08 ~ Pre-war Transitions
At the College of Marshall Dean Wesley J. Smith was one of the professors who made an impression upon my life. Not only had he given me good advice when I tried to enroll in the academy, he was very helpful to me in my Greek class. When I had to drive back [to Marshall] from Angus he was very forgiving if I looked sleepy at the 7:30 class on Monday morning. In addition to the influence of Dean Smith, I shall never forget Miss Sallie M. Duncan who was notorious for her strictness in class and especially with preacher boys. She expected preachers to be better than anyone else as far as scholarship is concerned. She must have been influenced greatly by Dr. Armstrong at Baylor, for she had the same tactics that I later learned he had. I knew I needed to do something to help me in the class, so I found the play that saved the day. It was the passion play that was being presented in the municipal auditorium at Shreveport, Louisiana. Mrs. Morris and I along with another couple invited Miss Duncan to be our guest to go with us to see the play. She agreed to do so. As a result of that wonderful trip I made good grades in her classes, and she gave me some very good advice. Since I had entered the College of Marshall at a mix term, she advised me to go to Baylor University instead of having a half year at College of Marshall. It was good advice for me; I entered Baylor University in the fall of 1939.
~ In the spring of 1939 I had the church at Angus half time and the church at Mt. Zion fourth time (once a month preaching), and God enabled me to accept the pastorate of the First Baptist Church of Gresham, Texas, right out of Tyler, Texas, my hometown. It was a fourth time church when I accepted it. Later the church and went to half time. I The man who had baptized me, Brother H. H. Wallace, and his son Fount Wallace had served the same church a number of years before I was called. Gresham was an encouraging church. There was a nice church building, a six-room frame building built in 1921. I used to enjoy standing just outside the door and meeting all the people. They were very encouraging.
~ While pastoring at Gresham I performed a wedding ceremony for a young man and his bride who also was a member of the church. It was an unusual wedding. After the wedding was over, the parents came to Tyler looking for the couple and wanted to have the wedding ceremony annulled. I talked them out of the annulment. I am happy to say that when I was back to help the church celebrate its fiftieth anniversary, I found the young man and his wife there, and the young man was serving the church as a deacon.
~ A friend of mine, Brother R. A. Crawford, followed me in the ministry at Gresham. He was a wonderful person. He came to see me at one of my later churches. He felt there was a great opportunity to reach men for Christ in the armed forces, so he enlisted in the army and resigned the church at Gresham. He was reported missing in action on a mission over Germany and later was reported killed in action on April 5, 1945. When he was back in Gresham on furlough in 1944 he said, “If you hear I’ve gone down over there, you will be all right with Bob Crawford.” With him it can truly be said, “To live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21), and, “He is absent from the body and present with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8)
~ I brought to a close my pastorate at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in July of 1939 by preaching their annual revival meeting. Total additions were two by letter during the meeting, and they gave me the handsome sum of thirty-six dollars as a love offering. By this time I had resigned my church just out of Corsicana. I wrote the Noonday Baptist Church (Tyler) since they were without a pastor and soon met with their committee. I was called to Noonday. Soon I enlisted Gresham to go half time and Noonday to go half time. Therefore I had full time preaching services at Noonday and Gresham just at the time when I was going to enroll in Baylor University in the fall. Angus would have been closer to Baylor, but now Noonday and Gresham were closer to my heart.
~ In June of 1940 I held a revival meeting, a mission meeting it might be called, sponsored by my home church, East Tyler Baptist Church. It was called the Dawson Hill Revival. I started off preaching on “Revive Us Again,” “Can We Have Another Pentecost,” and “A Moral Leper.” In this revival meeting my good friend C. E. Jackson heard me as a young preacher. It made a lasting impression on him, and to this good day we get together and laugh about the experience. Incidentally, the collection was eight dollars for the week. Don’t feel sorry for me, for that’s probably all it was worth!
~ Little did we know in those innocent days the things that were in store for us. On September 1, 1939, the armies of the Third Reich invaded Poland, and two days later Britain and France declared war on Germany. That earth-shattering experience was to have an effect on my friend Charlie Jackson and me for years to come. Charlie was to serve in the Air Force. He was shot down and walks with a limp as a result. I was to be a chaplain in the armed services serving overseas in Germany.