Seeing the world, sharing the Gospel

Don and Patti Parks celebrated 50 years of marriage Aug 3. Through those 50 years, the Parkses have worn out five buses traveling the U.S., Canada and Mexico performing their country gospel music – all while raising their four children: Tammy, Teresa, Donny and Tommy.

Don Parks’ ministry began in 1947 when he was stationed in California for the Air Force.

“We were all watching the news one day while getting ready to go to Korea,” Don Parks said. “All of a sudden they were showing footage of North and South Korean generals preparing for war. A lot of the guys started getting angry because they didn’t understand why we had to fight their war. That is when I started to realize that I needed to understand what was going on in the world.”

“I found out that every war has been politically motivated. There is always big money involved,” he said. “I thought that was a sad commentary. I love this country and wanted to do something to help.”

Don Parks found that the best way to serve his country was through ministry. At that time, he also found his future wife.

In July 1958, while Don Parks was playing the steel guitar at a church in Oroville, Wash., Patti and Don Parks met. Three weeks later, they were married.

“I figured why mess around,” Don Parks said. “I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone, though.”

The couple have been traveling ever since their marriage.

Their reign on the road began when Don served as a pilot for Ken Gaub Evangelistic Association. After traveling with the association for four years, the couple got their first bus.

“The bus was a huge relief,” Patti Parks said. “It made schooling the kids a lot easier.” When it came to kids’ education, she said, she was the tutor and Don Parks was the principal.

All of their children are now grown and have children of their own.

The family travels have led them across three countries, but Patti Parks said says that there is no place like home.

“We’ve been to some beautiful, beautiful places, but there is no place like home, no place like the Northwest,” Patti Parks said. “The culture from state to state is so different but each so beautiful in their own way.”

Patti Parks said she also has found beauty outside of the United States, with one of her most memorable trips being to Mexico on a mission trip.

“In Mexico, we sang at churches that were more like sticks in the ground,” she said. “Despite their poverty they all loved God. That is when I really decided to dedicate my life to helping people.”

The couple’s life, however, has not always been filled with beauty. When Patti Parks was just 10 years old, she was diagnosed with leukemia. By age 15, the doctors had told her she would not see her 16th birthday.

With this diagnosis, her family moved to the Northwest.

“When we moved, we started going to a Pentecostal church,” Patti Parks said. “Some of the members prayed for me and my cancer was cured.”

Then in January 2000, cancer struck again. This time it would be her husband’s life in danger.

Don Parks was diagnosed with thyroid, lymphoid and throat cancer, stage 4. The doctors told him he had a month to live.

Despite being sick, Don Parks still performed his steel guitar with his wife at their Tuesday night Jubilees in Coeur d’Alene. There came a time, however, when he needed to undergo medical treatment.

“Weighing 112 pounds, lying in the hospital not able to sleep and feeling like it was all over for me, I prayed three times that week that Jesus would just let me go to sleep,” Don Parks said. “It didn’t happen, so I asked my wife to pray that I could just go to be with Jesus, but she said, ‘No, I can’t do that. I don’t know what God has planned for you.’ ”

Don Parks then underwent a five-hour surgery, originally expected to be 10 hours, in which he came out cancer-free. It has been 8 1/2 years since he was first diagnosed and he is still cancer-free.

Today the couple continues to perform at the Spokane Interstate Fair every year and Tuesday nights at their Jubilee in Coeur d’Alene when they are not on the road.

Patti Parks said that someone who comes to their show can expect “to hear that Jesus loves them” and that in the middle of being serious, people who come to their show can expect to laugh and have fun.