The greatest gift from God in my life has been, of course, His gift of grace and salvation. Close behind that is the gift He gave me in my wife, Vera Mae, and my family, including my eight children: Spencer, Joanie, Phillip, Derek, Deborah, Wayne, Priscilla, and Elizabeth. I am deeply grateful for the blessing my family has been in my life.
I am also deeply grateful for the support, advice, and friendship of those who have given so much of themselves to me. Friendship is a gift. That’s grace––because it’s undeserved favor. Loving God and loving friends are the essence of gratitude and redemption. In my eighty-six years of life, the deep friendships God has given me are precious. So, to all my friends, I am indebted and deeply grateful for your lives and your love. You found room in your hearts for me. What a blessing!
These committed people I call friends have sustained my life and ministry. That list starts with Mr. Wayne Leitch, the man who took this third-grade dropout under his wing, discipled me, and gave me the ability to believe that I could teach the Bible to others. It extends to Mama and Papa Wilson, who nurtured me even before I was converted and continued throughout my lifetime. The Wilsons had lost their only son in a car accident while I was in Pasadena, but Mama Wilson reached out to me and became the mother I never had, and Papa Wilson gave me a father’s love that my own father was not able to give. They embraced me.
Back in Mississippi, Archie Buckley and his wife, Fanny, embraced me and my family as their own children. Then there are the Mendenhall people, Dolphus and Rosie Weary, Artis and Carolyn Fletcher, and the early board of directors of Voice of Calvary Ministries: Lillian Fletcher, Robert Buckley, Jessie Newsome, Joe Paul Buckley, Martin Lott, Nellie Standfield, Dave Smith, Lillie Smith, Leonard Smith, Mitchell C. Hayes, Geneva Rubin, Hulon Ray Holmes, and Dr. Andrea Phillips. These people came around me from the start. These are the men and women who stood by my side in the sixties when the Ku Klux Klan was going to drive me out of town, after we had started our holistic ministry and were registering people to vote, as well as hosting civil rights meetings in our church and co-op store. They protected my life and showed me what it truly means to be willing to lay down one’s life for a friend. They loved me first and wholeheartedly.
Many others came to be my friends over the years, including Jack McMillian, Dr. Kevin Lake, and Dr. Joel Heger. Any heroic act I might have done or any risk I ever took for the cause was due to their love and trust in me. Their love set a moral authority for me, so that I feared ever disappointing them. Proverbs tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and I saw that reflected in the deep love these people had for me. I have had friends willing to give their lives, their money, their prayers, and their support on my behalf.
I have been blessed with friendship and commitment beyond what I ever could have imagined. Here is just a sampling of some of those people.
Jane Allen, Calvin Borne, Al and Marjorie Belton, Paul Cedar, Mark DeYmaz, Roland and Lila Hinz, Malcolm Street, George Moore, Jim Winston, James Howard, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, Wayne and Anne Gordon, Glen Kehrein, Mary Nelson, Bob Lupton, Ron Spann, Herman Moten, Kathy Dudley, Elzar Pagan, Bob Penton, Jana Webb, David Evans, Bill Greig II, Norm Nason, Roy and Ruth Rogers, H. and Terry Spees, George Terzain, Howard and Roberta Ahmanson, Addie James, Al and Marion Whittaker, Dr. Gary Vander Ark.
In addition, I have to remember Steve and Stan Lazarian, Bill and Dinah Roberts, Bill and Susan Hoehn, Clevie and Carl Snell, Ken Smith, Dr. Philip Eaton, Tali Hairston, Victor Smith, Dr. Hudson T. Amerding, Dave Peacock, John McGill, Patricia Myers, Dr. Roger Parrott, Mr. Kurt Lamb and his family foundation, Margie and Cliff Michaelson, the Gundersen family, Vince Gordon, Ronnie Crudup Jr., Dan Wright and his whole family, Phil and Marcia Reed, Randy and Joan Nabors, Mr. and Mrs. Bill Magnum, Bishop Matthew Richardson, Dr. Will Norton Jr., Dr. Will Norton Sr., Johann Christoph Arnold and the Bruderhof Communities, Phil Yancey, Rufus Jones, and a host of other friends whom these pages do not allow me to list. Hundreds of you fit into this category.
I also must thank the institutions that have given me my honorary doctorates: Wheaton College, Huntington University, Gordon College, Geneva College, Spring Arbor University, Seattle Pacific University, Virginia University of Lynchburg, Belhaven University, Taylor University, Nyack College, North Park College, The Salvation Army College of Officer Training, and Whitworth University. Two institutions—The Salvation Army and Asbury University—bestowed on me the “Others” Award and the Foot and Basin Award, respectively.
To all these people listed, I owe my ministry, my successes, and my very life. I look forward to the day when we stand together in heaven and lay down any of the glory or fame we have achieved together at Jesus’s feet.