Adventurers in Faith

Memoirs of an Appalachian Ministry Two People – One Vision – Faith Practical Actions and a Farm

At the beginning of his working life, a man is told that he is wasting his life by following the path he has chosen. Moreover, it is 1932, the midst of the Depression, and he cannot find a position in his chosen field. Finally, one solitary position in the whole United States opens up, and he is able to snag it. The corporation he works for is national in scope, but the division in which he has chosen to work is one of the corporations smallest. At the same time, he is desperately trying to get the woman he has been courting by mail for two years to marry him. She is resisting. He is broke and in debt, but he somehow gets money to travel the five hundred miles to see her. It is only the third time they have been together in the two years they have been writing love letters to each other. He convinces her to marry him (the best decision he ever made), and they head out on a journey to a place they have never seen and know little about. It is in the remote hills of Tennessee. Two years later, the family moves to an even more remote outpost. He has a vision of creating something that neither anyone in his corporation, nor any similar corporation, has ever achieved before. For thirty-five years, the couple labors in relative obscurity working on their vision. He refuses promotion to a more prestigious and lucrative position in his corporation. Near the end of his life, he is suddenly and surprisingly elected to the highest office in his corporation. This is their story.