The Little Sparrows (39 page)

Across the aisle from Emma stood Charles and Evelyn Tracy, smiling at her.

Josie set loving eyes on the groom again, and her mind flashed back to that day in July 1874 when she received the letter from him, explaining that he had been chosen at the Rawlins depot by Christian ranchers Charles and Evelyn Tracy, who owned the
Box T
ranch a few miles from Rawlins.

Then she thought of that wonderful day two months later—September 16, to be exact—when Barry Chandler rode onto the
Circle C
ranch. As she joyfully stood looking into his face after he dismounted, he explained that he couldn’t wait any longer to come and see her, so he rode the one hundred fifty miles from the
Box T
to the
Circle C
. He told Josie he couldn’t get her out of his mind, and Josie admitted that it was the same with her.

As time passed, Barry visited Josie as often as he could, with Sam and Emma’s permission. By May 1879, with Barry twenty years old and Josie seventeen, they confessed their deep love to each other. In June 1880, Barry talked to Sam and received permission to ask Josie to marry him, which he did on the same day.

And now, on June 11, 1881, Josie was about to become Mrs. Barry Chandler.

As Sam and Josie drew up in front of Barry, the young couple smiled at each other. Barry took a step closer.

From the platform, the pastor asked so that all could hear, “Who gives this woman to be married to this man?”

Sam swallowed hard. “Her mother and I do.”

Josie let go of Sam’s arm. He took her hand and placed it in
the hand of the groom, then moved toward the spot where Emma sat.

While the guests looked on, Barry kissed Josie’s hand, then released it. They smiled at each other as she slid her hand into the crook of his arm, and together they mounted the steps of the platform to take their vows.

Some eighteen years passed. It was Sunday morning, June 11, 1899.

Lance and Carol Adams were in their carriage as they moved down San Francisco’s Hillside Boulevard.

One by one, the vehicles ahead of them turned into the parking lot where an impressive white frame church building stood. It had a tall steeple with a cross at the top. As they drew up to the front of the property and waited for their turn to enter the parking lot, they both looked proudly at the sign.

Beneath the name of the church, it read:
James Kirkland Adams, Th.D., Pastor
.

When Lance guided the carriage into the already crowded parking lot, he said, “I was just thinking of the day we dedicated Jimmy to the Lord.”

Both of their minds flashed back to the very first Sunday after they had taken Jimmy into their home. They had walked the aisle at the close of the sermon, and in front of the congregation, had dedicated him to the Lord. Their daily prayer to God from that time on was for God to give them wisdom as they raised the boy for His glory, and that He would use Jimmy as He saw best, to serve Him all of his life.

Carol smiled. “I was thinking of the night Jimmy was saved.”

This time, both of their minds flashed back to January 1875, when their little adopted son received Jesus into his heart one
night at bedtime. He was under conviction and told them he wanted to be saved.

Lance pulled the carriage to a halt in front of a hitching post. “And of course, this will lead to that wonderful night in February 1887.”

Carol smiled, and both their minds went back to that night when eighteen-year-old Jimmy walked down the aisle at invitation time in the church where they were members at that time. Jimmy told the pastor that God had called him to preach. The pastor, in turn, announced it to the congregation. The adoptive parents had known that something had been going on in Jimmy’s heart for several months. But this came as a shock.

Knowing that some members of the church would be skeptical because of Jimmy’s speech impediment, the pastor asked Jimmy to tell the congregation about his call from God.

Stuttering and lisping as usual, Jimmy told how the Lord had been dealing with him for the past eight months about being a preacher. At first, Jimmy told them, he explained to God that because of his speech problem, he could not preach for Him. The Lord then directed him to the argument Moses gave Him in Exodus 4:10, when God called him to be Israel’s leader, and Moses said he couldn’t do it because of a speech problem.

Jimmy then quoted God’s reply in verses 11 and 12: “And the L
ORD
said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the L
ORD
? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.”

Lance and Carol remembered how Jimmy closed off his testimony of God’s call to preach by telling the congregation that when the Lord’s powerful words from these verses took hold of his heart, he surrendered because Jesus said in both Matthew and Mark that with God all things are possible.

This brought to their minds how Jimmy did his Bible college and graduate work in a study-packed five years, and at the age of twenty-three in the summer of 1892, he was sent by his home church to start a new church on the other side of the growing city of San Francisco.

Taking the gospel from door to door in his part of the city, Dr. Jim Adams won souls to Christ consistently, got them into the new church, and trained them to be soul winners. The church grew and blossomed for the next seven years, until it was now—in 1899—San Francisco’s largest Bible-preaching, missions-minded, soul-winning church.

Lance looked at his wife. “And today is the church’s seventh anniversary, sweetheart.”

There were happy tears in Carol’s eyes. “Yes, and where have the years gone? It seems like only yesterday we dedicated Jimmy to the Lord. And now, he’s married to Belinda, and they have four-year-old Lance and two-year-old Carol.”

Lance stepped out of the carriage. “Praise the Lord! Two marvelous grandchildren! Isn’t it wonderful?”

“It sure is. God’s merciful blessings are unending.”

Lance headed for her side of the carriage to help her out. “That they are, and He has only just begun! I know Jim will weave his testimony into the sermon this morning, as he has done on each preceding anniversary. He’ll tell again how God has blessed his ministry in spite of his speech impediment because he surrendered his stuttering, lisping tongue to Him.”

Carol’s eyes were bright. “Oh yes! And then he’ll tell his marvelous story of how within six months after starting the church, the stuttering all but disappeared.”

Lance chuckled. “Yes, and praise God, after all these years, the lisp is hardly noticeable. Is anything too hard for our wonderful Lord?”

“Absolutely not!”

He took hold of Carol’s hand to help her out. “All right, sweetheart, let’s go hear some more of that good preaching!”

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