The Coyle Girls

February 1972

After one 3 day vacation I came back to the ship's dock just before 9:00 a.m. to find the ship was gone. It had already taken off for the day and I was left alone on the dock until several minutes later when Berney Coyle drove up with his very sweet wife and two daughters ages 12 and 14. Berney was also on vacation so seeing that we both missed the boat, he offered to take me around with him and his family for the day.

I sat in the back seat with his 2 daughters Karen and Kim. These 2 girls were the cutest kids with a ton of energy. While we drove back into town the two girls discovered that I had a little pack of scripture memory cards that my girlfriend gave to me early in our unhealthy dating relationship. The girls asked me what they were and I told them what they were. "What do they say?" one would ask. Then the other would say, "What do they mean?" This went on and on as I read one after another.

I was not doing well with my spiritual life and I didn't want to talk about Jesus with 2 kids in front of their parents who believed something else. I prefered talking to the parents directly first. I was in a bind, so I only answered the bare minimum of each question that was bombarding me. At the end of our trip I let them keep the bible verse cards.

Berney lived with his family in a house boat where we stayed until the ship came back to port when Berney and I went back to the ship.

Several days later Berney came to me, "What did you do to my girls?" "What do you mean?" I replied. Berney explained, "They pray together and they jump up and down on their beds reciting bible verses." Fortunately for me, Berney was perplexed but not bothered by the events. In fact, he asked me to take them to a Christian church. I took them to South Side AG after which they told me that they loved the music but didn't like the preacher who was a too loud.

I never saw them again, but from time to time I pray for them.