Our decision to move to Pacific Union College in Angwin, California, so Dale could finish college happened so quickly we didn’t have time to find a place to rent. We called Dale’s sister Opal, who lived in Sanitarium (now Deer Park) about seven miles from the college, to ask her to find a place for us. She did, and we moved into a very small house on the side of a hill. It was built up on stilts and in the middle of lots of poison oak. I was sick with poison oak the entire time we lived in that house. The boys were happy, though, because there was a tree house they loved. I would hold my breath as I watched two-year old Mike climb the ladder to the tree house. He never fell, but I was getting gray hair! We started looking for a better place and found a three bedroom house about two miles from the college.
Dale was going to school, still selling a few Frantz oil filters, and working part-time for a building supply in Napa. I was at home at this time with our boys.
Funds were very tight. One day I was not sure what I could find to feed the boys for supper. When we lived in California, before moving to Arizona, I had always canned and frozen a lot of food for winter. However, we did not have any source of nice produce in Phoenix, so when we moved back to California our freezer was bare and the many canning jars sat empty, packed in boxes. I knew Dale and I could go to bed without food, but how could I explain to our boys that there would be no food for supper. “Lord,” I prayed, “Please, some how, send us some food.” Dale was not home. He was working in Napa that day and would not be paid for several more days.
While I was pleading with the Lord to answer my prayer for food, I got a call from one of the distributors Dale had signed up to sell Frantz oil filters. He wanted to talk with Dale about buying a filter. I told him that Dale was not home. He said he knew which filter he needed if I would just show him where they were.
This man came, I took him to the garage where he found the desired filter, and he paid me with a twenty-dollar bill. He needed less than a dollar of change that I did not have. I had to empty the boys’ piggy banks in order to meet this need. I gave him the money; we thanked each other, and he left. Now I had money to buy something for supper, but no way to get to the store unless I walked. I sat on the edge of the bed looking in the mirror as I brushed my hair, just musing with the Lord at how thankful I was for the money. I knew I needed to start the walk, but somehow I just sat there staring into the mirror, telling myself that I must hurry, but, having a strong feeling something was making me wait.
While I was doing this the phone rang again. It was the same person saying he had taken the wrong filter and could he come again to get the right one. I assured him that would be fine.
When he came this time, I asked him if he would mind taking the boys and me to the store. He was more than willing to do so. We rode with him the two miles to the store, and I thanked him for the ride as we got out of the car. He said he would wait for me to do my shopping and then take us back home. I told him that wasn’t necessary; the walk would be good for us. He didn’t understand. He was from Texas and said no one walks there because everything is too far apart. He tried very hard to wait for us, but I did not accept. I felt I had offended him by not accepting his kind offer.
The boys and I did our shopping, and I carefully tried to get something nourishing, but not more than I could carry. I stopped at the bakery counter and bought a cookie for each of the boys. I paid for the groceries and we started walking. We had just crossed the street and were on the side of the busy road when I realized I had made a mistake in not accepting that ride. Bruce was four years old and Mike had just turned two. They weren’t in a hurry as they enjoyed their cookies. Mike was already begging to be carried, yet I had my arms full of groceries.
We had not walked five minutes when a car going the same direction we were going stopped, and an older couple offered us a ride. This was an Adventist college community, the fall of 1964. I felt it was safe to accept their offer. We crossed the street and the lady got into the back seat letting the boys and me sit in the front.
The gentleman began explaining that he had graduated from PUC many years ago and had just retired from being a high school principal. They had come to PUC to find some friends they had known at that time. They had the names of the people but didn’t have their address or any idea where they might live. He wondered if I knew these people. I did not. He inquired about my husband—what he was studying, when he would be graduating and how long we had been at PUC.
He wondered how far I was going. I told him to go where he wanted to go, and I would ask to be let out when he turned away from the direction of our home. He said he was not sure where he was going and insisted on taking us all the way home. When we reached our home, he asked if I could check the phone book for the name and address of his friends. I gladly obliged and gave him the address and the directions for finding the street. I thanked him for the ride. We exchanged names- he asked how to spell Ratzlaff-and they left.
A few months later our statement from the college arrived in our mailbox. I opened it and saw a
$350.00 credit on the bill! This was the amount of one quarter’s tuition. I immediately called Mr. Strickland at the business office and told him I thought there was an error on our statement. “You must have credited someone else’s payment to Dale’s account,” I told him.
Mr. Strickland said there was no mistake, but needed Dale to come see him when he arrived home from classes. That afternoon I showed the statement with the $350.00 credit to Dale and told him Mr. Strickland needed him to go to his office to discuss this.
When Dale spoke with Mr. Strickland he learned that someone had sent this amount not only to Dale’s account, but also to a couple of other student’s accounts. Dale wanted to know who it was so he could thank him. Mr. Strickland replied that the person wanted to remain anonymous. However, he had made the stipulation that if we did not acknowledge the receipt of the money, it would be removed from our account and given to someone else. Mr. Strickland told Dale there was another student who was about to lose the gift to her account because she had not bothered to acknowledge it. Dale asked Mr. Strickland to thank this person for him.
How thankful we were for this gift. We wondered who this kind person might be. As we thought about it, we believed it must have been the kind couple who gave the boys and me a ride home from the grocery store that day. I could not remember their names or the names of their friends. I also began to realize how God was directing my every move that day so the timing would be just right to meet these people.
First, we had no food and needed some, and we needed money to buy something. Second, this distributor needed a filter. Third, I sold a filter and had some money. Fourth, he took the wrong filter. Fifth, I knew I must hurry to walk to the store, but something, perhaps an angel with his hand on my shoulder, kept me staring into the mirror rather than getting the boys and starting to walk. Sixth, we got a ride to the store when the distributor came back for the right filter. Seventh, I refused the offer of a ride home. Eighth, as I was buying the groceries I would start to get something and then put it back as I knew if I did not hurry we would not get home before dark, and I did not want to have too big a grocery bag. Ninth, the timing for each one of these activities put us on the street exactly in time to meet the people who gave us a ride home. We had just crossed the street when we were offered the ride. “Thank you, God, for guiding my every move that day and for being so kind as provide supper money that night and for opening the windows of heaven with additional money for tuition,” we prayed.
A few months later the house we were renting sold, and we again had to find a place to live. My sister Millie had come to live with us and was also attending college. The only house we could find during the middle of the school year was a small duplex on the hill behind the men’s dorm, and within walking distance to the college. There was only one small bedroom so Dale built bunk beds for the boys. There was no room for Millie now; she moved into the dorm. Dale and I slept on a hide-a bed in the living room that he found for $15.00. I reupholstered it and each evening we would take the blankets down from the top shelf of the only tiny closet and make the bed. Every morning I would take all the blankets off the bed, fold them, and stack them back in the closet. We lived in this home and with this routine for the next two and half years.
I knew I needed to find work to help with the budget, so we decided that I would find part-time work during the time Dale was not in classes. This way he could be with the boys while I worked. I had several odd jobs, one of which was to take care of Miss Sarah Peck, a woman in her nineties who was in a wheelchair. Miss Peck had worked as one of the last secretaries for Ellen White. One day as I wheeled her to the table for her breakfast, I made the remark that it must have been a wonderful experience to have worked with God’s special messenger, Ellen White. She did not answer me but stared out the window for what seemed like several minutes. Then she grabbed the flowers that were in the vase on the table and threw them over her shoulder at me. I was still behind her wheelchair. I did not understand this action, at the time, and could hardly contain the laughter I was feeling. Knowing what we now know about Ellen White, I think I understand. I never mentioned EGW to her again.
In Dale’s junior year of college, we bought a bakery delivery business from a senior theology student.
This was a business of buying bakery goods from the college bakery and delivering them to an established route of customers in Napa and Santa Rosa. This business came complete with the delivery van, a Thames, which is an English Ford. Dale would take the Tuesday route to Napa, then I would take the Wednesday route to Napa and the Thursday route to Santa Rosa. This way one of us could be home with our boys at all times.
One Wednesday evening I was nearing the end of my route when I noticed a car that had gone by me at the last two stops. As I stopped at a customer’s house, the lady of the house came and met me at the van, something unusual for her, as it often took her a long time just to answer the door. I remarked that I was concerned about the car that just drove slowly past us. I did not like the looks of the driver. My customer cautioned me to be very careful. Often by this point m the route, I would have collected several hundred dollars. When I started down the road again, I saw the car stopped on the road just before my next customer’s home and just past a side road that would take me back to the main road. I made the decision not to visit my last few customers that night and drove as fast as I could to the main road, praying for safety all the way.
Dale had part-time employment as an associate pastor of the nearby Calistoga SDA Church, and one of his duties was the Wednesday night prayer meeting. Many nights the Thames would break down, and I would have to call Dale for help, but I could not reach him until he arrived home. I would have to wait for him to drive back down the hill from Angwin to wherever I was, in either Napa or sometimes Santa Rosa, before I could get assistance.
We added many products and built up the customer base until the business was adequately meeting our financial needs for which we were thankful. We were able to buy a new Ford Econoline van and it never let me down. We sold this business with the van near the end of Dale’s senior year.
One year I was president of the Ministerial Students Wives’ Club. I did not always choose the guest speakers as they were frequently chosen by our sponsors who were the theology teachers’ wives. Often the teaching from the guest speakers would be on how we should behave when our husbands became pastors. We were taught we must always keep the house clean, always be prepared for company on Sabbath, we were not to have special friends- we must be friends with everyone. We must never be church treasurer, and we should accompany our husbands when they were visiting other women. We should carefully discipline our children, as they must be models for other families. We should always take our children with us, or the mother should stay at home. Babysitters were not good for pastor’s children because they wouldn’t give them the discipline they might need. We should avoid debt, and it would be best not to purchase a home, as we would be asked to move frequently. We should not have a job outside of the home.
Sometimes I would come away from these meetings feeling discouraged and a little rebellious. How could anyone live up to all these standards, I thought. Much of it seemed good, but what if we could not achieve in all areas, all the time? Our boys were well behaved, and we did get compliments from older people on their good behavior, but would they always be like this? We did not always take our boys with us every place we went; sometimes we would get a babysitter for them. If the wife should not be employed, would it be possible to avoid debt?
A few weeks before Dale’s graduation, Bruce came down with mumps. He was extremely ill and we had taken him to the local college doctor a couple of times, but he was only getting worse. One afternoon Dale went into the room to check on him. Bruce’s fever was running too high, and we were very concerned. Dale touched him, and he did not respond. Dale tried to pick him up, and as he lifted Bruce’s head, his entire body came up. He was paralyzed! We immediately rushed him to the Sanitarium Hospital. A Dr. Ford came to see him and said he had mumps meningitis. The doctor immediately sent Mike and me out of the room and we soon went home. Dale stayed all night at the hospital with Bruce. As soon as the doctor did a spinal tap, removing some of the spinal fluid, Bruce’s fever began to subside and his paralysis began leaving. He was in the hospital for a day or two, and then Dr. Ford said if we took Bruce home, he would come by our home daily to see him and would not charge us. This meant a lot to us at that time. Many prayers from us, our family and friends, and the people of the Calistoga church went up to God on his behalf. We are so thankful God heard those prayers and Bruce fully recovered.
We were never sure if Mike had the mumps. He did have a couple of swollen glands, Dr. Ford told us. Mike, however, did not appear sick in any way, and he continued playing outside on his new two-wheel bike.
Dale made the decision in his senior year to not send out letters to conference presidents asking for employment. However, he would visit with any president who visited the theology students at the college. The first president to visit the college was Elder Helmuth Retzer of the Southern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Dale set an appointment to visit with him.
It was considered appropriate for the wife to sit in on this visit, however, when Dale told me he was going to be visiting with Elder Retzer, I told him there was no need for me to go with him. We did not want to go to the seminary. We had talked about this several times, and definitely did not want to go to Southern California. When Dale left for the appointment, I felt I was being selfish by not wanting to go with him to this visit. I began praying that God’s will be done, and told God I would be willing to go wherever He chose for Dale. I had this overwhelming feeling the seminary and Southern California would be what God had chosen for us. The next day Dale was the first in his class to receive an official call to minister in the Southern
California Conference after first attending Andrews University Seminary in Berrien Springs, Michigan.
As I was praying that night, I knew I would write our story—someday, and the title of the book would be My Cup Overflows.
My Cup Overflows. Copyright © 2009 by Carolyn Ratzlaff. All Scripture quotations—except where otherwise noted—are from The New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1979, 1994 by the Lockman Foundation, used by permission. All rights reserved. Life Assurance Ministries, Inc.
Carolyn has always been a positive person enjoying life and outdoor activities such as hiking and gardening, and she and her husband currently raise a good portion of their own food in small grow boxes. She also reads many health journals and is often surprised at the contrast between what was taught through the writings of Ellen White on forbidden items of diet and health, and the beneficial evidence of these same items which is supported by a plethora of scientific studies.
She and her husband Dale Ratzlaff have two married sons and four grandchildren.
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