My Story #23:

  

While coming back, I believe, from South Carolina, the Bluegrass Boys Quartet were crossing the Blueridge mountains late at night when suddenly we came upon a mule standing in the middle of the road. There was no shooing away this mule (you know how they are). All we could do is simply wait until the mule was ready to mosey off and go his way.

These late nights are what made us very sleepy the next morning in our 7:00 class. Only once was I to fall asleep in one of those classes. It was near the end of the school year. Someone pointed out that I was sleeping, and Bro. Johnny Thompson said (they told me later) "Well, just let him sleep; he deserves it." I thought that was very nice of him.

Those were hard days and nights, but I would not trade them now for anything. Our travels were good for us, good for the churches we visited, and good for Lexington Baptist College. We are so thankful to be able to serve the Lord.

Even now we never know whom we shall affect in a positive way in relation to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let's just keep preaching and teaching until we are with the Lord!

 

My Story #22:

 Pastor Ronnie Wolfe

All of us at LBC loved Mrs. Brong. She was our librarian, and a good one she was. She was very organized and faithful to her job. We had a wonderful library at LBC. Many of the books were given to the library by widows of preachers who had died, some were given to the library from students, and others were purchased, but we were always availed to some of the finest research material available.

One thing we loved about Mrs. Brong was the way she could manipulate Bro. Rosco Brong, her husband. Once a student was speaking to another student in the hall and said something like "Well, my wife does what I say; that is the Bible way." Bro. Brong, as he was passing by, said, "Do you know what God said to Abraham?" The student said, "No, what?" Bro. Brong said "God told Abraham to hearken to his wife. Maybe you should do the same." I think Bro. Brong had put that into practice.

 

My Story #21:

 Pastor Ronnie W. Wolfe

This story is not associated with Lexington Baptist College but with Ashland Avenue Baptist Church where I was a member in those day when I attended LBC. This story comes up in my preaching sometimes, and it is one that taught me a good lesson.

In Ashland Avenue's large church there were no weekday ministries held for youth. Being in the Southern Baptist Convention, there was available a program called Royal Ambassadors. I decided that I would start a group of boys to meet one evening per week to study the Bible and to give them the gospel.

The story that I tell here is one concerning one boy whose family were Roman Catholic. He came with some boys who were friends of his. We had some very good discussions about his beliefs, and I explained the gospel to him the best I knew how.

One evening, after he had told me he had trusted the Lord, I asked him to pray for us. I do not remember the exact words that he said, but I will never forget his prayer. He spoke to God as though God were right there in the room. He was not familiar with the prayers of Baptists in which prayers are begun with "Dear Lord" or "Our Father," so he began his prayer with "Well God . . . ." That put a small shock into each of our minds, but we knew that there was nothing wrong with that in itself. He talked to God for a moment or so, and then he closed his prayer. You see, neither did he know how Baptists end their prayers with "In Jesus' name. Amen." So, he just said, "Well, God, that's all," and he just stopped his prayer.

To me this was pleasantly simply and to the point, and I would not be surprised to know that God actually heard this young man's prayer.

My Story #20:

 I remember so well when Bro. Walker at Ashland Avenue Baptist Church chose ME out of all the members of the church (and there were many) to take the picture of the groundbreaking for the new building for Lexington Baptist College (the picture of this building above). He bragged on what a good photographer I was, but in reality I was not a really good photographer, though I dabbled in photography as a hobby.

It was such privilege to stand with Bro. Walker and some of the other men who were present as the shovel was pressed into the ground to break the ground for the building of a new place for Lexington Baptist College to meet. I remember that later I had to open the building at 6:30 AM to teach my first class at 7:00 AM. "Those were the days."

The picture I took was printed in the Ashland Avenue Baptist paper later. I would post the picture here if I could find it, but I don't think I can right now.