My Legacy

Someday I will tell you why I wrote this on this particular day:

Doris-Mae Tanner knew what she wanted when she was a teenager. She wanted to marry Claude Flye (she knew this at 13 the first time she saw him) and she wanted to go to the Bible School in Wisconsin.

By the time she was at the Bible School of the Metropolitan Church Association in Wisconsin in 1950, she had determined that maybe it was the Lord's will for her to remain single and put herself fully into doing what was asked by her of that church and later the Wesleyan Covenant Church.

The years between 1950 and 1960 took her many places, Chicago, Michigan, Ft. Dodge... either helping in deaconess homes, cooking, sewing and making aprons, or out selling cards, raising money to support missionaries. She was also, as she has always been active in teaching children in Sunday School wherever she went.

While Doris-Mae was busy serving the church in her areas, Claude was all over the country selling cards door to door. After leaving the same Bible School in 1950, he spent the next six years going from city to city, covering houses and even rural areas, selling cards. Denver, Salt Lake City, Scottsbluff, Nebraska, Aurora, Illinois, Ft. Dodge, SIoux City, Storm Lake, Ceadr Rapids, and Des Moines, Iowa, Patomac, Illinois, varieous cities in Oklahoma, Detroit, Michigan and Brownsville, Texas, which even included a trip to see mission work in Monterrey and Saltillo, Mexico.

In 1959 there was a fateful train ride in which Claude and Doris-Mae ended up in the same seat and realized that after all those years their feelings had not changed.

In 1961 Claude was sent back to Denver (after a trip to Maine to see his family) where he got a job at Rose Hospital and began helping in that local church. Dori-Mae was then in Ft. Dodge until October of 1962 when they were married.

Claude and Doris-Mae were then sent to Ft. Dodge, where they pastored a store-front church and began to build their family. Claude was employed as a janitor at "Friendship Haven", a nursing home while he pastored. Claudia was born in 1963, and Nathan and Peter followed soon after in 1965 and 1966. By 1969 they had moved to Denver, Colorado where he began pastoring a small inner-city church.

Doris-Mae opened a day care home in 1970 which she maintained until 1977, and then served as a teacher's assistant in the early childhood education program at the local elementary school from 1977 to 1993. Claude was busy working nights as a custodian for the City and County of Denver while pastoring the church, which finally closed its doors around 1976 when the building was sold.

In 1973, the family started attending the Villa Park Wesleyan Church in Denver in addition to pastoring the Wesleyan Covenant Church. And in 1984 they joined the Lowell Chruch of the Nazarene. In both churches they were extremely active members.

By 1993, they had discovered Sun Valley Indian School and within weeks of seeing it for the first time had moved there to begin their time there, fulfilling Doris-Mae's dream of working with the Navajos.

While their service have never made them famous, as their daughter, it is their service that has made them my heroes. Relentlessly and tirelessly they have done what they can for decades to make sure that people, especially children, could hear the good news of Jesus. My childhood is filled with memories of vanloads of children being transported to church, of people less fortunate than us coming for dinner, of my parents serving whoever needed their help.

In addition to their service, my parents have been an excellent example of how to give. They have faithfully tithed and given beyond their tithe even when they didn't know how they would pay the bills. They have supported countless programs and missionaries throughout their lives.

And finally, they are great intercessors. I spent my high school years finding my mother on her knees at 4:30 in the morning when I was on my way to the bathroom or if I needed to get a drink in "the middle of the night." Her prayers, and those of my dad, have seen countless healthy babies born, miraculous healings, and, more important than anything, the continuous heavenly support that is always needed when going through tough times.

Claude and Doris-Mae have dedicated their lives to only one thing: Faithfully serving God whatever that required. They have not sought recognition. They have not drawn attention to themselves. They have simply obeyed, regardless of how big or small the task, moment after moment, day after day, year after year, And while by the world's standards, they may be insignificant, by God's standards they receive the highest distinction possible and I know that his words are already, though their lives are not over, "WELL DONE, Good and Faithful Servants."