A Little Pair of Shoes~A Story from Cordell Baker

A little Pair of shoes

Virginia and I arrived in a little Washington "dam town" for our first mission pastorate in the middle of the summer of 1954. In just two weeks we were fully occupied with our very first vacation Bible school. Daily, we packed 90 kids into a little 25 x 40 storefront building. One morning I took our 5 Passenger, Coop to pick up kids from a dumpy little housing project in a rural area nearby. I returned with 15 kids stacked in five rows, three deep. When the day's sessions were over and I had returned them I discovered a little pair of girl's shoes left in the car. That afternoon, I scoured the housing project till I found the little owner and her family. Her mother, Janet, was a short redhead, somewhat attractive, but what today I would call a typical airhead. I visited the home two or three more times and she responded by enrolling the kids in our Sunday school. Then suddenly, 300 men got their "pink slips" in one week and they moved out of the area.

Five or six years passed and we had moved to a new mission pastorate and again, I was a bi-vocational pastor, this time selling cars. One afternoon, I showed a new car to a young man who I did not recognize. But he recognized me. It turned out that Janet had divorced her first husband to marry this man, Larry, who had been their neighbor. He was distraught because Janet, true to form was now being unfaithful to him. I counseled with him and invited him to bring the family to church. The next Sunday night the whole family took seats in the front row for our evening gospel service. Besides the immediate family, also in the group was one of Janet's sisters, Marilyn. I noticed Marilyn because she seemed to hang on to every word I spoke as I presented the glorious gospel of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ.

I found out later that Janet had tricked her sister into moving up from Nevada to care for Janet's kids while Janet worked nights in a café. Problem was it was only a ruse to get out of the house and play the harlot. But Marilyn was stuck. She was eight months pregnant and had a dangerous congenital heart problem. Her doctor would not release her to fly back to Nevada.

In an effort to part Janet from her paramour, Larry went to Arizona and got a job working on another dam. He sent bus tickets for the family to join him. But Janet decided she was not going to go. We found her shacked up with her "boyfriend" in a cheap motel. We got her out of bed and put her on the bus for Arizona. But now, Marilyn was really in a pickle. Her family was gone, she could not go back to Nevada, her husband was stationed in Greenland and because of her heart problem, she did not dare to live alone. So she came to live with us.

Two or three days after giving birth to her first child, her heart failed and she nearly died. We got her husband home from Greenland and helped to transfer her to the nearest military hospital. For several days she hovered between life and death. We were sure we would lose her. Then one morning I drove the 100 miles to the hospital and walked into her room. To my utter surprise, she was sitting up in bed, the oxygen apparatus was gone, her hair was groomed and she looked wonderful. I could only blurt out the question, "Marilyn, what has happened?" Her simple reply was, "I am saved and I know it." In her darkest hour, she had believed the simple gospel message of salvation through the grace of God. God answered her simple prayer of faith and given her a perfect assurance that live or die, she would be in the care of God. When God saved her spiritually, he also saved her physically. I have never seen such a dramatic recovery.

In just a short time she was back in our home. Six weeks later we put her on a train for San Antonio, Texas. The Air Force transferred her husband there, so she could be near their great medical center there. Though the doctors advised against her having more children, she became a mother two more times. The second time, she became the first woman who ever gave birth with a catheter and monitor in her heart.

For many years we would occasionally hear from Marilyn. Her news was always upbeat in spite of the fact that the doctors said she would probably not live past 35 years. She did make it, but we don't know by how many years.

In our last communication, she was full of joy as she reported that all five of her sisters, her mother and her eldest child had trusted Christ and were happily living the Christian life. Her husband, though not yet saved was showing definite interest.

I think about Marilyn often wonder if she is still among us or gone to her reward. And I can never think of this family without wondering, who would ever have thought that so much good could've come from the return of a little pair of shoes?