At Moody Bible Institute all the professors had years of experience in the field and taught more from their hearts than their books. Mr. Wise my Greek Professor took over for Kenneth Wuest and went out to his car and wept after accepting the position because he didn’t want to leave his pastorate. Miss Turner spent over 10 years in India on the mission field and over six years in Team’s office before coming to Moody to teach missions.

As married students we were not interested in dating or flirting but learning so we sat in the front row and I preferred to sit in front of the lectern. So, if the teacher spit, you got hit and you could smell their perspiration or as the Talmud says, “We might be covered in the dust of our Rabbi” indicating we were following their example. 50% of a teacher’s lecture is learned from their facial expressions and gestures and if you sit three rows back you fail to see it or catch it and learn from it.

Miss turner began every class by reading from a small, worn, tattered book held together with a large red rubber band. She would read ever so slowly and with thought, punctuation, feeling and expression and if you were not sitting in the first row next to the lectern you would not see the tiny little tears well up in the corners of her eyes as she read.  Then she would lead the class to the throne of grace in prayer and you would have to peek to see if angels were standing near by and as I was peeking, every once in awhile one of those tears that welled up in the corner of her eyes would fall and splash all over that worn out little book she had been reading to the class.  Then she would turn, put the rubber band around that worn out book, wipe away her tear, put the book back on her desk and begin teaching on missions all in one slick movement and if you were not sitting in the front row, right under the lectern, looking up, watching carefully, from ‘the worm’s eye point of view’ you would have missed it all. We waited every day with bated breath not just for the lecture but for her devotional and prayer.

One day I stayed behind after class and asked her what it was that she read every day, and she picked up an old worn out copy of ‘My Utmost For His Highest’ and handed it to me. As I removed that red rubber band and opened that little book I began to tremble inside, it was worn, and stained with tears, underlined, written in, highlighted, and difficult to read. You could tell it had been read many, many times. Miss Turner said she bought it in England on her way to India, to serve as a missionary and it had become her best friend next to her Bible. I asked, “If they were still available” and she said, “They were for sale in our book store.” I don’t know what was racing faster down the hallway that day, my heart or my feet as I made my way to the book store and there was a whole shelf of them in hardback orange for $3.95. I must have stood there for an hour reading page after page like a thirsty man, lost in a desert for days who happened upon a well of cool water, but I had absolutely no money, none, not one red cent! I rushed home to my wife and and told her the exciting news but she didn’t have any money either, and $3.95 to a Bible School student in 1976 was a lot of money, that’s milk, bread, eggs, hamburger and gas. I went back to the book store the next day and read some more and it was even better than the day before, but still no money!

However, in Conn. in my home church a woman named Lorraine Ferrier went to the grocery store and they forgot to charge her for some chicken. So she went back to the store to pay the clerk who refused to take the money because she already closed out her drawer, so she went to the manager who also refused to take the money because it would throw the book-keeping for the day off. Lorraine felt guilty because the chicken didn’t belong to the clerk or the manager so she put $3.76 in an envelope and mailed it to me. Well, all I needed was a quarter which I borrowed and went right to the book store and bought my first orange copy of, “My Utmost For His Highest.” Now it is glued, duct taped, tear stained, highlighted, under lined, written in, and falling apart with a rubber band around it. I am on my fourth copy after 35 years and my fourth Bible and all my notes have been transferred, so when I leave this earth, if not by Rapture they will be laying on a table near by for my four children so as they do their devotions they can do them with me. Inside of the first copy it says, “Donated by Dave & Lorraine Ferrier, September 1976, with Chicken Money! MBI”       (Thank You, Miss Rosemary Turner, for introducing me to a life long friend. I am still covered in your dust and Ozzie’s)                                       “Between The Lines”