PREACHER MAN: POST #65: July 9, 2009

I worked at Independent Steel Co. for some time and really enjoyed my time there. One day as Ray Brown and I were sitting side by side working, he asked, "What do you plan to do with the rest of your life?" I said, "I hope to someday work as a full time preacher of the gospel." I had already been preaching for a few months every Sunday morning and the other men of the church rotated the preaching duties on Sunday evening. We talked about that for some time that day and I had absolutely no idea what was about to happen.

One day Ray came to me and asked if I would be interested in preaching full time for the church at Michigan City and I told him that I would like that. A few days later the men of the church had a business meeting and to my utter surprise asked me to begin working with the church on a full time basis. I began on February 1, 1959. I had four books...my Bible and four volumes of Hardeman's Tabernacle Sermons which had been delivered by Brother N. B. Hardeman and published shortly after that. My two older brothers who were preachers sent me some helps and I bought other helpful books and materials as I could afford it.

I would write out my sermons and go over to the church building and preach to the empty seats all week. When we moved into the preachers house in September 1959 Barbara said that she could hear me all the way over inside our house as I would 'lay back the hide and pour in the salt' on those empty seats. One day I was able to buy a small tape recorder at Sears and then I would go to the building and record my sermons and listen to them over and over again as I prepared for the next Sunday. Of course, I did all the other things that a 'minister' does such as visiting the sick, hospitals, etc.

One of the more interesting things that we did was working with inmates at the State prison in Michigan City. The first time that I went there I was absolutely scared out of my wits. I had never been behind so many locked doors in my life and I wondered if I would get out or become another inmate. We baptized some men and when they were released we were able to get jobs for them and they worshipped with us. But, I must admit that every one of them that we worked with returned to prison and that was disappointing to me. I saw enough that I surely knew that I never wanted to reside in one of those places.

The preachers house was a wonderful place. It was a huge, two story house with a full basement and here were two kids from Herman Junction moving in. Dad and Mom had come to Michigan City and he co-signed the papers for us to buy a cook stove, refrigerator, bedroom furniture, living room and dining room furniture, at Montgomery-Ward's and we moved in. It was so big that we could just get lost in there but we loved it so very much. That house still stands and looks almost exactly the same and we often wish that we could spend just one more night there.

What a wonderful place Michigan City was and is. There is one special thing to me....the first check that I ever received as a full time preacher was signed by brother James Alred on Feb. 1, 1959. Today in 2009 the church there helps to support us in our present ministry and the check they send each month is signed by brother James Alred. We are still blessed to go there almost every year and preach in a gospel meeting and it is one of the highlights of our year.

We had left Herman Junction less than one year before, planning to go back home but it has been fifty-one years and we have never lived at Herman Junction again.