Home Again

I was discharged on October 4, 1945, and returned to my home in Rome, Georgia. I enjoyed three good months with my family before going back to college. During these months, Ferris Hough, my former classmate who had since become the pastor of my home church, took me with him to Bob Jones College to pick up his sister Joan and his sister-in-law, Myrtle House, to bring them back to Rome for a long weekend.

I took an immediate interest in Joan and wanted to know her better. After we returned to Rome, I asked if she would like to go to a Rome High football game that night. She accepted, and we enjoyed the evening. She was a quiet, serious girl, but fun. I learned that she planned to be a missionary.

After we returned to school second semester, since Joan and I were both majoring in Bible, and her name was Hough and mine Hufstetler, alphabetical seating arrangements found us near each other often. Whenever I was with her, I felt closer to the Lord. Our relationship progressed quickly, and we were engaged before the semester was over.

God had been leading me on another front as well. While visiting at home, I had talked with a good friend, Roger Johnson, who had been active in GI Gospel Hour in Manila. He had participated in the prayer meetings where God have a group of men a burden to begin a new mission board and the Far Eastern Bible Institute and Seminary (FEBIAS). Roger gave me a copy of the first brochures published by the new mission board, Far Eastern Gospel Crusade.

CAH