“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew, nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” –Galatians 3:26-29

We both grew up as youth in the 1940s-50s decades and were products of what has been called the “Happy Day Generations”.  As a result, we lived an insular life among Caucasians in Alabama without regards to daily life interaction among and with African-Americans due to the Jim Crow Laws and racial bias among our Southern Society.  

The only exceptions to our insular racial life were the two wonderful, loving ladies (Estelle and Valley) who worked for each of our families for years, respectively, and whom we loved and respected very much because of our personal relationships with them.  However, we still didn’t gain the ability to understand the reality of life as African-Americans in a segregated Alabama and Southern society despite these personal relationships.  

Although our parents never raised us to be racially prejudiced, we never questioned “Why” all kids didn’t live/play in multi-colored neighborhoods, play sports together at the YMCA/YWCA, or go to the same schools together. We never questioned “Why” we never worshiped God together in integrated church families.  We never questioned “Why” we had segregated seating areas on our public bus/streetcar systems.  As a result, we didn’t try to understand the root causes of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955-56 that Rosa Parks initiated when she challenged the seating system on a public city bus. 

Our God, however, rescued the two of us from ourselves when His plan for our lives had the U.S. Air Force assign our family to Ankara, Turkey, from 1965-67.  Upon our arrival in January 1965, we had dinner with Leman Keel, the designated military contact person for the Ankara Church of Christ, who was about to return to the United States.  As we talked about our life history and the Ankara Church, Leman told us that this small ten-person church would only consist of African-American Disciples and ourselves and wanted to know if that would be a social and worship problem for us since we were from Alabama.  When we said “No”, he asked Larry to succeed him as the designated military contact person for the Ankara church, which he did.

We were blessed that God provided us with this opportunity as a family to learn/experience the meaning of Galatians 3:26-29 and thus grow in our racial and diversity understanding of people, especially God’s Children and His Kingdom.  We learned through a wonderful, loving, sharing relationship experience with these brothers and sisters that the content of our character, our integrity, and what they did in this life determined how we should see a person NOT a skin color.  As a result, the Ankara Church working together over our 30-months stay saw God grow our congregation from 10 to 44 members prior to our family’s return to the United States.

—Larry and Helen Whiting

Light: The candle of JOY

Read: The young hero and the horrible giant, JSB p. 122 (1 Samuel 17)


Ask: Who is your favorite superhero? Why? How is God like a superhero?

Pray: Ask God to heal people who are battling an illness. Ask God for courage.

Jesse Tree Ornament: Slingshot

Act: Be brave this week. Make a new friend, try a new food or restaurant, get lost on purpose…Talk about how God is with you in the midst of these new (and sometimes scary) experiences.