Jesus' Love

 

JESUS’ LOVE
Written, Composed & Arranged by Michael Woodhead
Copyright ©1975, 2024 by Michael Woodhead
(Melody first used for my EarthGirls song, 'Adele')

[Music only; vocals pending]

From My Autobiography : 1974 : Age 27 : Part 2

3 MAY
Friday
I buy a special gift book, write several comments in it, let Lana read it, and then when she gets to the last page, I ask her to marry me. She screams and says, “Yes!”

The same day, we write up a personal newsletter to send to our friends and acquaintances to tell them the good news.


 

 

 

 

 

23 MAY
Thursday
The Full Gospel Bible Institute writes to tell me they have accepted me into first year classes.


26 JUNE
Wednesday
My sister graduates from the School of Nursing at the Calgary General Hospital.


JULY
Lana and I send out wedding invitations.

20 JULY
Saturday
Lana pays our friend, Lloyd, $40 as down payment for rent on a house near to the Bible College in Eston.


24 AUGUST
Saturday
Lana attends a Trousseau Tea held for her.

 

 

 25 AUGUST
Sunday
The Full Gospel Church bulletin announces our engagement.


31 AUGUST
Saturday
Lana travels to Toronto by herself to organize the wedding ceremony and reception.


3 SEPTEMBER
Tuesday
Lana has a wedding shower given by her sister.

I take the Greyhound bus to Toronto.


4 SEPTEMBER
Wednesday
Lana has a wedding shower from her friend, Mrs Hillis.

The week we married, there happened to be a Transit strike on in Toronto. I had to take a taxi to the airport to pick up the suits that had been flown down from Calgary for me and my best man.


7 SEPTEMBER
Saturday
2:00 p.m.
Lana’s father makes her cry when he drives her and her stepmother to the wedding service. He bitterly complains about having to pick up the wedding cake and gets really upset because he’s afraid it will fall over in the car. Lana’s stepmother tells him to stop making such a fuss.

While waiting for Lana to arrive for the ceremony, pastor Hope Smith prays while I and two other pastors [Laurie Price & Cameron Stevenson] stand with him. He finishes, and when Lana still isn’t here, he says, “Let’s pray again!”.
He does this about three times before we finally go out to begin the wedding ceremony.

Lana and I marry at Evangel Temple in Toronto.

Although we had a recording of the marriage ceremony, because the microphone was on the pulpit and we were in front of it, the only thing that could be heard distinctly on the cassette was the wedding song sung by one of Lana’s friends because the vocalist was standing behind the pulpit.

 

 

 

 

 

We married in Toronto because Lana originally thought that most of her family, friends, and acquaintances wouldn’t be able to make it out to Calgary. As it turned out, they could have.
 

At the wedding, I didn’t realize that Dean Patterson,  my best friend of many years, had attended; otherwise, I would have asked him to be my best man. As it was, I had previously asked my sister’s husband to do the honors.
 
The flowers at our wedding came from a funeral the day before.

We hold the reception at Dixon Road Gospel Temple [now known as Abundant Life Assembly] at 5:30 pm.

At the reception, I think we disappointed a lot of guests because they had sandwiches and small desserts instead of hors d’oeuvres and a full course meal. However, Lana and I were on a very limited budget at the time and couldn’t afford anything extravagant.

Afterwards, though, we did enjoy a delicious supper and spent our honeymoon night at Howard Johnson’s Airport Hotel.
 

And I’m quite sure a lot of the other guests went out for additional meals, afterwards...

 

One of Lana’s Bible school friends shot the wedding and reception on an 8mm film.
    It wasn’t until we received the reel in the mail several days later and viewed it that we found out he had accidentally superimposed our wedding on top of one of Lana’s friend’s wedding!
    We were extremely disappointed and upset, as I’m sure the other married couple must have been, too, since they wouldn’t have received any filmed recording of their wedding.
 
We also didn’t get very many good wedding photos. We couldn’t afford a professional photographer, so my dad took pictures. Unfortunately, many of them turned out blurry or overexposed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 SEPTEMBER
Tuesday
Thanks to the generosity of a couple of Lana’s friends who pay for all our wedding gifts to be flown back to Calgary, we catch a plane.
    ■ My fare: $120.00
    ■ Lana’s fare: $99.65


21 SEPTEMBER
Saturday
With a few other friends to drive us and our belongings, Lana and I move to Eston, Saskatchewan, so that I can attend the Full Gospel Bible Institute.

Lana had previously graduated from a three-year course [1969-1971] at Eastern Pentecostal Bible College in Peterborough, Ontario.

Residence:
7th Avenue West
Eston, Saskatchewan, Canada

Our time spent at Eston in a little bungalow was nice.
    It was here that we cooked our first duck from which Lana had neglected to remove the buckshot—I didn’t shoot it, the bird was given to us.
    Our cat, Reuben, ended up going to and wandering around, the college until someone recognized him and brought him back.
    The front end of the house was lower than the back, so you walked up or down a gradual incline from room to room depending on which way you went.
During that winter, there were fifteen-foot snowdrifts on both sides of the roads.

While I’m at school, Lana works at the local Co-op as a cashier.


During this time at F.G.B.I., I begin to lead worship and song services. Occasionally, a few people are healed, and I’m told that I have the anointing of God on my music and singing.

Although I understand the spiritual concept behind the ‘anointing of God’, I never did always perceive when it happened, nor did I try to make it happen. I don’t think one can do that. I believe it’s possible to create an atmosphere for healings and other miracles to happen [through preaching, song services, etc.], but the actual process of doing it is in God’s hands and time. There were occasions [as you will read later] when I felt led to hold a healing service, but overall, they were sporadic and unexpected.


 

20 DECEMBER
Friday
I receive my first semester report sheet.