BLESSED BE THE FOUNTAIN - My Story part 2

BLESSED BE THE FOUNTAIN 

     

1942  We moved in a trailer to Watertown, MA - outside of Boston MA. Here I am at 9 almost 10.   We moved just before Christmas, with the Christmas Tree already up, and I remember how hard it was when we were traveling INSIDE the trailer, to go to our new place.    

        Dad was working on Construction, which meant moving a lot. Mother did well in teaching me, but I had lots of questions.   My little brother would be 6 in November.   We spent a lot of time together.   

        

Skip and I played a lot together, and because we moved so much, he would find in me his support and help.   There was a River there.  

WATERTON, MASSACHUSETTS NEAR WORCESTER AND WALTHAM

There was a river there.   Our trailer was parked on a vacant lot,

we had no utilities, and it was not directly in the city.   Skip (Harry) and I would scramble up the hill back of our trailer, and we played in the woods and the large TREE.   Pretending we were 

Tarzan and Jane, we were happy.    I remember that Skip saw a swing - from the tree - and wanted to get on it -  I thought he should not do that, but he persuaded me.   Then I remember telling him 

"HOLD ON TIGHT"  I all of a sudden SAW HOW HUGE THAT RIVER WAS and thought, OH DEAR !  What if he falls into it?

I knew I had to get him off that swing.    So I remember thinking, Please, God, don't let him fall.   Get him back safe."  I waited until he came close and then I told him, "you must get off, now !"  He was not happy with that.   He did what I said.   I took another look at the River and thought - God helped us.  He listened.   Skip is alright. 

        At nine years of age, I was "a little mother" to my brother.  He liked to play cars, and to pretend.   It was not easy.   

         It must have been summer when that photo was taken, for we would have no school then.   I remember how 

 E M P T Y my heart was for having a REASON behind my life, and WHY ? WAS I BORN ?   

          I remembered what Mother had said to me at age three.  "When you grow up and find out WHO God is, I want you to tell me and then I will believe too."   

           So let me reflect on that a moment.   

            When I was Five years old, my Aunt Althea took me to church.   It was the First Baptist Church in Adams, MA.   It was 1938 when I was five years old.   It was EASTER.   And so I clearly remember, Mother speaking to me, before I went, that she wanted me to listen and learn, and tell HER what I found out. 

             

First Baptist Church,

Adams, MA 

still looks the same today as it did then.

Notice the four windows in front.

That was the NURSERY where I went on that Easter Sunday morning so long ago.    I remember my expectation of a STORY...but all I saw was a lady on the floor helping a little boy build with the blocks.   Other children were coming in.   One child sitting in a small rocker with a doll.   I decided, "that is not what I want to do."   I was looking FOR A STORY.

Well.   All of a sudden I stopped, and looked at something 

right between each of those four windows.

three pictures taped to the wall - of THE LORD JESUS.

Now you understand, I did not know who Jesus was, but 

I knew Mother had said the stories would be about Him.

So I looked and it was like I was in 

a CLOSED ROOM SHINING AND GLOWING

WITH THE PICTURES TO LOOK AT,

I DID NOT HEAR ANYTHING 

I ONLY SAW THE PICTURES.

THERE WERE 12 OF THESE PICTURES.

I do not know much else.

I remember them.

The first was this one.   

It was as if there was A HUSH WITHIN ME 

AS I LOOKED AT THESE PICTURES.

I STOOD AT IT LOOKING, WONDERING

THEN WENT ON TO THE NEXT.

Mary was going somewhere.  And I knew she was 

expecting a Baby.   

These pictures are not the same as the ones 

I saw that day, but they were similar.  

I knew from the Christmas Songs that this was Baby Jesus who was born so long ago.

The Second Window had three more pictures. 

I saw the Shepherds worshipping the Baby,

and knew from the Christmas Songs that they had been 

told by the Angel that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

There was Jesus, with the Wise Men who had come a long way to worship Him.   

Here I knew somehow it was young Jesus.

.
 The next picture was of Jesus in the Temple.

Now I turned and went to the spot between the second and third window.

I saw Jesus being baptized by someone.  I did not know at that time who John was, but the pictures were telling me it was Jesus who was here being baptized.

I knew Jesus was in this photo calling for followers. 

Here is a picture I drew of the painting that I saw in Jesus with the children.    I remember looking at the picture a long time.

So now I was at the last panel of three pictures.

He made the blind to see.

 Jesus on the Cross died.   I pondered on that.

on the road to Emmaus

This picture held me in its grip

Last of all, this picture 

I KNEW HE ROSE TO HEAVEN.

I KNEW THAT WAS JESUS WHO 

HAD COME AS A BABY 

WAS NOW GOING TO HEAVEN.

Then

S U D D E N L Y  

DddddddinnnnnNNNG !  

SUNDAY SCHOOL BELL JUST RANG

voice 

talking       some child crying      blocks noisily being put away.

The holy hush and quiet that had wrapped me in it 

was 

gone.

I saw my Aunt Althea come to get me.

Or was it Grandma? 

I do not know.

I only know that I knew God had visited me

in those pictures.

When I got home, Mother asked me,

June, What did you learn today?

I said, Mother, I do not know, but it seems like God has sent Jesus to tell me about Him, and when I grow up I will understand it better.   I want to be like Him.

This was my Aunt Althea who took me to church that day.

At 95 she still lives in Savoy MA and is in touch with me.

I will never forget that day when I went on Easter Sunday to the First Baptist Church in Adams, MA.  

It may have been my Grandmother who took me that day, I 

only remember that I was so glad I went.

This 

At five years of age, I knew somehow

that WHEN I GREW UP 

I would KNOW HIM.  

June Estelle Donato 

was my name.

This was my Graduation Picture in 1951.

I found Christ as a girl at age 11 1/2.

That will be my next post.  

bye for now.

The blood of Jesus Christ

washes away 

all sin

completely

and 

forever

I am washed

and made clean.

Jesus said, in John chapter 14,

"He that seeth me, hath seen the Father,"  

I have placed my trust in the Living One

who came and humbled Himself

to become a Baby, grow up, 

show us The Light, and 

saved us by His death, burial and resurrection 

from the dead ! 

He is alive.

He is coming again.

I am waiting,

looking,

trusting,

in Him.    

THE SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP

THE SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP 

JESUS WALKED AMONG US

HE CAME TO SHOW US THE FATHER

HE SAT WITH THE CHILDREN 

AND BLESSED THEM

HE SAID

I AM THE WAY 

THE TRUTH

AND THE LIFE

NO MAN COMETH TO THE FATHER

BUT BY ME

John 14th chapter, verse 6.

Jesus is the Shepherd 

of His flock.

We have the record of His life,

His words, His promises

in the Bible, God's Holy Word.

I commend to you to read it,

to believe it, and to 

heed what He says.

In John 10.11

He said, "I am the good Shepherd.

The good shepherd giveth his life 

for the sheep." 

My life is centered on the fact that He died 

for me and for all, that whosoever will may

come and be born into the family of God.

As a child of God by faith in Christ Jesus,

you can find assurance and confidence 

that He is willing and able 

to save, to keep

each one who comes to Him.

I was only five years old in this photo.

Born in 1933, here it is 1939.

Hitler had just come into power the year I was born.   It was a memory that I had, when Mother and Daddy were listening to the RADIO that I heard the voice of someone who was very 

angry and hateful.   I never forgot the sound of that voice.   Later I knew who it was.  

No one ever told me about what was happening

in those days.

but I knew.

GOD somehow 

spoke

in my heart

helping me listen

to His dear Spirit.

Mother told me when I was 3.

When you grow up, June, and you 

find out who God is, then you can tell me, and I will believe on Him too.

So I was LOOKING for who my GOD was.

I was listening.

I heard.

My father was a young man of 17,

just graduated from High School, while

mother at 16 1/2 did not finish school

in order to give birth to me.

Here they are.

JUST A COUPLE OF YOUNG KIDS.

BUT SO HOPEFUL.

SO PROUD.

SO READY FOR LIFE.

And I was a part of it.

June Estelle Donato 

was my name.

Many years later, I learned that his grandfather had been a major in the Italian army stationed in Tunisia, Africa. His name was Major Guiseppe Donato.    His wife was a Russian-born woman named Nunia.

There was no evidence that they were religious, so I am still of the thought that they were Jews.

     My father's father's name was Orestes.

He was born in Tunisia, and came in 1914 as a young man to America.   He had to renounce the king of Italy in order to enter the country, which he did.   He married a Jewish New Yorker woman named Helen Hunter, and Dad was born in 1915 in New York.

          Those were hard times.    In 1915 there was a law in existence that was giving authority for the Law to take into custody any person who was out of work, or homeless, or unable to care for them-self, and to put them in what was called "villages" 

They were herded into these places like cattle and many tried to commit suicide when treated this way.   Others were not treated much better.   From the law that was in place also stated that "if a man was out of work, and his wife got pregnant, then she must be working as a prosititute and should be placed in a Woman's Reformatory."    So that is where my father was born - in Ipswich, New York, in the Woman's Reformatory.

          I understand from what I know that this was a common thing in those days.   People looked at those that were out of work as those who were at fault for all that happened.

         My father only knew his Aunt Sally raised him.   She was the sister of his mother, and though I myself know that she lived until 1970,  we only knew that for some reason it had not worked out, and Orestes, his father went back to Italy.  There was no information as to why or what. There were two brothers older than my father who went back to Italy with him, we understood.

          As a little child of three, I did not know

much of all this.   I only knew that as a little girl I loved my mother and father.    At three I thought I was a very BIG girl.   

          

        

               Here I am in 1938.    Grandma loved to put bows in my hair.    I had red hair.   It was very long.

              I was born in Adams, MA. in the Memorial Hospital there, June 9, 1933.   

              

          Watch my post.    I will take you through my journey in life as I go.     

       

Thank you for coming to my blog.

Watch.  come journey with me.