April 07, 2014

Kismet?

Read: Jeremiah 29:11-12

When I was seventeen and still in high school I enlisted in the Navy Reserve (a couple friends back from WWII took me to the Naval Armory to join along with them). There were weekly meetings while I went to school (about 1 1/2 years at U. of Detroit and a semester and a few weeks at U. of Texas). In Texas I ran out of money which meant back to living at home (cheaper) and working in the factory (more money).

About November I was laid off. I didn't have enough money to go back to school so I went to the Naval Armory and signed up for active duty. The next two years I served on a Destroyer Escort out of Newport, RI. In December of 1953 I was discharged (and had the Korean GI Bill).

The way I remember it – I wrote to the U. of Michigan and said I would like to go there. They wrote back – come on. Obviously there was more involved – transcripts for instance – and I was put in a dorm (East Quad) that was the only one with half for males, half for females. After one semester I was asked to join the dorm staff. That's where I met Roger Wilkins. One night Roger and I went to the "snack bar" for coffee where we met Roger's friend Sandy and her friend Shirley. Shirley was there on a scholarship (from Indiana) or she wouldn't have been at an-out-of-state school. We started dating and the rest is history.

Thinking of the twists and turns I went through to get to U of M and Shirley with the first non-athletic scholarship from the Ft. Wayne U of M Alumni Club, there is no way you can't believe in Divine Intervention!

Jack Van Becelaere

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. - Hebrews 11:1