A Joyful Life in God's Hands Table of Contents

A Joyful Life in God’s Hands Copyright © 2014 Rose Fern (Mickey) Richards Self-published print version published through the Publishing Services of College Press Publishing Co., Joplin, MO, USA. Book website: http://mickeyrichards.wordpress.com Table of Contents About Dedication Acknowledgments 1 My Forebears 2 My Early Life at Church 3 My Early Life at Home 4 Grammar School Days 5 Junior High and High School Days 6 Denver Avenue Memories 7 Dawson Family Events Memories 8 Influential People in My Life 9 College Days, Part 1: LACC, Phillips University and NCC 10 College Days, Part 2: Life at SJBC 11 Nurses Training 12 Wedding and Honeymoon 13 Our First Home 14 Our First Full Time Ministry: Zillah, WA 15 Boise Bible College: Our Ministry in Idaho 16 Back to School in California 17 Our Ministry at University Christian Church 18 Life in the San Fernando Valley 19 Our Plans for the Future 20 Jungle Training Camp 21 Preparations for Moving to the Philippines 22 The Container Ship Washington, States Line 23 Looking for Our New Home 24 Our Second Trip to Abra, Part 1: Return to Abra 25 Our Second Trip to Abra, Part 2: All for Naught 26 Transition to Piat 27 Life in Piat 28 Language Learning and Linguistic Analysis 29 Cultural Observations 30 Activities Away from Piat 31 Early Growth of the Itawes Church of Christ 32 Dialect Variation Survey 33 We Move to Enrile 34 Our House in Enrile 35 Adding a New Section to the House 36 The Eight Steps of Our Bible Translation 37 The Printing Procedure 38 Dedication of the Itawes New Testament 39 Clothing Distribution 40 Eyeglass Distribution 41 Christmas Times 42 Fiesta in Enrile 43 Angel of the Lord 44 Running Water 45 The Pump Well 46 An Enrile Wake 47 Corn Harvest 48 VBS in the Itawes Region 49 Our Trip to Portugal, Part 1 50 Portugal Trip, Part 2 51 Philippine Sightseeing with Our Sisters 52 Thanksgiving for Our Permanent Residence Visas 53 Our Golden Wedding Anniversary 54 Our Trip to Alaska 55 A Typical Day in Rizal 56 Malaweg Bible Dedication 57 Our Change of Plans 58 The Rat 59 Revision of the Itawes Bible 60 Preparation for the Launching of the Revised Itawes Bible 61 Launching of Ya Ergo Y Afu Dios (Revised Itawes Bible) 62 What We Did When We Retired 63 Our Trip to the East 64 Amelia Julian Appendix: Lost, But Not Alone: Chuck’s Adventure in Abra About Born, raised and educated in Los Angeles, California, the author enjoyed camping with her family, vacation Bible schools at her church, and summers at Christian camps in the nearby mountains. There, she began to learn the value of Christian service. Later, missionaries to the Belgian Congo (Democratic Republic of Congo) and the jungles of Brazil visited her childhood home, inspiring her even more. The result of all these events was a burning desire to become a missionary herself. She prepared for this by attending Bible college and studying/training at the Lutheran hospital to be a nurse. In pursuit of her goal, she met and married a young minister who was preparing himself for missionary work. Meanwhile, they had a family, two girls and two boys, and they spent the next 22 years ministering to Christian churches in Washington, Idaho and mostly California. During that time, her husband went back to school and got a doctorate in linguistics. Finally, in her late 40s, they went to the Philippinges to begin what she had prepared for her entire life: missionary work, Bible translation in the Philippines. Dedication This book is dedicated to Don DeWelt, professor at San Jose Bible College, who told me that if I became a missionary, I should write a book about it. He said, “After all, if missionaries don’t write about their lives on the field, how will others learn about it? Your book might be a challenge to those who will take the Word of God to the unreached.” It is also dedicated to you who helped us in the process of becoming missionaries. We needed all the suggestions you gave us. It is dedicated to you who loved, prayed for and supported us, making it possible for us to remain as missionaries and do the best job we could. This book is also dedicated to you who are looking forward to becoming missionaries in the future. Hopefully, it will help make your life better than it might have been otherwise. Table of Contents Acknowledgments It is to the Lord God Himself that I owe the highest praise and thanks for making my life, and this book, possible. He has been the One in control constantly from the very beginning to the present. He knew my entire life from the moment I was conceived, as it says in Psalm 139:13, 16b, “For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb, All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.” Thank You, Father, for leading me. Thank You for being in control. Thanks also to you, my dear husband, Chuck. You have been my most faithful companion all through the years. You have been a blessing in so many ways, and when I talked to you about writing a book many years ago, before we ever became missionaries, you encouraged me. In whatever writing I did, you gave me the terminology or information I needed at the appropriate time. You always seemed to have the answer to whatever the question was. When I was ready to quit, you let me quit, but when I felt a desire to start again, you were all for it and helped in whatever way you could. You allowed me to be myself in all of this, and I appreciate all you did. Thank you for being such a wonderful partner throughout our lives as we have worked together and served the Lord in the best way we knew how. He has been the One who has been in control throughout these years. Sometimes we “threw out the fleece” in order to know what He would have us do and He never failed us. Other times, He led in different ways, but always it was He who chose our path. Thanks to you, my son, Leroy, the best editor I could possibly have had. You have helped me more than I thought you could. I fully appreciate you and all you did in giving me insights and helping me see what we could do to make the story clearer. You caused me to think in ways that I would not have otherwise. You seemed to understand me in whatever I said, and you seemed to know where I was coming from and where I wanted to go. If a spiritual matter was involved, you even seemed to feel that and know what I would do or say in that situation. You gave me the answer that was the best fit in each situation. I truly believe that God gave you to me as a special angel or messenger from Him to help me in this autobiography. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! Table of Contents Chapter 1: My Forebears My name is Rose Fern Fink Richards. Mickey is my nickname, but I’ll wait and tell you about that at another time. From what I understand, my life has been affected by my forebears; therefore, I thought I should tell you a little about them. My grandfather on my mother's side was Thomas Dawson. He was born in Coxsachie Green, New York on July 19, 1846. When he was older, he made a living by working as a carpenter for one dollar a day. He moved to the west where he preached as an itinerant preacher. Every Sunday he preached in 2 or 3 churches because there were so few preachers there. He made his living at that time by his carpentry work, making two dollars a day. He was a devoted son. So when he heard that his mother, who had moved to England, was sick, he went there to see if he could help. However, when he got there, he happily found that she had recovered from her illness. While he was in England, he met and fell in love with Mary Ann Grosvenor. They married on December 23rd, 1878, stayed there till after they had their first child, and then moved to the U.S. They had eleven children born to them, three boys and eight girls. In the order of their birth, their children were: Lily, Rose, Ernest, Violet, Albert, who was nicknamed Bob, Daisy, Myrtle, Ivy, Pansy, Frank and Althea. Lily was born in Ernston, England; Rose, Ernest and Violet were born in San Antonio, Texas; Albert and Daisy were born in Antelope Valley, California; Myrtle, Ivy, Frank and Pansy were born in San Luis Obispo, California, and Althea was born in Los Angeles. His wife died a year after the eleventh child was born, leaving his children motherless. Now the older children took care of the younger ones in the family. Thomas was very lonely without his wife, and he needed someone to be with him as well as to take care of the children, so eventually he remarried. However, his new wife had three children of her own, and she did not take the time to take care of his children but instead, only cared for her own.

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