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Enjoying Health

Dianne Wandruff HANSEN ⁽¹⁰¹⁾ United States

Dianne Wandruff HANSEN

Enjoying Health

Skin and Hair Makeover with Acid Water

Posted Tuesday, June 30, 2009 (145 days 10 hours ago.) Viewed 165 times.

Personal Appearance Service is called cosmetology, and it's very broad. From skin care to nails and from hair care to hair removal, cosmetologists have their work cut out for them. Most prefer to specialize in one area. Even though you may prefer to specialize, we are going to introduce you to a versatile product tool that can be used in virtually every sector of the business - acidic water or Beauty Water.

Acid water is new to the realm of cosmetology in this country, even though Beauty Water has been very popular for several decades in the Far East.

Beauty Water is about 5.5pH acidic. It feels like a thin watery lotion on your skin and is very cost effective to make. Now that we've discovered it in this country, we highly recommend it not only to every cosmetologist in business, but also to households across America (and the world). No one is exempt. Everyone can benefit somehow by using acidic water for the outside of their body and alkaline waters for the inside.

A little bit of education is required.

Beauty water is one of the by-products of good quality water ionizers.

Acidic water can vary in pH from just below 7 to 2.5pH and lower. The stronger acidic waters are still only weak acids, so are completely safe for you, your family, and clients.

Acidic water heals skin conditions like dryness, fungus, rashes, itchiness, eczema, psoriasis, cuts and sores.

It also removes joint pains and that might be something very useful to a pedicurist who deals with peoples' ankles and sore feet.

Soaking a person's feet first in high acid water (2.5pH) and then in high alkaline water (11.5pH) heals severe skin conditions like diabetic ulcers, including gangrenous ulcers. Even though you don't generally deal with diseased feet or diseased skin, it's very beneficial for you to be aware that your acid water is a reliable tool and will make your clients feel better.

Sports-related injuries or soreness can easily be relieved by soaking in the pedicurist's foot bath and you might want to expand your cosmetology focused business during these times of financial stress. Why not? Offer these excellent benefits to all people who need refreshment and comfort.

In addition, the Beauty Water is ideal for your clients' hair. Its a pure conditioner that will remove tangles with ease. Many people also experience a radiant shine and increased body!

Do you have occasion to clean the client's face and apply make-up? Beauty water hydrates on contact and with repeated use, makes your face smooth with fewer wrinkles. Spray it on your eyelids when you first wake up in the mornings and feel the refreshment! See the difference immediately. Let your favorite clients experience it also.

In short, acidic pH water is a beauty tool perfect for use in conjunction with personal appearance services. It costs nothing to produce. It's simply one of the choices on a good water ionizer . Choose your type of water with the push of a button!

You owe it to yourself to learn all you can about water ionizers and the healthful benefits for your clients and your own family. You might as well use this economical servant machine to its full potential in every realm of your life, business, home, friends, and family -- because it will save you money formerly spent on chemicals, treatments, bottled water, and healing techniques. It will reduce the impact of chemicals and plastic bottles on the environment and if you use the waters for your health's sake, it will save you untold thousands from a lifetime of improved health and wellness (as well as saving money buying fewer vitamins and supplements)!

Enjoy your research. Contact us to learn more about acid pH Beauty Water.

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Ben Himself

Posted Wednesday, June 16, 2004 (5 years 160 days ago.) Viewed 743 times.

I began to know Ben when we were about 19 years old and I was attracted to him because of the way he looked. The first time I ever laid eyes on him and his handsome square chin was in a Baptist Student Union house, but we weren't introduced. I think it was the choreography of the Lord that brought us together again after that, and I remember lying on my bed at night, begging the Lord to let me marry Ben.

As we began to know each other, we cut college classes and went for walks in the grape vineyards that were part of the ag school. On weekends we slipped away into the hills, hopping barbed wire fences, keeping away from cattle herds, and we hiked over ranges of green foothills. Ben was an adventurer and this was magnetic to me. I didn't know adventurer was calling to adventurer.

In the summer of 1969, I went away to Red Bluff, CA, to be a Baptist Student Union summer missionary. It was the first time I was ever away from home. Ben, though, was a world traveler. He had been around the world several times by the time he was five and he had traveled to Europe after graduating from high school. He also traveled to Red Bluff to visit me that summer.

After my tour as a summer missionary, I went to his house by greyhound bus. I met his mother, father, sister, Laura, and married sister, Nancy, with her family.

I was quite interested to find that Ben's home was different from mine. His father was a doctor, his mother, a teacher. The Ranch was complete with a 3000 sq. ft. designer home, swimming pool, pond, 10 acres of walnuts, and wide views of the little valley and hills. His family lived just outside Tracy, CA.

He often rode his bike from Fresno to Selma to visit me on the weekends. He would linger so long before setting out on his return trip that my mother felt she should invite him to spend the night. So he always did! My younger sisters adored Ben. He was our first suitor.

After knowing one another for a while, and after I had spent months crying out to the Lord to let me marry Ben, he decided he was tired of telling me good-bye at the end of each day. One evening we were sitting on the edge of an irrigation ditch, when he said we would have to find a solution to that problem. He suggested we get married. I didn't even say, "yes". I said, "When?!"

We were engaged a year and a half before we finally got married. By that time, I'm sad to say that I was having second thoughts. Let me try to explain why. Ben didn't treat me gently. My mother was offended for my sake and tried to influence me against him. But I was a stubborn person and I decided I would stick with my first commitment.

After we were married, we lived in the little house in Fresno that I had been sharing with a roommate. From the very beginning it was evident that Ben was a gourmet cook and I was a really good gardener. He taught me many wonderful techniques of preparation and presentation of food and I taught him to enjoy growing vegetables in rich soil.

After we were married six months, Ben secretly enlisted in the Army Security Agency. It was the Vietnam era and his draft number was in the 300's, so he would not have been drafted. But he had never known what he wanted to be when he grew up, and he did this out of desperation. My mother said he did it to try to escape marriage, but I never believed that. I simply made plans to follow him to military school in Massachusetts and then anywhere overseas. We both made those plans and saved the money necessary.

Ben had a brilliant mind and could excel in anything. In Basic Training he was chosen as Platoon Guide. Later, in school, he became first in his class and received another promotion. During six months of military training he received three promotions and graduated as a Sp-4. Ben achieved so many outstanding awards, but they weren't enough to satisfy his craving for attention and approval.

My adoration wasn't enough either. If Ben could tell this story himself, he would say he misbehaved at this time in his life. One night he went for a walk and didn't come back. It was after midnight and I was afraid, so I called the police and told them my husband was missing. I could tell by his tone of voice, the policeman didn't think this was abnormal in this military town. Before too long, we were reunited at the police station. I was very nave and nothing was fully explained to me.

Please bear with me patiently. I have a story to tell and it must be told from the beginning as it really was. Believe me it has a wonderful ending.

Ben was sent to northern Thailand in 1972. I followed him a month later and was proudly wearing maternity clothes several sizes too large for me. The only time I ever remember him criticizing my appearance was then. Over the years he graciously accepted my tendency to put on extra weight. His own beauty and physical grace lasted many more years.

In Thailand, Ben taught me to think beyond my own family upbringing. He had already had experience living and traveling in different cultures. Under his influence, I learned to value other people's life styles and their food and their innovations. There are so many ways to live! For about one year we lived in Thailand and made many adventures for ourselves.

Our first child was born in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1973. Sersch was scrawny and in ill health. As the Lord choreographed it, my visa was not renewable anymore and Sersch and I were forced to leave for home. Surely Sersch's life was saved because we went home to Tracy, where Ben's dad helped me with our baby.

After Sersch and I stayed about a month with Ben's folks, we went to Selma and visited there. The first grandchild of the family was certainly enjoyed. My sisters pampered him.

Finally Ben came home from Thailand and both the Harrisons and the Wandruffs met him at the military airport, Travers Air Force Base. He was shocked to see how Sersch had grown!

At this time, we had a month's furlough before being sent to Berlin, Germany. We used the time to visit with both families, going camping and hiking together. After being separated from our parents and sisters so long, it was refreshing to be accepted back into the fold.

When the time came to leave for Berlin, Ben went first in order to find a place to live. He did a fabulous job! Somehow he located American landlords in the French sector of the city. Our apartment included antique furniture and rugs, a storage area in the basement, AND a wonderful gardenplatz. A fenced garden of our own! In addition, the military allowed us to borrow a full set of china, silverware, cookware, baby bed. We had everything we needed.

Ben met Sersch and I at the airport with fresh flowers, a German custom, he said. I liked it.

Now we were willing and eager to experience this new country and its people. We were friendly with our neighbors and they grew to care for us and even gave us gifts. Ben spoke quite a bit of German, and I spoke a few German words. We learned about living in snow, riding the subway, walking on cobblestones, hiking in parks and manicured forests instead of wild hills, and we experienced more of the military culture.

Our time in Berlin was trying because it was a closed city. There were guards all along the Wall and we needed special papers to leave the City. We did make arrangements to drive out twice for vacations and I went out on the French Duty Train to France for a vacation with a girl friend.

By far, the best vacation we took from Berlin was our backpacking trip to Turkey, Jordan, and Israel in 1974. Our good friends took care of Sersch and we left for 19 days with our backpack and $200. Ben made all the plans and arrangements and I enjoyed myself thoroughly.

He took me on military hops to places I had never thought to see. Together we explored castles and were the only people on site. We were amazed to realize that the Bible was coming alive to us because we were seeing ancient style architecture and people wearing traditional dress and eating the biblical foods. We ate the food too and found that unlike American produce, the Middle Eastern produce was ripe and tasty. How we enjoyed ourselves!

I'll never forget staying on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea in a room for $5 a night. In the mornings we ate on the veranda of the restaurant and we explored the castles within sight. Ben was a strong swimmer and he actually swam out to a castle in the sea. Somehow, those experiences are fresh with me.

Back in Berlin, we were counting the days until we could be out of the military and leave that walled in city. Reminiscing, I can perceive our time in Berlin as being crucial to our development as a family and as individuals. Ben needed time to grow up and figure out what to do next. We also needed to learn how to relate to each other without our parents' influences.

I think the Lord did a good thing when He choreographed our military experiences. He certainly broadened my horizons.

In December 1975, we returned to the States and settled in Fresno, CA, where we had both gone to college. Ben returned to Fresno State under the GI Bill. He had flunked out the first time, and this second time took 3 years. It was a terrifically difficult time for Ben in his personal development and his relationship with God. The coeds at school wore skimpy clothing in that nice warm climate.

One night Ben went to town alone. The next morning, a Saturday, he left the house for a private walk in the country. When he came home he was very troubled and decided to confess some things to me. He said he wasn't worthy to be my husband and wouldn't blame me for divorcing him. My heart went out to him and I forgave him with my words, but it was many long years before I gave up the memories of how he had hurt me. I'm very glad our relationship wasn't severed. My mind can't even comprehend the devastation that a divorce would have caused.

At this time in our lives we were learning how to disagree properly with one another. Ben's gut reaction was to yell angrily and stomp out of the house. My tendency was to talk things out, but later I may be telling you how I ran away from home several times. Our younger years were such traumatic times.

We lived in the Fresno area, in a little western town called Clovis. It was wonderful. We had a large house with at least an acre of yard and I tried to teach Ben that it was the husband's responsibility to mow the lawn and help pull weeds. I can smile now, but once upon a time it was no smiling matter. We fought and argued and generally displeased one another. But you know how it is. On the outside, everything looks fine.

We began going to a full gospel type of church and Ben found a Bible study partner in our next-door neighbor. I strongly believe that Ben's lifetime of Bible study helped our marriage.

While we lived in Clovis, I felt the need to prove myself to my husband. It seemed he didn't think highly enough of me (my own opinion, of course). When I was a child in my parents' home I had been highly respected and loved. In fact, I had extremely few major conflicts with anyone in the world, except Ben! I'm confident that God Himself brought us together to be married and to influence each other for the good. That's why I have to include so much of my own story in Ben's history. I want you to understand how we were used to hurt and help one another.

To prove myself to my husband, I chose to become a Tupperware dealer. I succeeded so well, that I became a manager. Tupperware managers get to drive a company car as if it were the family car. That was the most outstanding benefit, but there were many, many others. After three months of being a manager and having a brand new baby princess, Grace Pauline, I simply decided that I had proven myself and I was finished. I'm a homemaker at heart and can't fulfill my self-imposed standards for home making if I have too many outside responsibilities. So I quit. I really don't know if I had proven anything wonderful to Ben. Our relationship didn't seem to improve. But he adored the other girl in his life, our pert and lively little Gracie.

Eventually, Ben graduated with a BS in Industrial Technology, emphasis in Metals Manufacturing. IBM snatched him up and moved us at their expense to San Jose, CA. We thought we had arrived!!! In a year, Ben doubled his income because IBM had a wonderful incentive program. Ben had set his mind to be a high achiever.

By the time we had lived in the big city six months, both Ben and I were begging the Lord to rescue us and move us to the country. We took walks together almost every day and talked to one another and to God. That was a life-changing thing to do. Let me take time here to show what happened in San Jose.

When we moved in 1978, I was seven months pregnant with Luke. As was typical of IBM, the company paid for the entire cost of pregnancy and delivery. Being connected with IBM was like being in the military again because they took very good care of us financially and offered tremendous benefits. It was also like being back in college because the facility had the feel of a college campus. We felt proud to be on board.

We were living in the nicest house we had ever rented, a three bedroom, well-kept property with a fine yard. As usual, we pitched in and improved the grounds to make ourselves right at home. Our third child was born and our family was made complete with Luke. Now we were a thriving family of five. It was while living here that I began to have hope for our marriage to be happy. And as Ben later confided to me, it was here that he had his last encounter with his old companion, illicit sexual desire.

It was during this time of financial prosperity and big city living that we found we had more desires than our money could fulfill. So we got an American Express Gold Card and were quite proud of it. We especially enjoyed going to deluxe restaurants with all three of our children. We knew we were just trying to cover over our unhappiness, but being served made us feel temporarily good about ourselves. We were such needy people.

We continued going to a full gospel type of church and developed close and loving relationships with fellow Christians. We eventually hosted a weekly home group and Ben began to seriously write music. His songs told about his love and trust in the Lord.

Ben was well respected everywhere he went. He excelled at work, being self-taught about computers, and became a Systems Analyst for IBM. He excelled in Bible study and often taught special classes or led discussion groups. He was adventurous at heart and took his family and friends to many out-of-the-way places. We saw some sights! We were gone almost every weekend for a day's adventure into the hills or to the beach.

Ben grew up without a good work ethic even though the rest of his family were diligent working people. He was constantly looking for a way to beat the system. He wanted to earn his money easily and he wanted to be home with his family. So he searched his mind for ways to accomplish this. He amazed me regularly with good ideas, but they were never carried through.

I hit rock bottom while we lived in San Jose. I still had the firm belief that my husband didn't respect me and didn't love me as deeply as I thought he should. Poor Ben. He constantly tried to pull me into his arms and would say over and over that he loved me but I didn't believe him. I never said it out loud, but inside I thought, "Yeah, sure. Prove it." His professed love wasn't believable because during a good portion of each and every day, he spoke impatiently, unkindly, and angrily to me and to the children. He was locked into an angry behavior pattern that would take many years to alter.

Ben wanted to pull me down emotionally. This I know. But he didn't realize this about himself. One day he came home from work and I met him at the door seething with rage. I informed him with my nose very close to his nose and his back against the wall, that he wasn't going to succeed in crushing me. He didn't even know what I was talking about.

But I was crushed. The girl from a loving home went to live under her husband's protection and was crushed. I know this was the Lord's doing. Everybody has to be trained by the Lord and His methods are extreme. He will choreograph tremendously hurtful situations and then proceed to lead us through them. He will purposefully hurt us in order to help us learn to turn to Him.

In my pain and lack of hope for a fulfilling life, I turned to thievery. I became a shoplifter and stole many hundreds of dollars of goods, with my children by my side. When I could stand the guilt and conviction of the Holy Spirit no longer, I confessed to Ben, to our Christian friends, and finally to the store managers. Ben helped me make restitution and he stood by me emotionally and spiritually. We went to marriage counseling because IBM would pay for it but in my opinion, we got nowhere. I distinctly remember thinking that the counselor was on Ben's side. The most important thing he made me aware of was that I probably got into shoplifting because I had no hope for my future.

How I wish I could write this history for you in a completely objective way! I don't mean to cause you to think I blame Ben for all my problems and bad choices. Our lives became so closely linked, it's hard to separate them. We influenced each other tremendously. Please try to sort through my biases and remember that the ending of this story is worth waiting for.

One day Ben came home after a day's work at IBM, and said he needed to talk to me. We sat on the couch and he began to share with me that he was a wreck. He just couldn't go on living in the big city, working for the big corporation, being entrenched in the rat race. My heart went out to him quite naturally and I agreed that if he couldn't do it, he mustn't keep trying to do it.So we searched and planned and moved to Opelika, AL, to be near friends we had known in Berlin.

It was a very exciting thing to do, move across country without a secure job, without a home of our own, with all our possessions in a moving van. We were happy to be going.

We lived temporarily with friends and Ben got a well-paying job as a consultant with InSouth Corporation.

In Alabama, some terrible things happened to us, certainly at the Lord's own choreography. It all started when we were living in Beauregard, a tiny country community near Opelika.

InSouth was being sold and moved to Maryland. Ben decided between him and the Lord that he wasn't going to choose what to do next. He and I (because I always followed him) said to God, "Please show us what to do next." To emphasize our serious stance, I added, ".and if you don't we're going to die on the streets."

Well, we didn't die, but we did end up in a friend's backyard in a tent! (We and our three children and fewer belongings than before.) We lived there with our gracious friend through a long hot Alabama summer. While there, we began to work as a family doing lawn mowing and yard maintenance for others. This was the beginning of our working as a family team.

Towards the end of the summer, Ben (although confused about how the Lord was treating us), felt the freedom to find professional employment again and secured work with Ampex Corporation in Opelika. There he was under the best boss he ever had and was again well respected for his expertise and for his friendly, outgoing manners.

In this writing I refer to Ben in the past tense, but in my thoughts I use the present tense. Ben is alive with the Lord Jesus, in a realm that I can't see. I would like to say, "Ben is a person of excellent character," but for your sakes I will say,

Ben was a person of excellent character. We were under a load of heavy debt that we had carried from California and we had mismanaged our tax fund so that we owed back taxes. Ben's driving motivation during this period was to get out from under the load of back taxes. I commend him for paying half of his salary to IRS each week for more than a year in order pay the IRS completely. Later he would manage to become completely debt-free.

We lived in a very old house in the downtown section of Opelika, while Ben was working for Ampex. We lived in a neighborhood with white people and black people and some of the old houses had been fine homes. Just a few blocks away were poorer black people living in unkempt neighborhoods. Ben befriended many of these individuals and we sometimes delivered free food and clothing there, not knowing or caring we could be in danger. I've seen Ben give away the shirt off his back and I've seen him help people in trouble, no matter their color.

We had been home schooling five or six years and it was getting to be a little difficult. Our lack of consistent income hampered our teaching style, but we were resilient people and found a way to put a spark back into our daily school routine. Grace and Luke began going to the neighborhood public school for an hour or two each afternoon. They were very well received and admired, and I'm sure it was a good experience for them. Sersch attended public high school as a full-time freshman and excelled in every subject, but especially in math. Ben had carefully instructed Sersch in that subject and as our children got older, Ben taught math and science to each one.

The house we were occupying in Opelika was over 100 years old and was furnished even down to the curtains. We found all these furnishings stored in the house and had permission to put them into use. Ben most definitely enjoyed the house library. He read the old books for himself and he used the best ones to teach the children. One very important book taught Ben to become a "plodder". He said he had never learned to set a goal and accomplish it. This book helped him realize how to keep on keeping on.

The Alabama culture was not to our liking. We had gone through three church splits (small churches), and we had also found that southern people are not as forthright as Californians. Southern people say, "Ya'll come!", but they don't necessarily mean it. So after living there over three years, we decided to go home.

The California culture was not to our liking either. It seemed the rat race had expanded even into the country and the small towns were being used as bedroom communities to the big cities. We just didn't fit in our own home areas anymore and began to consider other alternatives.

We saw a newspaper ad for property in Montana that had wildlife on it and the price was comparatively low. We had friends in Missoula, Montana, so we made arrangements to move there, sight unseen, no job, no arrangements for a home.

I believe every member of our family would agree that it was good to move to Montana. However, everything didn't fall into place right away. Work was hard to find.

Not by chance, Ben met a Seventh Day Adventist pastor and his wife who needed caretakers for their home on Teakettle Mountain. We became caretakers in the setting of my dreams. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

The house was unfinished, but I still loved it.. There was no exterior siding for most of the time we lived there and the interior was lacking floor coverings and wall finishing. But the dining room had a unique table, a brick oven, a fabulous window arrangement looking out on the deck, and a miniature greenhouse. The deck was another wondrous place. There were birch trees growing through openings in the deck and we had sturdy wooden deck furniture, including a table for twelve. However the most awesome thing about the deck was the view of Great Northern! It drew us like a magnet and each day could find us gazing out across the forests and mountain ranges toward that awesome landmark.

We had large pieces of furniture inherited from the Wandruffs' time in the Philippines (1948-1954) and we had some large paintings. We filled that unfinished house and made it a marvelous home. We also made wonderful changes in the yard, including a garden, a lawn, and a fire ring that could hold more than a dozen people. Sersch worked on special projects like enlarging the dirt basement and constructing a rock generator pit. Ben and Sersch and the other children helped submerge the water pump down in the creek. It was quite a life style change, but very welcome at the time.

Our first year in Montana saw us earn only $3,000! We learned to pick morel mushrooms and also huckleberries as a family team. We had no rent payments, no utilities, and no phone. We learned an amazing thing: you can do without just about everything! To tell the truth, though, I don't believe I'd like to do such a thing again.

I don't really know why our family got itself in that position. Ben, himself, felt that the Lord idled him. I disagreed with him strongly and often urged him to go to town and find employment. Sersch ended up being the member of the family that bailed the rest of us out of that financial hole. He went to town one day and bought a newspaper and a bottle of windex so he could find work washing windows. The success he found was so outstanding that Wandruff Window Washing was born. Later the business was given to Ben. It was a godsend to Ben, but more about that later.

While on Teakettle, Ben took many, many walks crying out to the Lord for instruction, for guidance, for insight. I admire my Ben because he stuck by the Lord every year of his life. He grew and he grew and he grew as a Christian person. He considered leaving Montana and going back into professional computer work, back into the rat race he considered many inventions of his own and he worked odd jobs around town. But he never considered giving up on seeking the Lord's personal instruction. Even if he couldn't find answers from the Lord quickly, he didn't give up.

I recognized it at the time and I still believe that it took a special kind of courage to keep up that lifestyle in the face of criticism from wife and family and friends. I'm thinking that something momentous was going on between Ben and the Lord, because Ben was not going to live a full span of years. I'm thinking the Lord was calling Ben to seek Him with his whole heart.

While living on Teakettle, I walked out on that beautiful deck one day and I had an encounter with the Lord. It wasn't the first time I had ever leaned toward Him.

"I yearn to serve the Lord,

To be everything He meant me to be.

Sometimes I walk outside with Him and He calls me.

The pristine light shows up the white snow on the mountain

And the achingly blue color of the sky clutches my heart.

He pulls me to Him.

I belong to Him and He has a plan for me.

I yearn to walk in that plan.

What does He say when He calls me?

'Will you obey in everything? Are you willing to give all?

Draw near, come close.

I'm going to make everything come out well.

I have a plan.'"

I believed what the Lord said to me and I wrote it down in my journal. I waited and waited for the fulfillment of those words and I periodically reread the journal entry.

After Teakettle Mountain, we moved into Kalispell. It was a time of utter confusion. We didn't know what to do to earn a living and we had no money to rent a place to live. Between Ben and I, we believed it was his place to earn the living or else the family would work together as a team. It wasn't my responsibility to earn the family's income and it most definitely wasn't my desire!

Once again friends came to our rescue and let us and our goats and other animals come to their house to stay temporarily. We stayed a month and it was very difficult for me, very humiliating. Then two important events occurred. First, Sersch felt the need to go away from Kalispell, seeking his fortune, and he left Wandruff Window Washing to his dad then we got word through friends that we were being sought as assistant managers for an apartment complex. It all worked out that we became the assistant managers, receiving free rent in exchange for work, and we also had Wandruff Window Washing for a substantial income. We worked as a family once again.

We stayed between one and two years at those apartments and both Luke and Grace had a year in public school. But because we don't enjoy the confines of city living and especially apartment living, we began to feel restless and we began to search for another care-taking situation. It would be our fifth one (two in Alabama, two so far in Montana).

Somehow we were given the opportunity of a lifetime to serve as assistants to the managers of a large cattle ranch about an hour's drive from Kalispell. It was one of the ten working cattle ranches in the state of Montana and our house was located on the edge of gorgeous little Dahl Lake. Since that time, our home site and surrounding area has been declared the best wetlands environment in the state and has been made into a refuge!

It was an incredible experience. Grace is convinced the Lord made arrangements for us to live there expressly for her sake. She had the time of her life. My dad said he thought it was the nicest place we had ever lived, but he's an old time ranching person and cow lover. I think he must be biased.

While on Lost Trail Ranch, our family pulled together mightily. Our boys got involved in thievery (no surprise because of my example) and our family, our Christian friends, and our Ranch employers all rallied around them with support and encouragement. Ben, himself, drew near to his boys and did not push them away. He invited Sersch to come home to live with us during the first part of his probation and Sersch did so. Luke entered into a difficult time of life, but we were all together physically.

We participated in some of the ranching activities like branding and calving (we were the clean up crew) and when a forest fire threatened the area, we were right in the big middle of all the fire fighting activity. The Horse Ranch (one of the sections of Lost Trail) was turned into a small city with its own zip code during the time the Ranch hosted the fire fighters and all their support facilities. Ben, always friendly to strangers, made many friends and went to the fire camp daily to visit around and ask questions. Sersch and Grace both were employed there.

The Ranch itself was about 8,000 acres with thousands more acres of adjoining lease land. We lived on the East End and in our area there was a lake, vast pastureland and hay fields, a little valley, hills, and some forest. Luke found a very tall pine tree in the little valley and his dad advised him about hanging a rope swing safely. Ben was big on safety and he had been involved in mountain climbing when he was young, so he knew the ropes.

Grace flourished there on the Ranch. The ranch manager's wife became her best friend so Grace was adopted into a ranching family and learned a lot about the lifestyle. She rode horses, participated in various brandings, drove farm equipment, learned to give shots to the cows, and she helped her family fulfill our role of maintenance and support. We were pleased to see Grace prosper.

In many ways our family pulled together mightily, but in other ways we began to break apart. Our oldest child had already shown his independence, now our younger two were doing the same. I thought Ben and I were consistently teaching our children how to become adults and how to eventually make their own decisions and leave the home gracefully, but we began to be split into factions: parents and children. Ben had an especially hard time accepting his children as people who didn't think exactly like he thought. But maybe we could regroup on the other side of this divide.

After living one and a half years on the Ranch, Ben resigned and we found a duplex on the west side of Kalispell, in a country setting. Luke still lived with us, but he would move out shortly because he would be 18 years old. Sersch moved in with us for a period of months and was easy to share a home with. Someday, though, Ben and I would truly be Empty Nesters and we were looking forward to it.

We used this apartment on West Valley Drive as a home base for two major trips abroad. The first was a six-month stay in Florida for winter time window washing and the second was a three month stay in Colombia, South America, where we volunteered to help some missionaries. Both experiences were important in our lives.

Everyone but Grace was working as part of Wandruff Window Washing at this time, so there were four of us who went to Florida together. We worked hard and earned good money and also made plenty of friends. Most of our friends were part of Calvary Chapel Church in Orlando others were neighbors in our apartment complex. One friend we met at the local fruit stand. He was a Vietnamese fellow and invited us to his home to eat several times. We also invited him and his family to our apartment.

We lived sparsely, buying used beds and kitchen utensils from the thrift store. After six months we would give them away and go home.

Grace came to visit us around Christmas and New Year's time. It was wonderful to be together again and we enjoyed introducing our girl to our new friends.

In the springtime we drove home, leaving Sersch behind to be employed as manager of the Atlanta, Georgia, division. This happened because the owners of the company we were working for there in Florida were greatly impressed with Sersch's abilities. He really does impress people wherever he goes.

That summer Ben took a group of young people up Great Northern, which is a strenuous climb. Grace and Sersch (yes, he was home by now) were part of that group and so were some young people from Kalispell. One of the girls was new to us her name is Lisa Stendal and she is the child of missionaries to Colombia, South America. She was only 14 years old that summer and had a hard time making the climb. She was afraid of the dangerous exposure and Ben had to literally help her and coax her. After she had successfully made the trip, she was thrilled and thankful.

Ben and I met her father later and he gave us a book telling about his family in Colombia. (High Adventure in Colombia). It was fascinating! Ben and I thought of volunteering to help the missionaries and so we called them and asked to come there at our own expense. After considering the matter, they called back and accepted us and placed us with the grandparents of Lisa, who lived in a condo on the Caribbean Sea, on the northern coast of Colombia.

The elder Stendals, Chad and Patty, ministered to the Kogi Indians who lived high in the Sierras. They no longer lived within the tribe, but ministered from their condo in Santa Marta. We stayed in their spare bedroom and participated in their daily lifestyle as if we had always known them. It was easy to fit in. Chad and Patty said we were natural missionaries.

We stayed in Colombia three months, making friends among the Kogis, the Colombians, and the missionaries. Ben was quite adept at learning languages and became fairly fluent in Spanish. They said if we had had another month to learn, we could've really spoken well. As it was, we could express our ideas in childish ways. It would've been so nice to talk of deep things with our friends. But they knew we loved the Lord completely and that we loved them without reservation and we were truly loved in return.

Ben was especially well liked and admired. He spent his time helping two Colombian men build an addition onto Casa Betania, a house of ministry for the Kogis. The two men were used to bickering and not working well together, but when Ben arrived on the scene, all that changed. Chad said he'd never seen them work so well together and predicted that when Ben left, they would go back to their old ways. They did.

One reason Ben was so admired was because he was big and strong. (I myself had always admired his strength!) Colombian people are rather small and not nourished well, so the two workers (who became some of our best friends) were mightily impressed. Not only was he admired for his strength, but also for his camaraderie. Ben was simply a good friend and companion, able to make the work seem like an adventure. Whenever the midday meal was served there on the work site, Amanda, the cook, served Ben first and most. She literally piled his plate, while giving the other people normal helpings. Ben would always wait until everyone was served before eating. Little things like that endeared him to his coworkers and the Kogis who lived in that house.

How Ben enjoyed being loved! It didn't go to his head and make him proud, please don't get me wrong. He was just so attractive and admired in every way. He was such a good friend! The experience in Colombia was excellent, a once in a lifetime adventure.

When we came back to the States, we went into culture shock. The airport was bad enough with its commercialism, but our own neighborhood and traditional American lifestyle was worse. We were used to living in a third world culture and we had settled right in. We overlooked the unclean streets and the poverty, we ate scrumptious fresh vegetables and simple foods, and we visited with people constantly. At night when it's hot, people are out and about, talking, enjoying the time together. But in America, everyone lives in his own little box, alone.

I think everyone should experience living in another culture so he can benefit from different ways of living. One of the tremendous ways Ben influenced me in our 30 years together was his way of traveling abroad. He had traveling in his blood and was pleased to report that he'd been around the world twice by the time he was five. (His folks lived in the Philippines when he was born.) So he was experienced in living on the local economy wherever he was and he wasn't shy about trying to speak the local language and learn the customs.

Wherever we traveled, we mixed right in with the people. All in all, Ben took me to live on four continents (North America, South America, Europe, and the Far East) and moved me to all four corners of the United States. He even took me traveling in Israel, Turkey, and Jordan I thank him for it and acknowledge that it has molded my personality.

Ben and I moved many times. When we were first married I called Ben "Peter Pan" because he didn't want to grow up. He said he didn't know any adults he'd like to pattern his life after and he didn't know what he wanted to be when "he grew up". So he did a lot of searching and I did a lot of following. In his lifetime, Ben found several comfortable niches to fill. For instance, he became an avid songwriter (mostly songs to the Lord and about the Lord) and he was a Bible scholar familiar with the foundational tools for study. He also appreciated God's creation to the maximum and spent time outdoors in all kinds of weather. I'd say he also appreciated God's human creations and was happiest while being with friends, old or new, young or old. That's my Ben.

One thing he never really got comfortable with was working for his living. He was such an idealist, wanting to pursue only interesting activities, never wanting to be tied down to an 8 to 5 job working for someone else. That's why he flourished as a window washer. He could set his own hours, he was very well appreciated as a careful worker, and he was rewarded on the spot with payment and appreciation from his customers.

So after returning from Colombia, Ben settled back into window washing. Later that summer we gave Grace and Steve a wedding in our yard. Simply put, it was beautiful in every way. It was one of the best days of my life. I got to plan it and make most of the arrangements too.

A few months later, when my mother was terminally ill, Ben took me to California to help care for her. Later, Ben and I decided to spend the next winter season washing windows in southern California. We lived with my dad in the Palm Springs area and were a help to him after the death of my mother. Ben built a little window washing business there and had excellent rapport with his new customers, but his heart was definitely not in his work. He spent most of his free time with a karaoke machine and his keyboard, writing new songs and arranging old ones.

It was during this time that God convicted Ben about his relationship with me. He wrote a song called Have You Forgotten, which he presented to me in a very romantic setting. He said when the Lord gave him the melody and the lyrics, he worked on it for hours and it brought him to tears many times. How sad it is to think of the times we failed one another and disappointed one another.but I know now that romantic love points beyond the loved one to God, our True Love. Our earthly mates will always disappoint us, but that's OK. We have to learn to accept our loved ones as they are and love them deeply in spite of themselves.

Looking back, I see the Lord was choreographing our relationship. Very gently and slowly, but firmly, He was teaching us to love each other. Why so slowly, God? Deep in my heart I can only say, I trust the Lord has done what is right and good for both Ben and me (and He's never late).

When we moved back to Kalispell, we found a nice country home on Mountain Meadow Road near some friends that Ben loved. We developed the yard and made raised beds with rocks for the garden. Then we fenced it from the deer. But somehow that home seemed rather temporary. We were kind of biding our time. Ben was working with his boys in the window washing business, but his physical stamina wasn't quite what it used to be. He began to experience serious bodily symptoms, which he ignored.

I had a dream that bothered Ben. I dreamed I was transporting our year old grandchild, Benny, in a small boat and we were going through dangerous water escaping from something behind us, trying to get to a large ship. Grampie was on the large ship and I was definitely trying to maneuver our boat to him. On the way, Benny said in garbled baby talk, " The Lord has been good to us." I asked him, "What did you say?" He repeated, "The Lord has been good to us." Ben's first response to my dream was to wonder why he was far away from us in a separate ship. I think Ben began to ponder over his physical symptoms and where they could lead him.

Something life changing happened to Ben and I while we were living at Mountain Meadow. New friends of ours, a man and wife, came to dinner one night and just happened to mention that they had private times of prayer every morning. Ben and I took hold of that idea and put it into action.

Ben would take his Bible and go downstairs to the basement to spend private time and I would do the same on the main floor. We enjoyed personal fellowship with the Lord so greatly that we often stayed with Him for an hour or hour and a half.

During this same period we read the book Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby. In it Mr. Blackaby taught us to be aware of God speaking in our hearts and minds and working in our circumstances. We began to know God better and be drawn to Him like never before. I think this is because people in their forties are listening for His call like never before and also because God had a time schedule to keep for Ben's sake.

We both began to keep daily journals and we wrote our hearts' thoughts to the Lord. We also kept record of our prayers and all our struggles. At that time one of our major struggles was how to earn our living. We were fazing ourselves out of the window washing business and Sersch was the business owner again. Luke was his partner. How to earn a living, what a life long struggle it had been! And winter was coming on.

Ben's mother had been ill and we had gone to California to visit her in the hospital earlier that year. She was in her 80's and she passed away in November that year (1998). Around Thanksgiving time, Ben received a call from his sister, Laura, telling him he and his sisters had each inherited about $28,000! It was a total surprise to us and very welcome. We paid off every single debt we had, including our car we gave a tithe to honor the Lord and we shared $1,000 with each of our children.

Now we weren't so pressed to find a suitable work situation. We continued seeking the Lord with our whole hearts. It's hard to live without the framework of daily work. We really didn't know what to do with our time. We only knew we wanted to please the Lord and do whatever He had in mind. We took many walks together and Ben took many prayer walks alone. This was typical of our whole lives, I think.

One day Ben took a prayer walk up to a nearby ridge and said to God, "I want into your kingdom at any cost. My way just doesn't seem to be working." Evidently, that was a crossroads experience for Ben because things began to change for him. The Lord began to give him many dreams and Ben was helped to change old ways of thinking, give up old emotional crutches. He drew nearer to the Lord than he'd ever been because he was willing to do whatever the Lord required of him and he drew nearer to me too.

After living at Mountain Meadow a year, we moved to temporary quarters and eventually ended up with Grace and Steve in Dixon, Montana, a little more than an hour's drive from Kalispell. We slept in our tent in their front yard and helped Grace settle into her new house. We mapped out and planted a garden with her and we waited for their second child, Nate, to be born. I enjoyed that stay more than I can say. We were in the country beside a river, across the road from a bison range, on an Indian reservation. I enjoyed our grandson, Benny, immensely and also being near Grace and Steve. I felt perfectly comfortable. The Lord was continually meeting with us in our private times and giving us dreams in the night that helped us begin to change poor character qualities. Ben, himself, was restless. He began to dream about being diagnosed ill and needing to change his diet. He also had a dream about going to Colorado to work and earning only $4 a day.

After Nate was born, we went back to Kalispell, living with Luke for about a month. Then we found a wonderful little house in Kila to rent. Actually, the Lord assured Ben in his heart that He would prepare a place for us to live.

So we moved to Kila just in time to welcome out of state guests who attended Sersch and Jamie's wedding. I got to help with the decorations for Jamie's wedding too and once again enjoyed myself thoroughly. It was beautiful. I even danced! Ben received the greatest honor of all, though. He was asked to perform the wedding ceremony! He looked handsome in his tuxedo and performed his part most excellently.

We received some more money from Ben's mother's estate and used it to upgrade the property we were renting. It gave us two little houses instead of one and it gave us a comfortable gas stove that looked like a real wood stove. We were very cozy.

The problem that had plagued us all our lives, however, hadn't gone away. We had to earn our living somehow. Ben decided to go to Colorado to work for a surveying company. He worked long hours, carried a backpack, and worked with men who were not God-fearing. He did have wonderful accommodations with an elderly man, renting a room and having kitchen privileges but soon was calling me to say he was coming home.

While Ben had been gone, I slipped into fear. I didn't know it was fear, I thought I was having heart trouble. Sersch and Jamie drove wildly fast to come pick me up and rush me off to the emergency room, where the doctors found no cause for my symptoms.

After Ben got home and we had balanced our budget, we realized all his earnings from Colorado were cancelled out by my hospital expenses, and we remembered the dream Ben had dreamed about Colorado and $4 a day.

Ben now placed applications for several professional positions around Kalispell and we were very hopeful that he would qualify for one of them, expectant really. Then the Lord intervened. Ben felt sure he should go around and withdraw all those applications. Believe me, I was fearful then! I begged the Lord from my knees to protect me in this strange situation. What were Ben and I going to do to earn our living in our middle age, and later in our old age? Why was this problem so unsolvable for us? Help, God!

I made a conscious decision to support Ben. He said God impressed him to withdraw those applications and stay home. I believed him. So we began to spend our days together at home, much of the time on our little couch in the living room.

As was our custom, we sought the Lord, asking Him how to think, what to do. It was an incredible period because God began to communicate with us like never before. Yes, we had both received dreams from Him before, but now we began to have meaningful dreams every night and flashes of insight during the day or night. He even began to act like our psychotherapist and bring things up from the past. Ben and I confessed everything in our hearts to each other and to God and we felt lighter and freer than we had ever felt. We knew God was paying special attention to us and we were amazed.

Then one night around Christmas time Ben went to bed as the regular Ben and he woke up a changed man! I don't know how such a thing happens, but he began to show his love for me in practical and sweet ways. My husband loved me and our relationship flourished.

Then the Lord gave me an experience almost like a vision when I was out walking on the ice (frozen Smith Lake). In case you don't know, I'll tell you that the scriptural concept of a broad place is one of freedom and blessing. David and God often spoke back and forth about a broad place for David, a lifestyle free from enemies and full of provision from the Lord. And while I was out on the shoreline of the ice, the Lord shared with me (the way one Spirit shares with another spirit) that I was on the edge of a broad place. He was promising me boundaries that were so far away I could hardly see them.

Another day, Ben was playing some of his taped music and was listening to a song "Your Dreams Shall Be". He suddenly became all choked up and told me those song lyrics were meant for me. It's one of Ben's most beautiful songs and it portrays the Lord talking to a woman, promising her that he has heard her cries and will answer her prayers. All she has dreamed in the Lord shall be. Many, many times afterwards I said the first dream that came true was my husband coming to love me so well.

God took care of our financial needs. We had no bill collectors because we were out of debt and we had a surprise stash of cash with my Dad, which he sent each month to cover our rent. From time to time friends would give us money and once a good friend literally filled our cupboards, refrigerator and freezer with food. We didn't publicize any needs, but friends knew we were without employment and purposely staying at home. I can't imagine what they thought of us.

We went on daily walks, sometimes several times a day. We talked back and forth to each other and to God. We had been called aside to our little couch and our quiet lifestyle since October and now it was February. On one of our walks, Ben began to mention his left side was feeling awkward. Evidently, it had felt "different" for some time, but was becoming more noticeable. He mentioned it to me and inquired about it to the Lord. Before long he was really having trouble getting around and I often massaged his limbs.

Once he was lying on the living room floor and I was massaging his legs. I said, "I'm singing you a song." He said, "What is it? I can't hear anything." I said, "I'm singing to you in my mind." And I began to sing aloud "I love you truly, truly Ben." Poor Ben exploded into tears. He knew he had been loved a long time.

It was in the month of March that Ben became bedridden, paralyzed on his left side. We thought he had had a stroke because he had felt a sudden pounding and arrhythmia in his heart. He was bedridden three weeks, crying out to the Lord for help and direction and healing. Finally he felt he could go to the hospital for diagnosis and treatment. Also, it was getting more and more difficult for me to manage him, with no wheelchair, no support belt, and no real knowledge about caring for an invalid.

So in April 2000, we went to our doctor and he admitted Ben to the hospital. When the chest x ray showed a spot on the lung and was proven to be cancerous, we were hardly fazed. We never believed Ben would die. We remembered the dozens of dreams we had had, and we remembered the wonderful counseling sessions we had received from the Lord. Surely we had a full future ahead of us.

When we were considering how to pay the enormous hospital related bills, we applied to the VA and Social Security for financial assistance. We were shocked to learn they would support us fully (better than we had ever supported ourselves!) The VA became closely involved with us because they believed the lung cancer was caused by exposure to Agent Orange during the time Ben served in Thailand. They provided us an income each month, a certain amount of money to buy a car, and even authorized us to build or remodel a home of our choice (up to a certain amount of money). They expected Ben to be paralyzed, so we would need a car specially fitted for a partially paralyzed driver and a house for a wheelchair bound person. Of course, neither Ben nor I expected him to be paralyzed. We expected God to heal him somehow. We continued living day by day, literally laying our lives down in the Lord's lap, and expectant of His care.

But Ben didn't live. One and a half years after being diagnosed with lung cancer, which had spread to the brain, he died. He had been bedridden the last three months and had had a weekly nurse's visit. He and I had become closer than close and he was fully dependent upon me. Many times he said, "You're such a comfort to me." I miss Ben. I don't know how a person can be missing from another person's life. It seems so unnatural.

I choose to trust the Lord and not allow my thoughts to dwell on what might have been. Surely Ben and I would have loved each other so well and we would have taken care of each other like never before. But between God and Ben there was something, which made it necessary for his life to be cut short. And between God and me, we still have unfinished growth and fruit bearing.

I ask the Lord so often to, "Please tell Ben hello for me right now. Please tell him I'm thinking of him, I love him, and I look forward to fellowshipping with him again." I know very well how it is to fellowship with Ben in the Lord. He's a fine companion.

I also cry with tears of thankfulness and tell the Lord I admire the fantastic choreography he worked for my Ben. I can tell He loves Ben exceptionally well because He took pains to call Ben close and help him become a humble man. The state of a man's heart when he dies is most important and I see clearly that God called and Ben responded very well.

I hope you can see it too.

If you'd like to hear some of Ben's original music and his mellow voice singing, you can call me toll free 1 866 271-8704 or call my home office MST 1 406 882-4050. I'll give you a cd.

Sincerely from me to you,

Dianne Wandruff

diannedave@gmail.com

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