On this date in history...

At a glance, they are your normal typical people that you see every day.  But in the days that would follow January 13, 1978, God would call upon them to show extraordinary courage, patience and love.

On this date in 1978 I left prison behind for the very last time.  I was a habitual criminal. I was first sent to Audy Home at the age of 14 on December 31, 1958.  In the next 19 years, 17 1/2 of those were spent in jails, reformatories and prisons. It was understandable when upon my release the United States Parole Board stated, "There is no reasonable probability that you will ever live at liberty without violating the law." 

This is not a treatise on the existence of God nor one on the power of God to change people's lives.  This is my humble tribute to this group known as God's Promises of Reba Place Fellowship, for their unrelenting patience and love from then until now which enabled me to overcome the obstacles that had continuously beset me over the course of my life.

Let me introduce them to you.  On the far left is Charlotte Oda with her two children below her, Loraine and Bjorn.  Behind Charlotte is (and they are all 'dear friends) Lindy Combs, next to Charlotte is Cindy Warner Baker, next comes Maurine Chesley and in front of her, her son Nathan Chesley. Behind Maurine is Dave Baer and next to Dave is Dennis Chesley, Maurine's husband. In front of Dennis, is Gaye Hurtig, and next to Gaye is Judy Hullings Kalina.  I am the last to the right.

I mentioned last week a child's book, "It's So Nice To Have A Wolf Around The House."  God's Promises is a household, not just a small group of people.  Except for Lindy Combs (who lived behind our apartment building) everyone lived together in a converted living arrangement in four apartments.  Reba Place Fellowship was a communal church straight out of the 2nd Chapter of Acts where everyone shared together their possessions and lived out of a common treasury.  There were 16 small groups, many of them living in similar households with equal number of members.  Minus a wolf of course.

I can hear your voices howling (bad pun John) in the night, "Wait a minute!!!, We see 5 single women and 3 small children, 1 man, and 1 couple, and 1 wolf.  You can't do that!!!"  "Me thinks you protest to much"  I've heard it often said and moreso from scripture, God's ways are not our ways.  He removed any impure thought from even entering my mind.  The ladies were precious to me and even more precious to Him.

Where's Mary?

Mary was also a member of Reba Place Fellowship living in another household.  Mary arrived at Reba in 1975.  While yet in prison I maintained a correspondence with her but there was no relationship between us.  With no where to go upon my release I had been transferred to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago to enable me to develop contacts when I was released for the purpose of finding housing and employment.

I arrived at the MCC on August 17th, 1977.  Mary's birthday is August 20th and I relished the visit I had with her that day.  Over the next 4 months I developed a correspondence with several members of Reba Place Fellowship and even some members came to visit.  This was new to me because for the most part I never received visits from anybody during my years in prison.  Upon the  arrival of Christmas Eve, God's Promises showed up.  This was more than heart-touching. I had met Dennis Chesley on a couple of other occasions, but this was the first time I had met the 'household'  Maurine Chesley, Charlotte Oda, and Judy Hullings, along with the children showed up on Christmas Eve.  I was speechless because they surprised me.  Before they left Maurine asked me what I was doing the next day, Christmas Day.  'Let's see, let me check my schedule.  This time I had that sense that they would again board Chicago's El and come to visit on Christmas Day.


None of the people in God's Promises knew me at all, even Mary, only knew me from when I was at the U. S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Mo. Nor, as far as I knew then, did anybody have the slightest expertise in relating to or working with people coming out of prison.  Dennis and Maurine had had a previous acquaintance with Mary and even Maurine had been a roommate with Mary some years earlier in Lake Forest, Il when they were both teachers.

{Lindy Combs and Judy Kalina exchanging pleasantries at a church function}

I heard it through the grapevine that some thought it might be better if I were in a household populated by more men then the present situation I was in. That might not have had the same outcome.  Men, even Christian men, would have bucked up and wanting to prove that they weren't afraid of the 'big bad wolf'  would not have been as considerate to my circumstances. Besides, this wasn't an experiment to see if it would work.  It was a commitment  that each member of the household agreed too.  I don't even remember any of the women even asking what I had been to prison for, nor how long I had been there.