December 10th, 2022 was Dawn and my 40th Wedding Anniversary. We have been down many roads together, near and far. We have experienced life in unique and unusual ways. We have honored our marriage covenant through the good times and the less than good times 🙂 We brought two children into the world and raised them as best we could. We have lived in three countries and traveled through many more in service to the King. Oh, we have stories!
I want to make a public statement to the lady who has been with me through thick and thin. Dawn, I love you and even though our marriage has not been marked with lavish living and excess, I believe you would agree with me that it has been blessed with unique opportunities to do more than we could have ever imagined when we first met… all those years ago. Who knows, we may still have a few more adventures in us! 😉
To the reader who might know us (or think you do), I might share a few things which may surprise you about Dawn Nicholas, my spouse and life-partner. After those comments, I will drop in a lot of photos, taken over the years of our marriage. Most are connected to our time in ministry because I would like to make a point about the importance of couples being committed to the Lord and each other if they stand a chance of surviving seasons of great change.
So, looking at the photos below, I’ll assign comments to certain ones, numerically. So, start at the top left as “one” and left to right and downward, Got it? Let’s go!
- One: our wedding day!
- Two: yep, we did ride an elephant in Texas.
- Three: Dawn with the couple who mentored us. Zane and Cindy Edwards were and are a very special couple. Zane was also our pastor and performed our wedding ceremony. BONUS… they later became missionaries in New Zealand and are preparing, right now, to go back again.
- Five: the two of us in Seatle, WA at a public utilities’ convention a long time ago.
- Eight: Dawn with a group of children in Romania doing the bear dance.
- Nine: our first “missionary card” as we sought out prayer warriors while we were in the process of qualifying for IMB service.
- Ten: the two of us with some old missionary friends… Wes and Katie.
- Twelve: both of us with almost the whole crew of missionaries who worked in Romania when we first got there, serving in full-time status.
- Thirteen: is Dawn and Mihai, our faithful Romanian translator. We were in the village of Cazasu working when the photo was snapped.
- Fifteen: a group shot with some American and Romanian believers at an awesome clinic in Braila, RO. The man between Dawn and I was Pastor Iosef Stefanuti, a well-known Romanian pastor who suffered a lot by the secret police during the communist years. Sadly, Iosef passed away while we were serving in Braila.
- Seventeen: our first Christmas away from home. I cannot explain how hard it was to be away during the holidays. We are smiling only because some colleagues, Bob and Gayle Hill, were thoughtful enough to invite us to their apartment on Christmas so we would not be alone. This was shot in their apartment.
- Eighteen: this was taken with our daughter Heather in Transylvania at Bran Castle. It was one of Vlad Dracul’s homes during ancient times.
- Nineteen: this was taken with my whole family. Our children were able to stay with us for about a month while we were in Romania. The photo was taken at the Home of Hope orphanage.
- Twenty: is another whole family shot. Our children came with us to take part in one of the house groups that we started in Cazasu. We met behind a lady’s home weekly to do Bible study together.
- Twenty-one: Dawn at a missionary gathering outside of Kiev, Ukraine.
- Twenty-two and twenty-three: this was taken in Lacu Dulche at a Roma mission church that we worked with.
- Twenty-four: Romanian friends, Roland and Laura.
- Twenty-five: out in front of Castle Peles in Sinaia, RO in the winter.
- Twenty-six: Romanian friends, Cristi and Gabi.
- Twenty-seven: Dawn in the Black Forest in Germany at an IMB team meeting.
- Twenty-eight: Dawn and I in the castle courtyard up high in Brno, CZ.
- Twenty-nine: Dawn, without me, visiting a somber and infamous WWII site in Poland… Auschwitz.
- Thirty: Dawn with our awesome translator team in the mountains of Slovakia.
- Thirty-two: Dawn with a group of Romani ladies at an Armada Spasy event in Czech Republic.
- Thirty-three: a wonderful group pic, taken on Christmas Eve in Brno, CZ. We were distributing boxes of food top Romania families in the city.
- Thirty-four: oh my, this is the same couple mentioned in photo three after we reconnected with them a few decades later.
- Thirty-five and thirty-six: both related to our Union University cohort. Dawn and I finished our BA’s together after our return from IMB service in Europe.
- Thirty-seven: colleagues and friends from Romania days, Richard and Wanda. The photo was taken in Mississippi though 🙂
- Thirty-eight: Dawn serving with me at RIFA’s soup kitchen in Jackson, TN.
- Thirty-nine: Dawn and Sassy with another couple, colleagues who served in Moldova… Nancy and Chris.
- Forty: Dawn all bunched up with a bunch of the Nicholas family and extended kinfolk.
- Forty-one and forty-two: Dawn in family shots, mostly with our kids.
- Forty-three: Dawn and I with a bunch of diverse beliere friends. We all went to see a move and grab dinner together in Memphis. We love “real” diversity 😉
- Forty-four: my dear wife helping me distribute CEF ministry materials and school supplies at St. Paul CME Church in Jackson, TN.
- Forty-five: more diverse friends, Pastor Byong Hwan Choi and his wife, Mi Sook. This was taken at the Korean Baptist Church in Jackson, TN.
- Forty-seven: one of our more recent ministry outings at Poplar Heights Baptist Church where we shared the Gospel with around 165 people through the Wordless Book.
- Forty-eight: I added this pic on because it occurred to me that I missed an important couple from our history together. Dale and Christi have been our friends since before they got married. We have experienced a lot together in this life. Dale is currently the pastor at Elevate Baptist Church in Milan, TN. I believe this photo was taken during the time we were home (one month) from Romania in 2011.
OK… if you read all that, you are AWESOME. Now, you get to read an important comment from me to you. When you meet Dawn, you will quickly realize that she is a quiet-natured person who is not comfortable with being the “person up front” in ministry situations. Normally, that is my job. So, God put us together to complement each other in a lot of ways. When doing ministry, there is always a need for those quiet-natured, yet dedicated believers. Honestly, I could have dug up many more photos of Dawn assisting me and others in various ministry outings, both in the US and overseas.
If you are like Dawn in that regard (quiet-natured), don’t let anyone discourage you. You are needed in Kingdom work, doing what the Lord has gifted you to do. Do it faithfully and cheerfully. God knows your heart and will bless you for your service. Amen.
I know that I posted a LOT of photos and it may be hard to navigate them… and maybe you are wondering why you don’t see yourself in them. I did not try to leave anyone out. I was just trying to show photos of Dawn from many different locations, situations, and timeframes.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it 🙂
Like this:
Like Loading...
