I spent many hours there throughout the year---running in the sprinkler(meant for the strawberry patch), picking raspberries in the dreaded thorn bushes,(you can see them in the painting with all the steaks around them) and of course eating much of the produce grown there! I did not like lettuce as a child and they taught me to put a little sugar in a lettuce leaf, roll it up like a blanket, and eat it! (yuck) We called it lettuce babies! I love lettuce now, and would not eat it that way, but I learned to love lettuce, and so many other things from the garden. We climbed the mulberry tree (not pictured) and picked mulberries by the quart full. He also had many grapevines and fruit trees. I still think of him when I bite into a really good plum!
My most cherished memories are what they taught me about the Lord. They were retired missionaries from Sierra Leone, West Africa, who never retired their love and devotion to Jesus. Their influence was far greater than I ever knew as a child. When we spent time overnight at their home, we fell to sleep in the room next to theirs, listening to them recite Psalms and other passages of scripture as they too, fell to sleep.
I thank God often for their influence and prayers on my life and pray that I too, will influence my grandchildren to love Christ.