I'm using my 1982 calendar as a backdrop for piecing together a few early highlights from that time.
All the students at Bible school, as is common in such schools, had to have a ministry each semester. For my first year I arranged to have my ministry be with the Soviet emigrants. Out ministries had to be approved and so were recorded with the appropriate school authorities. I assume that's how a Christian radio station found out about my student ministry, and I was invited to be interviewed live on October 13, 1982 at 7 a.m..
However, my youngest brother, who had just graduated from high school the previous year (the same brother who got stuck in eastern Washington when Mt. St. Helens blew) was having a bad time of it with homesickness and he was at a school just a few hours away from me. So I had spent the previous weekend visiting him to help him through that time and didn't bring homework with me so that I could focus on being with him.
That was fine, and I was glad I was able to do that, but that left me with little time to get my expanded outline of all the kings of Israel (as united and also divided kingdoms) ready to be handed in the morning of... October 13.
Now I've been pretty good, historically at time management and I could probably count on one hand the number of times I've ever had to pull an all-nighter for school, but it just so happened that one of those all-nighters fell on the night of... you guessed it... Oct. 12-13.
In this case, I'm afraid I did better on the assignment than on the interview. I was, needless to say, very tired and not at my best for the interview, although I could have done a lot worse than I did, I'm sure. But it also wasn't the best I could have done under other circumstances.
I remember one question in particular (I can't remember the exact wording, but this is the gist of it), where I was asked what got me interested in work with Soviet emigrants. I remember thinking (this is in my fatigued state, remember) that I thought it was a silly question - why did anyone go into a ministry. The obvious answer was "I felt a call" (which for best effect should be said with a deep and somber voice). That is always applicable to such things, although it may not always be true, I'm sure. But I answered with something about my Ukrainian heritage initially drawing me to that part of the world.
That's the only question I remember specifically, but a Russian friend had taped the interview and we listened to it later. I guess it wasn't too bad; I didn't make a complete fool of myself anyway. Hopefully they weren't too sorry they'd asked me. I certainly did my best under the circumstances.
The retreat for the graduate program was the next weekend, but I don't remember it, so I may not have gone.
That's all I have in my 1982 calendar, for the months of that year I was in Bible school, I mean.
***
Only those who were either in a graduate level program or married could live off campus at that school, and I met the first criteria, so I was able to live in an apartment with a couple other gals, one of whom I knew from before. But that fall she decided to move back to her hometown, so there were just two of us left.
I was working at Pizza Hut, but just eking by on what I was making. So when one roommate left, that meant I'd have to pay more to live there to account for only 2 of us sharing the rent and utilities bills. That was really too much for me and then I had a falling out with the other roommate anyway over a moral issue, which clinched the deal.
That Christmas break our family was taking a family vacation, the first one all together with all of us as adults (meaning, we'd all graduated from high school). But because of the timing, I ended out having to move right before the vacation, but I didn't know where to, so my brother, the one a few hours from me at that time, helped me pack things up in boxes. A bunch of things were left with a friend and other boxes were put in storage elsewhere. Unfortunately a bunch of my books ended up in kitchen cabinets and I still have evidences of cocktoaches on some of them. (Yuck!)
For the next 12 months I lived virtually out of a suitcase.
That family vacation to Mexico was pretty much a disaster, although I did enjoy it. I think mom and dad especially were frustrated because us "kids" all brought our issues with us that we were facing back home. So it wasn't this "magical" sort of Leave it to Beaver type of idyllic time together. There wasn't anything unusual about it, though as far as politics or the like is concerned, we were just dealing with our issues and couldn't leave them back home. I do think, though, that maybe this is a harbinger of things to come, as far as mom and dad wanting to sort of have this perfect family or maybe portray that image. That will come up in the spring of 1983, though, so I won't say anything more about that now.
***
That's all for now. We'll pick up from here next time, although I do want to get some pictures of my little garden (in the here and now) in too at some point.
~ Meg
