I'VE COME A FUR PIECE! John L. Smith I've come from the days of the Model "T." When country roads weren't paved, when we rode and drove horses. At our school house we finally got carbide lights! Some of my schoolmates rode horses to school. I even rode one for awhile. Usually there were gasoline lanterns for night functions. I preached my first sermons in country school houses. I used to preach on the street every Saturday. My wife was a country school teacher. When we married she had a car. I did not realize until later that she had just paid $17.00 down on it. I had hitch-hiked to college. I rode a city bus through Oklahoma City and then hitch-hiked again the rest of the way. The city bus cost .15 cents for two slugs. I used the second one on my way home several weeks later. People would pick me up and say, "Sonny boy, where are you going? Do your parents know where you are?" I used to walk several miles to my first engagements. I had to start pretty early on Sunday mornings. I started preaching on the street when I was in college. I was an 'Associational Missionary for a while, probably the youngest in our Convention. I purchased a used '29 Ford with 21 inch wheels so I avoid most of the 'high-centers' on the country roads in my area! In my first 'city' church my people were embarrassed when I would go down on the street Saturday afternoons and after a candidate or two campaigning for public office had spoken, I would step over where the candidate had stood, before all the crowd walked on, and begin preaching. My people were embarrassed! Some told me so! I was so young, in my second pastorate that one day I was in the high school building. As I walked down the hall I paused to read something on the bulletin board, a teacher stuck her head out of a classroom and said sternly, "Young man, you get yourself back in your classroom. Right now!" That teacher was a member of my church, but she hadn't been to the church since I had become it's pastor. She never liked me! I preached 59 funerals during that pastorate, four years. Then my wife and I and our three kids" went to the mission field!" New Mexico! We moved to an area more than 6,000 foot altitude. My wife cooked some beans one day in an open pot and refusing to heed my reminder that they should be cooked in the pressure cooker, we sat down to eat and when she poured out the beans, they just rattled! Water there boiled at 180 degree! We lived a block from the main street. It was slightly upgrade to our house. Because of the altitude I would have to rest on my way home. It was hard to keep from trotting down hill to the stores. By that time I had a wire recorder. They predated the tape recorder, video tapes, etc. A visitor not used to our altitude, went to sleep while I was preaching. After the service she apologized She apologized that afternoon when I saw her at the cafe. She said it was not my sermon, it must have been the altitude. The next day I saw her again and she apologized again for "going to sleep while I was preaching." I said, "that's all right Mrs. _______, don't worry about it, I made a recording of that sermon yesterday morning and after I went to bed last night I decided to hear it, and I went to sleep too!" Then we moved to Utah! Boy, were things different there! Every time I met a new person, at the store or filling station or wherever, he would say, "what part of the south are you from?" Then he'd ask what 'ward' I attended. That way before we had talked even a minute he knew I wasn't a Mormon. After about a week we had company every night Monday through Friday! Where I'd come from in rural Oklahoma, when a fellow came to your house, you would always invite him in. It took me several weeks to realize that they were all coming according to a plan. I soon learned who to expect each night. Though they introduced themselves as members of 'the' church, they used the same words I used so do it was very difficult for me to realize that our belief's were far, far apart. We used the same words but they had entirely different meanings. To them, God was a man with parents, wives (note: wives), Christ was the result of an affair that God had with his own daughter, Mary! I soon learned that they believed Christ and Lucifer had the same father! My 17 years in Utah were most interesting. Then I got a slide-in camper and my kids were all in college or married, so my wife quit her job as a teacher and traveled with me. Our first long trip was 9 1/2 months long. We traveled form Utah to the east coast, and visited about every state in the northeast except Maine. That is the only state that I've not been in! I've spoken in 44 states including Alaska and Hawaii. I've spoken over 7,000 times on one subject! I've spoken through the years in chapel and classes at some of the largest and most prestigious colleges and seminaries in the land, Southwestern, Midwestern, Golden Gate, Dallas, seminaries, and Tennessee Temple, Bob Jones University, etc. I have spoken in many of the largest and most prominent churches in the land through the years, First Baptist Albuquerque, Houston, huge churches in Dallas, Del City, Altus, Lawton, Ardmore, Chickasha, Hugo, in Oklahoma, etc. And I've written 10 books, one of which was printed 10 times, 10,000 copies the last time! I told you I'd come a "Fur Piece!" And barring some unforeseen problem, I'm not through yet! As I was thinking of writing this, (I woke up long before my getting up time this morning), and I thought of an experience many years ago when I was preaching on the street in Ogden, Utah. After I had finished, a young fellow walked up to me and told me he was from Arkansas, and that he was in the Air Force at Hill Field (Utah) and that his wife and kids were back in Arkansas. She was a Baptist, and did not want to move to Utah where they had heard that Baptist's were few and far between. He said, "I'm going to go call her and tell her I've just heard you and I think she will be glad to come." A week or so later she and the kids arrived. This began a half-century of friendship and support. After a while in Utah he was transferred, I think through the years he served in Japan, North Africa, Oklahoma and perhaps five other places, before returning to Arkansas. He later became a Christian. They were stalwarts in their church wherever they lived. She began sending $5.00 a month to my ministry. Throughout the years I believe we have received a gift for our work every month since that time. As time has passed, she's given more and more. She still sends a gift each month, now many times that first amount. For years they've lived in the Little Rock area of Arkansas. I was always welcome to stop by, usually to speak in their church, and fellowship with them and their kids, who are now grandparents! Then, about 1995 I received a call. Her husband had just died, and she asked me to speak at his funeral. I went, spent a couple or perhaps three days in the area, stayed with a son and grieved with the family, but I shall never forget the wonderful friendship and support of that lady and her wonderful family. Yes, I've come a fur piece, but I'm not through yet. For five weeks recently, I went each Sunday evening to a nearby church at their invitation - to speak an hour each time to their people. They had just returned from a trip to Arizona with some of their young people who'd intended to witness in the area. But they were overwhelmed by the Mormon population there! They needed help! I'm only sorry that I was not able to speak to their young people before their visit to Arizona! There are only about 5.3 million people in Arizona, but they have more than 300,000 Mormon. And they have 634 congregations in the state. I've come a Fur Piece!
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