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Shirley Wratten Leads My Family to Christ

man kneeling with arms up
In 1968, my family was in a hard place. My dad was an army doctor sent for a year to the Viet Nam war. I was nine. It was a sad day in our family when he left. We didn’t know if he would return one day in a body bag. My mom had us two kids. She’s a survivor, but she needed hope. Every week …
By Seth Barnes
By Seth Barnes

In 1968, my family was in a hard place. My dad was an army doctor sent for a year to the Viet Nam war.

I was nine. It was a sad day in our family when he left. We didn’t know if he would return one day in a body bag. My mom had us two kids. She’s a survivor, but she needed hope.

Every week my father would send a letter or tape from Viet Nam telling us about the horrors of war and how much he loved us. My mother would get my sister and I together on the couch and share them with us.

If your father has ever left you, you know how painful it can be. There was a hole in my heart that only the love of a father could fill.

Though my mother loved me very much, she couldn’t give me a father’s love. The weeks went by and my father’s absence was a great void in my life. There was no one to throw the football to me. No one to take me fishing.

There are things that only a father can do for a son. All of us have a hole in our heart that only a father can fill. I craved a father’s approval and his affection.

One day Shirley Wratten, a friend whose husband Gary had died in the war, shared with my mom about a God who loved her in spite of her shortcomings. A God who chose to make a terrible sacrifice to build a bridge to her.

And my mom decided to put her life as she’d lived it up for foreclosure. She decided to move from a place of stiff religion to personal faith.

I followed shortly there after. I remember being overwhelmed at the pathos of the story my mom told me of Jesus dying on the cross. How could I not embrace a savior like that?

My mom went all-in with her new faith. Later, as I entered by teen years, I realized that she looked to the world like a crazy lady – a fanatic. But to us, as kids, her life of faith was normal. Mom passed out tracts to parking lot attendants. She led Bible studies in the bad part of town. She got up early and prayed on her knees.

My dad came home from Viet Nam, a hero. He had saved many lives with an innovative blood transfusion procedure. The army honored him with an award named, of all people, after Gary Wratten.

Shirley Wratten is still alive (she wrote this book recently). In the video above, speaking to the AIM staff, I get her on the phone and she shares the story of leading my mom to faith in Christ.

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