I will not write about everything that happened at Planned Parenthood in Portland yesterday but I did get an email that I wanted to write about. Back in June a Portland police officer, Eric McCusker, ordered that I must stand arm's length away from a Planned Parenthood volunteer. When I did not immediately obey he asked Daddy to tell me to step away from the volunteer and told Daddy that I just kept stepping closer and closer. Daddy then asked if there was a law that said that I could not stand on a public sidewalk since that was where I was standing. Officer McCusker said that it was disorderly conduct and said "I will absolutely enforce it, whether you want me to use your child to do it or not." I wrote to the chief of police and got a letter back telling me that they were starting an internal investigation with the officer. I was involved in the investigation and was interviewed at the police station. Just yesterday I got an official letter from the chief of police that stated that the complaints against officer McCusker were sustained and that the officer will be disciplined by a week off work without pay and that the officer is also going for more training. We are glad that justice has been served! Sadly a lot of Portland police officers are not appropriate in performing their duties as a law ENFORCEMENT officer. They may know the law but they do not always enforce that law the right way. Thankfully Portland police chief Michael Sauschuck and others higher up in the force are very good at taking complaints against officers seriously. If for some reason Portland police does not deal with something that needs to be addressed, we have an awesome team of lawyers who can help us out.
I decided that this post I will share a little bit of what my life was like growing up. I will warn everyone now that it was not a normal childhood! When I was 6 years old our family had 3 children with another on the way. We had friends who moved into a camper to do ministry. We followed their lead and got a small camper packed up our house and went on the road. We did not know that the next few years of our lives would take us all over the country. We also did not know that the next few years of our lives we would be traveling missionaries. But God had plans for us and by His grace that is what we became, a missionaries on the road!
These are some of the girls of the family that we went out on the road with. They now have a couple more kids and so do we! We are not so young anymore. No we are not all sisters.
Throughout our years on the road we worked with many different Churches and with other families and groups. I have a lot of pictures from our years on the road and figured I would share them here. I know my post will look really long but the pictures do not help that any.
I said that we moved into a camper when I was 6. We went to Ohio to work with a trucking ministry there. This is one of the chapels that Transport For Christ uses.
We decided not to work with the Truckers Chapel long term but God still had work for us even if it was not with the truckers. In the next few years we would be everywhere from California, Texas, Kentucky, Kansas, Florida and more! After a while living in our first camper, which was tiny I might add, we moved into a bigger camper. We bought our 12 passenger high top van back around the start of our ministry and it is still running today! Yes, it has tons of miles on it, but it still runs and it still has Bible verses on it. "Old Faithful" is still a silent witness to the Gospel.
Our first camper was a fifth-wheel and was 24 1/2 feet long. It was kind of small but we made it work for awhile. The next camper we bought was much bigger! The next one was 31 feet long, HUGE! 6 people lived in that camper for 2 years. Camper living that is the life! Or Key West Florida that was amazing!
One of the groups we worked with was the GNOM team. (Good News On the Move) It was a group of young men from around the country who would travel in their sprinter sharing the Gospel around the country. We would also help the team with what we called the "Surge". We would go to a certain town and knock on every door in town. We would pack door hanger bags to leave at the houses as well. We would hold meetings and children's clubs and talk to the pastors in town. Surge week was a big outreach for us. People who were in charge of coordinating would show up at the town weeks in advance to get everything ready for the Surge. And if you want a door hanger bag for every house in town, depending on how big the town was you could pack a lot of bags! We would have packing parties to get them all ready. They would also rent out gathering places to hold sermons every night. It was a big deal!
Note J.B.'s face in the background of this picture.
In the picture below ministry partners John and Justin and Jimmy Sanders from GNOM packing door hanger bags
Below is a picture of one of the GNOM teams in front of their sprinter. Where did we get the idea to decorate our van with Bible verses? GNOM!
The bottom picture is at our friend's house. Their house is where we held our Church meetings as well.
For awhile we lived in Georgia. We actually stayed there long enough to find a house to rent. For our family that was a LONG time to stay in one place! Usually we just stayed in the camper. We did not bother with renting a house unless we were staying for awhile.
Below is my friend Kayla and I together. I think we were at a conference at Myrtle beach when the picture was taken. Her family is the one whose house we meet at for Church services.
Another place we did ministry was Kentucky. We lived up on a farm that our friends owned. They gave us a spot to park our camper so we were happy. We worked with Bluegrass Bible Fellowship while we were there. For Christmas one year we built a giant gift box to put on top of a trailer as a float in the parade. The Christmas outreach was just one of the ministries we did there. GNOM also did a Surge in Kentucky one year.
This is my dad with one of his best friends, Jesse Everling. They were also our neighbors twice when we lived in Kentucky. When we were in the camper and when we went back a few years ago we rented a house right next to theirs.
This is the Church we worked with in Kentucky, Bluegrass Bible Fellowship
One time in Kentucky we met at a hotel for our meetings.
This was the giant Christmas float that we put together. Romans 6:23 written in huge letters on the side.
What was life like on the road? Well lots of driving! Good thing my siblings and I liked each other!
While my family is Maine we still joke that our home is actually Key West, Florida. We lived there for 8 months and absolutely loved it! We would move back there if we could. We made a lot of friends there. We lived for awhile at 720 Southard St. Which was also the chapel in town. Later we moved to Cudjoe Key. We had a house there right on the canal. With a screened in back porch off the second story, jellyfish and other animals in the canal and plenty of coconut trees it was really nice.
This is 720 Southard street otherwise known as the chapel or for us it was home for awhile!
This was the back porch of our new home on Cudjoe Key. Yep, I liked those days.
In Key West if you are truly a Key West native you are a Conch we did not meet that qualification but we liked pretending we were real conchs.
Ever seen a real cruise ship? Not those little fake ones that only hold less than 200 people. I mean a real cruise ship. These things are huge!
In the front of this picture you can see Jase with the bandanna and Blue next to him. And if you didn't tell there happen to be 2 cruise ships in this day. In Key West they have what they call sunset celebration every night for 2 hours before sunset and 2 hours after sunset. Cruise ships have to leave before the sun goes down so that everyone can have a good view of the sunset without a huge boat in the way. Every night there are street performers and a few times a week one of our friends "Bible Bill" goes out to do a paintboard presentation and preach. We made friends with a lot of the performers such as Jase and Blue.
This is Bible Bill (center) and Tim (Right) One of Bill's paintboards is in the back.
This is "Blue" He was one of the street performers. He did juggling and rode a unicycle. Not a baby unicycle but a real one. Like 9 feet tall.
This is David and Tobin, or the "Flash" They juggle flaming torches around a kid's head. Somehow I got picked for that routine. But I made some money on the deal so I was okay with it.
This is Jase with his baby unicycle, only like 7 feet tall. He also did juggling and such.
This is Johnny or "Dr. Juice" He is an acrobat. He does his show at Mallory Square. When we were there he did his show in the same place. He actually had a spot on the bricks that was a different color because of how he kissed it every time he did a show. Okay let me explain kissing the bricks. He did "dips" he would put his body in the shape of a "C" kind of like he was doing a hand stand but then he would use his arms to do a push up type thing. Every time he went down he would kiss the brick.
This is Adrian. He was the barker for the local "gentlemen's" club. Daddy actually wrote a tract for the strip club. Adrian actually made it so that Mommy could go in when there was not really any business to talk to the women and give them a rose. That is when our family started "Precious Jewels" which is now the name I put on tracts to give to the women going in to the abortion mill. For those who are freaking out right now, Mommy went in to the strip club. And the women in there were better dressed than the women of the street outside. We are not crazy we just found a way to show God's love to these women and took the opportunity to do so.
For those of you who like pictures of Key West without a bunch of people in the way, here is Key West.
This is Michael. He was a local homeless man we became friends with. For those of you who think we are strange for being friends with the street performers and the drunks, the barker for the gentlemen's club, and the homeless. These people still need the Gospel and we are the light of the world. Matthew 5 does not say "You are the light of the world, except to those people who seem really evil and too far gone." We are the light of the world. No exceptions! Share the Gospel with everyone! These people are human beings just like us. The only difference is our position in life and God's saving grace. Without God it could be us sitting in their position today.
This is one of our kids club. Our friend Lucy is the one teaching.
This was another kids club we were part of here in Maine. This is the chapel that sent out my family as missionaries.
This is kind of related to ministry. This was a picture of my baptism. It was in my grandparents back yard. Which is now my backyard.
Well that should be enough pictures, and writing, for now. I like to write a lot don't I? And my love for pictures does not help. I hope this is just a glimpse into my life growing up. Lots of ministry and lots of God's grace and mercy! Soli Deo Gloria!
With love in the Lord,
Virginia
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