My Story #103 -- A Teacher And Friend

 

My Story #103

A Teacher And Friend
Pastor Ronnie Wolfe

This week I would like to turn our attention to a pastor and teacher in Lexington, Kentucky. He was a teacher at Lexington Baptist College and had an influence on many students who took classes under him, and others. His name is Johnny Thompson. All the preachers will remember. He was quite a unique fellow.

In class he was very unorganized but taught us plenty from his vast knowledge of the Old Testament and of Bible places studied from the Old Testament. He drew maps on the blackboard and gave illustrations from his personal life that brought his classes to life. Once, when illustrating the Old Testament of killing by stabbing under "the fifth rib," he picked up my crutch and used it as a sword and had his enemy to stop and be still while he counted to the fifth rib before he slew him with the sword--that one I shall never forget.

Bro. Thompson loved planes and was a pilot. Some of the male students would try many times to get him on the subject of airplanes so he would forget that we were supposed to have a test that day. By the time he finished with his plane illustration, it was too late to give the test; it had to wait for the next class session.

Bro. Thompson taught in a two-room school, and I found that out from a lady who was once a member of our church here. I asked her how she knew Bro. Thompson, and she said that they both taught in the same two-room school in Irvine, Kentucky--small world.

Bro. Thompson became pastor of Devondale Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky, and he pastored there for several years. At one time I was a member of Devondale while he was pastor.

Eventually, this man, who was so knowledgeable on the holy land and so good at teaching, contacted Alzheimer's. When I heard of it, he was in a nursing home in Kentucky. I decided I wanted to visit him there, so I took my grandson, Eric, and we traveled to the nursing home to visit him.

When we arrived, I asked him if he remembered me, and he said he did, although he never mentioned my name. He said, "Who is this you have with you today?" I said, "This is my grandson, Eric." We visited for a while, and he kept asking me over and over who this boy was whom I brought with me today. I kept telling him it was my grandson.

While we were there, Bro. Thompson's wife came in. She told me that she visited him yesterday, and he was in his room with his Bible open to the first chapter of Genesis. She asked him what he was doing, and he answered "I am trying to figure out what this says."

Bro. Thompson is gone to heaven now, but many of us will long remember his fun-loving attitude and his helpful teaching. We are so thankful for the teachers we had at LBC.

-->To be continued<--

My Story #102 -- On Our Way

 

My Story #102

On Our Way
Pastor Ronnie Wolfe

Now it is time for the quartet to begin their travels to sing and preach at different churches and represent Lexington Baptist College (LBC). Bob Jones was the "speaker" for the quartet, and the others in the quartet just sang what he told us to sing. We had practiced quite a few songs, so we were pretty much ready to sing a few songs before a message was preached. We always enjoyed meeting new people and fellowshiping with people we had known for a while.

We got on our way in a Volks Wagon Bug squeezed in like sardines. The boys involved in this first quartet were Bob Jones, Deman Brubacker, Bob Carpenter, and Ronnie Wolfe. We followed a previous quartet who sang for one year including Larry Robbins, Ed Kittle, Bob Jones, and Warren Hartman. They could really sing well, but three graduated from LBC and broke up as a quartet.

One of the first churches that we visited was Winton Place Baptist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, where Kelly Campbell was pastor. Bro. Campbell was a good pastor and preacher. We had good friendship with him for several years before his death. Cincinnati and surrounding areas became places of often visits by our quartet, then called The Bluegrass Boys Quartet.

Addyston Baptist Church is another church near Cincinnati that we visited many times, first while Bro. Melvin Gecks was pastor and then while Bro. Rex Hensley was pastor, then while Bro. Greg McDaniel was pastor and now Bro. David Pitman is pastor. Our visits there began yearly for a number of years, and we always received a blessing by visiting there.

This group of men who made up The Bluegrass Boys traveled together for approximately five years; then Demas Brubacher and Bob Carpenter graduated from college at LBC and went on for further education.

Now, what shall we do? What is the next step for The Bluegrass Boys? We shall see in the next installment. 

 -->To be continued<--

My Story #101 -- Playing Piano In Lexington

 

My Story #101

Playing Piano In Lexington

Pastor Ronnie Wolfe

The Ashland Avenue Baptist Church building doors were never locked. Anyone could go in and out at will. Several days in the week I would walk to the church building and go inside. I would practice piano on the piano in the main auditorium. This was enjoyable and, I thought, a great privilege.

 One time while practicing in “Judge Adam’s Room” Bro. Bob Jones entered the room and heard me playing. He asked me if I would play for a new group he was getting together, and I told him that I did not play that kind of music. He asked if I would at least practice with them; and I said I would. We practiced every week for about an hour, and eventually we felt we were practiced enough to begin singing in church. This is the beginning of my playing for the Bluegrass Boys. At that time the group was called the Lexington Baptist College Trio, because I did not sing with them. We were called that name, because we eventually began to travel to promote Lexington Baptist College.

 I remember that room where I practiced and that old, upright white piano. Once, I believe in 1967, a photographer came and took our picture standing around that piano. That memory is still fresh in my mind, and I will always be grateful and thankful for the Lord’s leadership in my life, giving me the opportunity to represent the school and serve the Lord traveling with this singing group.

-->To be continued<--

My Story #100 -- A Game And A Bible Lesson

 

My Story #100

A Game And A Bible Lesson

Pastor Ronnie Wolfe

While attending school at Fugazzi Business College, I kept meeting with my young friends which I met along the way.

These young people would meet in the summertime at a place called Bell Court. They would meet there in the late afternoon after having come to my house and demanding that I go with them. When it got dark, they would play Flashlight Tag, which was new to me. Of course, I could not play, but they just wanted me to be there. We would laugh and tell jokes and talk about anything that entered into our minds. There was no cursing or bad language, perhaps because I was there.

One evening, as we were all there and they were playing Flashlight Tag, a policeman drove up to the big house where we were sitting on the front steps. He said that one of the neighbor ladies had called the police because we were so loud. I apologized, but we both knew that you cannot have a bunch of young people together in that kind of situation without having some noise. The policeman understood and said, "Just try, if you can, to be a little quieter. We get calls from this lady many times for this or that." I am sure glad we did not have to go to jail.

After a while, all of this hanging around the kids and being with them to play games, etc., was ended; and I moved from Forest Avenue into a house with an old preacher who was renting out rooms. I did not know the old man, but I liked him once I had met him and talked with him. Some of my readers may remember him or at least his name. His name was C. D. Stevens, and he was quite the Bible scholar.

One night, coming in from a long trip with the quartet about 2:00 AM or so, I entered the house, and Bro. Stevens was sitting, as usual, in his recliner chair, the chair in which he sat most of the day and slept at night. He opened his eyes and said to me, "Bro. Wolfe, sit down on the step there, and I will tell you what I am going to preach on this Wednesday night at First Baptist Church of Lexington. 

Bro. Stevens slowly lifted up his Bible and turned to the 85th Psalm and read verse:10 Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. He preached to me (just me) a message that I will never forget. When he was finished expressing the truths of this verse in detail, with tears running down my face, I fell in love with Jesus more than ever before. 

How could mercy and truth meet together? How could righteousness and peace kiss each other? This could happen only in Jesus Christ through his work on the cross interceding for me to his Father in heaven, saving my soul for his glory only. 

I went to my room and finally fell asleep while thinking on the things I had heard. Never will I ever be thankful enough for what Jesus did for me on the cross. Thank you, God, for this old man who touched my heart through your word and divine truth!

-->To be continued<--

My Story #99 -- New School In Lexington

 

My Story #99

New School In Lexington

Pastor Ronnie Wolfe

Once I was settled in Lexington and on a school schedule, I traveled home every weekend by taking a Greyhound bus to either Williamstown or Falmouth. There my parents would pick me up, and I would stay home on the weekend and travel back to Lexington on the bus and get there in the late afternoon but early enough that I could go to church in the evening service at Ashland Avenue Baptist Church. My mother gave me four dollars every week to buy a round-trip ticket home and back to Lexington. Once I remember that one of the boys that I met in Lexington wanted me to go with him to a restaurant to get a Coke. He said he had the money. The only money that I had was the four dollars my mother gave me for a bus ticket. We went to the restaurant, sat down, and ordered a Coke for each one of us. When we were finished drinking, the boy went to the counter and told the waitress that he had no money. I could not spend my money, so I told her I did not have any money, either. I was so angry with that boy that I told him I would never go to a restaurant with him again—and I didn’t.

One Sunday evening, I think it was, I was listening in church when Bro. Walker, our pastor, began to speak about a preachers school. He explained all about it and said that for people who had regular jobs there was a night class that met on Monday night at seven o’clock. That interested me, so I looked into signing up for that class. This was the good news I told you about last time. I signed up for the class and met for the first time my teacher, Bro. James Hamilton. The class was Bible Survey, and that is a class that every Christian should take. This was the starting point for my work for the rest of my life.

Somewhere along the way I heard about Lexington Baptist College. There was an institute for older preachers who were not interested in a Bachelor degree, and there was a college for those who wanted to pursue more education and receive a degree. The school also had a higher degree call ThB, or Bachelor of Theology.

After I finished my course at Fugazzi Business College, I got a job working for First National Bank and Trust Company, the largest bank in Lexington. I spent eight years working there (off and on). I got to know many people through my work there.

Eventually, I enrolled in Lexington Baptist College and in 1968 received my Bachelor degree from the school. Because of my training at Fugazzi, I also began to teach Typing and Shorthand and a couple other classes along the way. That was a great joy to me. Lexington Baptist College (LBC) became precious to me. In 1985 I received the ThB degree. Later I enrolled in Mountain State Baptist College where Bro. Carl Sadler was the president. There I received my Master of Christian Education degree I believe in 1991. Later I enrolled in Andersonville Theological Seminary and received my Doctor of Christian Education degree. Now it is time to stop going to school. I think I have learned by now how to learn on my own. Praise the Lord for these experiences!

My Story #98 -- School In Lexington

 

My Story #98

School In Lexington
Pastor Ronnie Wolfe

Once I was settled in Lexington, Monday came. It was the first day of school at Fugazzi Business College. I slept in a room upstairs at the end of Forest Avenue in Lexington; I ate meals in another house on the same street just a few houses away from where I slept.  Then, I had to walk approximately ½ mile to the school where I was to take a course to train to be an Executive Assistant, which, I understand, is simply an exalted secretary, one who works for the president or vice-president of a company. Thankfully, I was pretty much prepared in high school to enter a course like this. I had great teachers in high school. I attended Pendleton County High School in Falmouth, Kentucky.

School days were pretty much normal from one visit to another. Once in the wintertime, as I arrived home from school one day, the neighbor next to the house where I slept stopped and asked me if I would be offended if she gave me a winter coat that belonged to her son, who was killed in an auto accident. I hardly knew how to answer, but I accepted. The coat was long and heavy, and it was fire-engine red.

The next morning the temperature was -14 degrees. I nearly froze to death. The coat kept me warm except for my feet. When I arrived at school, my feet were numb; and they did not feel normal for nearly four hours. I had a few days like that but not quite as severe as this one. I will remember that day for a long, long time.

I took classes such as these: Shorthand, Typing, Office Machines, Dictation-Transcription, Business English, Accounting, etc. I enjoyed the classes, because I seemed to be skilled in those classes that required skill of the hands. I remember that in one class I took Shorthand dictation at 240 words per minute, which is impressive. I don’t know that I have done that since. Shorthand is hardly used anymore, but I still use it from time to time. I attended Fugazzi for about one year and three months, the longest course that the school offered. Courses were accelerated in order to give the equivalent to an Associate Degree in another college.

While attending, I continued to attend Ashland Avenue Baptist Church where one Sunday I heard some wonderful news, which I will discuss in my next installment.

-->To be continued<--

My Story #97 -- Homesick In Lexington

My Story #97

Homesick In Lexington

Pastor Ronnie Wolfe

After being left on the street in Lexington, Kentucky, knowing no one and very lonely, I met friends. Many of these friends were young people from the neighborhood, since I had no car and spent my free time walking around the neighborhood. I was 17 years old, so I connected with the young people very well and very quickly. Once one of the boys asked me my middle name. I told him that I was named after my father, and his name is Willard. After they heard that, they began to call me Willie. That was my name among the youth of Forest Avenue in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1962. Occasionally they would call me Willie Babe. I don’t know what that was all about.

I was a churchgoer; so, when Sunday came, I went to the only church I knew anything about as I was growing up at home. We listened as often as we could on the radio to Bro. Clarence Walker, who was the pastor of Ashland Avenue Baptist Church in Lexington. As a result, that is the church that I attended.

After my first visit to the church, that very week two men came to my house to visit me. They were Edward Overbey and Carl Sadler. I later found out that they were both assistant pastors of Ashland Avenue Baptist Church. I told them I would be back to the church. The very next week they came back to my house, and I was a little confused, because I told them I would be back, and I was back again and again and again. I went to every service and enjoyed the preaching of Bro. Walker, Bro. Overbey, and Bro. Sadler. Then on Wednesday evening I would enjoy the teaching of Bro. Rosco Brong. Those sermons and lessons were like Bible college to me. I cannot understand why people do not want to go to church. The local church is an instrument of teaching and exhortation. Every believe should be faithful his own local church, love it, work through it, and be faithful to it. God will bless all who do.