I need to tell you something else that happened to me while at Bible College. You will remember that our president said that in the first year we should keep our nose in the books. The other part was that in the second year we could look around once in a while. I did.

I had been making a list of what kind of girl I would want for the girl of my dreams. We'll call them prayer requests. It is not a bad thing to do. I heard recently of a fellow praying that he would meet someone who was more in touch with God than he was.

At about seventeen years of age I started to pray for the girl I would marry. Not a bad idea. I knew that God knew who she was and, like the watch in the field, He knew where she was and how we would meet. I had my request that He would work things out in His time. I prayed that she would be a helpmate, pretty, blonde, be able to play the piano, keep herself for me, and be willing to help in the work I would be doing. God often requires us to learn to wait for His timing.

One day, I was coming out of the dining hall after dinner with a friend of mine who was a year ahead of me in college. What do you know! This beautiful blonde walked by and my friend said, "She is from eastern Pennsylvania, and in first year. I wonder if she is still going with the big fat guy that said he was going with her when he was here last year." Wow! Was she beautiful! I was impressed. I told Don that I would find out, just leave it to me.

Well, I found out later that she claimed that she never did go with that fellow and I came to the conclusion that it must have been wishful thinking on his part.

One day this girl was asked to play the piano in chapel, and could she play! She played by ear, without music sheets in front of her. I was amazed!

Shortly after that I was sitting with some of my friends from first year in their room and one said to the other, "What were you doing peeking through your fingers at that blonde sitting up front?" He turned beat red and I chimed in, "Wow!" (You might have noticed it had become my favorite expression.) I said, "I'm going to have to meet this person." You know she was that very same person and her name was Melba, an American from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Could God who knows everything and sees everything be answering another major prayer in my life?

Now, for the ninety-eight dollar question: would she have any interest in a country boy from Western Canada? I only had one thing going for me and that was that I was the second year class rep… and maybe one more—I could smile. We found a way through mutual friends to meet.

By now I knew that you were okay until the deans found out you were going together. Otherwise you could talk to any girl at any time. After you were going together they kept their eye on you. So, when I found out she wasn't going with anyone else and she didn't mind getting together and could play badminton, I had the perfect plan. We could play badminton for a week or two and probably no one would guess what our second agenda was: to get to know each other. It worked. I heard that our president liked the idea of the right two students getting together, but then hired the deans to keep them apart.

We soon came to know each other a little bit better and were becoming starry eyed over each other. Could this be the one that the Lord had for me? I was beginning to hope so.

One other thing that I found out was that she taught clubs in homes and had worked in the office of CEF in Pennsylvania. She had a flannelgraph board and easel that would be an introduction to my work for over 30 years. You see, once you get to know the Lord, you can expect to see the works of the Lord, and He does "exceedingly, abundantly, above, anything we could ask or think."

Of course I didn't see the flannelgraph board for a while, nor was I looking for it. All I could see was beautiful, blonde, laughter, smiles, and the piano. It wasn't long after the two weeks that I met one of the deans and he asked, "Are you going with Melba?" Oh, oh! He wouldn't have believed me even if I had tried to lie.

Now the way of doing things changed. Maybe you weren't supposed to stand around and talk but there was a mail service, and all that was needed was a friend of hers and a friend of mine. No postage. This, I do believe, was a girl thing. They have ways of doing things too, you know.

I said that going to the cabin was about knowing God, seeing the works of God, and doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord. Once again I looked back and saw God's hand. What if I had not said yes to God in the hay field and not come to Bible College? What if I had not given the future to God? The wonderful thing is if we do make a wrong decision, we can repent and ask God to get us back on track with Him. If we are sincere in repentance God can still make good things grow out of ashes.

Melba came home with Con and me at Christmas, as her home was just too far away. In the spring, I graduated, we were engaged, married on May 16th, and had a three month honeymoon at the beautiful Wolfe Lake in Muskegon, Michigan, where we attended the Child Evangelism Institute learning how to win and disciple children, with visuals. Melba had no meals to make, and we were seeing her gifts and dreams come true: that of developing in the reaching of children for Christ.

At the end of the Institute we were asked to join the Mission and offered the directorship in Colorado, New Zealand, or back where we went to Bible College in Saskatchewan Canada. We believed that God wanted us in the latter.

Soon we would be doing what Mr. & Mrs. Campbell had done, only with visuals. We would be inviting children into homes—cabins—just like I had been invited many years before. There were hundreds of homes and thousands of children that came.

I'll tell you the rest of the story another time. We used the Mailbox Club, Tell-me-a-story tapes on the phone, and now the Internet. By now I'm not a teenager any more.

I wonder if you could see yourself in these teen stories? Perhaps you are saying, "I wish God would do that for me." Remember, Vaughan is nobody special except for one thing and you can guess what that was.

One step with God will lead to another. Take the first step and leave the rest up to God.

Please keep coming to this cabin. Remember lesson one in the first series of "The Boy and the Cabin"—it might well be part of your answer for God's blessing in your future!

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