Ray
Ray Purkey will turn eighty-five this year. His hands shake and he has a hard time swallowing and talking sometimes due to the effects of Parkinson’s. But he still remembers clearly getting saved.
Not once, but twice.
When he was eight years old a young Ray attended a revival at Bell Avenue Baptist Church. The Reverend Earl Chaney was preaching about going to hell and Ray was listening.
For the next few nights, Ray dreamed of falling into hell. He fell, and fell and fell but thankfully he never hit bottom. After the third night of this dream when he went back to the revival and when they began the invitation he went down and talked to Reverend Chaney and dedicated his life to God. About three months later he was baptized in Fort Loudon Lake.
Over the next few years he grew up and went to work in the restaurant business. He went ‘wild’ for a long time. He never forgot God but he knew he wasn’t living for him. Ray kept asking God to save him, but he (Ray) would never change his ways. He met a girl and went against both God and family when he married her. She had a wild side too. Eventually though, the marriage ran its course and ended in divorce. Afterwards Ray realized that if God was to save him, he would have to start changing his ways first. So by the time he met his second wife he was well on his way to getting his life straightened out and was finally walking a lot closer to God.
Ray rededicated his life to God and was baptized again at Temple Baptist Church in Knoxville where Brother Charles Lawson was preaching. He and his wife attended there for twenty-six years. A few years ago, Ray lost his second wife to Alzheimer’s. He also lost a son.
Ray’s life has been a hard one at times. But for seventy seven years now, Ray has had a constant relationship with God.
No matter how far Ray strayed from the path, he knows that God never gave up on him, nor abandoned him. Ray knows the Holy Spirit has always been with him ever since the night he told Rev. Chaney he wanted to give his life to God that first time. He told me how they were moving from Memphis back to Knoxville where he was going to get a new job. Their car was heavily loaded down and the travel over the mountains and hills was dangerous, but God protected them and held the old car together. God kept that car running right up until they got to Knoxville and Ray interviewed for the job.
He had just finished his interview and walked out of the building. He started the car and drove less than ten feet when the steering tie rod fell out of the car. Literally. It fell out. If that had happened while they had been on those mountain roads Ray doubts he would be here to tell this tale now. But God was watching over them then and he is still with Ray now.
Ray’s favorite passage in the bible is the 23rd Psalm. He says that he occasionally is bothered by doubt, but he continues to read God’s word and relies on God’s promises.
Ray leans on those ‘everlasting arms’.