I confessed my sins and accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior at the age of 7 in 1959, in a little Church of Christ in Pangburn, Arkansas. I was staying with my Aunt Thelma and Uncle Lawrence for the summer.
When attending high school, I was dating a girl who belonged to the Maplewood Baptist Church in Sulphur, Louisiana. I had been going to the church for quite some time, and I wanted to become a member and change my faith to Baptist. Well, the Pastor at the time said that I would have to be rebaptized to be accepted as a church member, so I did. That was in 1969.
As years went by, we went our separate ways. I had gone off to college at McNeese, and I met my future wife, Beverly. Like I said in my memoirs, she was Baptist, and we married in the Welsh Baptist Church in 1972.
Since we had a home in Sulphur, we started attending Maplewood First Baptist church and Sunday School there in a young married class after Beverly and I married. We started having children and raising them in their daycare program, so they were well acquainted with the church and the folks there. I was asked to teach kindergarten classes for a couple of years. They said having a male role model in the room was suitable for the kids. Some of them were scared to death of a man in the room. Others loved it, like having a grandfather. I could hardly get away.
As time progressed, the kids matured, and I started teaching in older youth classes in Junior high and even high school. Beverly and I would chaperon when our kids got to go on mission trips with the church. We knew it would be a good eye-opener and experience for all of us.
In 1987, the church offered a program called Evangelism Explosion. It introduced to Christians the idea that Christians over the century had been combining their works with their faith to earn their salvation. This is not what the scriptures thought. The scriptures thought that we receive our salvation as a gift from God in exchange for our confession of our sins and for believing in Jesus as the only way into Heaven. The Apostle James teaches in the Bible that our works are our actions, proving our faith and not what we are trying to accomplish.
During that program, I rededicated my life and joined teams within our church to engage with the church family to make sure everyone understood the scriptures, that we don’t work to go to Heaven, but we work to say thank you for what Jesus had given us.
In April 6, 2008, I was nominated as a deacon in the church. This nomination greatly humbled me, and I tried to fulfill it to the best of my ability. There were some great men to work with and that I looked up to. For the next ten years, I got to work with the other deacons, serving in different capacities on the board and ministering to the church members. In October 1, 2018 I was nominated as Chairmen of Deacons, and it so happened it was the same time that we had gotten a new Pastor. It was rewarding to have the privilege to work closely with him while he was transitioning to our church.
I took some online Biblical classes to help me understand the scriptures better from NOBTS-New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. That set my heart on fire. Those courses were fabulous and opened my eyes to a whole new world. I had talked to Beverly about when I retired and the possibility of going to the Seminary in New Orleans. So, in 2019, we moved to campus at NOBTS in New Orleans, and I registered for some classes. Well, I made it till Spring break, and because of issues back at home, I dropped out, and we moved back home. I went back to work at the plants for about six months and then I took my full retirement.
I had talked to our Pastor, and I approached him with the idea that I would like to do Pulpit Supply. That is filling in for Pastors on Sunday mornings around the area if they get sick or go on vacation. He thought it was a good idea. We got the church to back me in getting my Minister License so that I could fulfill this portion of spreading God’s Words. The main thing I didn’t want to see was some churches in the distance having to close their doors because they didn’t have anyone to share the Word with them. I have fulfilled that request now for several years at several churches. I usually drive 60 miles to fill in for someone, but the folks are great, and it's been a great experience.
As long as the Lord can use me in spreading His Word, I would like to continue with the museum idea and show my display of How We Got the Bible at churches in the surrounding area. Especially to churches where people don’t have the opportunity to travel to Washington DC or Arizona or out of state to see the wonders of the Bible. I will do it for a love offering to pay for transportation expenses. I foresee getting a covered utility trailer to haul all the Bibles, literature, posters, and props for the display. It’s a lot of fun, and the people seem to enjoy the information once they come there.
