Join Pastor Jerry in his new home - Cypress Nursing Facility - San Marcos, Texas!
Pastor Jerry
My Work
I am older than dirt. Calvin Coolidge was president when I was born in 1932.
In my 89 years, I have done many things:
After graduation from Texas A&M Commerce (In those days, it was called East Texas State Teachers College).
I served 28 years in the U.S. Air Force. Most of that time was in the security field, but I was an ICBM crew commander in the earliest days of missile deployment.
I retired as a colonel, the Deputy Commander of the Air Force Office of Security Police.
Along that path, I was ordained to the Gospel ministry by the Inland Empire Southern Baptist Association in Spokane.
The Air Force sent us from coast to coast twice, and I served in Korea, Turkey, and Vietnam. I have traveled to 23 countries and lived in 3 national capitols.
I hold a Master’s degree in counseling and have served as a licensed family and marriage counselor,
I worked in the industry human resources. My wife and I opened our own business.
My Journey and My Testimony
I am 90 years old and was born in Ralls, Crosby County, Texas
Calvin Coolidge was the president, and America was entering the Great Depression
Only 27 years after the Wright brothers first flew their airplane at Kitty Hawk, NC.
The Great War, the war to end all wars, had ended only 14 years before.
My dad, Arthur, was 31, and my mother, Lillian, was 30. Both were devoted church members.
Both were devout Christians. Dad was a Southern Baptist, and his mother a Cumberland Presbyterian. and Church of Christ.
I do not remember when I did not know and believe in Jesus Christ. My love for Him began at home, but from my third birthday, I was in Sunday School every Sunday morning. We were members of the First Baptist Church of Lubbock. Most Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, and Wednesday nights would find us at church.
In 1942 we moved to Ranger, TX. My dad went to a new job, and I supervised a trade school to train young men and women in needed skills for the war effort. We joined the First Baptist Church at Ranger, Texas.
When I was 14 years old, I accepted Jesus as my Savior and began living a pure and sanctified life… not. If anything changed in my life, I was not aware of it. I was a good boy. I had been baptized; I loved Jesus, so what more was there supposed to be?
In the 1940s, we moved back to Lubbock, TX, and then to Natalia, TX, where my father was ordained as a Baptist deacon.
We moved to San Antonio and in 1946 to Dallas, where I finished high school, and my parents lived for the rest of their lives. I went off to college, first to Lubbock and then to Commerce, Texas.
After college, now holding a degree and a commission as a second lieutenant in the Air Force and a wife, we were happy starting to build our own lives. We were thankful to God for being so good and not bothering us too much about our everyday life and future. I went on making decisions, some wrong, thinking I must be in His will since he didn’t stop me. We were … no, I was flying solo; my eyes were on the earth, looking for a place to land. I had everything I could want. I had a successful and rewarding career, a salary we could live on comfortably. Lucille was able to fulfill her dreams of education and teaching. We had seven beautiful and healthy children … what more do you want?
The change didn’t come in a flash of light. I learned that to put my eyes on Jesus; I had to look up. I was thirty-five years old when I laid it all at the cross. Jesus became more than a name or a prayer partner he became a forgiving friend who took me as I was and called me to His service.
The longer I have served Him, the sweeter He has grown. At my ordination, an elderly and sanctified pastor laid his hands on my head and said, “Feed my sheep, feed my sheep, feed my sheep.” Since then, I have been sad when I have been unable to share the Gospel story. Now through the Internet miracle, I can continue to fulfill that commission until He calls me home. May God be praised. He is so good.
