Lest You Forget

Lest You Forget

Lest You Forget

Lest You Forget

Foreword

This narrative is written for the descendants of Lyn and I as well as the rest of our extended families and their heritage. As I have grown older, my perspective on life has changed from simply focusing on the needs of the moment. Into my sixth decade of life as I write this, I can look back now on the majority of my life and realize that God allowed me a very special privilege in this life. He took a young man of from a simple farm background and gave him an inordinate interest in travel, both domestic and foreign. And, it was this interest that He used to lead me to a young coal-miner’s daughter in Ipswich, Australia in 1972 whom He had prepared to become my life’s partner. We were married on May 4th, 1973. For the rest of the years since then, Lyn was my wife, my partner, my confidant and the center of my life. My greatest fear is that a generation or two after our passing into eternity, Lyn’s special place in the Hintermeister and Lehmann family will only be a footnote with faint clarity hindered by memories that are faulty. For those of you who are yet living, I want to allow you to enter into our lives to get a glimpse of this special woman who had the touch of God’s hands on her life from an early age. There are three areas I think will give you insight into this woman’s character. One, the story of how she and I met. Two, some highlights of how God used her in our lives together. And three, I especially want you to see her journey through cancer and the lessons we both learned from that. Though the Bible tells us we won’t have marriage in heaven as we know it on earth, I have asked the Lord that I might be able to spend unlimited amounts of time with Lyn throughout eternity. Life was just too short for me to get to know this Aussie the way I would have liked.

Lest You Forget

The Meeting In 1972 I was teaching senior English at Mt. Lake High School in Minnesota. I was a 26 year old bachelor who was excited about life. I can’t remember being very concerned about marriage though girls were rather interesting. The whole matter of settling down and living a normal life of a wife and children, seemed rather abstract. My background was that of a reluctant agrarian. I was born into a large family of 4 living brothers and 3 sisters, all of whom contributed to my growing up in various ways. Though I had several brothers who farmed for various periods of time, I found farming low on the list of my interests in life. Though it was nearly 60 years ago, I can remember quite vividly the morning I very decidedly made a commitment not to farm.

My father, Ralph, was working on an old corn planter, old because that is the only machinery we ever had. The planter was on the north side of the lawn that extended from our house about 50 yards towards the chicken yard. As a young 3 year old, I walked out of our white farm house barefooted and walked to be near dad. As I neared the planter, I took another step and felt the cold, sticky sensation of chicken manure oozing up between my toes. To this day, I remember that as a

defining moment as to my discarding farming as a career choice. My mother, Dorothy, instilled in me at an early age the love of reading that I continued throughout my life. She read to me when I did not know how to read and she also had books around the house that I later devoured until I began to discern my own reading interests. The other heritage my mother passed on to me was a spiritual sensitivity. She got much of her sustenance from daily reading of the Bible and also from programs on the radio such as Dr. Epp from the program Back to the Bible.

Lest You Forget

Mom’s goal for her family was that each one of us would have a knowledge of salvation and to subsequently live lives that were God honoring. Though conflicted with the usual struggles of a young teenager, mom helped develop in me a love for the Word and for seeing other people come to know the Lord. She encouraged me to interrupt my college years to take a year off

and go to Culver City Bible School in Culver City, California. It was a pivotal year in my life as I developed a perspective on life that influenced my life choices for the rest of my life. Upon returning from CCBS, I went back to college at Mankato State in Mankato, Minnesota and finished a B.S. degree in English Education. I chose my degree on the most simplest of principles: I could read and write better than I could study the sciences so this became a natural choice. During my senior year, I combined my love for travel with my studies and chose to do my student teaching in Guadalajara, Mexico. When I returned to the States to finish my college career, I interviewed for a job and was hired on the spot by Henry Drewes who was the superintendent of the Mt. Lake High School in Mt. Lake, Minnesota. I look back on my two years in Mt. Lake with a life-long satisfaction. On my first day of teaching, I took ten minutes out of each class to share my testimony of how God saved me and how this relationship with Him would affect my teaching. From that day onwards, I was a marked man, both by my students and by my peers. In my second year of teaching, a mini-revival broke out in the school. This time period was right in the middle of the Jesus People movement and though we were far from the West Coast, the Spirit of God worked mightily in our midst as well. Before classes ended for the year, 42 students came to know the Lord during the last couple of months. It was an unreal atmosphere. There were times other teachers complained to me that all the kids wanted to talk about was the Lord and His return. I had a daily prayer meeting in my classroom over the noon hour. Sometimes as many as 30 plus kids would show up for an hour of prayer. Kids were getting saved in hallways between classes. We organized meetings in the park where we would sing and fellowship with new believers, some of whom the week before were attending keg

Lest You Forget

parties but were now testifying to their new found faith. It was one of the highlight times of my spiritual life. During both my first and second years of teaching in Mt. Lake, I worked with two regional Youth for Christ directors. These directors, Gary Bawden and Gary Dangerfield, were responsible for holding rallies and meetings in various high schools in the area. I was intimately involved with helping to establish clubs and hold meetings both years.

During my second year at Mt. Lake, Gary Dangerfield set in motion a process that eventually resulted in me being asked to supervise a Minnesota YFC singing team that was going to tour Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong and South Korea in the fall of 1972 at the invitation of the national YFC organization. The six individuals on the Minnesota team known by the

name, The Mighty Wind, was going to sing at high schools, colleges, churches and other venues throughout those countries and in most of the places, I was going to preach as well. The original plan was to have me lead the tour through New Zealand and then Ken Davis (who later went on to become well known internationally as a Christian humorist) was to replace me and take the team from Australia onwards to complete the tour. However, Ken sent me a letter while we were in New Zealand and asked if I could possibly do the rest of the tour as something had come up to delay him. I agreed. We left Wellington, New Zealand and flew into Melbourne where we had a wonderful time touring the city and surrounding countryside with rallies of music and preaching. But, a strange sense came over me during this time. I was a pretty carefree guy emotionally and a lot more positive than negative in my daily temperament. However, the ten days we were in the Melbourne area became a very lonely time for me. I was placed in a host home away from the rest of the team. Looking back at it, I am sure this was an influence on me. But for whatever reason, a wave of deep loneliness swept over me emotionally. It was a little bewildering. However as I look back in hindsight, I believe God was preparing me to stop in my life and realize that He had a helpmate prepared for me.

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On a rainy November night in 1972, I met this young, vivacious blond named Lyn Lehmann, someone most of you know only as mom, sister-in-law, aunt, Nana or simply as Henry’s wife.

As I write this nearly 35 years later, I can remember with great clarity the drizzly night I knocked on the red front door of the YFC house that served as headquarters. A young woman welcomed the team and I out of the rain. Lyn was always happy to tell people that her first impression of me was that I was grumpy. She was right. I was not a happy camper. One of the 6 team members, Kathy, had been chatting on the phone

in the Melbourne airport and had missed the plane. Upon arriving in Brisbane, I had to work through the details of getting her to where we were and undoubtedly I was not joyful. When I saw Lyn for the first time, I was struck by two things, one, how pretty she was and secondly, by her vivaciousness. She was very outgoing and made everyone around her feel like they were the most important person in the room. Our team was scheduled to be in the Brisbane area for 9 days, most of them filled with meetings during the day as well as at night. Eric Leach was the YFC director in Brisbane and Lyn was his administrative assistant. Part of her job was to arrange our itinerary during the time we were there. Because Eric also lived in the YFC house, he had me stay there as well. This turned out be a most fortuitous invitation as for the next 9 days I was able to see Lyn each day as she worked in the offices in the walk out basement. There was an extra desk in the basement about ten yards from hers. During the next days, whenever I was back at the YFC house during the day, Lyn and I would talk. At first, I was simply curious about this young woman, asking her about her family, how she came to know the Lord and other things about her life.

Lyn’s family: Ann, Sandy, Gary, John, Lyn and parents, Reg and Dorothy.

I can’t really say it was the proverbial love at first sight experience. But, I became a little more than interested than on a news, weather and sports basis the more we talked.

I found her life fascinating. I could not remember ever meeting anyone whose father and brothers were coal miners. Her stories of growing up by the ocean were totally foreign to a land lubber like me. But what attracted me to Lyn was her openness about her relationship with the Lord. I was able to observe at our rallies when she would not hesiwho were obviously stirred by the message they had heard at the rallies. I would often find her after the rallies with her arm around a young girl, gently pointing to a verse in the Bible about salvation.

After I was done preaching, our team had to hustle over to another church a few miles away to do the same thing all over again. But, after leaving Silkstone, I discovered I had left my briefcase at theof the team motored on to the church while I was taken back to Silkstone. Upon arriving at the church, nearly everyone had left. A short, blackup to me and asked if he could help. When I explained what I had come for,searched the church until we found the briefcase. After another short conversation, I left. It was not until a few weeks later that we discovered that man who helped me look for my briefcase was Reg Lehmann, Lyn’s father.

Lest You Forget

I found her life fascinating. I could not remember ever meeting anyone whose father ers were coal miners. Her stories of growing up by the ocean were totally

foreign to a land lubber like me.

But what attracted me to Lyn was her openness about her relationship with the Lord. I was able to observe at our rallies when she would not hesitate to go up to young girls who were obviously stirred by the message they had heard at the rallies. I would often find her after the rallies with her arm around a young girl, gently pointing to a verse in

God was gracious to both Lyn and I in ways we did not realize until weeks afterwards. On the last Sunday we were in Brisbane, our team and I were scheduled to sing and preach at Silkstone Baptist Church in Ipswich, Lyn’s home church. Silkstone was a very traditional chwas hot and humid that Sunday morning.

After I was done preaching, our team had to hustle over to another church a few miles away to do the same thing all over again.

But, after leaving Silkstone, I discovered I had left my briefcase at the church. The rest of the team motored on to the church while I was taken back to Silkstone.

Upon arriving at the church, nearly everyone had left. A short, black-haired man came up to me and asked if he could help. When I explained what I had come for,searched the church until we found the briefcase.

After another short conversation, I left. It was not until a few weeks later that we discovered that man who helped me look for my briefcase was Reg Lehmann, Lyn’s

That brief face to face encounter would be my only glimpse of Lyn’s family other than her sister Sandy, until we had been married for three years and returned to Ipswich on our first trip home. (Gary and dad meeting us at the airport on our first trip

home 3 years after marriage.)

I found her life fascinating. I could not remember ever meeting anyone whose father ers were coal miners. Her stories of growing up by the ocean were totally

But what attracted me to Lyn was her openness about her relationship with the Lord. I tate to go up to young girls

who were obviously stirred by the message they had heard at the rallies. I would often find her after the rallies with her arm around a young girl, gently pointing to a verse in

o both Lyn and I in ways we did not realize until weeks afterwards.

On the last Sunday we were in Brisbane, our team and I were scheduled to sing and preach at Silkstone Baptist Church in Ipswich, Lyn’s

traditional church and it was hot and humid that Sunday morning.

After I was done preaching, our team had to hustle over to another church a few miles

church. The rest of the team motored on to the church while I was taken back to Silkstone.

haired man came up to me and asked if he could help. When I explained what I had come for, he and I

After another short conversation, I left. It was not until a few weeks later that we discovered that man who helped me look for my briefcase was Reg Lehmann, Lyn’s

face encounter would be my only glimpse of Lyn’s family other than her sister Sandy, until we had been married for three years and returned to

(Gary and dad meeting us at the airport on our first trip

Lest You Forget

As I was waiting to preach in Silkstone, I scanned the congregation from my chair on the dais until I found Lyn. Our eyes met and held for a bit. I would not see her again until that night. However, that afternoon I got this really strong sensation that Lyn was more than just a passing acquaintance in my life. To this day, I cannot explain what I felt any better than that. I do know that throughout that afternoon I spent a lot of time thinking about her and praying. This Sunday night was also our last night in Brisbane. We had a city wide rally and I knew this would be my last time to talk with Lyn as our plane left at one o’clock the next day. The rally was to be over around 8 as it started at 6 p.m. I came up with the wonderful idea to have the team go bowling with a few of the YFC personnel and somehow I would take Lyn home to her home in Ipswich that was nearly 45 minutes away. Several problems were obviously an obstacle. I didn’t have a car, had never driven in Australia and I didn’t know the way to Ipswich. But that didn’t seem to be as important as the “need” I felt to have one last conversation alone with Lyn.

I asked Eric Leach if I could borrow the YFC car. He looked at me rather funny and said okay. I figured Lyn knew the way to her home and if I got there, I thought I could probably find my way back. Before the rally began, I took

Lyn aside and asked her if she would like to go bowling with us and I would take her home afterwards. She looked a little surprised but agreed to the plan. What Lyn did not tell me until nearly a year later, is that she spent the afternoon very troubled as the Lord had told her that morning at church that I was the fellow she was to marry. The Lord did not tell her verbally but was simply answering a simple prayer she had prayed as a young teenager. Lyn had been challenged by a speaker when she was 13 to never settle for anyone except the one God had chosen for her. The speaker said the girls should pray and ask

Lest You Forget

God to select their mate and protect him through the years until they met and were married. In Lyn’s case, the speaker offered advice that she took to heart and was rewarded that Sunday morning in church. He said the girls should ask the Lord to reveal His choice when it was time. So when Lyn accepted my invitation to go bowling, she felt there might be more than bowling in her future but the magnitude of what was happening was beyond her expectations. The last message I spoke at that rally was probably one of the weakest of the whole tour. My mind was on Lyn and wondering what in the world was I thinking and what was the Lord up to? I forget the bowling experience. All I remember was getting into the wrong side of Eric’s car on the driver’s and following Lyn’s directions from the bowling alley out to the road leading to her one story white house at the end of the street bordering a pasture with horses in it. As we drove, we talked of the last 8 days and the experiences we had together. When we turned into her street, Cothill Road, our conversation turned to what we had unexpectedly felt about each other and what that might mean. As I left that night, she agreed to come to work very early the next morning and we would go to a nearby park and talk more before the whole team arrived to pack up and go to the airport. Lyn drove her little white Volkswagen Beetle to the YFC house the early the next morning and then we walked together to the park.

By this time both of us were convinced God wanted to do something with our lives together but we were both uncertain of just how to proceed. I asked her if she would be willing to come to the States and spend several months to get to know me and my family. If things did not work out, she could go home again. It was on that note that we walked back to the YFC house to get ready to go to the airport. (At Brisbane Airport, 1972)

Lest You Forget

No one knew what had transpired between Lyn and I during the 9 days we had together so it came as quite a surprise at the airport when we all said our goodbyes. I walked out to the plane, getting ready to proceed up the walkway, then paused, turned around and walked back to Lyn. There before a crowd of about 40 people, I put my arms around her and kissed her, then turned around again and without a word, walked back and up into the plane. Lyn later said there was quite a commotion when I left! Though Lyn and I had talked about her coming to the States to get to know each other, nothing was really said about marriage though that was in the background of our minds. The Mighty Wind and I flew to Hong Kong for a series of meetings. Danny Ee was the Hong Kong YFC director and was a gracious man who knew something was up with me as he spent time with me. When he heard the story, he was encouraging and said to make sure I followed what I felt the Lord indicated. The next few days were a mess for me. I was lost in thought and walked the busy streets of Hong Kong by myself praying and asking the Lord to be clear to me what He had in mind. On my last day in Hong Kong, I separated myself from the team and went in search of a telegram office. As a hick from a farm, I had never received or sent a telegram but I had watched enough television to know the basic procedures. I found a small office advertising they serviced telegram needs. I went in, picked up a slip of paper and wrote these words that were to change my life and that of Lyn’s forever: (see above, original telegram)

Lest You Forget

I sent the telegram to Lyn at the home address she had given to me where I could write her: 90 Cothill Rd, Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. (Lyn’s childhood home) Lyn had my itinerary for the rest of the tour so I knew the next stop was Taipei, Taiwan and that if she had any interest in me after she received the telegram that I would probably

hear back from her there.

In addition to her duties as the YFC secretary, Lyn was heavily involved in a singing group that sang at various venues throughout the state of Queensland. The choral group often practiced at night and Lyn would not arrive home until late. The day I sent the telegram, she had a practice that ended later than normal and she arrived home around mid-night.

To her surprise, all the lights in the house were on. She quickly parked and hurried in, thinking there had been a terrible tragedy at the mines. When she opened the door, there sat her mother and father, both of them looking quite unhappy. Her father said, “Lyn, you got a telegram today and we opened it as we thought it might be an emergency. All we want to say is that we don’t want to hear that man’s name again. Here is the telegram.” In Taipei, I was a nervous wreck. The team sang in a couple of schools and then we went to an International School that had a lot of American kids in it. The set up for the music program was noisy and chaotic as students hung around and tried to chat with each of the team members. I remember seeing John Scherf, a lanky member of the team, walking towards me and in his usual loud voice yelled out, “Henry, you got a telegram from Australia. Do you want me to open it and read it to you?”

Lest You Forget

The whole auditorium went silent. I could have throttled John, but instead grabbed the telegram before he made good on his threat. I knew who this was from. I went out of the auditorium to a quiet place and told the Lord whatever her response is, give me grace to accept it. I slowly tore open the thin paper envelope and pulled out the message from thousands of miles away. It was simple:

My heart stirred within me and I quickly shared the telegram with the team. Mike Berg, a solid Viet Nam veteran team member whom I really liked, looked at me and said, “What in the world are you thinking? And, so it began. The next three and a half months were months of testing and refining as Lyn and I worked through not only the disbelief of family and friends, but through a lot of our own fears and insecurities.

Lest You Forget

Our many letters to each other were filled with questions and concerns. It was frustrating to ask a question in one letter and then have to wait two weeks for a reply due to the 5-7 days required for a letter to reach each other and then have the same time period before a reply would come back. The only motivation that kept us persevering as our decisions were questioned by many people was that both of us independently believed we were led together by the Lord. One of the biggest roadblocks removed emotionally was when Lyn’s father gave Lyn his blessing. This greatly relieved Lyn and gave her a sense of confidence to take this step of faith. Lyn came over to the United States in March of 1973. At that time Australia had what is known as a fiancé’s visa and Lyn had to be married within 90 days or she had to return home. We set our wedding date for May 4th, 89 days into the 90 day deadline. Lyn stayed with a Kathy Swanson in Minneapolis during the days leading up to our wedding. Kathy was engaged to Tom Petersen, a friend of mine. The days were chaotic and in hindsight, both of us often wonder how we got through them still thinking we should get married. Our backgrounds were totally different from foods to climate. When Lyn got out of the car in Minneapolis for the first time, she told me she had never seen snow before and wondered if it was okay to walk on it! It took us a lot of time to settle into a routine of learning about each other and our families. Her first introduction into my family was a visit to Doreen and Marv’s, my sister and her husband. Dad and mom were there as well.

Lest You Forget

One of the huge steps in having the ice broken in our family was when dad took Lyn in his arms and gave her a big hug and said, “Welcome to our family”. In all the subsequent years, Lyn remembered dad’s hug and words as a major step in understanding that she would be okay in this new world. Even though I was headed toward my 28th birthday, I did not have much maturity in handling another person in my immediate life. This led to a lot of conflict between Lyn and I as we tried to sort out who each

of us were and how we fit together. The saving experience in our relationship came two weeks before we were married. A friend of mine had suggested we go to a week long seminar called Basic Youth Conflicts put on by Bill Gothard. It was a seminar that was sweeping the Christian world during those years and centered on 7 basic conflict areas that most people battle from their teenage years onward.

The seminar was very enlightening to both of us. I realized how self centered I was and she realized I was too. Three nights into the seminar, we went outside the convention center in Minnesota and had it out. We declared if things continued this way through the end of the week that I would buy her a ticket home. But the Lord was gracious and by the end of the week He had turned our hearts very soft and we united to become a two person team spiritually. We look back on that time as a very crucial turning point in our lives. On a warm May 4th night in 1973, the Mighty Wind sung and Don Whipple, the Minneapolis YFC director married Lyn and I in the Plymouth Bible Chapel. Our lives together had begun. With the leisure of hindsight, one part of Lyn’s

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character stands out to me now. From the day Lyn arrived in Minnesota, I only saw her cry three times about her home in Australia. Once was early in her time in Minneapolis after a day she was afraid of crossing a busy street as traffic was coming from a different side of the road than she was used to. The second time was during our first year of marriage when we were living on a mouse infested little house near Avoca. She wasn’t crying about the mice but the fact she missed her family. The third time was when we were living in Houston and we got the dreaded call from home that her father died. In retrospect, it was a sign of Lyn’s self-control that she would go on to exhibit again and again in her life. Whenever life would present trials, her faith in the Lord would restore her positive outlook on life. I came to admire and lean on her steadfastness. When I look back on Lyn’s leaving not only her home but also her country, I am amazed she could do this. Back when our daughter, Meghan, spent her senior year in Australia, my greatest fear was that she would meet someone there and do what her mother did. Over the years, other than Ann her sister, Lyn’s family never spoke much about the emotions and fears they must have had when they learned Lyn was leaving them to marry someone they did not know. Thankfully, God gave us a number of trips back to Australia that we sought to use to build relationships with her family and yet I appreciated the sacrifice her family made when Lyn came over to the States. There was a void in their life’s experience that could never be replaced no matter how good communication became over the years. There is no substitute for being there when families get married, have children and go through all the things in life that families face. Yet, neither Lyn nor I would ever trade anything for the richness of the life God gave us together. As we grew older and saw our own children leave home, marry and have their own children, Lyn and I had many precious moments reliving the miracle of our own meeting and marriage. Certainly, God was in control from early on in our lives.

Lest You Forget

Daily Life

People who are dissatisfied in life often confuse daily life routines with spectacular happenings. There are times in life when things happen that take your breath away, good things like winning contests and awards, meeting your future spouse, birthing children or achieving a great goal in business. But these high points pale in comparison to the countless days when we are called upon to do ordinary things, like change diapers, wash dishes, drive to work or balance a checkbook. I often look at the example of great men in the Bible who were chosen to do works for God and yet when they were asked to begin their careers for the Lord, they were doing mundane things such as David and Amos herding sheep or Elisha tending to the family’s cattle. It is in the mundane things of life that we reveal who we really are, whether we are faithful in what God has called us to do, or whether we are whiners in life looking for that sugary high of the awesome experience. As I lived with Lyn, it was the ordinary things she did without complaint that gave me the clearest window into her soul.

Lyn was a woman who seldom complained about anything. The heritage of her father and mother who lived an example before her tempered her young mind and formed in her the ability to face life’s hassles with a determination to do what she knew had to be done and not waste time on complaining. Lyn’s mother, Dorothy, had rheumatoid arthritis for over 35 years and spent many of those years in bed and later, in a wheel chair. Indeed, her eventual death was caused from a complication from surgery due to her arthritis. During many of these years, her husband Reg, took care of her, cooking and cleaning even while he was working hard shifts down in a coal mine. I would like to take you with me as I go back and look at 5

aspects and activities of Lyn’s life that taught me much about what it is to persevere when life presents difficulties that are not always pleasant. Little did we know that what God was doing in these things was only a training regimen for what Lyn and I would ultimately face together.

Spiritual Outreach I have always carried around a 50 pound bag of guilt over a lot of things in my life. I find it handy to open and contemplate on each item. For example, I have always felt that I was a drag on Lyn’s sensitivity to the Lord. Lyn always had a heart for people, whether it was young neighborhood children that she used to feed cookies and milk to, or young mothers who were frazzled with the cares of their young children and ornery husbands. Though she began life in America with some life, whenever it came to sharing the Gospel with young women, she was never reluctant and often used her foreignness as a door to open conversations.

In our early years of marriage, we ran a Bible Camp in southecook, cleaner and counselor but always had time to stop and talk with girls that she sensed needed a listening ear.

After we moved into Christian work in Texas after leaving

Minnesota around 1975, she ento her, the college campus. Lyn had never been around college students and felt quite intimidated initially. But it was not long before she found that a person’s level of education was not the issue, but that every heart had a vacuum in it that only the person of Christ could fill. During times we went out on various college campuses to witness to students on a personal basis, often Lyn would meet someone God had prepared and would lead them to Christ. Her “specialty” was foreign students. She had a natural empathy for them. I used to laugh when I would hear her talk with girls who could hardly speak English and then I would hear my Aussie wife’s accent coming back to them. But she led a number of foreign girls to Christ during our years of working on college campuses. But her outreach was not limited to girls on campus; it included me. I know the first couple of years we were married Lyn was shocked to hear her normally quiet husband explode in rage at frozen watewould not start in our frigid Minnesota winters. I had no excuse but what tempered my eventual calming down was Lyn’s holding to a higher standard of conduct by a believer.

Lest You Forget

I have always carried around a 50 pound bag of guilt over a lot of things in my life. I find it handy to open and contemplate on each item. For example, I have always felt that I was a drag on Lyn’s sensitivity to the Lord.

always had a heart for people, whether it was young neighborhood children that she used to feed cookies and milk to, or young mothers who were frazzled with the cares of their young children and ornery husbands.

Though she began life in America with some insecurities about our culture and way of life, whenever it came to sharing the Gospel with young women, she was never reluctant and often used her foreignness as a door to open conversations.

In our early years of marriage, we ran a Bible Camp in southern Minnesota called Lost Timber. She was the chief cook, cleaner and counselor but always had time to stop and talk with girls that she sensed needed a listening ear.

After we moved into Christian work in Texas after leaving Minnesota around 1975, she entered a world that was very unknown

to her, the college campus. Lyn had never been around college students and felt quite

But it was not long before she found that a person’s level of education was not the rt had a vacuum in it that only the person of Christ could fill.

During times we went out on various college campuses to witness to students on a personal basis, often Lyn would meet someone God had prepared and would lead them

was foreign students. She had a natural empathy for them. I used to laugh when I would hear her talk with girls who could hardly speak English and then I would hear my Aussie wife’s accent coming back to them. But she led a number of

hrist during our years of working on college campuses.

But her outreach was not limited to girls on campus; it included me.

I know the first couple of years we were married Lyn was shocked to hear her normally quiet husband explode in rage at frozen water pipes, broken tractors and cars that would not start in our frigid Minnesota winters. I had no excuse but what tempered my eventual calming down was Lyn’s holding to a higher standard of conduct by a believer.

I have always carried around a 50 pound bag of guilt over a lot of things in my life. I find it handy to open and contemplate on each item. For example, I have always felt

always had a heart for people, whether it was young neighborhood children that she used to feed cookies and milk to, or young mothers who were frazzled with the

insecurities about our culture and way of life, whenever it came to sharing the Gospel with young women, she was never reluctant and often used her foreignness as a door to open conversations.

In our early years of marriage, we ran a Bible Camp in She was the chief

cook, cleaner and counselor but always had time to stop and talk with girls that she sensed needed a listening ear.

After we moved into Christian work in Texas after leaving tered a world that was very unknown

to her, the college campus. Lyn had never been around college students and felt quite

But it was not long before she found that a person’s level of education was not the rt had a vacuum in it that only the person of Christ could fill.

During times we went out on various college campuses to witness to students on a personal basis, often Lyn would meet someone God had prepared and would lead them

was foreign students. She had a natural empathy for them. I used to laugh when I would hear her talk with girls who could hardly speak English and then I would hear my Aussie wife’s accent coming back to them. But she led a number of

I know the first couple of years we were married Lyn was shocked to hear her normally r pipes, broken tractors and cars that

would not start in our frigid Minnesota winters. I had no excuse but what tempered my eventual calming down was Lyn’s holding to a higher standard of conduct by a believer.

Lest You Forget

She never altered in the simplicity of devotion to a loving God and her example had a sedative effect on my temper over the years. Though at times I hid it from Lyn, I always admired the consistency of her walk with Christ compared to my meandering. Birthing We like to think we can compartmentalize our lives, that if we are horrible in one area that it will not affect us in another. But the opposite is true. However, on the positive side, if our character is solid, it will show up in areas we do not normally think it will.

For example, Lyn really wanted to have our first child, Luke, at home. We went to classes, saw a number of our friends successfully deliver at home and searched for a Christian mid-wife to help us through the actual birthing process. When the birthing process began, both Lyn and I were excited, probably more her than I. But as the hours drug on and the night turned to day and then the day turned to night, there was not a lot of excitement left. I could tell after two days of labor, the mid-wife was very concerned. Lyn at one time early in the morning hours, took my hand and said she was sorry, but she did not think she could do this anymore. We called an ambulance at 6 a.m. and we were rushed

through rush hour traffic to the hospital in Houston, Texas where four hours later Luke was delivered by forceps after a grueling 52 hours of hard labor. This marked the first time in our marriage that I saw a different side of Lyn’s character. She had a determination and perseverance in her spirit that just would not quit. I was to see this quality again and again in later years. Thankfully, the birth of our daughter, Meghan, two years later went a lot more smoothly and she entered the world after only 3 hours of labor. One fact that many of my family never knew is that Lyn became pregnant in her early 40’s. We were at first shocked, then thrilled. But the Lord had other plans and Lyn miscarried what we believe were twins. That was a sad time for us but later on in our lives, we looked back at that and realize we would have had some pretty difficult times if those children had lived as they would have been 10 or 11 when Lyn went through her worst times of life.

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Home-schooling As a former school teacher, I did not hesitate to encourage Lyn in home-schooling our children. I knew from Scripture that if a child’s character is formed with the right basis, that adding knowledge is the simple part of the equation. However, Lyn had some real reservations. To understand her reluctance, a look back at her Aussie education is helpful. During the time when Lyn was in school, there was a pretty defined push to get students into either a college or vocational track in school. Many of the normal students were done with their formal education by age 13 or 14 and went out into the work world. Lyn was one of them. By the time she came to the US in 1973, she had already worked full time for 7 years. It was this background that concerned her. How would she ever be able to teach higher math, chemistry or biology? Plus, almost everything she would cover in teaching the children would be new to her, social studies, American History and anything else that was US-centric. But, like many other challenges in this woman’s life, she plunged right in. She taught, over-taught, backed off and then eventually found a rhythm that she used to teach both of our children through all their schooling days. Many times when I would come in from my travels on the road, I would find her poring over text books, reading and studying so that the next week she would be prepared to stay one step ahead of Luke and Meghan. One of the delights I had was in watching my foreign born wife develop a deep appreciation of American history and to become very pro-American in her cultural and political views. She made me think through some things that I had always taken for granted in this great country of ours. I envied her ability and availability to watch both of the children grow and evidence the way God had “bent” them. I clearly remember in 8th grade when she asked me to take a look at Luke’s performance on a biology test. I read through the long and difficult test and told her I would be hard pressed to pass this. She remarked that Luke had only missed one question and she wondered if maybe he had a propensity towards becoming interested in the medical field. She was prophetic. It was Lyn who first discovered Meghan’s skill with words, both verbal and written. Later on in our lives, we both marveled at how home-schooling enabled this skill to be

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developed. Our own lives were repeatedly enriched by our daughter’s way with words as she too followed her mother’s footsteps of having a passionate heart to reach people for Christ. God took a relatively unschooled young woman and used her to highly develop two young lives in areas that she never felt confidence in herself. I often look at that as a living example of how God uses our weaknesses to become our strengths if we but allow Him free sway. Hospitality

Lyn’s Aussie home was never the center of hospitality once her mother became stricken with rheumatoid arthritis. Thus she never had an example of a mother who entertained. While a lot of girls were learning these things from an active mother, Lyn was learning instead how to wash clothes in a primitive washer, how to keep house and during her pre-teen years, learn how to take care of her younger twin brother and sister. But, hospitality is more a matter of the heart than an art. You can take a woman who is well organized, has expensive settings and can buy and cook

elaborate meals, but if the heart is cold, hospitality doesn’t happen. If you have a heart for people like Lyn did, hospitality routines can be quickly learned. We started during our first year of marriage to make our home a center for others. My mother helped Lyn learn a lot of simple ways to cook and entertain folks in the home and Lyn took these lessons to heart. Once we moved to Houston, the real fun began. We centered a lot of our personal outreach to foreign students. During those years, it was not uncommon for us to entertain students from Turkey, Iran, South America, Europe and Mexico all at the same time. One of our great joys was to have a house full of students from other countries on holidays when they could not return home and had no where to go. During the following years in California and then in Minnesota when we moved back to live in Crosby, our home resounded with the sounds of people. It gave great meaning to our family and I always made a point to thank Lyn for her willingness to serve others.

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We were privileged to see people come to know the Lord around our kitchen table, to have young couple’s marriage improved in our living room and to teach scores of Bible studies in our lower family room.

We hosted a good number of family reunions and Christmas celebrations that throughout our lives brought great joy. One habit we tried to do was to include older people from the area who had no where to go. One couple, Mel and Inez, brought everyone a lot of

fun, especially when Inez got older and was unable to recognize anyone. All of this was due mainly to Lyn who had a heart of hospitality. But our ministry of hospitality began to lessen as God brought things to Lyn’s life that made it difficult for her to serve as she loved. Sickness Unlike a lot of us, Lyn never took good health for granted. She only had several years of a healthy mother while growing up and by the age of 8, Lyn along with her older sister, Ann, spent most of her days doing grown-up work in an effort to keep a household running. After we were married, Lyn often talked about scenes from her childhood of her mother writhing in pain on her bed, of her mother getting gold shots in her joints and having hot bran bags laid on her to relieve pain the pain of rheumatoid arthritis. These scenes still troubled Lyn and she remarked a number of times that she felt she would probably end up with the disease as well.

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Lyn made it into her 40s before RA struck her. The early symptoms were painful and yet were not crippling. But as the years passed, the disease took more and more out of Lyn’s normal daily living. One of the common symptoms of RA is extreme fatigue. Lyn would go through days of fighting to just get through her daily chores. Most days she would take naps in order to break her day up into two bearable halves. On one of our trips to Australia in the late 80s, Lyn’s RA began its most intense onslaught and by the time we arrived home, Lyn could barely walk a city block. An RA specialist in Duluth, Minnesota diagnosed the disease through a series of tests and began Lyn on what would be a life-long series of drugs and treatments, meant not to cure Lyn’s RA, but simply to control it enough for Lyn to live a somewhat normal life. At first, Lyn was treated with pills, methotrexate as the leading antidote. Methotrexate at the time when Lyn began taking it was a drug that doctors were excited about as many RA patients were getting fantastic relief. However, Lyn fell into the category of those who got little or no relief. It appeared as though her future would include crippling and distortion of her extremities.

But, in the pipeline was a new drug under testing called ENBREL. The results from Enbrel were so spectacular that it received early approval. Enbrel was an injectable drug. For several years Lyn injected this drug into her stomach muscles twice a day. In addition to the pain and inconvenience of this drug, it was expensive, over $1200 per month.

The plus side of this experience is that within two weeks, Lyn underwent a marvelous change in less pain and nearly normal mobility. But there would turn out to be incredible consequences of Lyn’s involvement with this drug later on. Out of all the physical things Lyn suffered throughout her adult life, RA gave her more long term problems physically and emotionally than anything else. Her ability and her confidence in things like hospitality, travel and even keeping up with housework, took a beating and she was never quite the same again. Her desire to do things never changed but her ability to do so did. From her early 40s onward, Lyn never lived a normal physical life but was afflicted in ways that few people outside of the immediate family ever knew.

Even this outward appearance was a direct result of her determination not to be a complainer in life but to be someone who was thankful in the middle of a trial that had no end until she was called Home.

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ce was a direct result of her determination not to be a complainer in life but to be someone who was thankful in the middle of a trial that had no end until she was called Home.

ce was a direct result of her determination not to be a complainer in life but to be someone who was thankful in the middle of a trial that had

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The Big Test

I remember the very day and the very hour that I really knew life was not forever. Yes, we often talk throughout our lives about the inevitability of death, but for most of us, it is idle chatter. However, there comes a time in each life, unless we die suddenly in an accident, where we truly come to grips with death. For me, it came on a hot day in July of 2004. Near the end of 2003, Lyn, Meghan and I were in Australia at the end of a two month trip that started with us visiting Malaysia and Thailand. We had a wonderful experience of riding elephants and river boats, seeing temples and other wonderful sights of these countries. We spent nearly a week in exotic Phuket, a site that was devastated a year later in the tsunami that swept through its shoreline. Shortly before returning back to the States, Lyn began to notice a numbness in her chin area which did not go away. Upon our return to the States, we began a series of visits with doctors, dentists and oral surgeons that resulted in mis-diagnosis until July when Dr. Mangini, a Brainerd oral surgeon did a biopsy on a small lump on Lyn’s lower left jawbone. The lab reports came back and we were stunned to learn that Lyn had bone cancer, known in the “trade” as osteo sarcoma. The cancer was located in the actual jawbone and had escaped to her soft tissue on the left side of her mouth. Though no doctor would ever come right out and say so, several of them suggested that a contributing factor for the opportunity of this cancer to develop was due to Enbrel, the new immuno-suppressant drug that Lyn had been taking for several years.

Several weeks later in August, just before Meghan’s wedding, Lyn was put on a rigid chemotherapy regimen that included having a Hickman catheter implanted in her chest. She went through three months of chemo treatments that consisted of getting hooked up to two bags of drugs that were pumped into her body 24 hours a day for seven consecutive days, powered by a small battery operated pump.

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During her second round of chemo, Lyn developed a serious infection and was in the Crosby hospital in the isolation room for 8 days. Visitors had to dress up like space

cadets to enter the room. (Unfortunately, over the next year, Lyn would be hospitalized 5 different times with these life-threatening infections, twice in Dallas, Texas when I tried to take her with me on business trips.) This cycle was repeated in September and October, all in preparation for a major operation October 12th. In this 11+ hour operation, Dr. Adams the surgeon removed about 50% of her left jaw from about an inch away from her ear down to nearly the center of her chin. She had an incision that ran from near her left ear to about half way up the right side of her neck as well, held

together by staples. Unfortunately, when the lab report came back a week later, the results showed there was cancer on both ends of the jawbone that they removed. So, 13 days later, she underwent another major 10 hour operation and they removed yet more jawbone. Because of this, she permanently lost voluntary movement on the left side of her mouth as there were no bones left that have any muscles attached to them. During these two operations, the surgeon implanted a titanium rod that was screwed

into the right side of her jaw and onto the small bone coming down from her left ear area. Naturally, this rod had to be removed and a new, longer one had to be inserted during the second operation. Lyn went through a intensive pain after her first operation, but it was a walk in the park compared to what went on after her second ordeal. The first 24 hours after the second operation, Lyn was not sure she was going to make it through. The pain was indescribable and the doctors could not find a pain killer that

would touch it.

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She lay in her recovery bed for hours as they tried various dosages of pain killers and then, various painkillers in an effort to bring her pain level down to a manageable level. Sitting by her bed throughout the night as this was happening was one of the most

terrifying experiences a mate can go through. As you might expect, her recovery from the second operation was very slow. She spent a total of 8 days in the hospital, the last four spent trying to overcome an infection that set in just as she was about to walk out of the hospital to go home. Her first two weeks at home in Crosby were a series of painkillers, 20 hours of sleep a day and my cleansing of the incision three times per day in an effort to heal the

infection. She “enjoyed” a liquid diet, lost nearly 20 pounds and is just slowly tried to regain some sort of normality, both physically and emotionally. The swelling in her face and throat was a sight to behold. Doctors said it would take 6 months to subside noticeably and a year to return to normal. After Christmas of 2004, she went back to the chemo doctor two days after Christmas to get

hooked up for 6 more months of chemotherapy. During these months, she went from a beautiful blond, to a handsome bald, then regained a luscious growth of deep black hair and then that disappeared. She eventually got hair again sometime near the middle of 2005. Lyn faced all of her ordeal with a strong faith in God’s goodness; her confidence in His ability to give her grace to face the biggest hurdles did not wane. She was an “exhibit to the value of knowing God”. As her husband, I was both humbled and privileged to have been able to walk with her through this. Yet, the both of us realized that she faces a very uncertain future. As any cancer patient will testify, the threat of the return of cancer is always there, every morning refreshing itself in the deepest recess of the heart and mind.

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In 2006, Lyn went through yet another 14 hour major surgery to do reconstruction. During that operation the 5 doctors removed a bone from her leg and refashioned a

jawbone so that Lyn had a chance to both eat and talk normally. Her sister Ann came over for this operation and was a big comfort to Lyn. Lyn was supposed to be in leg cast for at least 6 weeks as she recovered from the surgery, but she surprised the doctors and her family by walking out of the hospital with barely a limp and soon was motoring around the house better than anyone expected. The next year was a series

of going to Fairview hospital for follow up tests. The doctors told Lyn that in cases like hers, 80% of the cancers that return, do so in the first 2 years and of those that return, 90% do so within the first 3 years. The summer of 2007 saw Lyn pass the first two years without a return and as I write this in late 2007, we are looking forward to the summer of 2008 to pass the third year. We hoped by the end of 2007 Lyn would have the first steps done by an oral surgeon in preparing her for dental implants in 2008. The road from relatively care-free living until now has been one we never expected. We are unable to look at life like we once did. Everything was altered with one diagnosis.

How did this up close and personal look at near death change Lyn and I? We turned our attention to live each day with the knowledge that God gave us a love to enjoy, not in some blurry time called the future, but right now, that day. We spent every possible waking hour together after Lyn’s three surgeries. We

heaped love on our children and on our grandchildren. And, we thought more than ever about heaven and how grateful we both were that we were raised in families where we were introduced to the Lord Jesus at a young age. For believers, the threat of separation is a hollow one, though real in this life.As humans, we cannot always choose the way our life will go, but God does give us the choice of whom we want to walk through this life. For my part, I have been privileged beyond description to walk this earth with my Aussie wife, Lynette Lehmann Hintermeister.

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heaped love on our children and on our grandchildren.

d, we thought more than ever about heaven and how grateful we both were that we were raised in families where we were introduced to the Lord Jesus at a young age. For believers, the threat of separation is a hollow one, though real in this life.

, we cannot always choose the way our life will go, but God does give us the choice of whom we want to walk through this life.

For my part, I have been privileged beyond description to walk this earth with my Aussie wife, Lynette Lehmann Hintermeister.

d, we thought more than ever about heaven and how grateful we both were that we were raised in families where we were introduced to the Lord Jesus at a young age. For believers, the threat of separation is a hollow one, though real in this life.

, we cannot always choose the way our life will go, but God does give us the

For my part, I have been privileged beyond description to walk this earth with my

Lest You Forget