2610 Park Avenue, Muscatine, IA 52761, US
John & Charlotte Cooke
Married: 6/10/1966
Encountered: 1985 in Rochester, NY
Ham & Eggs Award: 1998
Status: Clergy
We met at Robert Wesleyan University in the fall of 1964. Our first date was January 8 1965. From that day we had eyes for no one else. John was 20. Char was 18. We were married June 10, 1966, two weeks after John’s graduation, and have now been married 58 years. We praise God for His loving faithfulness and continual blessings through the years.
Our first three years of marriage were in Wilmore, Kentucky, where John attended Asbury Theological Seminary, and Char completed her college degree in Elementary Education at Asbury University and then taught first grade during John’s senior year. Most of our time away from school was spent in Lexington, where John was associate pastor and youth director at Aldersgate United Methodist Church (the first of two churches we would serve named
“Aldersgate!”)
In 1969 we moved back to Western New York where we would serve in United Methodist Churches for the next 39 years. The first twelve years were in Chautauqua County where John pastored for five years at Ashville and Blockville, and then for seven at Epworth Christ Church in Jamestown. All three of our children were born in Jamestown, Elizabeth Joy in 1969, Amy Louise in 1972, and David John in 1975.
In 1981 John was appointed to Aldersgate United Methodist Church in the town of Greece, outside of Rochester, where we served thirteen years, and our children completed their grade school and high school educations. David was able to spend all thirteen years, kindergarten through high school, in the Greece schools. The parsonage where we lived was just two blocks from John’s sister, Frances (Louie) and her husband Tom Van Kouwenberg, and Char was able to provide child care for their first two children. Aldersgate was an exciting church to serve. A number of couples were already active in United Marriage Encounter. It took them four years of inviting us (John’s excuse was that he worked on weekends!), but we went on a Weekend in the spring of 1985, became active in a wonderful, loving Core, presented our first Weekend as a clergy team couple in the spring of 1988, and have been active in United Marriage Encounter ever since. We have found UME to be one of the most fruitful parts of our ministry.
United Marriage Encounter has blessed our lives in many ways. We always had a loving compatible marriage, but Marriage Encounter taught us to share on a deeper level and to live our lives in close communication, so our good marriage became better and more fulfilling. We have had amazing opportunities for ministry in Marriage Encounter, have met dear friends, and have traveled to wonderful places.
After Rochester we moved to the Buffalo area, to East Aurora, where we lived for nine years. We joined a new Core, “Aurora Corealis,” again meeting friends who have journeyed with us ever since. While John was pastor at Baker Memorial Church, our daughter Amy, her husband, Dean Goodison, and our two-year-old granddaughter, Jessica, moved there and were part of
our family life and church. Dave and Heather eventually came back to East Aurora and became part of the church staff. We enjoyed being together and serving together in East Aurora.
Our last five years of pastoral ministry were in Niagara Falls. What beautiful people in a beautiful place! We enjoyed being just minutes from the falls, took advantage of opportunities to walk on Goat Island, and to stand and gaze at one of the natural wonders of the world.
Now we have been retired since 2008. We lived in Elma, New York, for 14 years. We were involved in a wonderful church and lived close to two of our children and other dear friends, including long time and newer friends in Aurora Corealis.
In 2020 we began to make plans to move to Findley Lake, NY, next door to our son David, our daughter-in-love Heather, and their three children, Ben, Grace, and Nate. Findley Lake is located in the southwest corner of New York State. Dave is pastor at Findley Lake Church, and we enjoy being part of his congregation that includes several couples who have been on UME
Weekends. We have been meeting with them and with other encountered couples in our area, and we are excited about opportunities and possibilities for United Marriage Encounter events in our part of the Western New York community in the months ahead.
As we say in our “Marriage in Today’s World” talk, we are thankful for the joy we continue to share. This joy is so much deeper than the excitement of youthful romance we experienced in college. It’s been tested by all the events and challenges of life. We are best friends. We love living life together. We love our family and friends, we love our home, we love to travel, we love to serve. And we look forward to the future, as long as God will allow us to have . God has
blessed our lives, and we are filled with joy!