Remembering Verna Grams

END OF YEAR 2025 UPDATE

Hello everybody! We hope you experienced a wonderful Christmas with all the warmth and light your hearts can hold. So here we are going into the next quarter century! A lot of the news can sure get us down but the news reports we receive from our friends in Africa are so encouraging. Last May we shared that our Loom team received $14,000 from a church to fund…...

END OF YEAR 2025 UPDATE Hello everybody! We hope you experienced a wonderful Christmas with all the warmth and light your hearts can hold. So here we are going into the next quarter century! A lot of the news can sure get…

Good Morning Y'all!
This song touched me in a special way today. I trust that you TOO will experience His touch during this Christmas season.

… For I'm sheltered in the arms of God

… I feel the touch of hands so kind and tender
They're leading me in paths that I must trod
I'll have no fear 'cause Jesus walks beside me
For I'm sheltered in the arms of God
… So let the storms rage high
The dark clouds rise
They won't worry me
For I'm sheltered safe within the arms of God
He walks with me
And naught of earth shall harm me
For I'm sheltered in the arms of God
… Soon I shall hear the call from Heaven's portals
"Come home, My child, it's the last mile you have trod."
I'll just fall asleep and wake up in God's new heaven
Forever sheltered in the arms of God
… So let the storms rage high
The dark clouds rise
They won't worry me
For I'm sheltered safe within the arms of God
… He walks with me
And naught of earth shall harm me
For I'm sheltered in the arms of God
So let the cold winds blow
It's so good to know
That I'm sheltered in the arms of God

Two weeks ago our family was keeping vigil and caring for my mom as we waited for her to leave us and go be with Jesus. Her health had been declining over the past few years and on Friday, December 3 she had a stroke at the dining table after having breakfast, devotions and prayer with dad. While waiting for the hospice nurse to arrive she planted kisses on my dad’s hand and arm in her gesture of love since words wouldn’t come....

A Tribute to Kay’s Mom Two weeks ago our family was keeping vigil and caring for my mom as we waited for her to leave us and go be with Jesus. Her health had been declining over the past few years and on Friday, December…

Verna Grams
September 19, 1929 - December 5, 2021

Verna Dickinson Grams was born to Virgil & Halley Dickinson on September 19, 1929, in Buffalo, Oklahoma. She was the 4th of 5 children and was preceded in death by her parents and all 4 siblings. She died at home in Austin, Texas on December 5, 2021, surrounded by some of those who loved her best in this world, her loving husband and daughter, a son-in-law, two
granddaughters and a great-granddaughter.

She is survived by her husband of 70 years, Mel Grams, her daughter Kay and her husband Ed, grandchildren Erin Ruka, Elise Morales, Christopher Klaus, Jessica Eason, and Nick Klaus and 17 great-grandchildren, Nate, Grace, Ezra, Indie, Alex, Emma, Noelani, Rya, Kaelyn, James, Abby, Xander, Jadzia, Hayley, Harper, Ivy & Dax.

Verna traveled with her parents from Oklahoma to Washington state during the dustbowl and settled in Yelm, Washington where she completed most of her schooling.

In 1948 she began college at Central Bible Institute in Springfield, Missouri where she met the love of her life, Mel Grams, her “babe”. They married in August 1951 in Springfield and settled in Wisconsin to pastor a church. Their first daughter, Carleen Kay was born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin in 1952.

In 1954 they moved to Liberia to work at a missions station in a remote jungle area with the Jedapo tribe, whom Verna fell in love with and for the rest of her life called “my people”. Although many of her memories faded she never forgot Jedapo and her wonderful friends there.

In 1956 a 2nd little daughter, Karen Joy was born in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin.

She and Mel served two more terms as missionaries in Liberia, Nigeria and South Africa. Then after their daughters left home, they worked in Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Hawaii & California. In 1995 they lost their precious daughter Karen to cancer. In 2012 they moved from Kona, Hawaii with their daughter Kay and her Ed, to Austin to join a granddaughter who lived there.

Verna had a feisty sense of humor, was a fabulous cook, loved children, and made up the best stories of mice and squirrels and bunny rabbits. Her chocolate pecan cookies were divine. She adored her husband and was a kind, loving, dedicated mother who created a warm and hospitable home, not only for her family but for the many guests she welcomed. She had many who looked to her as an example of how to live life well. As one friend put it, "Jesus showed all over her” and she loved Him more than anything in life.