The First One – Troy Purkey
Someone had to be first. Someone else also heard God’s voice and understood the power of a testimony and how it can work on the heart of someone who is lost. This person was the first to share his story with me. Now I can share it with you as the ‘first’ Testimony of a Church.
It is during this Bible School the boy becomes ‘A Child of God’.
It’s summer in the late 1940’s. Lenoir City is a thriving town with manufacturer’s using the river and the railroad to transport the products produced by the citizenry. Harry Truman is president and the memories of World War II are beginning to fade. America is peaceful and prosperous.
In town, Bell Avenue Baptist Church is busy having their annual Bible School. Darwin and Frances Veal are teaching and leading children to God.
A scrawny sixty pound boy who was being picked on by bigger boys is attending. Day by day passes in Bible School and God begins talking to this young boy. He is only ten years old, but God is speaking to his heart, helping him to understand and to forgive. God helps him to overlook a lot of the bad things and to become a better person.
It is during this Bible School the boy becomes ‘A Child of God’.
Nowadays, that boy is a man. A man that knows Jesus has made his life a happy one and worth something. He knows that without Jesus he would have been a mixed up person, but when it comes right down to it he knows that there was no other possibility.
Jesus was the ONLY way for him.