Next home: "the Rib," 1976-77.

The significance of the first photo on this page, a photo of a snowball bush, will be explained in the last paragraph of this blog entry.

The second photo on this page shows the front porch of the house where I lived my sophomore year at KU: 312 W. 16th St in Lawrence, KS. I haven't been able to find a photo of the whole house while it was yellow, the color it was when I lived there, so this will do for now. I also haven't been able to find a photo of myself and the house.

The Rib: Home for "Girls"

The house was called "The Rib" because it was intended as a house for females when "the Mustard Seed," a house kitty-corner behind it, was inhabited by males. (As we read in Genesis, woman was made by God taking a rib from the first man and crafting it into a complementary "helpmate" for him.)

I Was "Just 19" if You Know What I Mean

I am not aware of any similar photo of myself and this house, although I would love to have one if one ever turns up. Although the young lady in this photo (Pam, who is now a Facebook friend of mine) did not live there when I did, the photo is pretty contemporary with the time I was there -- probably within a few months or so of the time frame I was there, which was fall of 1976-spring of 1977. I no doubt sometimes sat on those same steps in a similar manner. I was 19 years old when I moved in.

Why "the Rib"?

I had several reasons for deciding to live there that school year. First of all, I had been an active participant in the Mustard Seed fellowship that had its physical origins in the nearby house at 1538 Tennessee Street. I believe the Mustard Seed as a loosely organized charismatic Christian fellowship group had its beginnings in Lawrence in 1973. I will double check that year and change it here if necessary. There is an entire book that lays out many of the early events in that group, entitled History of the Mustard Seed by Nick Willems, published a couple of years ago. I do not intend to go into all of that in detail here, but rather, focus on my experience in this house. Anyway, I had been involved in the Mustard Seed during my freshman year at KU, while living in Corbin Hall.

Leadership at "the Rib"

The "Rib" house was "headed" by a young couple from the Mustard Seed named Pieter and Alice Willems. I believe they had just been married a couple of years or less, not sure about that. I assume they were allowed to live there rent free in exchange for keeping order for those of us girls who lived there. Pieter was a graduate student at KU majoring in counseling psychology. (Today, he is the pastor of the now-pretty-large Mustard Seed Church -- located quite a bit west of the KU area -- the present-day incarnation of the original house-based group. Alice became pregnant during the year that I lived there. I believe that Pieter and Alice went on to have about 5 kids.) I guess Pieter and Alice didn't have that much privacy for a young married couple, living in a house of a bunch of students and such. But they were gracious and kind people to be around. I remember enjoying their presence. I think we may have had short weekly meetings during which we divvied up housekeeping chores, although I don't recall for sure.

Mealtime

We ate our evening meals over at the "the Seed," as we called the Tennessee Street house, along with the folks who lived there (all males plus another married couple.) All of us took turns signing up for cooking or after-dinner clean-up duties. With quite a few people in the two houses, we only needed to do one of those duties about once a week. Weekends, breakfast and lunch were "on our own," and I think we all kept our own food for those times in separate areas of the refrigerator, although to be honest, I don't remember that aspect in detail.

Ownership

Both houses had the same owner, Steve Churchill, who together with Bob Mendelsohn had started the Mustard Seed in '73 if that's when it was. (Today, Bob is leader of Jews for Jesus in Australia; here is a recent video of him singing one of the songs we used to sing at the Mustard Seed Bible studies: . Steve has been a successful businessman for many years.) I believe both had moved out by the fall of 1976, and that the Mustard Seed house was headed by a couple named Dave and Darlene, who had a similar role for that house as Pieter and Alice at our house.

As I understand, Steve and Bob had started out in partnership through their association in the Agape fellowship in Kansas City, where I had been a participant since about 1972, but I did not know them personally in Kansas City.

The Role of the Mustard Seed in Our Lives at "the Rib"

I don't believe we had organized prayer groups at either house while I was living at the Rib (I could be wrong there), but I believe we all "went to the Mustard Seed" most Sunday evenings, which by then was quite a growing and evolving organized quasi church-like group, meeting in a nearby school gymnasium about 2 long blocks south of "the Rib." Leadership in the Mustard Seed fellowship was in the process of transition from Bob to the Willems family during that period of time. The houses had become more a place for a bunch of us to live than a hub of activity like Bible studies, as had originally been the case. At least that's what I recall. Memories do get fuzzy over the years, so I could be wrong on some of these details!

Background & Connections

The reason I got clued in on the Mustard Seed before even arriving at KU was that a number of my friends at my high school (Shawnee Mission South in nearby Overland Park) who were a year older than I was, had been involved. One of them, Chris Haas, lived in the Mustard Seed house the year before I lived in the Rib. (He went on to become a history professor specializing in ancient history focusing on the spread of Christianity throughout Europe.) These friends' welcome provided a natural segue from Agape to the Mustard Seed by way of the connection with them. I then of course went on to make many new friends in the Mustard Seed.

Drawing Cards

Anyway, I moved into "the Rib" after spending a summer in Mexico through KU's summer abroad program. I think monthly rent at the Rib was quite inexpensive -- something like $85 a month, though not sure about that, since dinners were included and that sounds kind of low. Whatever it was, I know that economical living had been one of the drawing cards for me (as opposed to living in a dorm again), since my father sponsored my tuition and living costs at KU completely and we did not rely on student loans at all -- and I was a very full-time student, working few hours or none at all. In fact, I do not remember working that school year, but I always carried a heavy academic load -- so much so that I graduated at the end of three years plus one summer "with distinction" (one notch down from "with honors.") A quiet environment for studying was very important to me, and I think the Rib was usually pretty quiet. Living with Christians who did not drink or party was a priority for me for a number of reasons.

Family Ties

The Rib was also attractive to me because it was located just a block and a half from my grandparents' house. They had moved to Lawrence during the summer of 1975, and during all my years at KU, I spent lots of time with them, which was generally relaxing and enjoyable time together. They did not want me to "help" them, which I assumed I would do since they were 76 and 84 years old the year I was at the Rib. Rather, they seemed to want to "take care of me" as if I were a child. I sometimes even spent Saturday night at their house, went to their church with them and ate Sunday meals with them in a restaurant or at their house, and they insisted that I be a guest, not helping much with cooking or cleaning up, even. But they seemed to love my company, and I enjoyed the homelike familiarity. I was always welcome at their home and in their lives. They also hosted lots of family events at their house like birthdays, Easter dinners, graduations and pre-wedding gatherings for my cousins, aunts and uncles, siblings, our parents and myself. (My parents lived about an hour away, so my mother came to town fairly often to visit my grandparents, too -- another drawing card for living at the Rib.)

All in All a Winner of a Choice

So living at the Rib allowed me to continue friendships with Mustard Seed people, stay connected with family by living within walking distance of my grandparents' house -- which was a gathering place for my extended family, be able to walk to campus for my KU life and also live economically in an informal setting in a historic home, which was my favorite kind of house to be in (and still is; the house that I own today was built in 1924. The Rib house was probably built in the very early 1900s.)

Roomies

I believe that the other girls in the house were Kathy the music major and pianist, another Kathy who I think was working somewhere during that year; don't recall that she was a student, but I'm not sure about that (I understand that she later did, in fact, go on to get a masters degree in English at KU, some years later); Rocky, my roommate who was very young, from Tonganoxie and also not in school; and Pat, who had her own bedroom downstairs and was a cello student at KU intending to major in music therapy. We shared a common background of being from Oklahoma, among other things.

Students and Otherwise

I was originally disappointed when I moved in to discover that not all residents of the Rib were KU students, as I really wanted to live with students who would have similar schedules and priorities. But we all got along OK, as I recall. Rocky and I shared a bunk bed! I think she worked evenings, which made it possible for me to use the room for studying. I brought two of my own pieces of furniture from Overland Park: my dresser and a wooden desk belonging to my mother. If for any reason I needed a quiet place to study and the house wasn't quiet for some reason, I could use the KU library nearby or my grandparents' house, where I think I did take refuge a few times for study purposes.

Ambiance

I remember lots of hours in warm weather (which would have been the first and last couple of months of the school year) hanging out with one of the Kathys or Pat or anyone else on the screen porch and enjoying some leisurely porch time. I recall that the house was full of garage sale type furniture. At the end of the school year, we heard that the house was gong to be sold and that some clutter around here and there needed to be removed. So Pat and I, with Pieter's permission, helped ourselves to a few items including some china dishes and a big old manual typewriter (Pat took that). That was kind of fun.

A Funny Old Car on Loan

I also remember once when the Kathy who was not a student was lent a car to use by someone in the Mustard Seed that was about a 1949 or so car! It had buttons to push to change gears! I did not have a car, as she didn't, and for whatever reasons (which I don't recall now), I was allowed to borrow it a few times to get places, and found it a real hoot to drive.

Huey the Cat

Another standout memory was when my brother, who lived a few blocks away, had a cat that he needed to get rid of in a hurry because of severe allergies. The cat had been the kitten of my sister's Persian cat in Overland Park. He had very thick long, white hair and his name was Huey. We had been told "no pets" in the Rib, but I asked Pieter if I could please keep Huey in the basement at the Rib for a short time. He said OK. Pat was a little jealous because she had been told she could not bring her Siamese cat to live with her in the Rib, but she, like others at the Rib, were soon won over by Huey, who had a very friendly, likable personality. (I, on the other hand, was jealous that she had her own room, with no roommate . . . )

Although he supposedly lived in the basement, I was allowed to take Huey to my room (which I shared with Rocky) for visits with the door closed, which I did often. When warm springtime arrived, we started letting him outside for short periods of time, and he always hung out around the back door of the house, so we thought it was safe. I don't recall whether he was "fixed," but sooner or later the inevitable happened, and Huey was killed in traffic on Tennessee Street. It was of course short-sighted of me to allow him to go outside so close to that street.

Pat Was a Kind Friend the Night Huey Died

Anyway, Pat was very kind and consoling the night that I was grieving Huey's death. I don't remember whether his body was returned to me by the police or just his collar with my name, address and phone number on it. (If his body was returned to me, then Pat and I must have buried him somewhere, but I honestly don't remember that part for sure.) In any case, Pat and I had a nice conversation that I clearly remember in which I told her liked to imagine that the matter of Huey's body would be recycled into some beautiful feature of nature, and we came up with the idea that he might be reincarnated as a "snowball bush."

At the end of the school year, Pat and I moved out, rented a house at 2134 Massachusetts, and recruited two other Mustard Seed girls to live there with us.

I will write about life at that house in another blog entry!

Photo credits:

(1) Snowball bush photo taken from the Internet from this source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jim-ar/4564974989/

(2) Photo of Pam in front of "the Rib" provided by Bob Mendelsohn.