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| Great Grandma and my brother |
Recently some family memorabilia has been uncovered. A stack of Sympathy cards given to my Grandparents when my grandfathers mother passed away, 1975. Cards from family and friends and those in Foursquare Leadership at the time, many who like my grandfather has passed on themselves. One card in particular stood out to us and I'd like to share it with you. It was a typed note inside a card from my grandfather's secretary, Minnie Klein.
Here is the note in its entirety.
Dear Fred and Betty
Well, you will have some very strong and tender memories. The things your Mother believed and lived that gave shape and substance to your Spiritual life and the principals you have lived by.
I remember your telling us once that your Mother said "remember we came out of the Baptist Church, we are not Baptist. . preach the Foursquare Gospel" and how she told you never to fail to look people in the eye and throw your shoulders back and lift your head up. How your folks practiced divine healing and lived by their faith. . what a tremendous heritage, which you in turn will pass on to your children and have already. . which is evident in their lives too.
God is so gracious and good to give us these great and strong family relationships, which also make our relationship with the Father that much more significant.
Now you are both orphans, like I have been for many years. You do not grieve, but you do FEEL it when these close earthly ties are broken, and the Resurrection takes on fresh meaning and anticipation.
I just wanted to tell you I am thinking of you and knowing what these experiences mean to each of us.
"He that believeth in ME . . SHALL NEVER DIE . "
bless God!
(she signs her name) Love, Minnie
then types her initials) mk
This blessed me and encouraged me to keep the fire and faith alive that was practiced by my Great Grandmother, My grandparents, my parents and now me. I don't know if I will ever 'preach' but my i want my life to 'preach the Foursquare Gospel" that Jesus Saves, Jesus Heals, Jesus Baptizes us in the Holy Spirit, and Jesus is Coming Soon!
My Great Grandmother, Jessie Helsley Wymore and father, Frederick Ambrose Wymore were a man and woman of faith. Through the inspiration and teachings of Aimme Semple Mcpherson and Lillian Yoeman, there were NO medications found in the Wymore household. Once grandpa's friend stepped on a rusty nail. The two boys didn't think nothing of it. Well by evening time his leg was showing signs of poison with redness showing on his skin that looked like flames going up his leg. They went to show my GGrandmother his wound and she laid hands on it and by nightfall he was totally healed. I heard this story first hand by the boy. Now an old man, and he told it as if it had just happened. My Grandmother raised cattle and they never had a vet bill. If she saw that some of them were getting sick she would go out into the barn and lay hands on them and pray the prayer of faith over them and those cattle would be healed. My mother tells that story of how a certain disease came into their area that attacked cattle and not one of the Wymore's cattle were affected, but their neighbors cattle were.
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| My Great Grandparents |
You could call my G-Grandparents radicals. But Jesus and His Holy Spirit was real to them, and in some instances more real than the circumstances around them. This Faith was not without persecution. Family on both sides, hers and his, rejected them when they left the Baptist Church. Unfortunately the family broke ties with them and would never talk or be apart of their live again. GGrandma would tell my mother of the times she would go to them to bring to them jars of food she had canned knowing they needed help. As she would walk to back to her car the jars would be thrown back at her, reminding her that she was not welcome and neither was her faith.
GGrandma in her later years died with Dementia. She lost a lot of her memories and there would be times my folks would go to visit and she wouldn't know them. BUT when they would get ready to leave they would always pray together (its kind of a Wymore tradition) GGrandma would begin to pray and she would become the woman they knew. She would pray in the Spirit as she always did.
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| l-r Fred Wymore, Jessie Wymore, Florence Macclean mom and her two children |
I met a distant cousin not to recently who carried the same last name as my grandmother, Helsley. He spoke to me about the heritage of the Helsley family. You see the family came to the Americas in the 1600's to escape persecution. They were Lutherans and he has found that our family were followers of Martin Luther. Then he said this, the Helsleys have always been on the cutting edge of what God is doing. They didn't stay Lutherans, they became followers of Wesley, Methodists, then one branch of the family had the audacity to become Baptists! (this was my family line my GGrandmother's father and family) he was excited to know that that branch of the family has kept the fire of faith alive in becoming Foursquare. He himself had become saved and baptized in the HS under Kenneth Copeland's ministry and today attends a Charismatic Catholic Church somewhere in PA.
We are living Psalm 128. I also like to think that we are apart of this scripture somewhere in the timeline of this 1000 generation.
Know, recognize, and understand therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, Who keeps covenant and steadfast love and mercy with those who love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations. Deuteronomy 7:9.
