It was 9 o'clock on December 1, 1993 when my phone rang. When I answered the phone I heard, "Hi, this is Dick Dobbins"...

And my life has never been the same since.

We talked for about an hour. We laughed and talked like we had known each other for years. He asked me every question about me and my life that you can imagine. I answered him. Not until we had hung up did I realize that I had told him everything about me and I didn't know hardly anything about him.

Let me fill you in on some of the things that I told him.

My name is Priscilla Johnson Adams. I was born and have lived most of my life in Indiana except for the two years I lived in India. Those were my junior and senior years of high school. My father, a professor at Purdue University, was sent overseas to start a school of Agriculture Engineering at a university in India. While there I graduated from high school at Kodaikanai High School - a Christian private boarding school.

Upon returning from India, I resumed my life in Lafayette, Indiana. I got married and became an immediate mother to two wonderful step-children, Shelloy 13 and Eric 10. In 1988, I lost my husband and their father, Dr. Ralph Adams, a Lafayette oral surgeon, to a 9 month struggle with lung cancer.

Richard found all this out about me and much more in that telephone conversation that began with such excitement.

After hanging up from that wonderful phone call, I immediately began to relive the conversation. That is when I realized, with him being a psychologist he had just had an intake session with me. So the next night when he called, I said, "Okay, now it is my turn, you go lay on the couch and let me interview you." What fun we were having getting to know one another.

This is what I learned about him...

I learned that Richard had lost his wife, Dolores, to a 3 year struggle with cancer, non-Hodgkins lymphoma. They had been married 47 years and had three children, Bill, Ilene, and Sharon. He had a Mental Health Center called Emerge Ministries and he lived in Akron, Ohio.

In 1950, Richard and Dolores felt led by God to begin a church in Akron. So, the secured a building, put an ad in the local paper and were happy to see 14 people show up for services. That was the beginning of Evangel Temple, a church they pastored for 28 years. From that small beginning, the church grew to over a thousand people. In 1976, they resigned their position at Evangel Temple and started Emerge Ministries.

Richard had gotten my phone number from Lisa Hackett, my pastor's wife. I was working at the church in Lafayette in the Music/Drama Department. I had been a widow for about six years.

Richard and I talked on the phone for the next 17 days for over 30 hours! I flew to Akron on the 17th of December and met his Emerge Ministries family. Later we arranged for him to meet my family and I met his family. In April of 1994, we were married!

Every week-end we would travel to churches all over the U.S. and the world. These seminars were for married couples, pastors, congregations of all denominations, and future counselors graduating from his counseling school at Emerge Ministries. After these sessions, people would frequently request copies of his teachings and especially his sayings. At first, I would just copy them and pass them out. I began to realize that eventually these apers would be lost or thrown away. I knew for these vital bits of wisdom to become effective I must design them for a more permanent use.

PRICHARD PRINTS (a combination of "Priscilla" and "Richard") are artistically designed, copyrighted forms of Richard's sayings, created to last and to each from your walls in your home to the walls in our work sites. They make perfect gifts for all occasions at a very reasonable price.

I have designed CHRISTIAN MARRIED LOVE not only for newlyweds, but for all anniversaries. When personalized with the bride and groom's name and wedding date, these prints make a gorgeous wedding or anniversary gift.

My desire is for PRICHARD PRINTS to be a daily encouragement to all of us. Please see samples in our Print Shop here on the official PRICHARD PRINTS web site.

Warmly,

Priscilla Dobbins