“You Ought to be Shot”

By Ed Handkins

We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

A group of us were in our home after church on a Sunday night.  Some of us gathered around the piano and started to sing.  I was startled when my Aunt Ruth walked up to me and said, “Edward Handkins, you ought to be shot!”

As a teenage boy I had long suspected I should be shot but I had no idea why Aunt Ruth would say that.  After my startled response, I was able to ask her “why?”

“You’ve got a good voice and you’re not using it for God.  You ought to be in the church choir,” she explained.

The next Sunday I was in the choir at the Center Baptist Church in Crab Orchard, Illinois.  It was better than being shot – I believed Aunt Ruth might have done it!

I enjoyed music and I enjoyed singing in the choir.  After a few months of singing in the church choir I got the idea that I would like to sing in a group – maybe a quartet.  I talked with my cousin, Dee Ozment to see if he might be interested.  He was.  I didn’t know anyone else who might be interested but Dee suggested Lindell King and Don Richey.  They were both interested.  We asked Charlotte Smith if she would play the piano for us.  That was the start of the Glorylanders Quartet.

We sang together for several months.  Charlotte decided her schedule would not allow her to continue to play for the quartet.  After some real searching, Dee suggested a young lady who played the piano for their Methodist Youth Conference.  We agreed.  Dee invited Donna Childers to play for the quartet and she accepted.

We were scheduled for our first practice to get ready for some invitations we had for New Years’ Eve.  I was working part time at a local department store.  My boss asked me to deliver some shoes to the owner of the local Pepsi bottling plant.  He had bought them to give away at Christmas time.  As I made the deliver, I tried to get in the door with the stack of shoe boxes.  I dropped some of them.  A young lady at the reception desk helped me pick up the shoes.  I really thought she was cute but didn’t think about her any more - until that evening.  When the quartet got together that evening for our first practice with our new piano player I saw her for the second time.  Our new piano player was the same young lady that had helped me with the shoes that afternoon.

We had a good practice and a lot of fun.  We were making beautiful music together.

We were singing almost every weekend.  Because Donna needed a ride, we took turns picking her up and taking her back home.  On February 10, 1962 I approached Dee, Lindell, and Don and suggested that they would not be able to take Donna home that evening.  That left me to take her home.  That evening was our first kiss.  We were married a little over a year later - April 21, 1963.

God used my Aunt Ruth to set me on a path that led us together.  God has blessed us in so many ways – a beautiful family and a wonderful partnership in ministry.  It has been a life of harmony together – some of it in a minor key – but all of it has worked out to be good!  All of it has been better than being shot – a lot better!

Prayer: “Thank you God for leading us in the small things in such a way that the major things fall in place.”