♦A 27, 2020

Montgomery Bap st Priori es: We will priori ze the…

 Gospel above all by mee ng human need and plan ng gospel seed
 Star ng and replan ng of churches for all people
 Equipping and sending of pastors and missionaries to the River Region and the ends of the earth.

The Lord is the Same Yesterday, Today, Forever! Join Us As We Celebrate

Bill and Mary Ella Steffan are lay leaders at Heritage Our Pastors, Churches & Ministries!
Baptist Church.
Retired from the Air Force, Bill and Mary Ella are known
The “Sons of Nehemiah” inaugural meeting. The
among the church family as chief encouragers. Full of wit Mrs. Alice Gwin & Mrs. Delores at Flatline
Church at Chisholm making sure Robert E Lee six-week church revitalization training ministry is
and kindness, they are always sharing words to the staff High School is loved on. designed to inspire and equip pastor revitalizers
and deacons that are hearty and uplifting. Bill is a native and expose them to teaching from national leaders.
of Oregon. Recently, he shared a tale from his days in
church, from seventy-one years ago, in the Northwest
community of the United States. Enjoy our brother’s
Neal Hughes testimony.
Director of Missions
My Church. There were two churches within a few miles
of the community center of Goble, Oregon. One hosted the “Holy Rollers”
with a congregation of about thirty persons. My church, Shiloh Basin
Community Church, had fifty or so members. Pastored by Rev. Lee R.
Marvin, it was non-denominational. However, Brother Marvin’s leanings
and teaching were mostly indistinguishable from Baptist, if not Southern
Baptist at their roots. He was the owner of Marvin & Sons’ Produce
Distributors in Portland, about 40 miles upriver. Unpaid for any of his
expenses, he came to the farming and logging community of Shiloh Basin
every Sunday for morning and evening services. Sunday lunch for the What an honor to share Psalm 23 with 30 pastors
pastor was routinely fried or baked chicken (often “freshly” plucked that in Kenya, Nigeria & South Africa today!
morning before church — or perhaps venison that unceremoniously
infringed on garden plots, or salmon freshly caught from the Columbia
River).
God held back the rain for Love Loud Lowndes
Sermon Citations. One Sunday morning, when I was nine or so, Brother County where volunteers served 103 families
Marvin announced that if the kids kept notes for the scriptures cited during food.
his morning sermons, he would award a KJV Bible at the end of the year. It
should be noted that his sermons could span a half dozen New Testament
books, with background drawn from an equal number in the Old Testament,
sometimes cited in rapid-fire succession. Preaching lasted at least 1.5 hours.
The year’s citation records were finally done, and I turned in my spiral-
bound notebook. A couple of weeks later, I was presented with my OWN
Bible at the front of the congregation. I still have the three-inch-thick blue
Bible with a beautiful inscription — but alas, undated! It has traveled all
over the country as the Air Force moved us eleven times.
The Sunday evening service was a bit more light-hearted, but a reverent
time. We youth had “contests” involving who could find and read aloud any Thorington Road opened back on August 16.
Bible verse from both testaments the quickest — most often teams of boys Welcome back!
v. girls. At THAT time, there was no such thing as Google, Siri, Alexa —
or even rotary dialed telephones existed. Hand-cranked multi-party line
phones were state-of-the-art. Long-distance calling was done manually by
switchboard operators. (Recall ‘Sarah’ on the Andy Griffith TV show). To
win the Bible verse contest, you had to know all books of the Bible and
their sequence. Heritage celebrates Pastor Teman’s 10th
anniversary leading people into a life changing
Our Minister of Music, Bill Crawford, would sometimes ask for three or relationship with Jesus in Montgomery and
four hymn “favorites” from the congregation. He also occasionally beyond.
suggested alternative lyrics: “Love Lifted Me” became “John 3:16” in its
chorus. However, our all-time FAVORITE was adding to the refrain:
“Since Jesus Came into My Heart, THE DEVIL’S BEEN WEARING A
Drivers Needed
FROWN.” We youth thought it was cool to poke fun at the Devil so Volunteers will assist in transporting groceries for
MBA churches and ministries. Must be 25 or
blatantly. older and have a clean driving record. Contact
To my recollection, it was in May 1948 at Vacation Bible School when I Tameka for more information at 271-6227 or
professed my faith in Christ. I do recall I felt something extraordinary had tmoment@mgmbaptists.org.
happened. I could not wait to get home to share with my oldest sister, who
is two years younger. We knelt in a grassy area by the barn, where she also
accepted the calling. That was seventy-two years ago.
Friends, the God of 1948, is the same God today. Tell your children and
grandchildren about the good news of Jesus Christ. Who knows, they may
be sharing their faith story seventy-two years later with another Director of
Missions.
Together We Can!
Neal
Montgomery Baptist Association • 20 Interstate Park Dr. • Montgomery, Alabama 36109 • 334-271-6227 • www.mgmbaptists.org
This publication is made possible by your churches’ contributions to Associational Missions.