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History
of the ministry:
Oklahoma
is OK, but I’ll take NEW ENGLAND anyway!
It
was a cold November 1965 day when the two-tone Rambler I was
driving pulled into Boston for the first time. David
Wilkerson, author of: “The
Cross and the Switchblade,”
whose Brooklyn, NY - based Teen
Challenge Center
I had worked with since April, had asked me to consider
becoming the Boston Center’s “Field Representative.”
Boston didn’t seem like a place God would want me, at
first glance, but first impressions are not always reliable
witnesses. In fact, upon entering the Boston location of
Teen Challenge, I knew immediately
that this was where God wanted me. For seven and a half
months I worked with that center, as I had done in Brooklyn;
and during those months, I fell in love with almost
everything about those six states!
While Teen
Challenge itself was not to be a permanent ministry for me, it was
the seedling from which years of concert ministry would
spring. Those “cold New Englanders” became some of my warmest
friends! I could not have known that frigid November day that God was about to introduce me to some of the
kindest, most generous, and compassionate people on earth.
Having driven in excess
of 100,000 miles in those six states since 1965, I
came to know the nooks and crannies of New England better
than I know my native Georgia. Churches responded to my
funny southern accent, and they even tried to help me learn
to speak “English.”
Two churches stand out
greatly: First Congregational in North Brookfield,
Massachusetts, where I met the Langille family, and
the Community Church in Brownington Center, Vermont, where I
was ordained. Pastor and Mrs. Ralph Tobyne of that church
had also become my friends earlier, while I was a guest in
their home.
It was another
win'try
day in the early 70’s, that, I announced to my friends one
Sunday morning at North Brookfield, that I was
leaving that day for Maine. Snow was everywhere and
the temperature was 22
BELOW zero! I had to remove the battery from the 1965 Plymouth Valiant I
was diving and take it into the house at night so the car
would start in the morning.
After the service, a tall
stranger introduced himself to me and informed me, “he was
going with me to Maine.” He said, “weather conditions
being what they are you need someone familiar with this
kind of weather, with you. I didn’t argue with him; after
all, he stood about 6’2” tall. During lunch in the home of
Mel and Gertrude Bitter, Pastor Bitter expressed
his joy that Jim Langille was going
with me to Maine.
Pastor Bitter’s word was sufficient
confirmation for me that Jim was to go. We were soon ‘off to Maine,’
or, so I thought. God had a plan I was totally unaware of.
We went to Salem, NH where I sang for the evening service at First Baptist Church.
The next morning rather than traveling
north on I-95 ‘to Maine,’ Jim suggested we go
I-93 and route 3 toward Lancaster, NH. He wanted to meet my
evangelist friend Clinton
White.
We stopped by
Clinton’s office and then Jim suggested, that, since I
really had nothing specific in Maine other than to visit
friends that we go west to St.
Johnsbury, Vermont. Instead of taking route 2 east, to Bangor, Maine, we headed west. Jim and I
were having such a great time it didn't take much
persuasion.
We arrived at
the Bible Institute of New England’s student dorm where we visited with our friends Ralph
and Pauline Tobyne.
Ralph gave up his job, sold his home, and he and Pauline
were students preparing for the ministry.
The Institute asked me
to sing the following morning for the chapel service, but by
the time I walked from the mobile home Jim and I were
staying in to the chapel, my voice had frozen up. I
struggled through one song, then began to share my
experiences with Teen Challenge. As it turned out, the
students were doing a play based on, “The Cross and
the Switchblade,”
and they were more interested in my experiences with Teen
Challenge than my singing anyhow! So all was not lost.
Jim had lost his job
with a wire manufacturer in Massachusetts and had placed
applications with several companies, so he was eager to call
Liz to see if he had received any calls. He had, so
rather than going to Maine we returned to North Brookfield,
and I went back to Charlotte.
Jim proved to me on that
trip that he is a great salesman! When he called me
later, telling me he had been hired by a chemical company in
New Hampshire, I was thrilled to hear from him again. He called to ask
if I would consider coming to New Hampshire to sing in
concerts if he would schedule them, and help me with my
expenses.
He began contacting
churches as he made his chemical sales calls, and in these
churches I was his product. He, unlike myself, didn’t believe in taking “no”
for an answer. When he asked pastors if they would schedule
me for a concert they could agree to a tentative
date and “go ask
the deaconate,” but “NO”
was not a part of Jim’s vocabulary.
As a result of this one
man’s influence upon my life I sang in churches across
New England. His
family became ‘MY’
family; his
friends ‘MY’ friends. We traveled together many miles during those early
years of our friendship. At the Idlenot Restaurant in
Peterborough, N. H. he introduced me to Russ
Bryant - director of
Monadnock Bible Conference.
That introduction not only had me singing for
nearly 25 years for Labor Day Week-ends, it resulted in more
singing engagements than any other contact in my life! In
addition, many precious friends who would remain among my
favorite people - even until now. It didn’t stop in
New England, but spilled over into New York, Pennsylvania,
Washington State – and Alaska!
During those early
years there was no such thing as “music
tracks” for everyone to sing with. I would buy instrumental albums and if there were any songs on them I could sing
with, I would make a tape copy and sing with the tapes in
churches. The time has come that music tracks are owned by
every singer and would-be singer, in America! Today,
there are singers across New England who do what I did for
more than 25 years!
Jim, Elizabeth
and their three biological children, plus dozens more from
their foster care home, became my extended family. Liz was New
Hampshire’s “Mother of the
Year,” and all
who know Liz, know she deserved it! She has helped
children who came from abusive backgrounds, hearing
impaired, and did it all “in
the name of the Lord!” She has cooked more meals,
wiped more runny noses, dried more tears, attended more
soccer games and school functions, than most would want to
think about.
Jim distributed Bibles
“free of
charge” across New Hampshire, and to the State
Prison in Concord. His generous and loving spirit caused him to reach out
to people who may never give him the thanks he deserves, but
God keeps the record!
It would be impossible
to name all my friends in New England, though they all
deserve special mention. Some people come into your life and
stay awhile, and once they leave, they are gone. A few come,
and never leave. Even when you’re apart,
you’re still ‘together
in spirit.’ I spell “friends:” L-A-N-G-I-L-L-E!
Do
you remember Ralph
and Pauline Tobyne? A great
word for them is: “DITTO.”
They, like the Langilles, will always be with me in my heart
- even when the miles separate us. Ralph and I have
traveled together, prayed together, and when I was ordained
into the ministry, how honored I was to have this “man of
God” lay his hands on me in a prayer of consecration.
God’s grace has
brought me to a new era now. Those wonderful trips to New
England, and other areas as well, are, for the most part,
history. We shall see what God has in store for us now. And
as I wait, I will glory in “what
God hath wrought!”
Others
who had a tremendous impact on my days of singing ministry
around the country are: Dr. John C. Maxwell,
pastor/writer/friend, Lon Woodrum, Evangelist and
dear friend, Herbert
Howard, childhood hero who gave me many opportunities to
sing in revival meetings, Lee Smith and the
Masterworkers Quartet, who in the days of black and white TV
gave me a chance to sing with the "Big Boys." WJBF
and WRDW Television, and Jim Bakker of PTL.
Many
people have a hand in the lives of those who work for God,
and without these men and women of God, we would be
hard-pressed to find avenues to serve.
I
owe a special debt to Rev. and Mrs. S. F. Andrews of Macon,
Georgia, for taking me to Cumberland. MD., to sing for a
revival at First Methodist Church. It was there that I met
the Deremer Family, from which my wife Paula would be added
to my life.
David
Wilkerson, founder of Teen Challenge, for giving me the
opportunity to sing and travel with that ministry.
To
Ed and Beverly Dunbar, longtime friends from Augusta, whose
generosity helped to birth this website, and to Mark
Lindquist, who built it. To Mrs. Ouida Patterson of Augusta,
whose gift made it possible to go to Nashville and record my
first album.
To
countless friends I owe a debt of gratitude that I can never
pay. Their encouragement, their prayers and gifts, I say,
"Thank you." God bless you who made it all
possible.
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