Berean Academy--Class of 1968: "My Life Since 1968" ~ Verna Busenitz Unruh

"My Life Since 1968" ~ Verna Busenitz Unruh

Following four enjoyable Berean years, shooting hoops, piano lessons and studying,. I attended Grace University for 3 years, working my way through college as a legal secretary for two downtown Omaha attorneys. They were good. Working our way through the prison epistles was inspirational. I admired our theology professor, his slant to not getting hung up on Satan’s tactics as we studied Scripture..

In college, I met Del Unruh, a son of a wheat & dairy farmer, a mission’s major, we both had farm roots; and after he spent six months in Alaska, in a campground/church planting house project, we were married. We moved to West Chicago and were in youth ministry at a church, we worked diligently w/ the youth group. Del could connect with a gym full of high school kids; he really didn’t like sitting behind a desk, however. So we moved back to my farm stomping grounds, he joined the partnership of my dad and brother’s farm, we simultaneously were boys’ dorm parents in Elbing, I worked for the Junior High dept at Berean when our first wonderful son, Eric, was born in ’74.. At the end of the year, we moved to the farm full time, w/ grain and livestock.

We became parents of three additional wonderful sons. We sent our sons to Berean K through 12. I loved the guys’ sports, & I gave piano lessons, I made it a commitment of mine never to respond to one of the sons at all as his brother, they were individuals, . Del would not allow his sons on implements as soon as some of our sons’ friends, so our youngest son, Max, was developing a, uh, bad attitude…..he had to help my mom garden & mow the lawn while his friends were cultivating, driving the grain cart. So I prayed. I’ve heard that one needs to know “But God.” That week one of Eric’s friends at work gave us a golden lab retriever, and Max poured his personality into dog training, and logically, in a few years, he was driving the semi for harvest.

Del decided he would pursue a great hobby, he gained a private pilot’s license. We tucked our four sons into the back of a 150, and flew our young family to Del’s home in North Dakota. This flight was the beginning of a farm family at the outset of careers in aviation. Alex, 2^nd son, is a corporate pilot for Spirit, Wichita’. Max, the youngest, is a flight test engineer for Aerotek, Seattle. (Mitzivishi)..

My hobbies have been gardening and playing a three staff Roger’s organ (replaced after our church’s fire), trying to pray for each member of our congregation as I prepare for preludes, trying to play an arrangement appropriate for the music era of our church’s needs, remembering the young, middle aged, and seniors.

In the fall of ’93, we had the misfortune of losing X # of steers to pneumonia. I fell prey to the regime of punching the clock at an enjoyable job at the Newton Medical Center pharmacy. Preparing IV’s under a sterile hood, mixing Sufenta Drips for epidurals, TPN’s, PPN’s, walking injections to ER. To work at 6:55, home at 3:30 we would not eat hot dog meals, the family deserved steaming fresh bread. Building blocks and teamwork were the words to describe our united front, treating the tomato wilt, zucchini beetles. We have great memories working steers, sons driving the semi,

Our family trusted, we prayed, we learned together, we grew. We trusted God in regard to our sons’ careers. Eric is a RF engineer for wireless phones in Phoenix, he wired the stadium for the Superbowl’s cell phones. Jay is head of microscopy at Stower’s Research Institute in the KC area. He follows proteins w/ florescents, (why proteins follow certain paths) studies alzheimers, pediatric kidney disease.We trusted for the sons’ colleges, careers, marriages. We welcomed our four talented & efficient daughter in laws, Julie, Allison, Kelli and April, college graduates, into our lives, a new depth to our family.

Del and I decided to remodel our country home, doubling its size, he himself was the carpenter.

In 2012, we flew to Anchorage for our 40^th,, fished for halibut, viewed Denali on a clear day, we saw the pipeline; squinted our eyes as eagles preyed on the carcasses of our filleted halibut. We toured Victory Bible Camp. Visiting the air field of Dwayne King, we viewed many planes, a challenge for young men pursuing aviation in missions.

Del and I have 14 remarkable grandkids. We are planning a family trip to a campground in Utah in June.

I am reading a book by Dr. Paul Brand & Phillip Yancey, “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made.” (“A mind is an awful thing to lose.”)

We are now retired, trusting the Lord. “But God.”

Verna Unruh