Remembering Verna Grams

05/16/2025

To all of our dear friends out there! It is a beautiful spring here in Texas. The temperatures remind us of our many days in Hawaii. We are enjoying them while they last as we know the temps will soon climb to 100° and beyond. Our work in Africa continues to flourish and bring us great challenges and joy. This morning we woke to this very encouraging letter from a former participant....

To all of our dear friends out there! It is a beautiful spring here in Texas. The temperatures remind us of our many days in Hawaii. We are enjoying them while they last as we know the temps will s…

01/09/2025

Happy New Year! As I write this a number of our LOOM International co-workers are traveling to Jos, Nigeria where they will be conducting a Celebrating Children Workshop (CCW), training caregivers working in a traumatized context of the conflict of Northern Nigeria. Of the 9 people who will be staffing the CCW, 5 graduated from the workshop that was held in…...

Happy New Year! As I write this a number of our LOOM International co-workers are traveling to Jos, Nigeria where they will be conducting a Celebrating Children Workshop (CCW), training caregivers …

11/28/2023

Dear friends, Giving Thanks We want to tell you that our hearts are full of appreciation for you today. Thank you for supporting us in every way. Not just financially, but also by your expressions of love to us and our family.` From the early days of our ministry we saw that we could trust God to meet our needs by simply focusing on the development of relationships with those that God has put within our family circle....

Dear friends, Giving Thanks We want to tell you that our hearts are full of appreciation for you today. Thank you for supporting us in every way. Not just financially, but also by your expressions …

09/21/2023

Dear friends, Here’s a little update on our trip to Tanzania. On October 8, 50+ participants will be arriving in Arusha Tanzania from 10 African countries - Guinea, Senegal, Uganda, S Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Rwanda, Burundi and DR Congo. Our Loom team is meeting often to prep for the Celebrating Children Workshop we will be holding there. Kay is corresponding many times a day with all the people and working through all the details....

Dear friends, Here’s a little update on our trip to Tanzania. On October 8, 50+ participants will be arriving in Arusha Tanzania from 10 African countries – Guinea, Senegal, Uganda, S Sudan, …

07/22/2023

Greetings ya’ll. It’s time for a past-due quick catch up of what we’ve been up to and what we’re planning for the rest of this year. Our work with Loom International remains rich and fulfilling. The reports and stories coming back from seminars being held all over East Africa, using the material from the Celebrating Children's Workshop, continue to spark much joy in our lives....

Greetings ya’ll. It’s time for a past-due quick catch up of what we’ve been up to and what we’re planning for the rest of this year.  Our work with Loom International remains rich and fulfilli…

12/19/2021

Two weeks ago our family was keeping vigil and caring for my mom as we waited for her to leave us and go be with Jesus. Her health had been declining over the past few years and on Friday, December 3 she had a stroke at the dining table after having breakfast, devotions and prayer with dad. While waiting for the hospice nurse to arrive she planted kisses on my dad’s hand and arm in her gesture of love since words wouldn’t come....

https://globaleddie.wordpress.com/2021/12/18/a-tribute-to-kays-mom/

Two weeks ago our family was keeping vigil and caring for my mom as we waited for her to leave us and go be with Jesus. Her health had been declining over the past few years and on Friday, December…

12/15/2021

12/11/2021

12/11/2021

Verna Grams
September 19, 1929 - December 5, 2021

Verna Dickinson Grams was born to Virgil & Halley Dickinson on September 19, 1929, in Buffalo, Oklahoma. She was the 4th of 5 children and was preceded in death by her parents and all 4 siblings. She died at home in Austin, Texas on December 5, 2021, surrounded by some of those who loved her best in this world, her loving husband and daughter, a son-in-law, two
granddaughters and a great-granddaughter.

She is survived by her husband of 70 years, Mel Grams, her daughter Kay and her husband Ed, grandchildren Erin Ruka, Elise Morales, Christopher Klaus, Jessica Eason, and Nick Klaus and 17 great-grandchildren, Nate, Grace, Ezra, Indie, Alex, Emma, Noelani, Rya, Kaelyn, James, Abby, Xander, Jadzia, Hayley, Harper, Ivy & Dax.

Verna traveled with her parents from Oklahoma to Washington state during the dustbowl and settled in Yelm, Washington where she completed most of her schooling.

In 1948 she began college at Central Bible Institute in Springfield, Missouri where she met the love of her life, Mel Grams, her “babe”. They married in August 1951 in Springfield and settled in Wisconsin to pastor a church. Their first daughter, Carleen Kay was born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin in 1952.

In 1954 they moved to Liberia to work at a missions station in a remote jungle area with the Jedapo tribe, whom Verna fell in love with and for the rest of her life called “my people”. Although many of her memories faded she never forgot Jedapo and her wonderful friends there.

In 1956 a 2nd little daughter, Karen Joy was born in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin.

She and Mel served two more terms as missionaries in Liberia, Nigeria and South Africa. Then after their daughters left home, they worked in Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Hawaii & California. In 1995 they lost their precious daughter Karen to cancer. In 2012 they moved from Kona, Hawaii with their daughter Kay and her Ed, to Austin to join a granddaughter who lived there.

Verna had a feisty sense of humor, was a fabulous cook, loved children, and made up the best stories of mice and squirrels and bunny rabbits. Her chocolate pecan cookies were divine. She adored her husband and was a kind, loving, dedicated mother who created a warm and hospitable home, not only for her family but for the many guests she welcomed. She had many who looked to her as an example of how to live life well. As one friend put it, "Jesus showed all over her” and she loved Him more than anything in life.