We both felt something lacking in our spiritual life. The other large Church of Christ congregation, 16th & Pile, started a new study called Sharpening the Sword, and we decided to attend that class. Many of George's schoolmates were there, and they took us under their wing, so we moved our membership there.
One Sunday morning as the contribution was being taken up, we asked each other what we could do for Jesus besides put money in a plate and let other people control what to do with it? We wondered how we could become involved in helping people directly by venturing outside the walls of our building? We became more serious about focusing our studies and our prayers on “what is Jesus’ plan of service for our lives?”
As it turned out, we were defining service in our terms but soon discovered that Jesus’ terms did not necessarily match ours. We were thinking of serving Him through our strengths. As things developed, we saw that His idea was for us to serve from our weakness, a term we used a lot to encourage each other in the unfamiliar developments in our lives.
At that point we really didn't know much about the Holy Spirit because neither congregation understood Him and didn't do any teaching about Him. We were getting interested in cottage studies and were inviting people to our home study on salvation. We wanted to share Jesus but weren't sure how to become that living sacrifice as Paul said in Romans 12:1.
Then we got a new preacher, Ralph Weinhold, who started teaching about the Holy Spirit! We did a lot of studying on tradition versus scripture. One of the biggest benefits that came from all this was a deepened understanding of the Holy Spirit – He is alive, He is with us, He directs us. Ralph was experienced in short-term missions with World Bible School before he came to Clovis and in 1985, he accepted an invitation from Jake Coppinger to join the next campaign to Ghana, West Africa. Even though we had never considered the possibility of going on a foreign mission ourselves, I suddenly wanted to go! This was the first instance where we recognized a calling from God. We've experienced it many times since then, and we call it 'out of the blue'.
Called to Serve -- 1976
WOW! It is now 2026 and we (George & Diana Franklin) are looking back at our 50 years together.
50 years ago, we were both single. February 1976 was a tragic month for both of us. Diana, who lived in Garland, Texas, was widowed, and George moved to Dallas from Florida, and was trying to re-start his life after failing to win a long-fought battle to avoid a divorce. George was a controller at a software development company, and attended Skillman Avenue Church of Christ. Diana was a stay-at-home mother of a 6-year-old son, and attended Garland Road Church of Christ.
Garland Road started a new singles' class on June 1, 1976, and the elders suggested that Diana might like to join the new class. Across town, the elders at Skillman Avenue suggested that George might like to be part of Garland Road's new singles class.
We had never seen each other until that class started, but looking back it was clear that the Spirit was encouraging us, you know, He had a plan. It was like one of those movie plots. Love at first sight!
We were married in August 1976 and moved to Clovis, New Mexico in December for a new beginning. Choosing Clovis as our new home made things easier since George was raised there, his family was well-known in the community, and we felt that a small town environment would be more attractive than the huge metropolis of Dallas-Fort Worth. George's parents attended 21st Street Church of Christ in Clovis, and it made sense for us to go there.
We got into retail when we bought a fine jewelry store, which required good eye-hand coordination, and George had that. The owner stayed for a while, teaching us how to run the store, and George was blessed to be invited to learn jewelry repair, such as ring sizing and stone setting, by Doyal LaRue, a local jeweler who did custom work - another evidence of who'd-a-thunk it - the competition helping George become a jeweler! George had known Doyal as an acquaintance for many years, and he was a fine Christian man who became our good friend as well as our teacher.
After 18 years we closed the store and I went into short-term mission work with World Bible School. In 1995 Diana became an optician, earning her CPOA. In 1998 we organized an ongoing ministry conducting eyeglass clinics along with the Mbale (Uganda) Mission Team, which we continued every year until 2015, primarily in Uganda and Kenya, E. Africa, with 3 trips to South Sudan and one to Burkina Faso, West Africa.
Diana continued working in optometry until her retirement in 2010. Since that time she has devoted all her time to SEE Ministries.
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“Out of the blue”, in mid-2016, there was a plea for us to help schoolgirls stay in school by providing them with free disposable sanitary pads. The Luchivyas had been learning how to assemble a quality product, and were making pads entirely by hand at their home – their tools were a butcher knife to scrape banana stems, scissors to cut the pad material and shred paper, and basic sewing tools. They could only make about 20 pads per week – enough for 3 girls.
When the new ministry idea was shared with Dr. Blackburn, he immediately sent us a check to help provide them with a sewing machine. We added to the fund, allowing them to buy a sewing machine with a cabinet, scissors and other sewing tools, and they started making pads by the hundreds! Shortly afterwards, we made an agreement with 2 Primary Schools to provide pads for their girls, numbering about 100 each, every month, 12 months a year. Now, 10 years later, we’re up to 15 schools and over 2,500 girls every month.
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Coming back from Ghana I found myself already hoping that God would send me back to Africa again! I didn't get to go again for 2 years. In 1987, the Holy Spirit introduced us to Eric Dickey, who scheduled his own mission trips, not dependent on church funding. He invited me to go with him to Malawi in 1988. We started working together in Malawi, Central Africa, still conducting WBS follow-up campaigns. We returned to Malawi in 1989, and also traveled to Zimbabwe that year.
n 1990, God made it possible for Diana to join the group. We had funds allocated for 2 plane tickets to Malawi. I tried all year to invite an elder to go with me and experience short-term missions, but out of 8 elders, I got 8 excuses not to go. Then God stepped in and suddenly "out of the blue", I found myself asking Diana, 'why don't you just go with me?' And without thinking about it, she said "I don't know - why don't I?' Wow!
Looking back, it's clear that that moment in 1982 when Diana and I talked about what God wanted us to do was coming to fruition. We worked together with WBS' Correspondence Program until 1998, when we went back to Malawi to start the Eyeglasses Program. A month before we left, we met missionaries from Uganda, who asked us to come do an eyeglass program with them. We hadn't even done the first one yet!
We went to Malawi and conducted an eyeglass clinic, but after a hostile reaction from missionaries working nearby, we accepted Uganda's invitation and went there in 1999. Praise the Lord, we worked in Uganda for 10 years!
So, the conclusion was 1990 was a decisive year.
WBS Team leaving from New York City for Ghana
