Inspire, Spring 2002

Inspire 15 These words seemed to pierce my heart, and as simple as they seemed, I knew God was giving me answers. It was what I had been longing to hear. After searching for a Bible I had been given some years earlier, I looked to find who had said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” I discovered it was Jesus. And I also found the verse which says “God is love.” How I’d longed to know what real love was! On my knees I answered Him, saying, “I am beginning to understand what You are telling me, and I am ready to try things your way. What do you want me to do?” God spoke to my heart immediately, “Go back to your husband.” Without looking back, I drove to my sister’s farm in Queensland. I knew Dennis was studying at Cedarville, and from my sister’s home, I finally located Dennis by telephone; he was, of course visiting that family in a small Virginia town where he and our daughters were about to sit down to their first Thanksgiving meal—a Thanksgiving meal that was about to become a celebration to mark the end of seven long years. I told Dennis that if he was still willing, I was ready, in God’s strength, to try to rebuild our relationship. Dennis continues: In Virginia, as we prepared for the Thanksgiving meal, a telephone call came for me from Australia. When I picked up the telephone, I heard Joy’s voice. “Dennis,” she said, “I have found the Lord!” I had never heard her sound so joyously happy. The tremendous significance of this moment overwhelmed me. We both wept in joy as she related all that had happened. After seven years of rebellion, God had lovingly, gently turned Joy around, just as He had done to me. Joy was now ready to come home. During those lonely years, my daughters and I often comforted one another with our favorite family verse—Psalm 126:5-6—which says, “Those who sow in tears shall reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.” The Thanksgiving meal that followed took on new meaning to us. That afternoon my daughters and I walked among the harvest leaves of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, shouting praises to God. Four weeks later on the eve of Christmas, during a heavy snowstorm, I met Joy at the airport with a warm coat and a dozen roses. We were both ready in God’s strength to rebuild our lives together. The nature of prayer is that it tests out the very foundation of our faith as it requires us to believe God for a miracle. It also requires us to keep asking. The parable of the neighbor wanting food in the night demonstrates that God wants us to “inconvenience” Him with genuine cries of help. I used to cry crying out to God. Also significant is that one learns God has already decided to answer your prayer, but He doesn’t exactly tell you when. One night I was putting my daughter Jodie to bed. After we said our prayers for Mummy, she asked me why God didn’t answer her prayers to send Mummy home. I remember assuring her, then going to my room and crying to God, “Oh Lord, Your reputation is at stake in the heart of my little girl.” Finally, most significant were the prayers of my Mum who was on her knees praying for Joy when Joy called to tell her she had received Jesus as Lord. My mother prayed every morning without fail. The day I brought Joy’s sad story to the students at Cedarville, God was finally ready to maximize his blessing. Weeping had lasted for many nights, but Joy came home that morning. On that Day of Prayer she came home to Jesus. The above series of photos shows the touching reunion of Dennis and Joy at the airport. Today Dennis is the head music teacher and a pastoral care teacher at Green Point Christian College, which is affiliated with Green Point Baptist Church—the very church he went to on the night he left the band and re-dedicated his life to Christ. Joy is working part-time as nurse-in-charge of a 100-bed hospital. The daughters are grown. Clare is in her final year of medicine, and Jodie Patterson Gandolfi ’90 is a journalist with the “National Koori Mail.” Since reuniting, Dennis and Joy have added four sons to their family—Micah (4), Jordan (8), James (10), and Zachary (12). Their home is about an hour north of Sydney, Australia.