Tell that preacher that damn road is going to be paved.

Our family lived for 40 years next to a parsonage, not just any parsonage, but our very own Baptist preacher parsonage of the First Baptist Church Richlands.  Living next to your pastor can bring it's moments and adjust your actions and speech.  For instance if you have just banged your thumb with the big hammer trying to hit a nail you are careful about letting fly a colorful metaphor or at the very least you look around to see who is close by before letting loose with how much it hurts.  On the plus side there is always pastoral counseling close by when needed.   

We moved beside the preacher in 1967, shortly after our new preacher John B. Stephenson moved in next door.  There are no colorful metaphors to explain John B. as he allowed his close friends to call him.  You see John B. was a big man, both in size and personality.  He did things his way and had a way of making you believe it was God's way as well.   Big John as he became known in the congregation followed a Godly man who personified a dignified older Baptist preacher.  D. M. Clemmons was loved by the church and his retirement get together was a sad event.  The leaders of the church however saw this as a opportunity to find a way to leave our cramped quarters on Hargett Street and build a new church building.  We needed a "building preacher" and they believed they had found one in Big John. 

Big John brought with him a quiet dignified wife and two teenage sons.  Being a teenager myself at the time trust me I have got some stories I could tell about being next door friends with the teenage preacher's sons, but this posting is about Big John.  Big John's big personality would come forward some Sunday night's as occasionally after the second hymn Big John would become filled with the joy and decide to skip the sermon and spend the rest of the time singing hymns from the Baptist hymnal.  He would even allow members to shout out the next hymn to be sung by just loudly saying the next hymn number.  Frankly all that singing would lift your spirits and make you ready for the Sunday night after church ritual of going to the Tastee Freeze about two blocks away and getting a soft serve dip cone.  I suppose after all that singing God would approve a little sugar treat before going home. 

Anyway Big John was here to build a new church and he set about making that happen. First off he needed the road that went by the parsonage and the land the church was eyeing to be paved.  The parsonage was almost right across the street from the proposed new church.  The road had been a dirt road for years despite being being in town. The issue for NC Country Road 1301 was there was not enough people living on the roughly two mile road to deem that NC Dept. of Transportation paving it.   To Big John this was not a good reason not to pave as he had a new church in mind and he also had God on his side.  That was a powerful duo that he took with him when almost every single week for almost a year Big John would pull his new 1967 Ford LTD out of the parsonage driveway down the dirt road to the highway headed to Raleigh and the NCDOT offices to explain how he and God wanted that road paved. Secretly I thought and so did Big John's teenage sons that he wanted the road paved so his new LTD would stay cleaner when he took to driving it.   I expect NCDOT got tired of hearing and praying with Big John somewhere along the way.  One late summer afternoon when both our families had just finished moving the summer grass Big John invited us over to his backyard for some just out of the fridge watermelons for refreshment.  During the time we were partaking in the refreshment the parsonage phone rang and Big John's oldest son went in to answer the phone.  Jerry coming outside after the call was asked by the pastor who had called.  Jerry said it was the Chairman at NCDOT.  Big John asked what he was calling about and Jerry said he wanted the preacher to know something. Big John asked Jerry what the message was and Jerry said "Daddy do you want the exact message" to which Big John said of course.  Jerry then uttered these words "tell that pastor that DAMN road is going to be paved"  and might he add "shortly".   Big John had his paved road and now set about to buying some land on that road. 

Now the land the church was eyeing was owned by several families, some family trusts where the people did not like each other, and one old lady who had made clear she had no intention on selling to anyone period.  This land buying called for a big man and all these people did not know they had met their match in Big John.  So Big John spent several months or so assembling the approvals of these entities to selling what would soon be several acres of land for the new church building.  Now he did not pull the trigger on any of the purchases until he had ALL the land since to build the church the entire parcel was needed.  Now he got to the old lady and she as advertised would not bulge.  Big John tried several ideas and incentives and she still said no.  Let me say up front here I have had a personal prayer with Big John and there is no doubt in my mind or anyone's mind who has done so Big John has a direct link to God when praying. He could plant one on that would make you want to go home and stay good for several weeks.  So one afternoon tired of trying to get the one lady to sell he figured it was time to go pray with the Methodist.  Now Baptist preachers then were not supposed to do prayer with Methodist, who in our opinion were not truly saved, but Big John knew he had licence with God and went to visit.  How I wish I could had been a proverbial fly on the wall at this prayer session, because I am absolutely sure the floor likely shook at this old lady's house during this one. See Big John being a big man could plant his foot in such a way that he could literally shake the floor during prayer. Anyway after leaving the house the very next day the lady called Big John and told him to draw up the deed to sell.  Big John had done the big deed and got him some church land. 

Next up was building a new church.  But something happened at this point I will never understand.  Big John decided to depart us in 1969 and take his preaching to another church in Dunn NC.  Maybe I being too young did not fully comprehend the deal but leave he did and left the final church building to another pastor.  I prefer to believe that like Moses leading the Israelites to the Promised Land and God not letting him actually go in is what happened with Big John.  He got the church the road, the land, and some fine singing, but God had other plans from that point on.  What I do know is that God's hand was in all this because God sent Big John to the church to get the road and land jobs done where no other preacher could have done the task.