MEET THE WALDECKERS

Now that they are about to leave, what do you know about the Waldeckers? 
Tom was brought up in a farming community, 20 miles from Lemmon, South Dakota. Believe it or not that was the nearest town. He graduated from Lemmon High School in 1945. While he was serving in the United State Navy, his younger brother, 16 years old, was accidentally shot as he and a friend were preparing to go hunting.
When Tom was discharged from the Navy and came home, he found that his family were attending church on a regular basis...something that they had never done before. Just to please them he went with them, never intending to make a regular "habit". There for the first time he heard the message of salvation and Jesus Christ became his Savior. In that church (Bible Presbyterian) there was an elder who had a good knowledge of the Bible and could find just the right passages for every occasion. He was a challenge, and soon Tom found himself enrolled in Northwestern Bible School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, hoping that he too might gain some knowledge and ability. His studies began in February 1949.
Lil was brought up in new London, Connecticut. Her first recollections of formal religious training was when a neighborhood girl invited her and her sisters to her garage to sing songs and hear Bible Stories. At that time Lil was so small that she had to be helped in order to sit on the bench. From there she, along with her older sisters, attended a Saturday Bible Crusade at a Baptist Church. While she was still very young, she received Christ as her Savior, and at age ten she was baptized and joined the church.
At a family Camp and Conference sponsored by a Christian Missionary Alliance group, when she was twelve, she dedicated her life for full-time service. She kept that vision before her all through high school and college.
Disappointed because she was not accepted at Providence Bible Institute, she applied and was accepted at Northwestern Bible School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She left family and friends behind with only bus fare in her pocket and a few dollars for meals along the way. She had absolutely no money for payment of tuition or fees, lodging or food. She just expected that they would let her in and then she would get a job to meet her needs. Members of her church kept asking, "How will you make it." Her only reply was, "The Lord will provide, I know that He wants me to go to Northwestern."
When she went through the registration line she was prepared to explain that she had no money, but she was willing to work to pay her fees, including the registration fee that was due upon registration. However she went through the line, registered for her classes, was assigned a room and no one asked for any money. A few days later she received a letter from her home church telling her that an offering had been taken for her and that there was enough money to cover not only the registration fee, but tuition for the whole semester. Besides that through her home church the Lord continued to supply all the money needed year by year.... Jobs then provided spending money.
In October 1949 Tom and Lil started dating and in June 1950, they were married in the Bible Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Oliver Julisson performed the ceremony.
Although Tom had told the Lord that he was willing to do whatever God wanted him to do, he had real reservations about becoming a pastor. The desire for returning to the farm had not yet left his system. So the summer of 1950 was spent in South Dakota on the farm. Lil was still certain that God had called her to full-time service. Her greatest desire was to be a foreign missionary, with a definite certainty that she did not want to be a pastor's wife.
In November 1951 Sharon was born, and the following spring when Tom graduated from Bible School they moved bag and baggage back to the farm. Tom was involved with the farming all summer, but as fall approached, he went to his father and said, "I'll never make a farmer.... I've got to go back to school for some purpose." So back to Northwestern, this time to college, they went. Odd jobs and part-time jobs were very much a part of the next few years as they sought to support themselves while Tom went to college.
Gary was born in April 1954 and Tom got his B.A. degree that June. To his astonishment, at graduation, he received the W.B. Riley Memorial Scholarship to help with his Seminary training. He had a great interest in Bible History and hoped that God would lead him into a teaching position. After two years of Seminary at Northwestern, the school for financial reasons, decided to discontinue its Bible School and Seminary. That meant finding another Seminary. In God's providence the Bible Presbyterian denomination was beginning a Seminary in St Louis. After prayer and consideration it seemed that the Lord was leading to Covenant Seminary, where Tom graduated in May 1957 as part of the first graduating class.
Seven years plus had been spent in preparation, but preparation for what? It was while at Covenant Seminary that the Waldeckers became youth leaders for the Olive Branch Presbyterian Church. Through its pastor, The Rev. Harold Rapp, Tom began to get a vision of what was involved in being a pastor. For the first time he began to think positively about being a pastor. Graduation had come and gone, what to do now? It was then that Dr. Thomas Cross, at that time director of National Presbyterian Missions, approach Tom about starting a church in a fast growing area of Florida. The thought of church planting excited both Tom and Lil. 
After Tom’s licensure in February 1958, they packed their belongings into a 4x6 trailer in preparation for the trip to Florida. . .but not without a change of direction from the Lord. Dr. Cross called the night before they left and asked Tom if he would stop off in St Petersburg, Florida, to see what was there. A young pastor had begun a ministry there with some retired missionaries and his parents, but had little outside interest. Tom was asked to stay in St. Petersburg area from February until June, when the Synod would be meeting in Lakeland, Florida. At that time an evaluation would be made as to whether to stay there or move to the Lantana area.
So they were off to St. Petersburg. With no place to live, they stayed with Lil's sister and family in Tampa, Florida, for about a week. Their first house was a small two-bedroom shack (a true shack) in Pinellas Park, a suburb of St. Petersburg. They found a job cleaning office buildings at night, because in those days there was no denominational support.
They ventured to Florida by faith and with very little knowledge of how to go about starting a church. Tom walked through subdivisions knocking on doors each morning and afternoon, visiting again in the homes of interested persons evenings. . . and then off to clean office buildings again. Those were days of loneliness and deep hunger for Christian fellowship. Little by little people began to come to the church, which was organized in December 1958. At first the group met in a hall on the grounds of the D&D Missionary Homes. After about a year the group moved to a "community building" in a northern area of Pinellas Park. Prior to that move the church had bought property in that general area. Money for building was raised by the sale of church bonds in 1960 and construction was completed near the end of 1961.
In 1960-61 the Lord added Janice and Alan to the family. Many times the church was unable to meet the promised salary (by this time Tom had gone back to work for Sears Roebuck where he had worked part-time from 1952-1957). They can also tell many, many stories of how the Lord provided for their needs. They remained at Grace Presbyterian Church in Pinellas Park for 13 years and had the joy of seeing many come to faith in Christ. Even today fruit of their labors in the Lord are evident in Grace Church... two who were either teen-agers or very young men are now Ruling Elders.
In 1971 they accepted the call of First Presbyterian Church in Minco, Oklahoma, where they labored for almost 6 1/2 years. Once again, after 12 years of ministry here in Coulterville, Tom and Lil are venturing on faith to another new ministry. After years of seeing the Lord provide food on their table, strength and comfort during difficult hours, and wisdom for decisions, they are confident that God will not fail them in their venture of faith.
As the Lord provides, they will be moving to Atlanta, Georgia, to work with Children’s Ministry International. Their primary responsibility will be the development, production, and sale of teaching materials for children based on the Children's Catechism. They ask for your prayers and support as they begin their new ministry.