To my surprise, Louisville was a pleasant place to be now that I was an “adult.” I was certainly different than the 17 year old who had left. In 1967, I was a Eugene McCarthy supporter (McCarthy ran for president on an antiwar platform), opposing the Vietnam War. Now I had only recently returned from my time in the Rhodesian Army. When I left, I was girl-crazy--now, I was happily married to Pegi. I had left as the product of a Reform Jewish mother and Orthodox Jewish father--now I was an evangelical Christian having founded and pastored a church for a time.
Of course, the reason for returning to Louisville was to pursue my spiritual quest by participation at the “Meeting at the Y.” Everything else was a corollary to my spiritual pilgrimage that had taken me from Madison to Santa Cruz, Houston, Rhodesia, Houston again, Madison again, Neshkoro, Berlin (Wisconsin), and now back to Louisville by way of DC.
Once back in Louisville, we settled in a small and inexpensive apartment, followed by several other apartments and a rental home in just a few years. During one of these moves, my mother showed us the pages of address changes that she had for me in her address book. According to her records, we averaged more than one move a year! [This pattern has continued to the present day, however since returning from Singapore in 1999, we have been averaging three years per address. No wonder my back is always sore--all those boxes and all those moves!]
Since the only marketable skills I had were in sales, I took a position with Radio Shack in one of their Computer Centers. This was 1980 and the only personal computers available in those days were the Zenith-Heathkit, Apple II, and Radio Shack Models II and III. The first computer I sold was a RS Model III for $999. It had a whopping 4K of RAM--yes, that is 4K, 4096 bytes of memory! Data storage was by means of a cassette recorder and cost an additional $50. Soon afterwards, I sold my first “business” computer, the Model II. It sported 64K RAM and an 8” floppy disk. I think it sold for around $3000.
There wasn’t much software available for personal computers in those days. Mostly, there were a few games, early versions of word processors, spreadsheets (Visicalc), and some very elemental accounting programs. If you really wanted to do anything with a computer, you had to learn to program in BASIC. In spite of being a total novice with computers and struggling to learn programming, I was very successful in sales. Because of my success, I was given my own computer store within an existing Radio Shack store.
But, I was miserable in this sales role. I was totally dependent on walk-in traffic for sales leads and though a leader in sales, I wanted out! I just didn’t like working for a large corporate monolith that constantly changed its support policies. I continually found myself making support commitments to my customers that Radio Shack would abandon. This made me look and feel like a liar. And, if you think you need support for your computers today, you really needed support back in 1980-81. The machines just didn’t work right! And if you weren’t a teenage computer whiz, you were in trouble.
I found a couple of teenage whizzes that I could send to the aid of my customers. Radio Shack didn’t like that I was giving these kids an opportunity to make a little cash while helping the customers that the corporation had abandoned. Nevertheless, it was the only way that I could keep my commitments to my customers. But, I could see that I did not have a future with the company, so I enrolled in evening classes at University of Louisville towards a degree in Business. Quitting Radio Shack a few months later, I started my own business to write software for the newly introduced IBM PC.
With my own business, I could tailor-make applications for my customers, contract with teenage whizzes, and depend on IBM to support their hardware. This was a much happier arrangement for me. I could back whatever hardware or software I sold. However, this was just my day job. My primary focus was still spiritual.
By now, Pegi and I were fully-engaged members of the “Meeting.” We both felt that our spirituality was deepening and that we were maturing in our “walks” with the Lord. I was still devouring books by Christian writers and had completed detailed studies of the Bible. We were comfortable and enjoying our lives. Pegi was developing her skills as a surgical nurse with a specialty in Open Heart and we were feeling like “real” adults.
Our happiness was shattered when when had a miscarriage. For the first few years of our marriage, children had been out of scope. But now that we were settled happily in Louisville, that all changed--yet with the tragic result. Somehow, after the miscarriage, we just weren’t satisfied with all we had attained personally, professionally or spiritually. The quest that had started our wanderings began to drive us both in a different direction.
We had gone deep in our spirituality. We were deep enough! We wanted to make a difference in the lives of others. It was no longer good enough to make a pleasant life for ourselves in Louisville or anywhere else. Our study of the Bible had led us to the most basic of Jewish principles (although we didn’t understand the Jewish element at the time), that faith must have action. As Yakov, the brother of Jesus had said, “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:18-26).
Although the meeting was composed of fine and committed Christians, they held to themselves aloof and seemed to look down on “organized” Christian outreach or activities. Everything had to be under the leadership of the Spirit of God. Consequently, human leaders were disregarded. So, we had gone from Berachah were only Thieme was qualified to be our leader, to the “Meeting at the Y” where no leaders were allowed! This didn’t sit well with us. As we began to interact with Christians in other churches, we found ourselves in conflict with Mr. Akeroyd and the “brothers in responsibility.”
Sure, we could have become active in any number of outreaches to the sick and needy in Louisville, but the sun broke through the clouds of confusion and despair on one Sunday morning when a couple from Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) showed up at “The Meeting.” They were in Louisville on student visas for him to study at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. For us, their arrival reignited the embers of Africa which were smoldering in our hearts. We immediately became fast friends, when one day he said: “Jeff, I believe the Lord wants you and Pegi to come back to Zimbabwe with us when we are finished at seminary. God needs you in Zimbabwe.”
I can’t say that this caught me off guard as I had secretly been “wondering” about the prospect of a return to southern Africa. However, I was surprised as I couldn’t imagine that we would be welcome in Zimbabwe. Both Pegi and I had been members of the Rhodesian Army that had fought against the current Communist government under Robert Mugabe. After all, my name had been on the list for liquidation as a foreign soldier and a chaplain only a couple years before. There was no way they would grant us a visa, and even if they did, would we be safe?
“You would be welcomed back in Zimbabwe. When Mugabe became Prime Minister, he announced a policy of reconciliation encouraging whites to stay in the country. He said that all who stayed were considered ‘Zimbabweans’ and there were to be no retributions.”
Our “wandering” hearts were stirred. Suddenly, there was only one thought in our minds: How soon can we go?
Next: Tired of Waiting
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