A Series of Partners

More from my mother’s Cat Island journal:

 

“During my summer visit up north in 1975, Carol took me to see Jeanette, a retired missionary from China. She offered to go to Cat Island with me for a month in the fall. I had thought I wouldn’t be able to return, but with this offer I felt the Lord’s blessing. People loved her sweet ways and her talking about China. Before she left, I got a letter from Mr. and Mrs. Thorne, offering to come for the next month. I took Jeanette to the airport at Arthur’s Town, and after the plane left I discovered my car wouldn’t start. There I was—alone on the furthest spot on the island with a stalled car. No one seemed willing to help; everyone was leaving the airport. One young man started the car with a screw driver, and I didn’t turn off the motor until I got home! What a desolate, lonely feeling that rainy evening! And then a car drove into the yard. It was the Thornes, who had come several days early. The Lord knew His lonely child needed somebody. They must have liked it there, because they stayed two months. Before they left, a young family wrote that they would come for the spring semester. And then it was summer 1976, and again I traveled north to see my family.

 

“I visited some childhood friends, and found in their home a young woman, Alice, who had quit her job believing God was leading her to do something new. It’s a long story, but in the end, she went back to Cat Island with me in the fall. I can’t imagine her feelings to be suddenly plunged into such a primitive life. She adapted well.

 

“Usually we spent two weeks cleaning the house and getting settled before arranging classes with the teachers. But this time we visited the schools right away. Good thing, because after only two weeks I got word that Grandpa was very sick. To my surprise, Alice offered to stay alone and continue the classes. She had learned how to do it in those few days.”

 

More stories tomorrow.