During my 44 year marriage to a Methodist minister this is the first and only home we owned until we bought our retirement condo.
In 1970, two years out of seminary, we lived in a lovely parsonage in Fort Lauderdale. Then my husband went from being the associate pastor at a large downtown church to starting an urban ministry.
There was no parsonage. After a short time in an apartment we bought this little bungalow close to downtown. We had three small children, including one in diapers - and one on the way. We lived there for seven happy years.
A couple of days ago my two sons were in Ft. Lauderdale for a meeting. One of them took this picture with his cell phone from the car. He was astounded that the entire house fit into the frame.
We enclosed the carport to extend the tiny living room. The family room in the back held our big dining room table where we had all of our meals. If we had tried to eat in the dining area we would have had to do it in shifts.
What is an urban ministry? We started with the two of us in a downtown storefront office. Seven years later there was a small paid staff of highly qualified people and hundreds of unpaid staff and volunteers - including a dozen full time VISTA Volunteers (domestic peace corp.)
We were community organizers - and proud of it.
All the while we lived in our little bungalow, a few feet from the elementary school, in a safe neighborhood full of kids. My older son has happy memories of this home, My younger son (the one who took the picture) doesn't remember it at all.
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