Mom

Seventy-nine years ago today a little red-headed girl was born to a sharecropper, Ira A. Butler and Bessie (Rainwater) Butler in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. Though they each had children by previous marriages, (Ruby, Lester, Virgil, Clara and others who had died very young) Lavada Lois was the first of five children for them. Her younger siblings were Lonnie, Ira, Stanley and Jewel. 

Lavada worked in the fields along with her Dad and brothers. She was a fiery little thing  and a hard worker. Mom told of one incident that happened when she was nine. She said she threw a green cotton boll at Virgil, when they were picking cotton, and hit him. She knew he would get even, as he always did, so she watched him closely all morning. After they went  to the cotton trailer to weigh and empty their sacks Virgil said, "Let me show you how to wrap a sack around you." She remembered and dodged, but not far or fast enough. The green cotton boll that was tied with baling wire in the corner of his sack caught her nose and lip. To this day she has a crook in her nose from being broken that day. Mom said that day was the first miracle she ever saw. They had trouble getting her nose to stop bleeding, then later that night it started again. They tried everything to stop it with no luck. Mom was weak from loss of blood. She said Grandma got the younger boys to help her pray and the blood stopped instantly. 

At fifteen years old, on March 15th of 1951 Lavada  met Charles Edward George, a tall, dark and handsome young man of twenty-one who Grandpa picked up for church. Mom and her brothers rode in the camper on the back of the truck. When Edward got in he almost sat in her lap by accident. She was smitten from the first sight of him. 

Edward found out that Lavada played an accordion and asked if she would give him lessons. The only courtship they had was sitting on the front porch with Grandma as chaperone or riding in the truck to church. Of course Dad later said the accordion was not what he wanted to squeeze. 

On April 1st of  1951 Edward told Lavada that he was drawing $120.00 per month from his military pay while going to Williams Baptist College and asked if she would be willing to live on that. They were married two months later in Hoxie, Arkansas by Bro. H.E.Cruse. Though it was a whirlwind courtship the marriage lasted forty-eight years before Dad died. 

In 1953 the first of ten children were born, Annette, Debra, Rhonda, Sherlyn, Juanetta, Angela, LaNelda, Mark, Anita and Joel and then they adopted Carol. At the last count we could think of nineteen other girls who Mom and Dad helped to raise. 

Lavada had only completed the eighth grade but later got her GED and started college. While working as a Mother, pastors wife, school principal, and missions correspondent along with a number of untitled jobs she received her Doctorate in Christian Education and a Doctorate in Counseling through Lighthouse Christian College in Bebee, Arkansas. 

For years after Dad died Mom traveled continually all over the United States, Philippines and Brazil to continue carrying the message that had become their lives. Though in recent years her health has prevented her from traveling as much, she still makes an occasional trip. 

I'm thankful for the many years God has given us with a Mother who loves us. It's a wonderful thing to know she calls my name daily in prayer to God.