WEST INDIES MISSION

 West Indies Mission Headquarters

When my seven month internship ended April 30th, 1958, I returned home to Chatham.  For a good part of May I spent time working on my application papers for the West Indies Mission.  I had several reports and papers to prepare which dealt with my doctrinal views and other related matters, plus a physical exam.  Once I had all the necessary papers ready, they were mailed off to WIM. A response from the mission came in mid June inviting me to go to their headquarters in Homer City, Pennsylvania for a six week period.  I left Chatham on Monday, June 23rd and drove the 400 miles to Homer City.  The mission headquarters consisted of over 300 acres.  It was a dairy farm that had been given to WIM.  It consisted of barns, cows, five large homes, two of them near to the office building and conference center which the mission had built.  The other three houses were at a distance, ranging from about a quarter of a mile to at least three quarters of a mile.

Much of my time there was spent in working on the property.  I cut a lot of lawn, picked fruit and whatever other odd jobs needed attention.  I also had a couple of books assigned to me to read and give a book report.  These book reports were shared at a prayer meeting.  There were two prayer meetings each week, Tuesday and Thursday evenings to which the staff and candidates attended.  There was one other candidate there, a young lady named Jane from Maryland, who had been there for three or four weeks, when I arrived.

Near the end of my second week, Friday, July 4th, something happened that has forever changed my  future life and ministry.  That day, being the American Independence Day, the staff and we two candidates had a picnic in the late afternoon.  Around 8:00pm, as we were packing up to leave the picnic site, one of the office staff mentioned that a phone call had come from another prospective candidate and that she was in Johnstown, a city about twenty miles away, and she needed to be picked up.  The question was would someone be willing to go pick her up.  There was silence.  I thought one of the staff would need to go pick her up.  When no one responded, I said, "I'll go pick her up but I want Jim," a 16 year old missionary's son," to go with me."  The two of us made the drive, and there seated in a hotel lobby was an attractive young lady who had just flown in from Alberta.  She was easy to spot as she was the only person sitting in the lobby.  I asked if she was Miss Maybet.  She responded by saying, "Yes, Mabbott as in Rabbit."  We drove back to Homer City and much to my surprise and also my delight, this new lady candidate was going to stay in the same home where I was.

The next day was a Saturday and the Clarence Reimers, the folks that we were staying with, went into Johnstown to do some shopping, taking their three young daughters with them. They also were going to pick up  the new candidate's luggage, which did not arrive the night before when she did.  I had heard that this new candidate, Leona Mabbott, would be fixing lunch for me.  I had to work the Saturday morning, cutting lawn.  I should add that this was not a power mower, but one that you pushed.  I was the power.  When I finished my work, I came in, showered and sat down to eat lunch with this lovely new lady candidate.  As I recall we had bologna.  The Reimers did not come home after lunch, as I had expected.  So Leona and I sat on the big veranda, overlooking the Allegheny mountains, and chatted.

Allegheny Mountains

Since I had planned to go into Indiana, PA that afternoon to get a haircut, I asked Leona if she would like to go into town with me, rather than sit in this big farm house by herself.  Well, she accompanied me and went shopping, while I was getting my haircut.  When we returned to the Reimer's place, they were still not home.  Soon Leona was fixing supper for me.  They finally arrived home at 9:00pm that night.  This meant that Leona and I had approximately nine hours together, getting to know one another, plus eating two meals together, which she had prepared and all in the space of 24 hours.

Sunday, the two of us went to the Johnstown Evangelical Free Church with the Reimers.  That evening, I was asked to preach at a little church in a nearby coal mining community.  Mr. Reimer took me and also invited Leona to attend.  This was something.  I got to pick her up Friday night.  Spent several hours with her Saturday.  Taken together to church Sunday morning and now she was invited to attend the evening service in this small church and hear me preach.  However, I was in for a jolt when we came home that night, following the evening service.  The wife of one of the staff farm workers had been taken to hospital that day for the birth of her second or third child.  Leona was asked to move to that home, look after the children, plus cook and wash, etc.  I got the privilege of moving her, that Sunday night, to the house that was about three quarters of a mile away.  When I arrived back at the Reimer's home, I was beginning to miss her, even though she had only been there for 48 hours.

Tuesday night was prayer meeting in the director's house.  After prayer meeting a few of us stayed and played a game of Keyword. Two of the players were Jane and Leona.  Around 9:00pm or a little after, a storm was threatening and we headed for our homes.  Since the Reimer's house was only about 250 feet from the director's house, I offered to get my car and take these two ladies home.  Jane spoke up and declined my offer.  I watched as the two of them started to walk up the road.  I was not going to let Jane deter my plan.  I got into my car, drove up along side of them and told them to hop in.  It worked the way that I had hoped.  Since Leona was going to have to walk the farthest, about three quarters of a mile, Jane held the door open for Leona to get in first.  The 1951 Plymouth seated six, three in the front and three in the back, so the two ladies sat in the front seat.  I took Jane home first.  Leona was another half mile.  Since rain was not far off, I helped her bring in the washing that she had done that day and which was still hanging on the clothes line.

Our first picture together - Leona & Dan

Saturday afternoon, eight days after Leona's arrival, we had a date.  The two of us went into the city of Pittsburgh and to the Pittsburgh Zoo.  For our supper (dinner) we stopped for pizza before leaving Pittsburgh.  We had more outings together and also several fun evenings with Sam and Edna (Thompson) Harms, missionaries home on furlough.  Edna was the director's daughter and a classmate of mine at Prairie Bible Institute.  About my fourth or fifth week at Homer City, I wrote a letter to my folks  saying that I had been bitten by a bug and Mrs. Thompson, the director's wife, did not have any medicine to cure the bite.  That was at the bottom of the page.  When my folks turned over the page they saw that I had written that I had been bitten by the love bug.

Our day of parting finally came, after a little more than four weeks together.  I left on Monday, August 4th and headed back to Chatham.  I invited Leona to stop by Chatham on her way home.  She left the mission headquarters on Thursday, August 14th by Greyhound Bus and I picked her up at the bus depot in Detroit that evening.  She spent the weekend at my home, leaving early in the week by train and heading back to her home in Lacombe, Alberta.

So, Zack, and anyone else who is reading this blog, you may be wondering what this romance has to do with the question which you asked regarding sharing my pastoral journey.  I hope to show you in some of the following postings that Leona, not only became my wife, but my associate pastor, maybe not in name or title, but in practice.  I would never have had the pastoral ministry that I had, without her encouragement, support and labors together.