Before Linda (Fregeau) McIntire was a pastor’s wife in Minnesota, she taught third grade for 20 years at Norfolk Christian School in Virginia. It was during her early years as a teacher that she got the idea for the Fighter Verses. She wanted to help her students memorize Scripture, something she had not done as a child. Growing up in a Catholic home pre-Vatican II, she didn’t even have a Bible till the Lord saved her in 5th grade. Then, she broke open her piggy bank along with her sister, Sally Michael, and the two girls bought their first Bibles.
Later, as a teacher of young children, Linda wanted to encourage them to memorize Scripture. She challenged her 8- and 9-year-old students to hide God’s Word in their hearts. Initially, she thought one verse a week would be realistic. But her mom said the kids could do much more. So Linda gave them a challenge: she would take anyone who could memorize 300 Fighter Verses out for pizza. The kids were motivated. Many of them earned that pizza dinner, but along the way, they got something infinitely better.
One year Linda had a little girl in her class who was, along with her parents, Vietnamese refugees. She didn't speak any English when she arrived, but within a few months, she was memorizing verses along with her classmates. Though she didn’t understand all of the words, she did the best she could in a second language. Many years later, Linda received a message from this girl letting her know she was a missionary to Vietnam. She said, “my faith journey started when I memorized those verses.”
In September, after a battle with bone cancer, Linda went home to be with the Lord. During her illness, she clung to the promises of God she had memorized over decades. When I asked Sally what Linda would want the Fighter Verses followers to remember about her, she said, “I think she would want them not so much to remember her, as to give praise to the God who sustained her.”
Whatever joys or sorrows you’re facing as you read this tribute, our prayer at Truth78 is that God’s living and active Word would be your wisdom, that His certain promises would be your hope, and that you would look to His lamp to light your path.
