Glen's God-­given adventurous spirit became readily evident when he and I started a carpentry business together during the middle years of our Dallas Theological Seminary experience. His bold zaniness was the perfect business counterpart to my controlling conservative nature. Together we brought out the best in each other. In part it was a forced marriage. Both our families were in a financial pickle having ignored peer pressure to postpone starting a family until after graduation. We quickly discovered that our darling newborns came equipped with mouths to feed.

Glen proposed that we increase our income by starting our own carpentry business and charging a whopping $6 per hour! [Until then, we were coworkers at the seminary maintenance shop earning $2.25 per hour.] At the same time he warned that we may “eat beans for 6 months” while business developed.

I swallowed hard and agreed to launch a carpentry business that we named FormWood Carpenters (for Formica + wood). Each of us secured a $300 loan—huge for the time. We purchased an old bread delivery truck (Ole Blue) and a few tools. Then, as Glen said, we "shut our eyes and stepped on the gas.”

True enough, business was slow, for the first week. Then, during an unrelated overnight job that Glen and I worked for a moving company, Glen’s irresistible friendship-­making ability and God’s provision met hand-­in-­hand. Glen struck up one of his ‘howdy’ conversations with the manager of the government organization being moved that night—the IRS. Turns out, the man was the procurement officer for the IRS regional office, and he needed desks refurbished and partitions built in the new IRS office. Did Glen know a company that could do that? Heh, heh.

It was my first exposure to the bodacious modus operandi of my high-­energy helter-­skelter friend and successful business partner. The slogan of FormWood Carpenters from then on was as simple as it is true, Jehovah-­jireh, the Lord is our help or supply. He meets our needs.