Michigan or Bust (Part One)

When Bill makes up his mind to do something, he usually finds a way to accomplish it. When I first met him, he had a few goals in mind: he wanted to build and live in a geodesic dome, he wanted to move to Michigan and help our friends, the Brinks, with a ministry for young adults there, and he wanted to get married as soon as he graduated from Milford. I guess accomplishing two out of three of those goals isn't too bad.

Bill and I were married a few days after he graduated from Milford with a degree in electronic engineering. We lived in Lincoln for the next year and a half, while I finished college and Bill worked for Notifier, installing and inspecting fire and burglar alarms. A few people in the area were living in geodesic dome homes at that time, so we drove by several of them, and even toured one. Bill eagerly read any articles he could find about domes, pouring over his Popular Science magazines and Mother Earth News for anything he could glean from their pages.

And we planned for the day when we would move to Michigan.

For most of a year, before we were married, Bill and I met once a week with several other students and young married couples, at the Brinks' house, for Friday evening Prayer and Praise. We dropped by often, because the Brinks' home was a good place to just hang out and talk. Sometimes, we joined their family for supper, or even Sunday dinner. Even after we were married, we continued to spend time with the Brink family.

Bill and me, at Prayer and Praise

Freda and Larry Brink had nine children, eight biological and one adopted. When we met them, the oldest three girls were married, with families of their own. The oldest boys were close to our age, while the next two girls and a son were still in junior or senior high school. And then, there was Darryl, or Bubba, as he was called, the baby of the family, at three years old. We got to know the kids who still lived at home, and we heard enough about the oldest girls and the grandkids that we felt like we knew them, too.

Larry had inherited a working oil well near Interlochen, Michigan, and had a dream to retire from his job with the forest service, and move his family to Michigan. He and Freda planned to use the proceeds from the oil well to help support their family while Larry started a sawmill business, and while the family continued their ministry to young adults. Somehow, before I even met him, Bill latched onto that dream, too, and started planning to move to Michigan. I was happy to go with him, wherever he wanted to go.

Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Ruth 1:16b

Some of the other young adults from our Prayer and Praise group were interested in moving to Michigan, too. It sounded like an adventure, to move to someplace we had never seen, seeking to go wherever God lead us. Ultimately, we joined together with our friends, Bonnie and Gary, to share a U-Haul for the trek to Michigan. Bonnie and Gary had two young children, four-year-old Isaac, and one-year-old Megan, and were expecting a surprise addition to their family in late May, soon after I graduated from Concordia College. We decided to move as soon as possible after their new baby arrived, with a target date of July 1st.

Well, baby Adam took his sweet time, finally arriving in mid June, but his delayed birth didn't delay our trip. Gary and Bill worked diligently to fit all of our belongings into the moving van. Then, we towed our car behind the U-Haul, while Gary drove his family's old woody station wagon, caravaning across Iowa toward Michigan.

We hadn't really stopped to consider that the timing of our move coincided precisely with our nation's bi-centennial celebration. For the entire three-day trip, we encountered patriotically decorated communities and vehicles, parades, and fireworks. It was a huge, nationwide celebration, and we were traveling right through the middle of it.

What a send-off!