Hey There!
Did you know that I grew up the youngest of three kids - two older sisters - in a little town called Cowgill, MO? Yep! My dad, Wayne Goll, ran a Lumber Yard in close by Braymer and later my mom worked with him in their own Lumber Yard in Polo, MO.
Our house was just about the length on a football field from the railroad tracks and boy the train would shake the house when it came lumbering through the little town of 259 people! I use to love walking those railroad tracks talking to God and thinking He was even talking back. I learned to love church. Our family went to the local Methodist Church and my mom was the head of the Women's Society of Christian Service - part of the time and my dad - well he was the Treasurer of the church for years and we were the janitors!
I mowed the church yard summer after summer. Now that I think about it - I don't think I ever got paid! Ha! I even helped my dad count the Sunday offering at home every Sunday afternoon right after mom had fixed lunch. My dad collected coins - so I think that was his real reason for being Treasurer. He would make sure that I knew to hold out every wheat penny and buffalo head nickel! (He replaced them of course!) I still have some of those coins to this day and will pass them on to my kids as my dad to me and my two sisters.
We had a neat big church bell in the front yard of the church too. Different ones of us in growing up had the honor of ringing the church bell telling everyone in town it was time to start the services. I loved it all. I was a fixture in the church house - kind of a church mouse you could say.
So - why am I telling you this? We all begin somewhere. Never look down on the place of your beginnings - it just might be the soil that you got your root system from. So thanks Lord for watching over me in growing up those many years ago. We all start somewhere!
James (Jim) (Jimmy) W. Goll
Thanks for sharing Jim. Whether our upbringings were austere, opulent, decadent, impoverished or just plain boring, my take would be that we ALL come from the same place of deep need; we need redemption from our fallen nature. How many times have I blamed my ancestry for my shortcomings and failures? Reality is that those very crucibles were the platforms for heart-cries that brought transformation. Truth is also that regardless of the starting point, we all started with a deficit in Godly character. So without looking at the bitter root of the past, perhaps we could find the treasure that was the force that drives us toward the goal of the high calling to lay hold of our Heavenly inheritance.
ReplyDeleteThat is great and I entirely agree. Some people will have a stereotyped image of where I came from and how awesome it must have been. It was not. The truth is - I grew up - like many - in an abusive home. An interceding mom and a hard as nails dad. I never heard him called me "son" till he was on his deathbed. But as you say - God uses the crucible of life - how we respond is a big key to how we move forward. Thanks for your comments! I enjoyed your take!
ReplyDeleteJ W Goll
I too was raised Methodist. My grandmother played the piano and organ until she couldn't. Most of my family was in the choir at one time or another along with being active in other areas as well. I was raised on a Holstein dairy farm with horses and about every other animal you can think of which I truly enjoyed, still do. It was about 1 1/4 miles from the town of about 900 people back then, now over 1000! Wonderful memories "all in all" with difficult moments too that helped mold and make me into the vessel He uses for my/and others good and His glory :) My 93 year 'young' mother still lives there! God is good and I am grateful.
ReplyDeleteKatherine
Been thinking I should let people know more about my whole life rather than just someone who's been transformed in Revival & zapped with a prophetic healing gift by Jim Goll.My Dad was a famous Canadian doctor used by God as: a founder of the Canadian Council on Hospital Accreditation, founder of the Ontario Nursing Homes Association, instrumental in getting free health care for the province of Ontario,in charge of all the Canadian Hospitals in WW2. I was in the music biz;worked in Radio,TV,Publishing & never even considered being a prophet. Lots more to tell.TY for the inspiration J.!
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