Then I remembered that I was supposed to be praying that the Lord would meet our needs and that the mission board would still support us even though my dad’s denomination, the PCUSA (Presbyterian Church United States of America), had just split into two parts. The other part had a much weaker view of Scripture, and Dad did not know if he could be faithful to The Things of the Lord and work under the authority of men who, at their last conference on the inerrancy of Scripture, had allowed a paper to be read by a theological professor from Dallas Seminary who said that he did not believe that Christ would reign as king during the millennium, and who believed that after the rapture the end would come without the millennium!

So we had to have a Day of Prayer to ask God to lead us through this fiery wilderness of apostacy. But after I prayed that God would lead Dad to make the right decision about whether to stay in the PCUSA or look for support from the new mission board of the split-away PCCCUSA (Presbyterian Church of Christ and Covenant United States of America), a denomination that would not allow people to read papers questioning the essentials of the faith like the millennium and the rapture, I let my mind wander and get overgrown with worldly weeds, like Mom would say. And while I tried to pray, all I could think of was Andys Little Thing stuck in the bottle, and I wondered if Dad had ever gotten his stuck in a bottle and whether the bottle would break if his went big, because his was a lot bigger than Andys to start with.

Once I had come into Dad’s room at home without knocking, and he turned around, then turned away real fast because his was big. I couldn’t see very well because he only had his bedside light on, but it looked bigger than the zucchini Mom grew in our garden and stuffed with hamburger and cheese to make “Mennonite Meatloaf” every Wednesday night before Bible study.

I waited for Dad to eat enough breakfast so I figured it would be all right to ask him something without the answer being “no” before he even thought about it. I said, “Since it’s raining, can I walk over to Portofino by myself and spend the day there?”

Dad was about to say “no” when Mom said, “That seems a little risky.” Dad looked at her and said, “I don’t think it’s a bad idea. Just be back by six so you can change for supper. And do not go out to the lighthouse and climb on the rocks, the waves are too high today!” I said, “Thanks, Pop.” And got out in a hurry before he could change his mind and add other things to the list I wasn’t supposed to do.