Family:John Snell and Florence Moffett (1)

From Peoples Church (E. Lansing, Michigan) announcement dated 12/05/99:

“Marriage from a 60 Year Perspective”

We take pleasure in sharing with our friends some of the unique aspects of our lives and our 60 years of happy marriage. 1) We were each born in Suzhou China, a year and a day apart, one by Presbyterian, one by Methodist missionary parents. 2) Although we and our families were friends from the time we were in the 8th grade through high school together, it was at a Student Volunteer Conference in Indianapolis, our first year in graduate school, that we both knew that God had plans for our life jointly. 3) Yet it wasn’t until Dec. 8th, 1939 that Florence joined me in Venezuela and we were married three times: A) by legal proxy, to avoid waiting 6 weeks, B) A state wedding in Spanish before the magistrate, and C) in a Presbyterian Mission Church where our friend Rev. Reifsnyder tied the sacred knot. 4) There we had the joy of living one day at a time, and the fun of looking into the future as one instead as two. 5) The first year in Caracas was especially rewarding as we, with others started the first American Church out of which miracles grew. 6) The next 15 years in the Boston area were happy and productive as God smiled on us by giving us three beautiful baby girls and then (after a year serving as a Major in the China Theater) came two broader smiles and two great sons. 7) After three years of starting a consulting firm plus teaching at MIT, brought an invitation to join MSU as Dept. Head. 8) After four years at MSU and 27 years as head of the Snell Environmental Group, came 8 years of semi-retirement and a new area of service in Belize CA. 9) It was during these last 30 years that Got did a lot more smiling on us and gave us 12 wonderful grand children. 10) Peoples has been our Church home for a total of more than thirty years, interrupted only by some fifteen years at Haslett Community Church.

In summary what can we pass on to our friends as the essentials to a happy and fruitful marriage? “Ever so briefly perhaps as follows: 1) Let God be the key selector in bringing the Man and the Woman into being life-long partners. 2) Accept God’s definition of a Christian Marriage “That Two shall become One.” 3) God shall be our leader and our inspiring loving boss. 4) Love between husband and wife can fade unless we love “Others as ourselves.” 5) Live openly and in Christian love for each other, our children, our Church and the World. 6) Humbly accept God’s miracles with faith and thanks.

This of course is not easy to do, nor have we always done it. But at this time, when Peoples Church is growing, we welcome this new opportunity to grow in fellowship with you. May God guide and bless each one of us.

John Ray and Florence Snell