 Corinthians 10:11)
AMY LAUGHLIN EMIGRATES TO AMERICA
Grandma Amy Laughlin gave up her visa and moved from her home in Ontario to live with us in Seattle and to help our mother with the raising of us girls. I cannot express how strategic this decision of hers was in my young life, because it was during these years that my grandmother imparted to me, truthes from God's word and stories concerning our family history which have proven valuable to me. It was something just to see the two of them together.
How well I remember the first time that I set eyes on the place! It was a marvellous two-story structure with dark wood paneling, curved dark moldings and glass french doors. My senses were heightened somewhat by the experience of leaving all that had seemed familiar to me as a young child. But grandmother's arrival in Seattle from Canada was a comfort, and this very special house they'd secured for us as a family. Grandma Laughlin, who was born in the South Pacific knew how to cause a backyard garden to thrive and immediately began growing vegetables in a small plot of ground at the rear of the property in Wallingford. Marmee would sometimes take us with her downtown on the bus, and we'd enjoy looking over brilliant array at the florist, or the Pike Place Market stalls with their various assortment of fruit, vegetables, and wonderful selection of meats, fish and cheeses. If it was the springtime of year, we'd see the bunches of rich purple violets mother loved.
HONORING VETERNS OF FOREIGN WARS
There was something else that Marmee would do that remains etched into the memories of my childhood, and this involved another flower, a red poppy. Daddy was a war hero! And when Veterns Day came around each year, my mother would stop by the booth of the Veterns of Foreign Wars which was set up on one of the downtown Seattle streets. She would dig into her leather handbag for some cash to place to deposit in the box and they would give her a brightly colored "red poppy." My mother was honoring the Veterns of Foreign Wars. "Poppy Day" is an important day to remember and my mother remembered the brave soldiers who fought, and she did this in my presence, so that my own life was impacted by her own attitude toward the principle of "just war."
Even God is termed as a "Mighty Warrior" in the scriptures! My father, Galen Hunt, fought in France, where he was wounded, and received medals in the campaigns in which he fought. He was considerably older than Marmee, by at least 20 years. My husband Tom's father fought in Saipan, and mine in France. But My parents were very much alike in many ways. Dad's mother died when she was about 21 years of age, leaveing he and his baby brother. His father remarried and had other children. His step mother was a kind woman who wrote to him through the war. But when Dad got out from behind that plow and went down and enlisted, the step siblings seemed to have the attitude that he'd abandoned his responsibilities. His own little brother did not speak favorably of his older brother going off to war. My father was sent home from the war with the injuries and lungs burned by poison gas, and went back to school, on crutches, coughing blood into a handkerchief. He never folded up in the face of it. He was as much a warrior on the home front. He treated his family as though he totally understood their own "delayed stress," and I never saw him pity himself. This has been a valuable lesson to me in life. He knew that in their own way, they saw themselves as victims, but he didn't argue the point. He simply tried to be that family member that they needed. He went on to law school, and this success was met with pretty much the same attitude as his war enlistment. They thought he belonged with them on the farm. But there were enough of them, to hold down the fort, till he got home. He knew that he was needed elsewhere, and he forged ahead and did what he believed he must do. My family and I were traveling by passenger train along the French Riviera, when an elderly French man got on at Toulon. He was going to the hospital, where he was going to have surgery. I told him of my father, and as the train traveled along the coast, he showed me every war memorial, and I cried, knowing what a brave teenager the military sent over there. A world away, France honored Daddy! They understood the reward of his sacrifice in a way that his own family members could not. There are those who die on a foreign battlefield, and there are those that bleed and die inside over the flashbacks, and the attitudes of ignorant people, who they want to comprehend it all, but don't. Yet the "warriors" set themselves like a flint, and arise and build their own nation, because they understand that the war didn't end the day they were discharged from military service. My father's life had made all the difference in the lives of that nation at a critical pinnacle in history. We all possess a set of "great expectations." Liberty or victory aren't always won so quickly. These can take a process of time. We must be troopers on the hearts on battlefield!
We are the Dead. Short days ago
Take up our quarrel with the foe: This small ritual of the yearly visit to the Veterns of Foreign Wars booth was always a special event in the lives of our family.
In recalling the beauty of my mother, and comparing her to the violet's that she would buy for me each February on my birthday, and hand them to me wrapped up in bright green flourist tissue, and I'd bury my nose in them, inhaling their sweetness, part of Marmee's beauty was her thoughtfulness. She fought for the principles and values in her life that she knew to be important. My mother was every bit as brave and bold as the soldiers she honored on Vetern's Day, and those red poppies, given out at the boothes of the Veterns of Foreign Wars was just her way of showing me how important my Dad's decision to join the army was and would always be in my own life. Her courage is intricately woven with the memories of the courage of my "Dad." Marmee would say to me: you're going to be exactly like your father!" I knew as I looked up into my mother's blue eyes, as she would attach the wire stem of the "red poppy" to the button hole of my wool coat, that she wanted me to face life with all the courage of a soldier facing his assignment on the battleground. That I must be as brave a soldier as there ever could be, because my mother instilled this concept in me. The "red poppy" would end up in the jewelry box atop my dresser. Through out the year, when I'd cry, because my Dad was away from home and I missed him so much, I knew that small red poppy held a world of meaning to me. Marmee was always gentle and nurturing to me as a young child, and as I grew up. But she possessed an incredible strength.
Each day of the week, my mother faced the business world as a professional. She loved hats and possessed a collection of them, some flamboyant, with the kind of little veil that pulled down over your eyes, velvet ribbons and other types of decoration. Marmee felt that a hat completed the ensemble and made a woman feel "well dressed." Queen Elizabeth's love for hats has been inspiring to many. I like the custom of hat wearing to church among black women. It's part of having clothing that we designate as our "church clothes." Marmee loved dressing up. She enjoyed looking nice, and knew the importance of this as a professional person. Even on her days off, she took the time to look her best.
In many ways, our mother was a conformist, yet she closely adhered to a set of rules as to what was appropriate. She'd utilize this conservative position of hers to state things exactly as she saw them. Marmee taught me that one does not always have to take a "maverick" position, to effect change. We simply must do what God calls us to personally do. If it's to be flamboyant, then we must be this exactly. If it's to stand back and be less obvious, then this is important as when when God leads us as in this way. God changes us to prepare us for specific situations. She seemed to change from the violet of my pre-school years to the lioness or a very honest and open poppy in my teens. We make a mistake when we don't allow ourselves to recognize change and where and how this comes in ones life. Marmee was resolute over a matter, whether it was the appropriate length that a skirt should be, how our hair must look or her discerning observations concerning our choice of friends, and leveling her gaze upon me she could cut to the very heart of the situation with one of these "observations" of hers. Young as I was, I failed often times to realize that in the battle of life, there are frequently early indicators or signs that display or manifest themselves. Harbingers or early signals or signs both good and bad and that it was essential to walk in wisdom.
My mother was one of the most beautiful and creative women that I have ever known. She had the faith to persevere through the storms of life. And she was an overcomer! She possessed the quiet strength and patience which accompanies Christ's salvation. This doesn't mean that life was always smoothe sailing for her--that it didn't dish out it's share of hardships. But the Lord Jesus brought her safely through every storm. She taught me to appreciate the way in which God created each of us to shine in our own special way. No shrinking violet, Mom was like an orange poppy in the garden of life. It was not till may years later that a prophet in Europe exhorted me not to suppress who God made me to be. At times I was afraid to appear dramatic or flamboyant! A worship leader friend stressed the importance of this during a mission trip to St Ives where I did some street preaching in Cornwall, England. By the time God got done with me on that single assignment in Great Britain, I didn't even recognize myself. And the Lord is not finished with me yet! He is going to complete that good work He started in every one of us, if we continue on to follow Him, and obey His will!
Marmee was a prophetess--constantly predicting my future, while I was growing up. Sharing her observations regarding every aspect of my life. It was when my family was traveling and decided to visit Marmee's birthplace for the first time that the Lord spoke to me in a prophetic dream which I shared with several of the local churches at that time. I also received the following prophetic words concerning the "Underground Railroad."
"People get ready---there's a train a comin--you don't need no ticket you just get on board. All you need is faith to see the train a comin--you don't need no ticket...you just thank the Lord." (Words to a song.)
As surely as I live says the Lord God, I have come to set at liberty them that are chained, them that are bound---that are bruised, and nothing shall stop Me for I have heard the cries and the sighs of those bound---a cry and a sigh that has come up before Me as a mighty surge of prayer that has shaken the heavens, and now I shall shake not only the heavens, but earth also as My Spirit cries: LET MY PEOPLE GO! LET MY PEOPLE GO! Do you have any rivers you think are uncrossable? Got any mountains you can't tunnel through? I specialize in things thought impossible and I can do what nobody else can do.
YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE ME RAISE UP "STATIONS" ALL ACROSS THIS LAND:
You are about to see Me raise up "stations" as it were all across this land and they shall not be as the religious old wine-skins, but these shall be places where the life of My Spirit can flow and where I can bring those with desperate needs and know for certain that they will not be passed over for My "station masters" shall be kind and filled with compassion. Indeed they shall be perceptive and not judge by the sight of their eyes or reprove after the hearing of their ears. For I shall instruct them in the things of My Spirit and they shall be very adept at caring for those I send to them.
THE CAPTIVE EXILE HASTENS TO BE LOOSED:
And yes, they shall be hunted, and even hated by those "slave owners" who have not let go of their claim so willingly. But you must be prepared to deal with this My own. But it is written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the meek: He has sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives---and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. The captive exile hastens that he may be loosed and that he should not die in the pit...I am the Lord YOUR God, that divided the sea those waves roared: The Lord of Hosts is His name. I put My words in your mouth and I have covered you in the shadow of My hand that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth and say to Zion: You are My people. Is. 51:14-16
I WILL UNDO YOUR RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES:
I will "undo" your religious observances, (which have hindered the moving of My Spirit) that those who name My name will effectively set the captives free. (2 Tim. 3:5) And as with the emancipation of your nation, do not be surprised when you see My Spirit set apart many women as well as men for the work of the ministry. For they shall "conduct" many into the liberty of My Spirit---into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
EXCERPTS FROM COMMENTS MADE BY ALANA CAMPBELL:
A black ex-slave, a God-fearing woman named Harriet Tubman helped 300 slaves escape from slavery in the south into the north and into Canada, and she was totally led by God's Spirit. Before the Civil War, slaves escaped from plantations by means of an "underground railroad." These were a chain of homes where they could get food, clothes, money for the journey. The book Exodus II by Steve Lightle, speaks of an exodus of this sort out of Russia. God has been preparing the hearts of Christians in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, and Poland to be an "underground railroad" of just this sort. In dreams and visions they've been told by God to prepare! This prophecy speaks to more than one kind of people. But especially those to whom God wants to bring a "religious emancipation." Why? Because Jesus came to set at liberty those that are bound. This prophecy is also a specific prophetic promise to those who know God or who want so much to know God, but for one reason or another, they are not free in Jesus, or they are struggling with doctrinal issues that have been taught them and they don't seem to line up with scripture. You are scared to talk to anybody you know, because you don't want them to think you don't love God. Am I saying you need to go to Canada, (or specifically Toronto) to get "a blessing?" No. God will meet you right where you live. But if He tells you to go to a certain church, or a brother or sister in the Lord, like He told Ananias to go to a certain house of a man named Judas who lived on a street called Straight St., and to pray for brother Saul from Tarsus, then you'd better go. When the Apostle Paul was released from prison, he went to Sister Rhoda's station house. (Acts 12:13) Because God always has a reason and being led of the Lord is the only life of blessing.
These stations I saw were house churches, because God is raising up hundreds and thousands of them---but many people will find their needs met in larger churches. We are not prejudice against any type of Church so long as God has a freedom to move there, so people's needs can be met and their lives healed and restored.
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There's a song that was used by slaves long ago, and it's called "The Drinking Gourd." It speaks of the north star, which sailors have used, from ancient times as a guiding light. Now the bible tells us we are not to worship the host of heaven. We are to worship God alone through His Son Jesus Christ. As the scriptures proclaim, God robed Himself in flesh and came to earth as our Messiah in the person of Jesus Christ, who is called the bright Morning Star. (Rev. 22:16) Jesus is in fact the One who holds the 7 Stars in His hand. (Rev. 2:1) The seven stars are the Pleiades, used in the bible to symbolize the 7 churches of Asia, or the fulness of the Lord in His various assemblies, for 7 is the number of completion.
In worshipping Jesus Christ, you worship the One who is the very Creator of all things. Colossians 1:16 tells us that: "For by Him all things were created, both in heaven and on earth; visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers or authorities, all things have been created by Him and for Him."
Jesus says in His word, "If any man thirsts, let Him come unto Me and drink, and out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this He spoke of the Spirit, that those who believed in Him would receive. For the Spirit was not yet given, (to man to indwell him--this came after Jesus atoning sacrifice paid to redeem mankind.) because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:37-38) It's easy to become a child of God. On the Day of Pentecost the Apostle Peter stood and preached:
In Acts 2:1-4, we see they received the power of the Holy Spirit, with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. The apostles knew the Gentiles also were Spirit filled, for they heard them speak with tongues. So when you look at that north star we call the Big Dipper, and which slaves saw as "The Drinking Gourd," you think of the one true God who alone is able to give you direction for your life, and let your requests be made known to Him with praise and thanksgiving. I thank God for His great salvation and the indwelling power and presence of His precious Holy Spirit. I'd have died many times, if God had not given me prophetic warnings,and sent angels to protect me as He promises in His Word. John 16:13 tells us: When the Spirit of Truth is come, He will show you things to come. (Future events) (Psalm 91)
The scripture says:
He openeth mine ear morning by morning to hear as the learned and I was not rebellious. I did not turn away back. God continues to disclose an understanding of why things have happened to us for examples, and that they have help to prepare my family and I for such as time as this.
THESE THINGS HAPPENED AS EXAMPLES
"For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea.
2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
3 They all ate the same spiritual food
4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert. (1 Cor. 10:1-5
"Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." (1 Cor. 10:11) KJV
GROWING UP IN CHATHAM, ONTARIO
In the War of 1812, the Battle of the Thames took place between Moraviantown and Thamesville on October 5, 1813.
During the 19th century, the area was part of the Underground Railroad. As a result, Chatham-Kent is now part of the African-Canadian Heritage Tour. Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site is a museum of the Dawn Settlement, established in 1841 by Josiah Henson near Dresden as refuge for the many slaves who escaped to Canada from the United States. The Rev. John Brown, the abolitionist, planned his raid on the Harpers Ferry Virginia Arsenal in Chatham and recruited local men to participate in the raid. The small village of North Buxton, part of the African Canadian Heritage Tour, also played an important role in the Underground. It was all part of God's plan, not just for her, but for our entire family. In 1998 the Lord took us to this area of Canada to learn more about how He feels about "slavery." Slavery comes in many forms. Many of those who believe that they have emancipated themselves by throwing off obedience to authority, remain the most enslaved of all. God unlocks the shackles of self deception, and all forms of mental, emotional, and spiritual problems.
Chatham-Kent which is strategically located in southwestern Ontario between Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie, is a port of entry of Ontario, where historically it was of military importance. Situated along the Thames River in an agriculturally rich landscape dotted with tidy farms, the region is a fruit-growing district. It also contains a large wagon factory, planing and flour mills, windmills, etc.
AND THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE
"Now abideth faith, hope and love, these three. But the greatest of these is love." (1 Cor. 13)
The town of Chatham emerged in the early 1800's, as a refuge from slavery, and began with the arrival of a group led by the Rev. Josiah Henson.
The Underground Railroad experienced it's zenith between 1810-1850, when an estimated 30,000-100,000 escaped slavery via the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad consisted of resources for fugitive slaves, including transportation, meeting routes, safe houses and various types of assistance for fugitive slaves. Those who helped slaves obtain help from the Railroad were called "agents." Guides were known as "conductors." Escaped slaves were called "passengers," and they would receive a "ticket." The password used was "A friend of a friend."
The various hiding places or rest areas that the Underground Railroad provided were "stations or station houses," and they were part of a vast network where "conductors" including free-born blacks, white abolitionists, former slaves and Native Americans, could move fugitives along the line to ultimate freedom. Although people utilized the railroad as transportation, the primary means of transportation was on foot or by wagon, traveling 10-20 miles at a time. Because of the risk involved, information about the UR was mainly transmitted by word of mouth.
Scores of fugitive slaves disembarked from the Underground Railroad to begin new lives amid the fertile soil and freedom of southern Ontario. The
By the 1850s, Chatham's population was one-third black and the prosperous town had no fewer than five black doctors. There were black merchants and tradesmen, and black organizations such as the National Convention for the
Improvement of Free People of Color. Early Chatham settlers were men and woman such as Jesse Binga, who founded Chicago's first black-owned bank. Sophia Jones who earned a medical degree from the University of Michigan in 1885 and started the nursing program at Spelman College in Atlanta. And Dr. Samuel Watson who moved to Michigan, opened a store and became a leader of the Republican Party. Alfred Lafferty, one of the first graduates of King's school, studied mathematics at the University of Toronto, worked as a school principal and practiced law for many years in Chatham. Baseball pitcher Ferguson Jenkins won 284 games, and claimed a Cy Young Award, and Matthew Henson, who in 1909 became the first man to reach the North Pole, was the great-grandnephew of Josiah Henson, the inspiration for Uncle Tom. When we traveled to Chatham, Ontario in 1998, we took our daughter Ami who we were home schooling at the time, to see the old cabin of Josiah Henson, the Dawn Settlement and to learn of the work that he did, through the museum.
COUNTY MAYO IRELAND TO CHATHAM, ONTARIO
My grandfather Laughlin was born in Uxbridge, Ontario, where his parents William Thomas and Mariane (nee Cuff) Laughlin lived. The exact date in which the family moved to Chatham-Kent, where my grandfather Laughlin, an uncle on his side of the family named James Russell Cuffe, his aunt Ellen Lain and mother, who was my great-grandmother Mariane Lain and who resided in Chatham, after emigrating from Ballinrobe, in County Mayo, Ireland. William's mother wanted her son to become an Anglican minister, and he was ordained by the Anglican church. The parish of my Scotch-Irish great-grandmother and her family still exists.
THE LION'S WHELP & AND ALL THE YOUNG LION'S
Prophecy For England, the USA & Canada
You are as a lion's whelp to Me says the Lord. The Lion of the Tribe of Judah has risen in your midst, the young lions must be gathered under leadership... For it is time they strike terror in the heart of the enemy. I shall rise in a new demension in Christian Music...this is as Solomon's Porch to Me says the Lord... My music will bring many signs and wonders...(Prophecy For Belgium)
In the days of Girolamo Savonarola, (1452-1498), the republic of Florence, Italy was to be a Christian commonwealth, of which God was the sole sovereign, and His Gospel was law. The most stringent enactments were made for the repression of vice and frivolity. Gambling was prohibited and the vanities of dress were restrained by legal means. Women flocked to the public square to fling down their costliest ornaments at the preaching of Savonarola, whose followers made huge "bonfires of the vanities." His claim to the gift of prophecy led to his being cited in 1495 on a charge of heresy at Rome and upon failing to appear, he was not allowed to preach. Disregarding the order, Savonarola's difficulties increased. In 1497 came a sentence of excommunication from Rome. He was brought to trial for falsely claiming to have seen visions, and uttered prophecies, for religious error, and for sedition. Under duress he made vows which he later withdrew. He was declared guilty and his sentence was confirmed by Rome. On May 23, 1498, Savonarola and two Dominican disciples were hanged and burned. My grandfather was tremendously inspired by the life of Savonarola, and as God lead my grandfather by is Spirit, he knew that he must leave the Anglican church, in which he'd been raised. In many ways, it had to have been a difficult decision, as this meant opposing the will of his mother, or other family members in favor of what he saw in scripture as religious convictions he'd come to embrace but which he felt conflicted with traditions he'd been raised with in their denomination. But my grandfather left the Anglican church and became an ordained minister of the Presbyterian church. While living in Ireland, the family had attended the Anglican church together. When they emigrated to Canada, they became members of the parish in the community there.
THE WHELPS MATURING: THEIR ROAR BEING HEARD OVER OCEANS
Much of the history of the Comstock remains focused on wealth and technology, and the men at the center of this. For missionary minded grandparents, Virginia City was a harvest field. It attracted immigrants from aound the world. People from North, South and Central America, and from Europe, Asia and Africa came to the district, hoping to capture some of the success that had become a legendary by this time.
For over a thousand Chinese immigrants, it was Yin Shan, the Silver Mountain. Irish miners from County Cork, on the other hand, typically saw Virginia City as a chance to sidestep the oppressive Appalachian coal mines in favor of a better place to work and a higher wage. A modest number of hispanic people played an important role in the early development of the mining district. Samuel Clemens, who invented his Mark Twain persona while reporting for Virginia City's Territorial Enterprise, wrote, "All the peoples of the earth had representative adventurers in Silver-land."
Over half of the Comstock's population was North American born. Native Americans such as the Northern Paiutes, lived in the area for centuries before the arrival of the settlers. Although they confronted oppressive prejudice and treatment, several hundred American Indians eventually settled around the mining district, and like others, they found various means to exploit the many opportunities of the new society. African Americans also came to the Comstock seeking wealth and opportunity. Many become prosperous, well-respected business owners. Thousands of Midwesterners, together with many New Englanders and fewer Southerners, added to the social diversity and complexity of the place. Together these diverse groups wove the rich tapestry that made the Comstock the crossroads of the world.
Initially women there were rare, but within a few years much of the gender gap had been bridged. But the vast majority of Comstock women were respectable and often married with children. By 1880, one third of the population was under 18 years of age, underscoring the fact that this had become more of a family-based community than a stereotypical mining boomtown.
As an example of the gospel work which lay before the young newlyweds, as they set out to pastor, a count taken of the bars in 1876 the the area of Virginia City totaled no less than 100, with 4 breweries. It was one liquored up town of some 75,000, when the Great Fire swept through the town's business district in 1875, causing 10,0000,000 in damage!
So fierce was the blaze that dynamite was used to try to stop the spread of these horrendous flames. But alas two-thirds of the flourishing city became a blackened heap of ruins, leaving 2000 buildings in ashes, and many of the town's inhabitants homeless. But eighteen monthes later, the city was rebuilt, and had 150 saloons, 14 gambling houses, 30 rooming houses, 4 banks, and 35 physicians. The mining boom turned Virginia City into the most important settlement between Denver and San Francisco.
At the heighth of Virginia City's glory, men came from everywhere, the "Bonanza Kings" of Irish descent: Mackay, Fair, Flood and O'Brien.
The Rev. William Andrew Laughlin's first child, a daughter whom they named Mariane after the paternal grandmother, Mariane Lane, was born in the foothills of Storey, Nevada, where William Laughlin was the pastor of the Presbyterian Church on the main street of town, during those years following the famous Comstock Lode mining boom.
ROOTS & WINGS
He married Emma (Amy) Amelia Christensen on 27 August 1914 at Storey, Nevada. After working among miners and their families for 2-3 years, like Vincent Van Gogh who went to work as a lay preacher among the impoverished miners of the Borinage district in Belgium, Grandfather Laughlin made the decision to leave his pastorate in Virginia City, Nevada, and to return with his family to their home in Chatham, Ontario, Canada where his mother, Mariane Lain resided. This decision to move occurred sometime after the couple's infant daughter Mariane was born, in 1915. They packed up their things, swept the parsonage for the last time and boarded the train that took them from Virginia City, Nevada to Canada. Some time after arriving in Chatham Kent, a dark haired daughter was born in the brick home they purchased on Baxter Street. She was named "Maude Nualla Laughlin." The name "Maude" is a derivative of the French name Madelaine. It means "Mighty battle maid!" Nualla is a Celtic name meaning "White haired." Since mother was born with dark hair, the term proved prophetic of longevity, and she lived to a ripe old age. Portraying Marmee as a "Mighty Battle Maid" was significant. She fought her shaare of life's battles. Following mother's birth, her sister Merle was born and then her brother William, the youngest of the four, was nicknamed Bill. Merle fell on the playground at school, enduring a longstanding injury requiring multiple surguries, an leading to her death at approximately age 21. When William returned to reside in Chatham Kent with his wife Amy and baby daughter Mariane, a door opened for my grandfather to preach on the Chattauqua Circuit. She met and married my father, Galen Hunt, an Illinois attorney, who was a graduate of the Chicago School of Law, whose practice spanned Illinois, Hawaii and Alaska. Dad was a good 20 years older than our mother. They were married in the little town of Fair Oaks, Michigan. My sister and I were born in those ensuing years, and we lived in an apartment in a suburb of Chicago. Eventually, Dad brought our family from California to Seattle, Washington by train. In California, they told me, we'd stayed briefly with a friend of the family in Van Nuys, who owned a small farm with goats. I have seen a photograph of the woman of the house with her hair braided on top of her head, holding me in her arms. What precipated our leaving California was the fact that Dad wanted to look into the possibility of working in Alaska, where he'd already performed work for his law practice. He was later ordained as a minister, at Juneau. Enroute to Seattle, on a train between California and Seattle, as a small child I can recaall the ground rushing by under my feet through the crack in the metal grates, as they steered my sister and I toward the dining car. A day nursery was located and our mother went to work in a law office in downtown Seattle.
Our childhood prepared us for the years to come, as we learned those important skills we would need to live useful adult lives. People think life should be a "charmed existence" and trials should happen to somebody else! God's word says: People Get Ready! I appreciate the way in which our parents responded to life's challenges, because it has helped me to face my own trials, or even the mundane doldrums of life with courage.
LIFE IN SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
With a 16 month difference between my sister Anna and I, it became my job to act as care-giver in Mom's absence. It was a trusted position I knew from our mother's example. We learned to dwell together in unity, as God's word commands. Mom was working hard to make ends meet. God gave her the skills and ability to prosper through the work of her hands. He warns in the scriptures that "the hand of the diligent shall rule, but the slothful shall be enslaved." When our mother worked, my sister and I had to be in school, or home doing our homework or our responsibilities at home. It was our job as children to be faithful. To stay out of trouble and to help Marmee in every way that we could. In fulfilling life's responsibilities, we were serving Christ, as the bible teaches to. When my grandmother or mother left me with a bucket, and bottle of amonia and a sponge and said clean the venetian blinds, I was in training for reigning. Hard work is a biblical principle and it has rewards. Marmee didn't drive and groceries were heavy to carry, so Mom had them delivered by Sinnets Market on Queen Anne Avenue. Sometimes she would call us from work and authorize us to place an order of groceries. We would place an order, and if she ok'd it, we'd always include Campbells tomato soup, and the makings for strawberry shortcake. Tomato soup was inexpensive. This helped balance out the cost of our treat. Our mother functioned by faithfulness not feelings. She didn't neglect responsibilities simply because she didn't feel like doing them. As Mom walked to catch her bus in those pointed toed high heels, I marveled because I didn't think I could do that. My sister Anna and I loved peering into her jewelry box and clothes closet, which included some clothing Grandma had made for her. She loved hats and she had boxes of them, and gloves. If she went to dinner she would bring us something home in her pocket, like melba toast or pecan rolls. We knew that she loved us and we were always in her heart and on her mind.
Mom would take us along when she went to her hair appointment at Walker's Charanelle Salon in downtown Seattle. This was where her friend Connie worked as a stylist. One of the male stylists at the salon's named Leon fixed my hair in my early teens, after I'd botched it up in an attempt to streak it with peroxide and my mother hated it! She raced me to the salon to have them dye it back. A woman named Priscilla Porcello sold sandwiches to women as they sat under the hair-dryer. This was an intriguing place for me a child. When I got older I attended cosmetology school and obtained my hairdressers license. Mother took us to the historic Presbyterian church in downtown Seattle, which she especially loved to attend at Easter, and would spend time shopping for easter outfits so she could dress us up. The First Presbyterian Church was organized in 1869 by a pastor who came by wagon train and canoe, and started with seven people. By 1940 it had grown to 8000 members, the largest Presbyterian Church in the world. Marmee was like a child concerning her delight in a carousel ride at Westlake Square, and she never tired of the star on the top of the Bon Marche at Christmas time. She'd get a white flocked Christmas tree, with decorations in one color. She liked window shopping and looking at the colored lights. We liked making holiday memories together, and each year would help her select a tree for her apartment and set it up, bring her to spend several days with us, meet downtown and shop at the Pike Place Market or take her to a concert, such as Handels Messiah. The places that our mother chose for us to live also seemed to have been chosen by God, to influence us for His own special purposes. My mom, sister and I lived on the ground floor of the Warren Cliff Apartments on Queen Anne Hill. Mom decorated the apartment with Hawaiian barkcloth drapes, and we had a taupe mohair sofa and a 1950's red chrome dinette set, with 4 chairs. Mom loved bird of paradise and anthurium, and would buy two or three for a vase. We lived on the first floor of this apartment building when we got a tv. After moving to Queen Anne Hill, my sister and I attended the Warren Avenue Grade School till age 12. This was an exceptional grade school, with excellent teachers. My fourth grade teacher later remarked to me: I could leave you in charge of the entire class. You had a strong sense of right and wrong! The school was a historic school building, that was eventually torn down when the Seattle Center was built for the World's Fair. Warren Avenue School was unique in that there was special education for handicapped children which took place there. As part of my schooling experience, my teachers allowed me to help with the handicapped children, if I got my work done early. I worked very hard to do this, because I loved working with these children, who were blind, deaf, and were afflicted with cerebral palsey. Though I was young, I perceived at times the spiritual forces which would try to drive me back, from this work. But God's power in my life overcame them. In the years to come, I learned Jesus Christ died on the cross for sins as well as every form of sickness and birth defect. He gave us the ability to lay hands on the sick that they might recover. (Mark 16:16-18) When I was old enough, my mother and grandmother encouraged me to get a job outside the home. My first experience with this type of responsibility, was that I obtained permission from Mom to be on the school Safety Patrol. This amounted to wearing a badge, and carrying a flag to help children cross the street in the early morning and after school. I also mowed the lawn of an elderly Norwegian lady, and worked as a mother's helper for neighbors, and saved my money in a glass piggy bank. When it was full, she took me to the Seattle Eye Clinic and got me a pair of glasses. My sister and I each had plastic water pistols and loved having water fights. We loved picnics at Olympic Park, where we rolled down the hill in the autumn leaves, and picked the best leaves out to take home and use for art work, like our teachers taught us to do. During this time, I gave my life to the Lord Jesus at a church camp sponsored by the Evangelical United Brethren Church we attended near my home. The camp was held at Fort Casey on Whidby Island. There in camp I also began to understand war for the first time, as I examined the gun emplacements, and looked through the old WW2 underground cement bunkers. It was still many years however, before I learned that every Christian is in an unseen battle with the powers of darkness, and we need to put on the full armour of God, that we might stand in the evil day. At another time in our lives, when I was between 5-7, and grandmother Laughlin had come to stay with us for a brief visit, and returned to Canada, mother seemed lonely for her Scandinavian heritage, as she was of Danish descent. She rented an apartment in the Lock Vista Apartment complex, across from the Ballard Locks, where we attended Jane Adams Grade School. Ballard is an area of Seattle which traditionally has many Scandinavians. She was also looking for the best quality of life in which to raise her children. The Lock Vista Apartments were an early experiment in apartment community living, with a bauty salon in the building, and a small grocery.
Following Grandmother Amy's move down to the states from Canada to care for us on a more permanent basis, Marmee and her mother rented a fabulous Craftsman Bungalow house in the neighborhood of Wallingford in Seattle, behind the Wallingford Police Precinct. The turn of the century home had lots of dark wood paneling, and french doors covered in the same mahogany stain. Grandmother Laughlin planted a garden there, and grew vegetables such as carrots and taught me to make rich dark Carrot Pudding with suet and raisins, and steamed in a mold, using the family recipe which was topped with buttery hard sauce. Years later when I went to a pastor for counsel about the prophetic ministry, he said: "Why are you pulling your carrots out of the ground to find out if they're done yet?" And I knew exactly what he was talking about! I was responding to the Spirit of God by faith, but then I was being tempted to test these events by wanting to see immediate results, and becoming discouraged.
Grandmother made home made soup, and Danish cinnamon rolls, filled with plump raisins and a generous shake of cinnamon. And always it was steamed oatmeal for breakfast! My mother was never a gourmet cook, but she did have her specialties, like home-made soup, broiled cube steaks on toast, and chili, which she made with ground beef, and canned tomatoes and kidney beans. We also shared an apartment together on Lake Union, when I was a teenager. The exterior walls of the building were embedded with large chunks of rose quarts that I thought was pretty. With an artist grandmother who encouraged me to paint, I'd go to Bartells and buy "paint-by-number" sets. My mother used to do calligraphy when she was young, and earn extra money by hand lettering diplomas. If our class at school was attending a symphony, mother would always make sure that we had a ticket. She enjoyed the ballet, and took us to the Russian Kirov Ballet as a children. Her favorite artists Renoir, Monet and Van Gogh and Degas for his paintings of the dancers. For a time, I took ballet lessons as a child, but where I really wanted to gowith it was "Hawaiian dance." She didn't feel that hula lessons I wanted to take were quite "it," but a family member gave me a little brown Hawaiian cloth doll, with black yarn hair and a grass skirt. She would have been amazed to see the Hawaiian church enacting bible stories in dance, and warring with praise, in prophetic dance. Many years later, after I'd become a Pentecostal, sometimes in times of intercessory prayer and worship, I recognizd dances I'd do in the Holy Ghost as Hawaiian war dances, which I'd dance staves, sometimes doing hand and arm movements as God anointed me to enact the story like a Hawaiian story teller. Some years ago, my husband and I were invited to dance at a public event, and my husband Tom choreographed a wonderful dance which included Scottish Sword Dance movements. And we wore our kilts. As a second job, Marmee sold jewelry for an import company, M.L. Stewart.
How I loved playing with her Polynesian jewelry made from an array of pastel seashells, seed pods and irridescent bits of mother of pearl. Her own mother had been born in the South Pacific, where her Danish parents were invited by the government to colonize. When Mom earned a little extra money from freelancing for the law firm on Saturday, she would take us to dinner at a nice restaurant, like the Polynesian, Trader Vics, the Outrigger or a hotel dining room in downtown Seattle where we could go by bus. The "south sea" type restaurants reminded her of the South Pacific heritage. I also think she just loved getting all dressed up sometimes, and eating some place with white linen table clothes and real silver on rare but special occasions. In addition to this, it was part of teaching her daughters ettiquette. She also loved a quaint litle place called the Rose Garden Tea Room located in the alley behind the old Bests Apparel, which is now Nordstrom in downtown Seattle. Next door to our apartment building in Ballard, was the Totem Restaurant, a fish and chips place with a giant king crab on the wall behind the counter. The restaurant is still in existence, and Tom and I drive down there sometimes, and get fish and chips and take it to Golden Gardens Park. In the late 1960's, my mother, sister and I moved to west Los Angeles, California, where we lived and I married and I worked as an elevator operator at a bank in downtown LA. After several years, our family returned to the Seattle area.
HOUSEHOLD SALVATION
In 1973, I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour and I was baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and I received the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. The biblical accounts of salvation follow this same scriptural pattern, in Acts 2:38, 8:16, 10:46-48, and 19:5. I entered bible college soon after that. I would invite Marmee to church services. And when I received my THb degree in Theology, she was there at my graduation, as pleased and as happy as she could be.
In the early 1980's, my mother asked the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive her sins, and surrendered her life to Jesus Christ. I had the priviledge of baptizing her in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of all of her sins. (Acts 2:38, 8:16, 10:46-48, 19:5) My mother was brought up in the religious denomination of her parents. At times, denominations fail to impart an accurate biblical account of those biblical concepts which truly portary the full truth of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Within a family, family members do not always see "eye to eye." I told you how my Grandfather Laughlin received further light, and endeavored to move into a place where he was free to preach the truth as his conscience dictated. When people do not accept the biblical concept of salvation set forth at Pentecost, the Lord may wait for another season in their lives when they are open and willing to receive. Some denominations distort the truth of salvation. Other's distort Pentecost and "confirm" members, but no mention is made of the biblical evidence of speaking in other tongues aas is found in Acts 10:46-48. They misinterpret the truth on Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and teach this misinterpretation in their denominational seminaries. Or they misappropriate water baptism commands, and do not baptize converts as the apostles in the early church did, by interpreting the Lord's command in Matt. 28:19, as a single name. (Acts 2:38, 8:16, 10:46-48, 19:5) They may teach a traditonal reformation view, though in those days, the church had been in the dark ages for centturies, and God was seeking out fearless men of integrity that He could restore truth through. The reformers were not only imperfect men, but their doctrinal views were at times flawed. The only protection against error is to read and know the bible, to believe that you can interpret scripture, and to fearlessly stand for truth. When I showed my mother the precious truth of salvation which was preached by the Apostle Peter, on the Day of Pentecost she received Christ as her Saviour and Lord, she recieved salvation, and wanted to be baptized in Jesus Christ's name. I looked into that face I so loved, and as I plunged her under the water, I said: I baptize you in the name of Jesus Christ mother, for the remission of all of your sins. (Acts 2:38)
We enjoyed many happy times together as a family when mother would visit our home. She especially loved to spend the holidays with us, when she would stay for a few days, sleeping in the guest room. We took her on trips to Mount Rainier, stopping at a lodge there for dinner, to Whidby Island's Fort Casey for a picnic on a wind swept bluff overlooking the sea, or we'd enjoy a carousel ride at Westlake Square. Because she didn't drive and we knew that her ability to travel was limited. We all shared a holiday together during December one year, in which we attended Handel's Messiah at the old Presbyterian church in downtown Seattle. We would also attend my apostolic Christian church together. She attended my college graduation. One day when I was at her apartment she told me that her neighbor died. Then she began to cry. I asked about him and she said she was crying because he died and he had no faith! I had the priviledge of sharing many precious truthes with Marmee from God's Word and these discussions concerning Christ as her Saviour and Lord are beautiful memories. One of the significant events of her life was that she obeyed Acts 2:38 and was water baptized in Jesus Christ's name, according to Acts 2:38, Acts 8:`16, Acts 10:46-48, and Acts 19:5.) There has been a legacy of life which has come to our family through our faith in unfailing God's Word.
YOU SHALL NOT DIE BUT LIVE & DECLARE HIS HANDIWORK (PSALMS 119)
"And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses". (Nehemiah 4:14)
Marmee rented an apartment amid a row of Seattle designer boutiques, such as Isadoras, who for over 30 years specialized in an exquisite collection of antique diamond rings, furs, estate jewelry, elegant vintage evening wear wedding gowns. She had worked in Seattle so she was comfortable and confident that she could do shopping for groceries and all, as she'd never learned to drive a car. It was not unusual for her to give away the groceries she purchased to a street person as she walked home, carring her groceries from the store. If she believed they needed them more than she did she would give them to those in need. Mother had a keen gift of organization, and she was a tremendous help to us in our lives and ministry. She was a great encourager, full of the love of the Lord, and she predicted many things which have come to pass in our lives, and those of our family members. In the 1998, in late spring, I invited her to lunch one day and was concerned that she seemed to have no appetite. We asked the restaurant to box up her lunch of Chinese food so that she could enjoy it later, and we took her back to her apartment in Seattle. Unable to reach her later by telephone, we went back to her apartment, and knocked on the door. For a long time there was no answer, but we felt she was there. Finally, she answered the door, appearing somewhat disoriented. As we came in, she collapsed to the floor, unconscious.
We called the aid car, and they immediately rushed her to the hospital. The hospital wanted us to sign living will papers, believing she would die within a day or two. The Lord awoke me in the pre-dawn hours to say: "You need to take action or they will!" It did not sound good. (See and sign this better idea: Will To Live document) Not sure of exactly what this entailed, we sought God's direction. This lead us to the "Right To Life" organization in Redmond, Wa, who furnished us with a list of starvation symptoms, and Marmee had several of the symptoms on the list, although her weight was not low when we'd last seen her several days before. But it was clear that something had effected her appetite. The physician at the hospital put her on an IV drip with a saline solution. I asked how long she'd live on this saline IV drip and when did they intend to feed her? The physician said that they did not intend to begin feeding her. He told me that her heart would give out within 2-3 days and she'd die. God promises in His Word that He will be our healer. The scriptures contain numerous ways in which God can heal. Laying hands on the sick. (Mark 16:16-18) Letting the sick touch Jesus by touching you. (Luke 8:43-48) The woman with the issue of blood believed if she could but touch the hem of Jesus garment, she would be made whole. God sent His Word and healed them all. Sometimes faith in God's word is released when a person believes in Jesus through a song or a hymn. He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. (Psalm 107:20) Healing through prayer clothes, or laying hands on an item that has been anointed. (Acts 19:11-12) verse 11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. An evangelist sent a small scrap of flannel in a mailing. I had been troubled with a tooth ache. As I laid the prayer cloth on my mouth, all pain left, I was instantly healed and it has never returned and that's been 20 years ago. Through the years, as chaplains, we've prayed and anointed all kinds of things. A woman had a son that was in prison. She said: He loves money! So several believers prayed over some cash she was sending in the mail, anointing it like a prayer cloth. A marble and granite fabrication company was contracted to produce a product for the Raj Neesh in Antelope, Oregon. Two Christian workers laid hands on it and prayed. Shortly afterward, the cult there broke up. God heals through natural remedies, and so forth. Another of the ways God heals and restores is through wisdom which "dwells with prudence," and finds out witty inventions. In caring for our bodies which are the temple of the Holy Spirit. In the story of Hezekiah's illness, the prophet applied a fig poultice to a boil.
In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, "This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover."
Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, "Remember, O Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: "Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, 'This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; indeed, I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the Lord. I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.'"
Then Isaiah said, "Prepare a poultice of figs." They did so and applied it to the boil, and he recovered.
In addition to cures, practical wisdom can also include eating more fresh foods in their natural uncooked state so as to injest their mineral content, exercise, weight loss, drinking sufficient water etc. This assists the physical body in maintaining excellent health, and remaining disease free, as God promises in His covenant made with all true believers in Jesus Christ.
"I will praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." (Ps 139:14)
My husband was 35 at the time, and he wrote a letter to our doctor stating the "our baby was fearfully and wonderfully made," (Psalm 119) and we absolutely would not consider abortion as an alternative. We discontinued his services, and went to a clinic with a couple of midwives. Our infant daughter was born perfect in every detail. Do not blindly follow physicians in what you know is wrong. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path." The hospital required a physician to examine our daughter within 3 days of her birth, so we took her to a naturopath. He said: Bring her back if she gets sick. In her entire life, I recall only one instance when she was running a fever. We bundled her up, and took her in the car to some Ukrainian elders that we know. This was what God placed on our hearts to do when we prayed. They prayed for her and the fever left her and she was instantly healed.
I AM THE LORD THAT HEALS YOU...
THE IRREVERSIBLE CONDITION IS REVERSED THROUGH THE POWER OF GOD...
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. (Romans 8:18)
When Marmee was first taken by ambulance to the hospital emergency room, we did not believe that she would be there long. We'd seen God heal her at various times when we laid hands on her and prayed in Jesus name. The scriptures state that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. For this reason we should honor them with good care, so that we can serve the Lord in optimal health. In Proverbs, it states: I wisdom dwell with prudence. And although I believe 100% that Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever, and He heals today, I have seen people that do not exercise wisdom in their lives concerning their eating habits. Sometimes they are ignorant of how to take proper care of themselves, or they are junk food junkies. Many people can quote how many glasses of water one should drink per day, but they don't always do this. Why is water so important? Our bodies are comprised of water. To renew cells, water is necessary. God can suspend natural laws. The sun and moon stood still at Joshua's command. Hezekiah recovered when the Prophet Isaiah placed a fig poultice on the boil that had made him sick unto death. But I also know that His will is for His people to walk in divine health, do that their bodies aren't full of disease. My pastor would tell his little girl this concerning smoking. "Even animals run from forest fires." Walking in optimum health takes proper care.
When Marmee had her health crisis, the appetite control center of her brain was impaired, suppressing hunger. When she was admitted to the hospital through ER, the nurse told me that her condition was irreversible. They seemed to believe she was about to die, and we were asked to sign papers in preparation to this. The staff confronted me one day with the law stating that they did not have to force feed her, since she was not eating on her own. The hospital doctor stated that her heart would give out in a couple of days with this saline drip alone. Knowing their policy, we did not ask permission to do what we did next, as the Hebrew midwives did not ask Pharoah's permission to save Hebrew infants from infanticide. But I did state to the head nurse that I would feed my mother. They had been having trays of food sent to her room but she simply was not eating. This entailed me staying at the hospital all day for several days, till the crisis turned. One glorious day, after many days of bringing buttermilk laced with liquid magnesium and liquid B-Complex, and gradually adding oatmeal thinned with milk, and lots of prayer, I asked my mother as I filled out the menu: What do you want to eat? And she answered: Quiche!!! She'd hardly uttered a word prior to this! Her memory was returning! We'd sought the Lord and done everything that He'd placed upon our hearts. My mother had a Jewish physician who told me that a deficiency in vitamin B-12 can suppress the appetite and he recommended the purchase of sublingual B-12 for her, which dissolves under the tongue. Magnesium can also cause tingling of the hands and feet, and memory loss. We knew magnesium to be excellent for removing this tingling sensation. Blood pressure medication acts as a diuretic much like excessive coffee drinking, so can bleed the system of essential minerals the heart requires to keep the heartbeat regular and strong and which other vital organs need for optimum health. The doctor who prescribed the blood pressure medication also prescribed packets of potassium to offset this. Mom said once when she did not have this powered potassium and she felt poorly, she ate fresh banana and immediately knew that something inherent in the fruit in the way of vitamins or minerals helped. I know another person so ill they could hardly lift their head from the pillow. A friend brought them an avacado which was eaten with a spoon and immediately there was a sense of relief from the bad symptoms. In yet another story, a woman was at her physician's office to be checked, when she experienced palpatations, probably due to some breath mints, as the packages with sorbitol warn it can cause irregular heartbeat. The doctor listened to the heartbeat and walked out of the room. The patient quickly took a magnesium and all symptoms of heart palpatation left immediately. The medical check up was a clean bill of health. People with magnesium deficiency from a badly depleted diet, and an accumulation of symptoms such as discolored feet which appear black or mottled on the bottoms, or hands which look bluish or discolored, have observed soon after taking magnesium, that the discoloration and pain leave and the hands and feet return to normal. Why it is like this? God created food in it's natural and uncooked state, to be rich in the vitamins and minerals that we need on a daily basis.
We believe that due to a stroke, she'd forgotten to take the potassium supplement, and to drink enough water. She was suffering from acute memory loss, sometimes associated with magnesium deficiency. Learning that magnesium deficiency manifests as memory loss, and magnesium will regulate the heartbeat, together with the B-12 which assists in memory restoration, inluding Vitamin B12 to restore appetite were clearly a part of what she needed, we gave these to her. Specifically, here's what we did: We did not use the tablets as we were concerned about the danger of choking, since following a stroke esophagus paralysis can occur. Very carefully, we used the liquid B Vitamins and Liquid Calcium/Magnesium obtained at Fred Meyer in the food the hospital gave her, as the staff there determine a patients diet. Fred Meyer also sells Twin Labs Magnesium in the powered form of gelatin capsules of 400 mg, which can be broken open and dissolved in a teaspoon in water so it can be fed in an eyedropper or a teaspoon. It is safe to take one 400 mg magnesium capsule in the morning and one at night, especially when the body is badly depleted. Lucky Vitamin has Life Time liquid magnesium for 11.00 per bottle. If these were not available, you could use the tablet form of Magnesium but bear in mind, that these can be difficult to swallow. If you have a vegetable juicer, (not a blender) you can liquify green vegetables, such as spinach with apple juice. Green vegetables are particularly rich in magnesium. It will not harm you to take your magnesium capsule in addition to this. And you will find that your blood will be iron rich. Bananas are rich in potassium, which is also important for the heart. It's possible to also save the chopped and pulverized pulp and eat this in a cup with a spoon, for those with problems chewing vegetables with fiber. Be sure to inspect and disgard fibrous strings among the green vegetable or celery pulp that could be difficult swallowing, if chewing is difficult. Those with swallowing difficulty due to conjestive heart failure, are excluded from treatment of this sort, due to the danger of choking. The juiced vegetables, if additional pulp is included, you can stir in apple juice, or even water, to make it easier to swallow or digest.
A friend on a similar blood pressure medication to what mother was taking, stated she'd read the medication label and appetite suppression was clearly a symptom! God answers prayer. He works on our behalf, revealing the things we clearly need to know. All of life is not shrouded in mystery, leaving us to feel confused or alone. The "Paraclete or Helper, Jesus, is here, the Shepherd is present with his sheep even in what seems to be a cloudy and dark day!
In Genesis 1:29 we read: "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." We mixed liquid magnesium and liquid B vitamins according to the directions on the bottle, with a small carton of buttermilk, and when she drank this through a straw. As she improved, we thinned her oatmeal and she took this and grew gradually stronger. The "so-called" irreversible situation turned. What did it cost us? It was an investment of time, effort and money. My husband would drive extra miles to drop my daughter and I off at the hospital before he went to work.
BORN AGAIN & BAPTIZED IN THE PRECIOUS NAME OF YESHUA haMASHIACH/JESUS CHRIST
One of the precious memories of this phase of Marmee's life, was some significant things we saw God do. Marmee was a believer in Jesus Christ as her Saviour and Lord but she had never been baptized in Jesus name, as the scripture commands. I asked explained "water baptism in Jesus name" to her and showed her clearly from scripture that this is an important command of Jesus Christ. She wanted to be baptized and I baptized her in the precious name of Jesus according to Acts 2:38-39, Acts 8:16, Acts 10:46-48, and Acts 19:5. In the days to follow, I asked her questions about her life and she told me. She remembered the address of her childhood home in Chatham, Ontario. It was after this time that we took a trip back to Chatham, where she was born, so that as a family we could see the town in which Marmee had grown up. We had a wonderful time, and saw the historical sites of the old neighborhood there. We visited the Josiah Henson Museum with our homeschooled daughter, and learned more about the Underground Railroad. God gave us four more years with Marmee that we'd have never had.
In a book entitled Food Your Miracle Medicine, and concerning the use of natural remedies rather than drugs, in medical studies, a physician doing testing on blood, was using his own blood in studies. He testified that he saw clotting he'd observed in his own blood, dissolved with the simple lunch that he'd consummed, and checked his blood following the lunchtime meal consisting of tea and crumpets with a marmalade made with ginger. We purchase candied ginger from Trader Joes, or raw ginger and grate it and make tea with honey or in a jar of pureed ginger once. What ever form, purchase it as strong as we can get it.) Ginger is healthy for many reason. It raises your endorphin levels, which increases ones sense of well being and other things which are good for your body.
WATCH AND PRAY ALWAYS
Jesus told us to "Watch and pray..." Many times during Marmee's last years, it was necessary for us to be very discerning. We were so often shown clearly by the Lord that we could not simply entrust Marmee to the medical profession. But we had to look to God and to His word, and to pray for the Lord's divine direction. We knew that we were guardians of her very life. On one occasion, when Marmee was living in our home, she had a medical emergency and the first aid car was summoned to the home. Her feet appeared discolored and the soles of her feet were dark and blotchy. The medics, after checking her, transported her to the hospital. At the hospital, it was determined that she had a large bloodclot in her leg. The hospital called me at home to relate that unless they amputated her leg, she would die! They placed me on a conference call with two members of their professional staff, because they needed the testimony of two witnesses. I gave permission to them to amputate, and immediately went to prayer. Within five minutes, they called back, and stating they'd conferred together and decided that there was yet one more thing that they could try. They put a catheter in the vein of Marmee's leg, blasting the clot with determined clot with blood thinner. It took a three days, but finally, the clot began to dissolve and the situation was reversed. Her leg was saved! To God the glory! Following this reversal, I confronted the physician in charge as to when they would resume feeding my mother. The doctor asked: Why would you want to do that? All she'll ever be able to do is sit in a chair by the bed like a vegetable. She was no vegetable! She was clearly coherent, talkative, and in no way bedridden to the extent the physician spoke of. She was 76 years old. Her own mother lived to be 96. Watch and pray for yourself, your family members and those with no one to help them. At times our mother would become dizzy from the blood thinning medication prescribed for her. (In our family today, we regularly make magnesium, B vitamins and ginger a part of our diet, as a preventative. Ginger has proven as effective a blood thinner as Kumadin. The proprieties in Ginger have shown to aid in lowering blood cholesterol. It is also is effective in thinning blood, which aid in dissolving blood clots (Study Conducted by Cornell University Medical College). But Kumadin can cause hemmoraging, dizziness and many other dangerous side effects. And many elderly cannot always afford expensive medications. Mom was under a physicians care for much of her later life. But when the hospital stood on their legal right not to feed her, following the stroke, we sought God's wisdom and direction and saw Him work in her life in such a way that her medical emergency was reversed, and her life prolonged and her spiritual life strengthened. There is a time to every purpose under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. (Ecclesiastes) But we do not believe a person needs to die for the "convenience" of others. She was to us "a stone most precious." (1 Peter 2:4) Marmee died when it was God's time to take her home. One reason for this, was because we "stood in the gap," as scripture states, and were willing to serve her needs.
AN OASIS IN THE DESERT
Our daughter Ami was still quite young, when Marmee's care became increasingly difficult for me to manage with a young child to also care for. With the next medical crisis, the doctors decided she required full time care and she went to an adult family home with a skilled nurse.
I knew of an adult family home with a born again, Spirit filled nurse, and prayed for many monthes until an opening coincided with the timing of my mother's need for additional medical care of this sort. The adult family home was run by born again, Spirit filled staff, as well as the full time nurse. They played praise tapes and took Marmee to revival services, even by ferry. How blessed and relieved we were to see God's hand on Marmee's life. God's peace which passes all understanding came upon Marmee's life here.
The facility was located on several acres of serenely beautiful green fields with a flock of sheep. It was named for a refreshing oasis where weary travelers could be refreshed. (Genesis 48:22) Jacob drank from it, his sons, flocks, and herds. And Jesus himself while traveling, sat down by it. It was one of those historical places where the Messiah himself paused while traveling with his disciples. The well remains today with a depth of over 75 feet, under the floor of a Greek Orthodox church.
The family farm where Marmee went to live, had a small pygmy goat named Shadrach that would send our family into gales of laughter. Our relatives in Salem, Oregon had a goat and we have photos of Ami with it, when she was small. But my mother had never been to Salem. Our family was so ministered to by the Lord during this time. So she appreciated the opportunity to feed the little goat, and to see him when we visited with Marmee. In the earlier monthes of this medical crisis, it had seemed to always be a battle with the medical profession as to my mother's right to live. On various occasions, we observed doctors tempting patients relatives to allow them to be instrumental in ending a life. Whatever happened to the oath that physicians once took took in the Presence of Almighty God, we'd wondered? Now in this peaceful existence God provided for our mother, He had seen our tears and heard our prayers that Marmee have real quality of life. The registered nurse prayed for her patients. She noy only prayed that they would be converted to Christ, but where there were broken relationships requiring forgiveness, she prayed that God would resolve these issues. One woman at the home was 107 years old, and we'd pray for her when we visited my mother.
I remember one birthday of Marmee's which occured during this time. Ami and I made her a birthday surprise. We took photos of the happy occasion. I fixed her hair and purchased pretty new clothing for her, and the fragrant cosmetics which she loved. She enjoyed good music and possessed a fine collection of it. Marmee loved sitting near the window which overlooked the rolling green pasturelands upon which the house sat. How pleased she was to have the companionship of her house mates and the caring and compassionate staff, who were like one big family. We gave our mother a small orange Persian kitten wthat we named Ginger Tangerine. Although she was unable to keep it with her, our Ami Nicole cared for the pet for her and brought it along with us whenever we went to visit her grandma. When Marmee died, we inherited the kitten which proved to be a tremendous comfort to us all. From childhood, she would always send us greeting cards with kittens on them.
MARMEE GOES TO HEAVEN BE WITH YESHUA/JESUS
When her condition worstened, Marmee was moved to a nursing facility. She did not stay there long. For a season she suffered numerous more serious health issues. She had another stroke and was taken again to the hospital. We received the call from the nursing staff and drove over there. It was our daughter Ami's birthday. Tom stood in the hospital corridor talking with the doctor. Then we were told that Marmee had gone to be with the Lord. I left my husband with the doctor and walked out to the car, and I prayed this prayer: Jesus, in all my life I have never been without my mother. And I do not know how to do this. I remembered that the scriptures speak of God's loving care, being like that of a mother. The Apostle Paul was "gentle" among the people of God, in this way. The peace of God enveloped me, and I did not grieve as those who had no hope. I knew that I would see Marmee again, in that land where we'll never grow old!
There was never anyone in my life like my mother! Though the years have come and gone, I miss her still and at times I cry for my mother. One of these times is with regard to my art work when I want to say: Look! Do you like this piece which I have painted? And I'd give so much if but for a moment, I could paint the sun, the moon, the stars just to hear her response." My mother, who all her lifetime cried for the father who died in her childhood, would want me to remember that she's waiting in a place beyond the sunrise and the sunset. She's part of that rain God sends called "the early and latter rain. She is part of those who as wise who turn many to righteousness, shall shine as the stars forever. After my mother's death, I discovered a poem she'd clipped from the newspaper. It reads:
In my life, I celebrate my Mother and delight in being her child. It has been part of what makes me who I am as the child of God. Everything about her life, including her birthplace of Chatham-Kent, which was a station on the "Underground Railroad" has been used of God to teach me so many things about life. Here in America we're free today, but America might not always remain so. There are many bible believing Christians who have blazed a trail before us, and courageeously showed us that God can make a way out. In the scriptures the word "exodus" in Hebrew means "The Way Out." I take comfort in knowing that I have the God of all comfort, and she is omforted in His presence, and has no more sorrow nor pain, and the former things have passed away. To God the glory for Marmee's life! I learned from her so much about being a mother!
The photo on the left of Marmee in her fushia coloured hat, shows her wearing her favorite color. Author Alana Campbell is an artist-illustrator and writer who lives in a vintage Craftsman Bungalow studio-cottage on the Snohomish River in the historic district of Lowell, in Everett, Washington. Her husband of 22 years is Tom Campbell, a stone craftsman and they have two daughters, Amber and Zani. Zani affectionately calls her mother Mumtaj, after Mumtaj Mahal, the wife of Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal in her memory. This all seemed to start with a small pair of yellow silk slippers with glass beads belonging to Zani, which burned in a house fire.
My mother loved violets. Sometimes she wore a bunch of silk violets pinned to her plum colored suit. They accented her lovely auburn hair and azure blue eyes. Or fastened at the neck of a lovely ivory blouse that she liked to wear. In the month that I was born, she celebrated my birth by bringing me a small bunch of wood violets wrapped in green floral tissue from the downtown Seattle florist. On her way home from work she would pause and look over the gorgeous array of brightly colored flowers. Sometimes she'd select some stems of anthurium, an exotic flower from the Hawaiian Islands. But on my birthday, she'd arrive home, and as she was removing her coat and putting purchases away, she would exclaim "Look what I've brought for you!" And as she thrust the gift into my hands and I peered at it, there was this bunch of purple violets with the same delicate fragrance as my mother. They were the kind of flower you'd find pressed between the pages of a book. Books of this sort speak to us of shy violets, shrinking violets, and are filled with illustrations of the beauty of this small purple blossomed plant with the velvety dark green leaves. It took me many years to appreciate the beauty of this small but modest flower, which take so many of them to make a bouquet. They will always speak to me of my mother. Climbing to the top of the wooden staircase of our turn of the century home in Seattle's Wallingford district, the fragrance of my mother's cologne would envelope me in a cloud of Devon Violots. Her violet scented talc, and the Charles of the Ritz face powder, which an artisan prepared especially for her, custom blending colored talcs of ivory, peach, violet, rose, blue and green with all the skill of an impressionist painter, into a lovely complement for her complexion, blue eyes and her shoulder length dark hair.
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
I am the "Conductor" on this train, says the Lord--- and yes, some have called My train an "underground railroad," and there are certainly some parallels that can be drawn. The religious system sounds like a Babel of Confusion till individuals don't know how to find God, though they would like to know Him. To discern His voice when He speaks to them, and to follow Him. And there are those with vast holdings---the land owners as it were---and under their domain, My own have been merchandised and made to labor for the wages of a slave and not a free man. For there is barely enough to eat. And every day they dream of freedom---freedom...Freedom, but how. Freedom but when? "Repent.(Turn away from your sinful life-style to a life in God) Be baptized (totally immersed in water) every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:38)
Mother had the priviledge of being born in Chatham, Ontario. The former city of Chatham began as a naval dockyard in the 1790s, as it straddles the Thames River. The town was named after Chatham, Kent, England, which was also developed around a naval dockyard. In England, the name Chatham came from the British root ceto and the Old English ham thus meaning a forest settlement.
People today speak of the negative impact of society upon the young, because youth, like all of us can at times be ignorant and undiscerning, about people and their motives. Even the most educated of people can be the most painfully and willingly ignorant. But we do not have to live in ignorance, or to simply endure the evil and degeneracy of society. God created us with a free will so that we can make an informed choice. My mother was priviledged in many ways to be shaped by the strong biblical values of the village in which she grew up. Mariane was born while the Laughlin family resided in Virginia City, Nevada. As the second child of
William Andrew & Amy Christensen Laughlin, who lived in the small hamlet of Chatham, Ontario, she arrived in this world on June 17, 1917. The baby brother Bill, was born after Marmee's birth there in Chatham. Lastly, Merle was born.
Chatham is where Harriett Beecher Stowe, an early apostolic Christian, found the inspiration for her book "Uncle Tom's Cabin," the 1852 novel that changed Northern attitudes about slavery and galvanized the abolition movement. When we visited the area in 1998, we took our home schooled daughter to the Black History Museum and learned that fugitive slaves would flee over the Detroit River and on up into Canada, when the river turned to solid ice during the winter monthes.
Grandfather William Andrew Laughlin was a real reformer type, who was as bold as a lion. The photo (left) is of my grandparents historic Presbyterian church in Carson City, Nevada. And yet he possessed an incredible gentleness. The scriptures state: "Thy gentleness has made me great!" Of Scotch-Irish descent, he believed that men could change the very destinies of cities and nations for God, when they had God on their side.
Grandfather Laughlin's experience as an Anglican minister, and later, a Presbyterian minister, gave him some insight into spiritual reform. On August 27, 1914, Rev. William Andrew Laughlin and his lovely young bride Amy Christensen (age 34) were married, in Storey County, Nevada, and began pastoring during the famous gold rush boom called the Comstock Lode. I can only imagine how they must have felt as my grandparents stood for the firsat time on the steps of the small white church, having arrived by train in Virginia City, Nevada to begin their first pastorate there in that town where it's been said that a murder took place every night. The Presbyterian church which they were given to pastor was a simple wooden structure with a bell tower. They lived in the parsonage, and their first child, a daughter, who they named Mariane after her paternal grandmother, Mariane was born while they lived there. 
William Andrew Laughlin was the son of Thomas Laughlin, (born in 1848) and Mariane Lain. He was born on 22 July 1872 at Uxbridge, Ontario, Canada. During his childhood, the family were residents at least for a time, of Cannington, Ontario. William and his father Thomas Laughlin, are listed in the 1881 Census for Cannington, Ontario North, Ontario, with William Andrew being a young boy of 9 years old at this time. His ethnic origin in the census is recorded as "Scottish." The religion as C. Presbyterian. 
Mother grew up in Chatham, where she attended elementary and highschool attended school, then attended business school in nearby Windsor, Ontario. 
Mom's employment worked in the legal field brought her into contact with the various Seattle law firms in which she was destined to work in her life. She described her work on these court cases as stressful at times. With piles of court documents to go over before she left for the day, she knew that she was being paid to move the mountain. She told me that she typed the paper work for Frederick & Nelson Frango Mints, which she told me were introduced to Fredericks by her friend Gil Ridean, who was in charge of the department store's food division. When she was done with that she started work on the second folder, and the third till the mountain moved! A discipline I watched her carry out on Saturdays when she took me to work with her. She would go to work daily and come home in the evening on the bus, weary from the days routine. But her work was a good thing. It met the needs of her family in an abundant way. The opportunity to learn a work ethic was important to us girls. Through hard work one obtains what they need in the legitimate way God intends. What did having a "working mother" teach me as I was growing up? One thing was "consistency!" As children we were called upon so frequently to "have patience!" We watched our mother leave each day, and felt the pain of that separation. It was a long day, until she returned at night to spend time with us and to fix dinner, so that we could eat together. The meals were often simple. 
Mother always wanted us to have an appreciation for good literature, so she purchased classic books for us with lovely watercolor illustrations, to impress upon me a beginning love for art. She possessed an appreciation for the fine arts, the paintings of the Masters, such as Rembrandt, Vermeer, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo, and in particular, for the art of the French Impressionists, Degas, Cassatt Gauguin Monet Morisot
Renoir
, Van Goghwhich has had a major influence in my own life and painting. The painting "Les Deux Soeurs" (Two Sisters) by Renoir, was one of which she owned a print, and perhaps loved so because it reminded her of my sister and I together as children.
Starry, starry night
Portraits hung in empty halls
Frameless heads on nameless walls
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget
Like the strangers that you've met
The ragged men in ragged clothes
The silver thorn of bloody rose
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow
Doctors are not God. When I became pregnant at age 40, a physician who advertized himself as a Christian doctor stated that it was his policy to recommend an ultrasound and an abortion if there seemed to indicate anything abnormal. There was nothing in my medical record to suspect anything abnormal. It appeared to simply be based upon my age of 40. The physician stated the authorities would hold him responsible if he facilitated in the birth of a handicapped child.
Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
How you suffered for your sanity
How you tried to set them free
They would not listen they did not how
Perhaps they'll listen now>
My mother for many years had been on a blood pressure medication which required her potassium to be replentished. The stroke she experienced affected the appetite portion of her brain. A nurse told us it was irreparable brain damage and irreversible. And now by the power of God and through His direction, we were seeing it reversed to the point that she did not die within a couple of days as the medical profession expected. She lived for four more years following this medical crisis she went through. 
We stayed by her bed by day and by night as they would allow. Tom says that we continued this schedule for three monthes, until Mom's situation had improved enough for them to move her. We thinned the oatmeal and fed it to her through a straw. When she was released she came to live with my family.
"I will follow that method of treatment which according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patient and abstain from whatever is harmful or mischievous. I will neither prescribe nor administer a lethal dose of medicine to any patient even if asked nor counsel any such thing nor perform the utmost respect for every human life from fertilization to natural death and reject abortion that deliberately takes a unique human life the Presence of Almighty God?
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sun on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awake in the morning hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
of quiet birds in circled flight,
I am the stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there, I did not die.
