Faith, family, and 50 years

Mary and Chuck grew up in the same Toledo, Ohio, church, Calvary United Methodist, in the late 1950s and ‘60s. Their parents were friends, but Chuck and Mary had no time for each other.

“He was Little Chuckie Sutton and was always in trouble,” said Mary, who is four years older.

“I didn’t like her frizzy hair, and she was too religious for me,” said Chuck.

After high school, Mary earned an elementary education degree at the University of Toledo. For five years, she taught first grade in the same classroom where she had been a student. Then she left for São Paolo, Brazil, where she taught second grade to the children of missionaries and business people.

Chuck studied marketing at the University of Toledo, but didn’t do so well. In 1967, soon after he left college, he got a draft notice. The Navy sent him throughout the Caribbean and Europe. While serving, Chuck found a love of travel and a deep faith in Christ. He decided to make a second go at higher education after his 1971 discharge, enrolling in biblical and theological studies at Southeastern Bible College in Birmingham, Ala. First, he would spend the summer in Toledo.

Mary was also home that summer between her two years of missionary service. Chuck’s mother, Marylee, knew Mary had images showing her life and work in Brazil.

“You need to see Mary’s slides,” Marylee told her son. Mary had been in Brazil for a year and Chuck had been there for three days while in the Navy. “You have so much in common,” Marylee insisted before giving him the day and time he was expected at Mary’s house.

“I’ll go,” Chuck begrudgingly told his mother. “But don’t ever set me up again.” Marylee would never again have the need to do so.

Chuck couldn’t believe his eyes – the skinny girl with the frizzy hair was gorgeous. Mary was similarly stunned by the grown up man that Little Chuckie had become. As she clicked through and discussed her slides, Chuck realized how right his mother was – they really did have much in common: a love of God and a desire to share it with others. An appreciation for travel that led to meeting people from other places and learning about their cultures.

They dated for two weeks, which included a road trip to visit a ministry in Grand Rapids, MIch. Then Mary had to go. “He said he was going to write, but I only got five letters that year, and so I wasn’t sure when I came home if something was going on between us or not,” Mary said. “I had faith that it would work out – maybe.”

When they saw each other again, their feelings were still there, and they grew. When Chuck returned to Alabama for his second year of college, Mary went, too, and took courses in the Bible and theology.

Around Christmas in 1972, Chuck took her to downtown Birmingham to take advantage of the festive ambiance. They were walking through a park when he stopped and asked if she would marry him.

“I had always wanted to marry a pastor, and I had hoped to get married before I was 30,” Mary said. On May 19, 1973 – just over two months before her 30th birthday – Mary and Chuck returned to Toledo and were married in a traditional Methodist ceremony.

“A pastor who we knew married us and he talked for 45 minutes,” Chuck said. “We were all standing the whole time, and my brother almost fainted.”

In the basement hall of the church where the couple had met as kids, about 200 people gathered for a cake and punch reception.

After honeymooning in North Carolina, the couple returned to Alabama, where Chuck finished his bachelor’s degree and Mary taught second grade. Next up: Grace Seminary in Winona Lake, Ind., where Chuck earned his master of divinity and Mary worked in a doctor’s office until their only child, Heather, was born.

In 1981, when Heather was 5, the family left for Costa Rica. Chuck taught at the Bible Institute in San Jose and became its director. Mary led a Bible study for missionary wives and graded the work sent in by the institute’s correspondence students. Together, they pastored a church. When they weren’t working, the couple took Heather on vacations to either coast.

It was not all faith and bliss. Mary suffered from migraines and they got worse. “By the end, I was sick more than I was well,” she said. The couple decided to return to the U.S. and settled in Langhorne, Bucks County, where they still live with their cat, Trixie. Mary began treatment at the Comprehensive Headache Center, now at Jefferson Hospital. “There isn’t a cure, but they gave me a much better quality of life,” she said.

Chuck, who is now 75, became a professor of biblical, theological, and intercultural studies at Cairn University. He completed his Ph.D. in intercultural studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago, mostly remotely. After 11 years at Cairn, he went to work for World Team in Warrington, where he led the Latin American Initiative and traveled extensively. Chuck retired about four years ago. Mary, who will soon turn 80, also worked at Cairn, first doing donor research and then working at the library circulation desk. She later became a reading tutor with Huntington Learning Centers and taught Spanish in a before and after school program. She retired about 10 years ago.

Throughout their three decades in Bucks County, the couple has been active in their church, Riverstone in Yardley. They have led small group adult Bible studies together.

Chuck is a volunteer ESL teacher with GROW Northeast and also is a classroom volunteer at International Christian High School.

Mary’s volunteer work is based at Riverstone, where she mentors several women and also leads a Bible study for people with chronic pain. In addition to her migraines, she has faced a broken hip, complications from a gallbladder operation, kidney disease, and bone cancer, for which she has been in treatment for three years. That treatment doesn’t cause pain, but it makes her weak, she said.

“Chuck has really faithfully taken care of me,” said Mary. “I’m in bed sometimes, and he has had to take over all of the house chores, laundry, fixing the meals.”

Chuck brushes off this praise. “My wife is extremely resilient and perseveres. It’s amazing how much she does even with her physical health problems. I call her the Energizer Bunny.”

The couple enjoy spending time with their family: Heather and her husband, Jason, and their six grandchildren, Alice, 17; Sylvia, 15; Charles, 13; Titus, 11; Priscilla, 8; and Philemon, 5.

Every Friday morning, they help Heather with homeschooling the four youngest kids. They also enjoy frequent trips to the Olive Garden and the Golden Dawn Diner.

On May 19, the couple will mark their 50th anniversary. They recently celebrated at their church with a party for about 40 friends and family members.

Throughout their lives, Mary has visited 22 countries and Chuck, 44. Mary’s health conditions keep them from traveling internationally these days, but later this spring, they will take an anniversary trip to Lancaster to see a Sight & Sound performance and hear gospel singer Michael W. Smith.

There’s a lot to celebrate, the two agree. “Chuck has always encouraged me to have ministries, which I really appreciate,” Mary said. “We both learned to accept each other’s faults, and be thankful for all the good things that God has given us.” Mary says she’s most thankful for their home, their family, and the fact that they live close enough to be actively involved with their grandchildren.

“What’s not to love?” Chuck said of Mary. “My wife has demonstrated leadership qualities. She is the opposite of me in that she’s very patient. And she is a caring person – we see that in how she has ministered to other people who have chronic illness,” he continued. “God has been good.”