To my Grandkids with love
January, 2009
Recently I got a call from Evelyn, my dear friend from South Phoenix.
After visiting a bit I invited her and her husband and family to come out and have dinner with me. As Evelyn wrote later in an e mail, “it was a blessed evening”. We talked about experiences we had when we lived in the South Phoenix area. 
The Oakes have eight children, four who still live at home. Three came that evening, Candace(16), and their twin boys, Timothy and Aaron(14). They seemed to enjoy it as much as we did.
Now I want to take you back to the beginning of my story:
THE 60’S and 70’S
The story I’m about to tell you happened in the 1970’s but God was preparing us for it even in the 1960’s Really this time in history was a pretty painful time for those of us who were living it out. It is hard to give you a true description of the climate of unrest that prevailed over our nation in the 1960’s. I am going to just list for you some of the main events before I get in to how these days affected your grandpa Lynn and me, as well as our family. This would include your parents.
Here are happenings that birthed a huge culture change:
Vietnam War
College campuses scenes of protest.
JF Kennedy assassinated (1962)
1963 Martin Luther King leading peaceful sit-ins--”I Have a Dream” speech.
Styles: long hair, polyester pant suits, Afros, and much more.
Black’s (no longer Negroes), Hispanics no longer Mexicans, Native Americans and Women--all wanting their rights.
Watt’s riots (1965) broke out in LA.
Hispanics under Caesar Chavez were considered an oppressed minority,
American Indians asserted their plight in violent protests and wanted to be Native Americans. Women organized and were known as NOW. It was the birth of Women’s Lib.
It was decided by the Supreme Court that we didn’t need God in our public schools making it unconstitutional to pray.
The Hippie Movement was the order of the day and along with it the sex revolution, drugs, communes and mystic religions. Out of this came the Jesus Movement.
Churches were also going through changes. Your Grandpa Lynn at the time was pastor of a new church in Tempe started in 1964. He had an honest desire to see us adapt to people’s needs without compromising the truth of Scripture. It was a stretching time for all of us.
It was during this time that we heard a man speak by the name of Keith Phillips. He had a ministry in the Watts District in Los Angeles. He left a deep impression on us as we realized more and more the needs--physical and spiritual, of the black communities in the inner cities of our country. Many of the larger cities were experiencing tremendous turmoil and riots.
Keith’s passion became ours as well. But how to become involved was
something we thought and prayed over a lot. As is usually the case, we had to just take a step at a time. We would have liked it if we could have seen the big picture but God knew what was best for us.
Around that time we came in contact with Lee Montigue, a retired Air Force man who had just started a small Bible School called Canaan Bible Institute in South Phoenix. He asked Lynn to teach some Bible classes in the school. There were five young men who had a heart to learn and to see some changes in the black churches. Lee also worked with New Chance Ministries providing a camp in the mountains of Arizona for inner city youth.
After some time we left the Tempe Evangelical Free Church and bought a house in South Phoenix.
We had heard Keith Phillips emphasize how futile it is to do, as many have done-go down to the inner city to “do ministry” and then go back home to live in the safer suburbs.
We moved in to a neighborhood that was mostly Blacks with a few Hispanic families. We weren’t sure where to begin but we started to attend the Salt of the Earth Church.
Claudell Miles, the pastor received us graciously and we could sense that his preaching was true to the Bible. Our strongest desire was to live out the Gospel and in some way let those around us know that we really did care about the needs of our neighbors and those around us whether it was physical or spiritual. How well we accomplished that I will leave it to others to decide. There were blunders and painful happenings along the way but all I can say is we did what our hearts told us to do.
This all Black Church lovingly befriended us and we came to love them as well. We wanted to keep a pretty low profile and just be involved when we were asked. Lynn became the teacher of the Adult Bible Class and I, with the help of Evelyn Oakes, had a children’s choir we called “Kids of the Kingdom“.
This was a very delightful time not only for the kids but for us. During that time Evelyn and I became very close friends. We so enjoyed working together in ministries with kids.
Lynn got a job working at the same school where I was teaching Elementary Music. This school was a beautiful example of Blacks, Hispanics and Whites all working together side by side and nobody seemed to be concerned about skin color!
A few months later, we started the “Neighborhood Kids Club”. It was held in our home. Pictured were those who helped me. All were from the neighborhood.
It was once a week plus some parties and game activities along the way. I have often wondered where these kids are today-they were mostly from our neighborhood. Did any of the teachings stick with them as they grew up? Only God knows.
During these years we came to know some beautiful people. One that I want to tell you about was called “Big Mama”. Her real name was Roberta Miles. Big Mama birthed 11 children. The ones we knew best was Claudell, the Pastor of Salt of the Earth Church and my friend, Evelyn Oakes. Big Mama would put the youngest on her back and pick cotton in the fields around Coolidge, Arizona. Her husband was a good provider and the children were well cared for.By the time we met Big Mama she was in her 80’s living either with Claudell or Evelyn. She seemed to be so happy with so little. She didn’t talk as much about her faith as living it.
One time she went with Evelyn and me to a Women’s Retreat. She was wearing a neat new cotton dress with pink and white stripes. I mentioned a couple of times how pretty it was and how nice she looked in it. Shortly after she came to me with it folded neatly and told me she wanted me to have it. I was so surprised that I hardly knew what to say. But I knew it would not be right for me to decline. It was her giving heart that caused me to remember her by all these years.
She made dozens of quilts, rocked and tended all of Evelyn’s eight children and reprimanded each one when they needed it. Her life was simple and adequate in her later years. Her body was strong. She died at the age of 97. I was privileged to attend her Memorial Service. The church was full of her family and others that her life touched- like mine. There was so much love there as they gave honor and respect to their beloved Big Mama. Her son Claudell preached, granddaughter Michelle, a journalist by profession, gave tribute to her grandmother, as well as her son in law that she lived with in her last years. It was all so right. For reasons that I can’t easily explain, my heart was so touched.
We were still living in South Phoenix when your Grandpa Lynn died. It seemed right to me to leave that area but not without feeling much richer than when we went. We learned so much-sometimes the hard way. Mostly I felt a deep gratitude for this slice of time in our lives when God allowed us to gain so many precious friends that remain to this day.
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