PUTTTING DOWN ROOTS IN IOWA

We went from being a family with six people active, sometimes boisterous people in the house,  to a four bedroom house for two people to roam around in during the fifteen plus years we were in Iowa.  Elliott spent the last two years of high school here.  He then went off to college and on to service, but the others did most of their growing up here.  All of our children graduated from Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, which was practically unheard of in preachers’ families at the time.   Preachers usually didn’t stay too long in one location.

I signed an agreement to stay with the church to stay five years when I first moved to Cedar Rapids.    They had seen winters disillusion preachers from the South, but I wasn’t afraid of them.   We had lived through several northern winters before we moved to Iowa.  I might have questioned my decision the first winter, when the temperature dropped beyond -50 on the wind chill index, but we stuck it out.

Many people have wondered why we didn’t stay in Texas where they were bigger churches, bigger youth groups, and more exposure to the faith community to which we were committed.  I felt the Lord was leading us to Iowa, and there were numerous benefits that came to us as the result of being here.  We knew we would probably make something of a financial sacrifice, but we wanted to have quality family life.  At the time, the growing churches of the South expected a lot of their preachers, and I had seen many of them give their families less than they deserved.  I had even seen myself falling into that trap, and it had almost cost me my marriage.

Cedar Rapids not only represented a new start, it gave us an opportunity to be with a church where there was not an enormous amount of pressure to make the church grow, although I’m sure we all hoped that would happen.   I’ve never regretted the time I spent with my children during those years.  As the saying goes, “No one ever dies wishing he had spent more time at work.”

Our children chose to be involved in numerous extracurricular activities over the years – band, drama, sports, chorus and other things. I can’t tell you how many programs we attended.  The only time I remember missing any of them was when three kids had a program on the same night and it was physically impossible to be in three places at one time.

We lived in the same house during all that time.  I lived in that house longer than I’ve ever lived anywhere.   I didn’t live in the same house during the years I grew up.  I was a sharecropper’s son during the early years of my life.  When we finally settled into a house where Mama and Daddy would spend several years, I was a senior in high school.   Obviously, we put down some roots in Iowa.

THE CHILDREN ADJUST TO LIVING IN IOWA

Most of our children adapted to Iowa right away.  When we moved in the neighbors across the street invited the kids to jump on their trampoline, so they made immediate friends.   All three of the younger children enrolled at Erskine Elementary school, and soon found their new way of life to their liking.

It wasn’t quite that easy for Elliott.  He was a teenager.  He had emerged as a leader at Sharpstown High School, in Houston and he was just another face at Washington High School in Cedar Rapids.   That would eventually change, but it was tough at first.

He had numerous ways of mentally resisting his new surroundings.   For one thing he is the only one of our children who is a native Texan.  At that point in his life, he was proud of that distinction.  Shortly after enrolling at Washington, he addressed his speech class on the topic, “Why Texans Brag.”  In his speech he pointed out that you can visit Atlanta, Paris, Athens, New London and Rhome (Italians don’t use the H) and never leave Texas.

Because we have lived in so many different places, he does not naturally communicate with a Texas drawl.  The minute we got to Iowa he began speaking that way.    Later on students remarked about how quickly he lost the accent.   They didn’t know he never actually had it. 

Elliott could and still can use any regional speech dialect he wants to use. If he so chooses, he can confer with a West Texas rancher, who might well think he was born and raised in Lubbock.   He can also make an Englishman think he’s from London.

One day they had western day at school.  He borrowed my boots (which really didn’t fit him), and probably looked the part of an authentic cowboy.  He even managed to get a real pistol and holster, but they took that away from him.  They explained they usually have to do that every year on western day.

Beginning Our New Adventure in Iowa

The state of Iowa has adopted many different slogans over the years.  One of the most unsuccessful was “Iowa: A State of Minds.”   It was lampooned and ridiculed all over the nation, and didn’t last long. The current slogan (as of the writing; it is subject to change at the whim of the state legislators) is “Iowa: Life Changing.” Before that it was “Fields of Opportunity, which sounds a lot like the former Arkansas slogan – “Land of Opportunity,” of which the wags used to say, “it means leave at your first opportunity.  

Anyway, we had a different slogan when we first came to Iowa in 1977.  I had some vacation time coming when we left Houston, so we took the time to visit family and friends.  Along the way, I was invited to speak at several churches.  I had developed a sermon I called, “Just As I Am” (used the Cinderella illustration in it).  One night the kids asked, “Dad, what are you going to preach on tonight?”  I said, “Just as I Am.”  Their response was, “Oh, No.”  One of the disadvantages of being a PK is having the listen to your Dad preach the same sermon over and over again. 

My mother in law came with us when we moved to Iowa to help us  get settled.  There were seven of us in our ’74 Impala. We stopped the car at the state line on I-35 as we entered the state near Lamoni.   The sign read “Iowa: A Place to Grow,” which was the state slogan at that time.   For us that was a good omen.

How We Ended Up In Iowa

I went to the ACU Lectureship in February of 1977.  That was always a good place to make contact with churches when you were looking for a place to preach.  For the most of the week I encountered very little that interested me, but then I heard my name called over the PA system at Lectureship Central.  I was asked to contact a couple of men from Iowa.  Later that evening I met with them at a motel in Abilene.  They were from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and they were looking for a preacher.

When I got back home from Abilene, I sat down to talk with Ann and with her mother, who was visiting us.   I said, “Did you really mean that stuff about going where the Lord wants us to go?”  She assured me that she did.  I said, “Well, I have a second question, “Do you know where your snow boots are?”  Mother’s response was “Oh, no.”  I think she had hoped we would never venture north of the Red River again.

I made a trip to Iowa and it went very well.  We then made another trip to Iowa together, and the deal was sealed.  Iowa would become our home for the next fifteen years.

It was hard to say “good bye” to friends and loved ones in Houston.  We loved Houston and we loved the church, but it was time for us to move on to different pastures.

The Decision to Leave Houston

The decision to leave Houston was a difficult one.  There were probably a couple of factors that pushed me in that direction.   One was the desire to have pulpit responsibility.   I had always considered my experience as an associate minister to be a temporary one.  I felt gifted to preach, and I wanted that opportunity.  

The other was financial.   Quite often preachers move for financial reasons, but they never say so publicly.  You don’t become a preacher for financial reasons.  You’re not in it because it’s a good paying job.   But you do have the need to take care of your family.    When I accepted an associate’s position, I knew I would be limiting myself financially.  In time I realized the salary was inadequate for my growing family. 

We prayed about it, and I decided to bring the subject up as budget plans were being made for the next year.   There would be an opportunity for salary negotiation. I had decided that if I did not consider the salary increase offered to be adequate for my family that I would look into making a change.  I told Truman that, but I did not tell the elders.   When they came up with what I thought was a “low ball” offer, my decision was made.  Truman took me aside later.  He was most understanding, and told me how much he was going to miss working with me.

In the months ahead I began actively looking for another position.  At first I wanted to remain somewhere near Houston.  I went through a couple of interviews in the Houston area, but nothing came of them.  In one church we learned that strong racial prejudice was dominant in the church.  We knew that our children would never accept that, and I couldn’t see myself fitting into that kind of situation.  Nothing seemed to be working out in that area.  

I told Ann that I would be willing to work anywhere in Texas, Oklahoma or Arkansas.  She said, “We’ll go where the Lord wants us to go.”  I didn’t even have Louisiana on my list.  I got a call from a church in the New Orleans area, but chose not to pursue it.   Little did I realize that I would eventually spend fifteen years of my life in Louisiana.  I didn’t plan on returning to the North, but I would also spend fifteen years with a church in the North, and I’m living in that same community today.  I didn't give the Lord too much room to work with that Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas limitation. God overruled.