Window (1) GOD'S PLAN

My parents, Elgie and Ruth Moore, were very busy with the family wash on a special day in July, the 4th. God had already blessed their home with two sons. Glen, age 6 and Dick, who was 4. It was common knowledge that any day the Moore were going to have another little Moore. Well, this did turn out to be a special day for that looked for baby decided it would be a good day to declare its independence.

My excited Dad made his way to a neighbor's home to call the doctor. However, he was out celebrating the big day and could not be reached. Abbotsford, Wisconsin, where my folks lived, wasn't a very big town, but they did have another doctor whom Dad called. When he had examined my mother he realized it was going to be a very difficult breach birth. Thankfully, he had seen Mom's doctor coming in to town as he was coming to our home, so Mom's doctor was called along with a nurse. There were many times it looked like neither mother nor baby would make it. But you see God had some special plans and mother and baby both lived.

My parents named me Arlene Ruth--Ruth being my mother's first name. My brothers weren't sure how they would like a little sister, but they accepted me very well. My weigh at birth was 9 pounds, and by the time I was 2 years old I was rather pudgy. But I was loved and was part of a very happy family. How would you like to be named PUDGY for the rest of your life? Well, I got used to it and it was my folks' pet name for me from then on, even after I lost my pudginess.

The home into which I was born was a very rich home, not in earthly goods, but in the things of God. Being taught how to pray around an old fashioned family altar enabled me to get through some very hard times. Much was accomplished as we knelt together there. How I praise God for Godly parents who brought us up for the Lord; where prayer and Bible reading were as regular as our meals; where God was first and His guidance was sought daily.

My childhood was plagued with pneumonia every winter my first 6 years, once with double pneumonia. Another year I had whooping cough, and once I was put into the hospital almost in the stage of convulsions. Many times I was very close to death, but God had plans for my life. Even in these early years I learned the power of prayer as my Godly parents lovingly cared for me.

My Dad farmed the first seven years of my life, and we moved around quite a bit in different parts of the state of Wisconsin. While living near Pittsville, God sent us a little sister, who was named Bernadine Doris. She was premature and only weighed four pounds and three ounces.

The same year my brother Dick became ill and complained of a pain in his leg. Dad called the Doctor who told him Dick had flu and rheumatism, and advised them to put Epsom salt packs on his leg. This only made him worse and on Christmas day Dad called a doctor from Marshfield to come and see him. We were told that he had Osteomyelitis, which is infection of the marrow of the bone. Dick had surgery the following day. In order to be close to Dick we moved into Marshfield. This was the first of sixteen surgeries he had in his life time.

In the spring of 1936, I developed an earache. The doctor gave Mom drops to put in my ear. One day as she did this I screamed, because of the pain. That afternoon they took me to the doctor and he told them I needed a mastoid operation the following morning. After putting me in the hospital they went home to pray. Dick was still very ill with his leg, and there seemed to be no end to trouble.

They knelt by the daybed and asked God to give them something to comfort their hearts. The Bible opened to John 14, "Let not your heart be troubled ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am ye may be also." This was a great comfort to them and they were assured that God would be in control throughout the surgery. He was and I came through fine.

Again God had His hand on my life, and I began to see the Brightness of His Glory.

It was while we lived in Marshfield that Dick came home from the University of Wisconsin Hospital with a cast from his waist to his toes on his bad leg and to his hip on the other. He had to grow a new bone from his hip to his knee on his affected leg. One of our cousins put his name on a radio station in Madison in hopes some people would write him. I will never forget the bags of letters, cards, and packages that came. It was a hot summer and his foot inside the cast would itch. Mom used wire carefully wrapped with cotton to run between the cast and his foot. This did help some. It didn't matter what pain he was going through, he never complained. God was always at his side to comfort and strengthen him.

In 1937, while our family attended a funeral of one of our cousins in Mason City, Iowa, Dad found employment in a cement plant. These were depression days and work was hard to get. Dad found a small apartment in a house in northern Mason City, and we moved to Iowa. Dick was in the hospital most of that year and Glen stayed the first year with our Aunt Came, Mom's sister. It was not an easy move for any of us, but I am sure it was in God's will. This proved to be part of God's plan for our lives. We can always trust in God's judgment for He doesn't make mistakes. We can never improve on His plans for our life.

GOD'S PLAN

Men have said within their hearts,

There is no God for me.

But God has from the very start,

Had a plan for me.

Why He led the way

He did is not for me to see.

He knows just why it should be hid,

And that's enough for me.

That He has bid me go,

But He goes with me everyday,

And burdens lighter grow.

I have found such peace and rest;

It is sweeter every day.

To let Him have His way.

If the pathway is so dark,

The Lord I cannot see,

I will tell the devil, "Look,

The Lord's I'll always Be".

When at the pearly gates I stand,

And lay my burdens down,

I shall forever join God's band,

And then receive a crown.

What if my burden seem at times

To almost weigh me down?

I know that victory will be mine,

And I will wear its crown.

by Arlene R. Wright

Contents
Poem and Preface
Window 2
The Winds of the Spirit
The Voice of the Nazarene