Welcome to our walk together, looking for the plan we know God has for us. Our life together began in Dallas, Texas. Garland Road Church of Christ was starting a new singles' class on June 1, 1976, and we were both in that class. We had never seen each other until that day. Our meeting was definitely the Lord's doing - we dated and it was one of those movie plots: Love at first sight!
We were married in August and moved to Clovis NM in December and got into retail when we bought a fine jewelry store. The owner of the store stayed on for several months teaching us how to be jewelers. So, who's in that picture? That's our watchmaker Wayne Perkins on the right. Our saleslady Leigh Smith is on the left, with Diana and George in the middle.
We have always prayed a lot, asking for God's guidance, and it's amazing all the things we've done!
In 1982, we started wondering about Romans 12:1, and what exactly is ‘making yourself a living sacrifice’? What could we do for Jesus besides put money in a contribution plate and let other people decide what to do with it? We thought we should become more directly involved in helping people, and started 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, and as things developed, we saw that His idea was for us to serve in our weakness. A term we used a lot, and still use, is that when we learn something new, we are willing to turn on a dime to align ourselves with Jesus. We did a lot of studying on tradition versus scripture; think we may have worn out a couple of dimes! One of the biggest benefits that came from all this was a new understanding of the Holy Spirit – He is alive, He is with us, He directs us.
Way back then we tried several traditional approaches to service domestically. You can’t imagine how surprised we were when none of those approaches panned out, but suddenly we came face-to-face with what we’ve come to call an ‘out of the blue’ international opportunity – World Bible School correspondence courses and international follow-up.
In 1985 I (George), encouraged by Diana, invited myself to accompany a World Bible School campaign to Ghana, W. Africa. My idea was to take pictures of other people encouraging students and anyone else who would listen. We weren’t in Ghana for more than an hour when they told me I could keep my camera, but here is an interpreter and some students who need to know about Jesus! That started it. The next step was street preaching, which built my confidence in sharing Jesus. Thousands of people of all stripes wanted Biblical information on how to be saved and were asking us to help them. I personally got to study with many of them, witnessed hundreds baptized, and my faith increased by leaps and bounds.
In 1988 and 1989 I went to Malawi, C. Africa twice, and to Zimbabwe once, while Diana stayed home, managed our business and took care of our youngest son.
In 1990 I had plans to go to Malawi again. I had been trying all year to encourage other men from church to go with me and learn about foreign mission work. I had the funds but no takers. We were out of time, and I received a call from Mary Ann, our travel agent. She said “Am I buying one ticket or 2?” I said “I’ll call you back in 20 minutes.” I turned to Diana and said “Why don’t you just go with me?” To my surprise, she said “I don’t know. Why don’t I?” Until that minute, she had never even mentioned an interest in going to Africa!
One of the most memorable events for Diana was when she found herself in Malawi, in the back seat of a rental car with an African woman she’d never in her life seen before… Diana asked Sister Thindwa where we were going, and the answer was “Sister Diana is going to speak to the ladies at some rural village church” !!! Diana said ‘Oh? What’s she going to talk about?! And who will interpret?” (Diana had not yet learned how to enunciate properly so her interpreters could understand her) Sister Thindwa said “don’t worry, I have 2 sons who went to Texas A&M and I can understand Texas just fine. We’ll study from the chart you have.” When George and Geoffrey drove away and left Diana at that church miles from nowhere, Diana said “Okay, Lord, here I am! Show me what to do.” There were 127 ladies there that day to listen to Diana and Sister Thindwa, and every one of them shook Diana's hand and thanked her for coming to talk to them!
