With an Holy Calling

The blizzard came swiftly and unexpectedly upon Mother Vandeman and Herbie that early spring morning as they were on their way home from Aurickaree Creek. The pushed the full barrels of water off the old batten door to make it easier pulling for the horses. But in moments the countryside was shrouded in deep, billowy drifts of snow. The horses floundered. Mother and son lost all sense of direction. They struggled on. They had to keep going somehow. Eventually, too cold and too exhausted to go on, Herbie sank down into the snow and lay still. And then at last Mother Vandeman felt the solid wall of the house. Picking her boy up in her other arm, she half carried, half dragged him to the door stoop, not letting her other hand stray from the wall. Moments later Father Vandeman remarked, shaking his head in disbelief, 'How you live through this is more than I can understand.' 'God must have a work for us to do,' Mother Vandeman replied quietly. 'And He may have a work for Herbie to do too.' And He did. For this is the story of Herbert A. Vandeman, the father of the well-known evangelist of It Is Written, Pastor George Vandeman. It is the story of Herbert's special calling and his response to that call.