Dale made arrangements with MBA and with the Central California Conference to begin work on his doctoral degree program in church growth at Andrews University. His work with the students and area church leaders in training the students to give Bible studies had increased his desire to get back into pastoral work. As soon as the class we sponsored graduated in May 1976, we headed back to Michigan with our little travel trailer which would be home for the summer.
Upon arriving at Andrews, Dale began his classes, we enrolled Bruce and Mike in some morning summer school classes, and I enrolled in a sewing class. In the afternoons, I would take the boys swimming at the university pool, and then we usually went for a nice family bike ride in the evening. Bruce and Mike were happy until their classes ended, and then they became restless. Bruce wanted to go home to work on the MBA farm, and Mike wanted to go to my parents to work on the watermelon farm with Grandpa, so a few days later we bade them good-bye as they flew off to their respective destinations.
Dale had many reports to write, and we needed a good typewriter. We purchased an IBM correcting Selectric and my job the rest of the summer was to type and retype his many papers. This was a much easier machine to use than what we had used during his seminary days. We still did not know about PCs!
At the end of the summer, Dale was going to perform the wedding ceremony for my sister Marie in Lorna Linda. On our way to California we stopped in Denver to see my sister Millie and her husband Bill, and to take Millie to the wedding with us. We then went on to my folk’s farm in Cornville to get Mike. However, Mike wanted to ride with Grandpa in the watermelon truck to the wedding. Dad was taking a load of melons to a fruit stand in California. It seemed he never went anywhere without having something to sell. Therefore, we took Mother with us. We learned later that Dad allowed Mike to ride in the back of the truck that did not have a back door, most of the eight-hour trip to Lorna Linda. Bruce flew down and we picked him up at the Ontario airport.
The wedding was on Sunday afternoon, and Dale and I had to report to work Monday morning. It was about nine o’clock in the evening when we left Southern California for the seven-hour trip home. Driving that night Dale and I got so sleepy; we could not trade off driving. We wanted to stop, but knew if we did we would never be home in time for work. We finally decided, after much debate, that we needed something to keep us awake and purchased a Mountain Dew for each of the four of us. Since this was the first caffeine we had consumed all of us got so hyper. Now we could not sleep if we wanted to, not even when we got home and could have slept for about an hour before reporting for faculty meeting. We had always followed the counsel of Ellen White by not having any caffeine. Those drinks, however, did keep us from falling asleep at the wheel.
That was another busy school year, and with Dale’s desire to get back into pastoring, I felt my days as secretary to Elder Voth would be ending. I had only taken a few college classes and wanted to pursue getting a full college degree. At the end of the year, I quit working for Elder Voth and enrolled at Cabrillo Community College for general education classes in addition to taking a Bible correspondence class from the General Conference Home Study Institute.
One of my classes was women’s history. This class focused mostly on the suffrage movement. We were studying the lives of Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others. The assignment for the final exam was to choose a woman from that era and write an essay on her. It did not have to be a woman we studied in class, for which I was thankful, but must be from about the same period. I felt this was an excellent opportunity to write on Ellen White.
I turned in my paper, and it was returned to me with an “A” grade and a note from the teacher stating she was happy to know the source for some of the EGW quotes I used. She wrote she had heard some of these statements before and had wondered about their source. I felt a sense of pride in that I was a member of the church Ellen White was instrumental in founding, and that I had the chance to witness for my church by introducing my teacher to Ellen White. I knew no other church had a prophet like her.
When we came to the chapter on religions in my social studies class, I was shocked and offended to find that the Seventh-day Adventist church was listed among the cults. I took issue with this and the teacher said, “Then why don’t you write your paper letting us know about the Seventh-day Adventist church.” I saw this as another opportunity to witness for my church and turned in a lengthy paper defending the SDA religion.
The Central California Conference leaders and the MBA administration wanted Dale to continue his work with the students in the Bible study training program, even if he was not teaching Bible. Since the Watsonville church was only about seven miles from the school, they chose this position for Dale to pastor, thus allowing the Bible study-training pro gram to continue for the MBA students.
I applied to the Central California Conference to be a Bible worker, and was accepted. I began working as soon as we moved from the school into town where we rented a home.
My duties involved working with the pastors of several area churches to follow up the interest leads. Few of the names given to me were valid names. I would knock on a door only to find the people I was looking for no longer lived there.
One day, at the direction of the pastor, I was scheduled to work with a lady who was volunteering her time in giving Bible studies. I was to meet her at her home, and then together we would visit some of the people with whom she had been studying. It was my job to encourage her students to be baptized and to join the Adventist church. When I met her at her home she began “enlightening” me on the prophetic charts that plastered her walls. She was very dogmatic in stating I needed to understand all these time frames so I could teach them to others. These were charts portraying the beasts of Daniel and Revelation, the 1844 investigative judgment doctrine, starting with the time in Daniel, continuing up to the time of Jesus, and reaching to the end of time. There were many other charts that I needed to understand, I was told. I had not previously seen some of these charts.
I looked at those charts with all their time lines and predictions into the future, and felt sick at heart not because I did not want to believe in what these charts were depicting, but because I felt I could never understand them in order to clearly teach them to others. They all seemed so confusing and frightening; I did not see much good news on those walls. I felt like a pre-schooler who was being asked to teach calculus. I dreaded the day when the Bible lessons I was using (at the suggestions of the pastors) would come to the 1844 judgment doctrine.
Even though I believed this doctrine, I felt inadequate in being able to answer all the questions I might be asked regarding its details. I knew this teaching was unique to the Adventist faith, and therefore, I believed I must do more study in this area.
After I could not look at those charts any longer, I proposed we get started with visiting her students. At this point she suggested we first stop at a restaurant for a bite of lunch, which we did. We then started knocking on doors, but no one appeared to be home. It was my understanding that she had set appointments for us, but apparently, I was mis taken. We never visited anyone. I wondered later if this visit had been planned just for my benefit in order to educate me on the teaching of the 1844 investigative judgment doctrine. Even though I believed this teaching, I did not focus on it in the studies I was giving. I also thought that if this was the material she was teaching her students, it was no wonder no one answered their door.
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.
- 25. That Very Special Occasion - March 24, 2022
- 24. Living in the New Covenant - March 17, 2022
- 23. Crisis in Freedom - March 10, 2022