Randy Baltzell & Cindie Wood Saturday, September 26, 1992

Her Story. . .

Our annual camp meeting was just beginning in July 1990, and I was downstairs in one of the shower rooms getting ready. One of my friends came downstairs and said, with a big smile on her face, “my brother is waiting upstairs to talk to you.” Since I had only talked to him in passing, I was extremely curious. I took as long as I could French-braiding my hair, and then slowly headed upstairs. Sure enough, Randy Baltzell was sitting there waiting. We made small talk for a minute and then he asked me if I would want to go out after our camp meeting concert on Monday night. I made it clear, “only as friends.” That was the beginning of our courtship.

Randy was playing in the concert, and as I anxiously waited for it to be over, I was a bundle of nerves. I had talked to Randy in passing a few times, but other than the fact that I thought he was good looking and he loved to drink milk, I knew very little about his personality. What were we going to talk about? Well, we were double-dating, so at least I wouldn’t have to worry too much. Little did I know that Randy had been concerned about the same thing and had been planning conversation topics in his mind all day! Things went smoothly and there was no lack of conversation. We went out again a few days later, and I was amazed at all that we had in common.

Finding God's will in this situation was very important to me. I had repented of my sins and asked Jesus into my heart at six years of age. I was sanctified about one year after I was saved. Since that time I had stayed close to Jesus through prayer and reading my Bible. This camp meeting, I had determined to not be distracted by things around me, but to draw even closer to the Lord. I needed my baptism and was determined to sit in the front and make the most of every altar service. When Randy asked me out, a lot of questions came to the surface. I did not take dating lightly and I did not want to head into a relationship that was against the Lord’s plan for my life. I knew that Randy was a Christian, so that was a very good start.

Randy and I lived many miles apart, so we wrote lots of letters and kept the phone company in business. When we got the chance to be together, we loved to just “do nothing:” take walks in the park, play a game together or just sit and talk. We found that we had the same goals in life. Number one was, we both wanted a Christian home. The more I was around Randy, the more I wanted to be around him. We enjoyed each other’s company. The problem was, it became harder to separate my feelings for him from what was right. This road I was heading down was a commitment for life and I did not want to base my judgment only upon feelings. All of the fireworks were there when Randy and I were together, but was that going to be enough to carry us when times were tough?

Because I wanted to know God’s plan for my life, or at least the next step I should take, I realized that I needed to really know God first. I began to seek Him in prayer and make sure that my heart was in order. I wanted to make sure that there was nothing between the Lord and I, so that I could be clear on who He wanted me to marry. In August of that year, I received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. With the Holy Spirit in my life, things were so much clearer to me. I did not get an audible voice from Heaven that told me, “You shall marry Randy Baltzell.” But I did get an answer way down, deep in my heart, and that has not left me. The key thing I noticed when I prayed about our relationship was that the Lord was very close to me. The communication between the Lord and I did not get more distant as our relationship progressed, but became more clear.

The morning of June 3, 1992, I was in Medford, Oregon visiting Randy. Unbeknownst to me, a call was made to my dad, asking for my hand in marriage. We had talked all around getting married many times, without actually saying it. That night after church, we started home to his family’s house. Randy gassed up the car and then turned around and headed back to the church! We went in and he sat down at the piano, and began to play a song that he had written for me a few months before. He asked me to sit, and I began to get suspicious and wondered what was next? He handed me his Bible and asked me to look up a verse that we had shared together. As I turned to the Scripture, out came an engagement watch. It was then that he asked me, “Will you marry me?” At that point, there was no hesitation, I readily said, “yes!”

I thank the Lord daily for the life he has given me with Randy. I know that the only reason we have peace and harmony in our home today is because the Lord has led us thus far. We have loads of fun serving the Lord together!

His Story. . .

I knew who I wanted to ask out at camp meeting 1990, but I wasn’t sure of the response I would get. I knew her very little—only that she was quiet and seemed shrouded in mystery. I was 20; she was 18. She came from a very close and secure family. Beyond that, I didn’t know much. But I got my nerve up, and she agreed to go out with me “as friends.” “Sure,” I said, all the while thinking, “Only friends?” I had other plans.

It was a double first date at the Red Lion on the Columbia River after “concert night.” After that date, I was even more intrigued by this young lady who seemed to have it all together and seemed to know exactly what she wanted out of life. She was quiet, but confident. It was enough to unnerve a guy. I was trying hard to come off cool and in control. I didn’t feel like I was pulling it off very well. She didn’t show a lot of gushy emotion, and seemed to have her feet on the ground. She was polite and friendly, but it seemed to me that she was hiding a secret that only she knew. Yes, this only intrigued me more.
(I was to find out later that she really wasn’t hiding a secret, but was as nervous as I was.) She was beautiful that night. I liked how she looked, but I also liked the quiet, strong spirit she possessed. It was that “something” within her that seemed to draw me to her the most—I still appreciate that about her today.

I hesitated over the next few days at camp, praying earnestly about how far to pursue this relationship. I had enjoyed our first date, and if it was up to me, I would have called it a success. I was guessing and hoping that she felt the same way. I wanted the Lord’s will so badly, not wanting to get something started that either of us would regret, or that the Lord did not want. My poor date wondered what had happened to me, because we didn’t go out again for several days— with no explanation of why, but I didn’t know what to say to her. I knew that I had to be sure before God, so I just kept praying and seeking Him. I had been saved two years before this and sanctified one year before—I did not yet have my baptism, but I was enjoying the Lord’s blessings! I was becoming more excited about the Gospel all the time. We had been enjoying good prayer services in Eureka, and I had been thrilled with what God had put in my heart. I was just enjoying walking with Him and feeling His presence.

It was important to me to marry the person God wanted me to marry. I didn’t know what lay ahead in my path, but I knew that if I married with God’s approval, we could withstand any test or problem that may come our way, and answer any calling He might put on our lives. If the rest of our life together crumbled, but we knew we had sought the Lord’s will from the beginning, He would hold us up. If I did not follow Him from the beginning, I knew that I might gain all the goods of this world and still end up with a mess.

It was during a prayer meeting at that same camp meeting that the Lord reminded me of a few months before, when I had asked Him to direct my feelings and my heart because I didn’t trust myself. He let me know that the feelings and interest I had in Cindie was the result of Him directing my heart. He gave me a confidence that night that I had His approval to pursue a relationship with her. Sometimes we get in our own way, trying so hard to find God’s will. That was what I was doing—not realizing that God was leading me all the while. When we are consecrated to Him, and we truly desire God’s way, He is faithful to direct our paths. We must simply allow Him to lead us. With that confidence in my heart, I went and found her after a prayer meeting and asked her out again, with a box of Ritz Crackers in my hand! Not very classy, but she readily agreed, and from there it went full steam ahead.

We went out a couple of times in the next two days before she had to go back home to Woodlake, California. We began to write and call immediately, and we were both a little surprised at how easy it was to talk and relate to one another. I would try to be as creative as I could with my letters, trying to think of all the ways I could to tell her I loved her. After a while, the letters just weren’t enough. I only wanted to be with her. We didn’t know anything about each other, yet we found we had a whole lot in common, and we were to find over the next several months that we felt the same way about the Gospel, family, friends and valued the same things in life. It was always easy to be together. We just enjoyed each other’s company. We became close friends, and after a few months, I felt there was no one else I would rather do anything with. It was always encouraging to be with Cindie; it was always a positive time when we were able to be together. When we were together, we didn’t need to have anything planned. We just loved to be together. We lived about 600 miles apart, I was in Eureka, California, and Cindie was in Woodlake. I would visit her family as often as I could and it ended up that we would see each other about one weekend every four to five weeks. That was okay at first, but after a few months passed, that wasn’t even close to being enough—yet it would have to be. We were both attending college and working part time where we lived. I realized that other couples had seen less of each other while dating, but somehow, that didn’t make me feel any better. The moment I would leave the Cindie’s family home after a visit, I was mentally making plans to go back—all ten hours of driving I would plan.

The day finally came when we both felt it was time to get married. Long distance relationships can be very strenuous. We had grown to love each other deeply while becoming best friends. It was hard to be apart, but we had the blessing of knowing God was in this relationship. It was easy to pray and seek God during this time. I felt God’s hand with us. I had moved to Medford with my family in March of 1992, and on June 3, I proposed to Cindie in Medford. I had written a song on the piano during our courtship that reminded me of her, and had recorded it and sent it to her. I played it often, and she played the tape often. On the night of June 3 when everyone had left the church after a service, we went back. The lights were out in the sanctuary except one that shone on the piano, and there, I played her song as she sat next to me. I had my Bible and asked her to look up a verse in Isaiah that we had often shared. When she opened the Bible to that verse, an engagement watch was between the pages, and I asked her to marry me. She said she would love to. That sounded mighty good to me!

Randy and Cindie Baltzell are still happily married and now have three children. They live in Van Buren, Arkansas where Randy is the pastor of the Apostolic Faith Church.