Until Death Do Us Part

This issue of OLT came out May 14, 1974. I included the cover just because I think it was interesting. I think the heart of the issue is the short article by Mike Sandez. I think that he states so clearly the position that many of us had; we were in the Ministering Community as a life time commitment. The community households only existed for about 10 years, but our commitment was very strong at the time. What caused us to fall apart after such a short time. It was probably a combination of things. Probably the most important issue was the resignation of Ken Pagaard. He had the vision which was the glue that kept us together. We were committed to Christ, but Ken had the vision. The second reason was that Ken's resignation brought about a crisis in trust. Without trust, community can't exist. Thirdly, many of the young singles were growing up, getting married and moving out; normal. The last reason was that the 70s were coming to an end. Our culture was changing again.


Mike Sandez was a great young man. I remember him as so very zealous for the Lord. He was a great young evangelist. I remember him with great, long black hair -- yes, he looked like a hippy. I think that he worked as a welder. As community came to an end, Mike left the church and I lost touch with him for a while. Then he started coming around. He has short hair now and is an attorney. He still loves the Lord. That commitment never ended. Indeed, for most of us that was a commitment "until death do us part."