Toledo Foursquare Church

Rooted in the Word

Bearing Fruit in the Spirit

Toledo Foursquare Church

Getting to Know

Gerry Ard

I was born in Lawton, Oklahoma on December 18, 1949. Nearly three years later, my family moved to Arizona. Within a year my father found work in central Washington. We lived in town for a number of years and then we moved to a small farm around 1956. We raised and grew almost all of our own food. Although my brother and I complained about the hard work, we loved all the things we could do to occupy our free time on our twenty-acre farm. We moved back to town in 1960. City life seemed awfully boring after nearly five years on the farm. I began dating Donna in 1967. She lived just a few houses down the street from my family’s home. We attended the same college. We were married on August 1, 1970. We graduated from Central Washington State College in 1972. After we finished college, I accepted a teaching job in Lincoln County. Donna and I moved to Toledo in 1972. We were going to live in Toledo for only one year, but God had other plans for us.

We raised 3 children—Nathan, Josalyn and Lindsey. Donna home-schooled all three of our children until they reached high school age and graduated from Toledo High School. We were involved in our children’s lives. We taught their Sunday school classes and were their youth leaders, too. Any activities our kids were involved in, we were part of as they grew. Our family began attending Toledo Foursquare Church when the church body met at Arcadia School. I became Pioneer Clubs coordinator a year or so after we moved into our new church. After teaching middle school for 30 years, I retired in 2003. Now that I am retired, I have found more time to do volunteer work in our community and help Josalyn and Jed raise our two grandchildren. We believe God wants us in Toledo, so we plan to live in the same home in which we raised our children until God gives us a different plan. As I look back, God has provided me with a strong Christian influence in my grandparents and my mom who literally dragged my brother and me to Sunday school. He’s provided me with good Christian friends to influence me. And most of all, he’s provided me with a wife and children who love me unconditionally just as God has during my life. I’m so blessed.