Growing Up in Fayetteville

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I was born at Pitman Hospital in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on September 30, 1942. We lived at 347 Adams Street for the first 14 years of my life.

I went to Central Elementary School for grades 1 through 6, Alexander Graham Junior High for grades 7 through 9, and Fayetteville Senior High for grades 10 through 12. We moved to 1910 McGoogan Road during my freshman year.
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College and Enlistment

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I worked at B&B Lanes for the summer and departed for East Carolina College in the fall of 1960. After one year as a music major, I decided to join the Air Force rather than continue college.

I went to Lackland AFB, Texas, assigned to Flight 1312, 3704th Basic Military Training Squadron, for eight weeks, with a follow-on assignment to Amarillo AFB, Texas, for technical school. Upon completion of tech school, I received orders to Headquarters USAFE (United States Air Forces Europe), Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence.
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Assignments at Home and Abroad

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After three and a half years at Lindsey Air Station, I received orders to the Air Force Missile Development Center at Holloman AFB, New Mexico.

Thirteen months later, I received orders to the 15th Aerial Port Squadron at Da Nang Air Base (aka “Rocket City”), Vietnam, for 12 months, from December 1966 to December 1967. My next duty assignment was to Headquarters, 19th Air Force, at Seymour Johnson AFB in Goldsboro, North Carolina.

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Serving as Enlisted 
Aide to Two Major Generals

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After Da Nang, I got orders to North Carolina, to Seymour Johnson. At Seymour Johnson, I was assigned to 19th Air Force. My boss was a two-star. And there were 98 of us, and we did war plans, exercises, and contingency plans. We were in essence a mobile command post in case of anything that happened worldwide, like the… There was an incident in Korea. They sent the officers and certain enlisted TDY. I stayed at Seymour.

Later I cross-trained so I could have a better chance of getting promoted as I was an enlisted aide to Major General William E. Bryan Jr. After one year he retired, and I received orders to go to the Defense Personnel Support Center in Philadelphia, to an Orthodox Jewish Major General Abraham J. Dreiseszun. A year later, as an enlisted aide to him, I received orders to Seymour to the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing, 4th Field Maintenance Squadron.

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Meeting Alice on a Friday Night at the NCO Club

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During my first tour at Seymour, I met my wife at the NCO Club on a Friday night. They had entertainment at the NCO Club, and they had dancing, and people that come in and did shows. And this one particular Friday night, there was a gentleman named Elmer Fudpucker. He walked out. He walked out from behind the curtain, and he says, “My name is Elmer Fudpucker, and these are all my little Fudpuckers, and when…” Everybody busted out laughing, but he was hilarious. I know I laughed and laughed and laughed.

The NCO Club was not like the bars downtown. Nothing like that. And that’s where I met my wife. It was 1968 and I was 26, and I married her when she was 28. I was 27 and she had two little boys. And we put them in the base nursery while we went out to a little party. We drank a little bit. I did, but she didn’t, and I got delivered from that in England. But we got married in ’69. And I got stationed with General Dreiseszun, and we got sent… Before that, let’s see, I… Hold on for a minute. Let me get it straight.

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Postings from Philadelphia to 
Alaska, Korea, Nebraska, and England

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We got married in ’69. I went to Philadelphia in ’74, back to Seymour in ’75. I went back to Seymour from Philadelphia. And from Seymour, I went to Alaska for three years. From Alaska, I went to Korea for a year. From Korea, I went to Nebraska, and from Nebraska, we went to England. We spent three years in England. And that just about took… And from England, I went to Florida. And in Florida, I retired from the Air Force and spent 23 years in Civil Service.

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Finding Faith in England:
The Assemblies of God and Being Born Again

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While we were in England, we went all over Germany, to the prison camps to view them, and to Berchtesgaden, which was an Armed Forces getaway, and the castle that… wow.

We went to an Assembly of God church over there. Harold and Jackie Suggs were missionaries from the Assemblies of God to the military in England. Well, we were going to Sedge Fen Baptist Church, and the preacher at the church said, “You don’t need to go to those Assemblies of God people.” The funny thing about the Assemblies of God, Lord help, they speak in tongues, and the Baptists didn’t like that. Well, a funny thing happened to my wife. She got baptized in the Holy Spirit and started speaking in tongues, and I knew she was speaking in tongues because she wasn’t smart enough to learn German and Italian and Greek and other tongues.

Anyway, we went to a retreat in Germany. And the coincidence was, it was the very same castle where Hitler had jail cells to torture people, in the cells below ground. But you come up the stairs, and here’s a hundred people from the Assemblies of God, Christians, praising God and worshiping in that very castle. Oh. Don’t tell me God doesn’t work His ways.

And over there… I had gotten baptized when I was 10 years old. That was a requirement to join the Baptist Church. They didn’t say anything about being born again. I don’t think I ever heard that. But I got born again in England on a Friday night, with a Master Sergeant that was the NCOIC, non-commissioned officer in charge, of the jail. So he had a captive audience. And my wife had invited him over to the house to talk to me. I said, “Talk to me.”

He talked to me, and we fellowshipped and talked and had some snacks, and he said, “Would you like me to pray for you?” I said, “No, I know how to pray.” So he didn’t lead me in a prayer. And I think sometimes that people need to confess with their mouth and believe in their heart that God raised him from the dead, and they shall be saved. Well, that’s saved. But Jesus said you need to be born again. So, I was born again that night, and I didn’t want to go to sleep because I was afraid I would wake up unsaved. That’s when I got born again.

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Retiring from the Air Force and 23 Years in Civil Service

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And we left England. We left Germany, but we went back to England. And from England, they sent me to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida in 1985. I retired from the air force in ’87, after 26 years.

I worked for a civilian contractor for a while, and then I got the opportunity to get a permanent job in Civil Service. I was in Civil Service from ’87 to 2011, for 23 years. I was in cost accounting. Finance. Job order cost accounting, dealing with contracts and reimbursements.

And I started out as a GS-6. And I took a pay cut from my civilian job, because they were paying me quite nicely when I said, “I’m gonna take the pay cut.” Because when you’re working for a civilian contractor, the contract comes up every so often, and it doesn’t guarantee you a job, whereas in Civil Service, you’re pretty much guaranteed a job for a very long time, in my case 23 years.

And I started out as a six, and to get promoted, my boss would have to rewrite my job description. He rewrote one for GS-7, he rewrote one for GS-9, he wrote one for GS-11, and he wrote one for GS-12, and I retired as a GS-12. That’s super good.

My first 13 years, I was a 702305070 admin specialist. I worked in orderly rooms, basically a clerk typist. At Seymour, I was with the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing, and I was the NCOIC. I did things for FMS, Field Maintenance Squadron; OMS; AMS; and MMS. Each one of those stands for a separate squadron under the wing, if that makes sense, you know? At Seymour, I did all the general jobs.

And when I was in Alaska, I worked in civil engineering, in budget and cost accounting and real estate management. And I had five ladies working for me, because I was a Technial Sergeant by that time. And I went to Korea and did the same thing, finance and budgeting and cost accounting. After I left Korea, I went to Nebraska and did the same thing. I had cross-trained from being the admin clerk to being a financial manager. That just about takes up the 23 years at Eglin. All right, that was… That was a good job. I had good jobs. Really good jobs.

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Blending a Family: Two Stepsons, 
Two Lost Daughters, and a Baby Girl

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What about children? My wife had two boys. One of them was eight when I married her, and the other one was four. The four-year-old has called me Daddy for 55 years.

The eight-year-old, unfortunately, he died at age 37 while he was in the hospital having a, having a back operation. He had fallen at work, and he had to have some work done on his back, but they killed him. He was on life support. So, we took him off life support, and he passed away. They cremated him. So, we don’t know where his ashes are, because his wife has since passed away, and we don’t know what they did or where they are.

But my wife had two little baby girls before we got married, by her first husband, and both of them died of problems at birth. But we’ve got pictures of their tombstones and they’re buried at the cemetery in Texas, in San Antonio, on the base where the cemetery is. We had pictures of their tombstones, and their names written on them.

And let’s see, I married her in ’69, and in 1970, my daughter was born, in December. We had been married 15 months. We got married and then had babies, you know, not the opposite.

My daughter and her first husband separated and divorced. We got Carrie and Shelbia, and we adopted Carrie and adopted Shelbia, you know, Shelbia, my granddaughter.  We adopted her. We’ve had her since 1993. Her biological mother and her biological father correspond with her now, but we raised her.

We had nine kids total. And we raised all of them. All nine of them. We have one daughter, one daughter, who gave us six grandchildren. Who gave us a variety of grandchildren. God bless.  My daughter is in Indiana. They come down occasionally and visit Shelbia. They have a good relationship. And my daughter married a good man, and we’re still praying for his salvation. But the previous bunch of men that she lived with, and whatever else she did… But my daughter got saved and born again.

And when she comes down here, she stays with Shelbia, and when she comes over to my house, we sit down at the island and we go over CBN daily devotion. They send me a daily devotion, or they send me the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges. But I’m in, I’m in Isaiah right now, and then Thessalonians, because I’ve already been through Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, First and Second Corinthians. And I sit down with her, and we go over Scripture and daily devotionals.

And I ordered the same thing for her, to be sent to her email, so she can do it while she’s there in Indiana, and they will send it to her email address. So, we got her born again, I didn’t get her born again, the Holy Spirit got her born again. Thank God, and I was part of it, by being a good witness, they tell me. I don’t feel like it, but I don’t go by feelings but I go by what God’s word says.
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Selling the Florida House and Moving to Arab, Alabama

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My wife and I had moved. We left England and got sent to Eglin, from ’87 to 2006, there with my wife. And in 2006, I sent them up here, and the way that happened… Yes, they were tired of Florida. And my brother-in-law, her brother, lives on Main Street. He has been here for years. He was born in ’54. And they were plundering, looking for a house. My daughters and my wife found a house in Pine Lake that they wanted to move into. Oh, I said “Okay.” Well…

We had bought a house. We were renting the house in Niceville, Florida. It’s a little north of Fort Walton Beach, you know, where Fort Walton Beach is, and Destin and Pensacola and Panama City. That’s where we lived, in Niceville. And we went to the Assemblies of God, and we went to another Pentecostal church.

We were renting a house at the time, and the guy that we were renting it from was a senior master sergeant that was renting it to us, and he was getting ready to leave the area and go to Arizona, so he put it up for sale. So, we bought the house rather than moving, because we were paying rent, and the house payments, I think, were about 400 a month. I think we paid $64,500 for the house in 1987.

We moved. I moved her up here after they had searched all over the place and decided that they wanted to live in Arab. I said, “Okay, Phil lives in Arab. You’ll have your brother.” So, we sold the house. We bought the house for only $48,000, and I sold it for a substantial profit. Because we kept it for 20 years, equity kept going up and up and up. And I said, “Thank you, Lord, for the equity.

So we bought a house in Pine Lake, across the street from Mayor Joslin’s. And, you know of him.. . Well, he keeps us straight because we live across the street from him. So I took the money that I got from the sale of that house and put it on the down payment of a house with 3,500 square feet, because we had six kids to raise, and we were living in a house with 1,700 square feet, with eight of us.

We turned the garage into a bedroom, and the Florida room into a bedroom. We sold all of her antique furniture, which she dearly loved. She forfeited it and made the living room a bedroom.

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Growing Up in Fayetteville: Music, 
Fort Bragg, and a Navy Veteran Father

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And so, my piano… I play piano, yes, and trumpet. I was in the marching band in high school. I was in the marching band at East Carolina. I was in the Little Theater at East Carolina. We did South Pacific. We did Paint Your Wagon. We did The Rainmaker. We did Antigone.

Since Fort Bragg is the home of the 82nd Airborne Division and the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center.  I would go to Fort Bragg and watch these crazy people jump out of the back of airplanes, because Fort Bragg didn’t have any fence on it. You just drive on to the base, and we’d go out there and watch them have exercises, watch them jump out of the back of C-130s or C-119s. And I said, “Okay, I’m joining the Air Force,” and I did.

So, after I went to East Carolina for a year, I joined the Air Force. I lived in Fayetteville, and that’s how I got into the Air Force, by being associated with the Army. Because when I went to the recruiting office, and the officer said “come in here” so me and my buddies were on the buddy program, and I joined. I don’t know what they did.

And I went to Texas, to the 3704th BMTS, Basic Military Training Squadron, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. I’ve got one brother. He was born a year and three days after me, October the 3rd of 1943.

My daddy was a seaman on a destroyer escort in World War II. Well, I’m a veteran like my father was a veteran. And I’ve got a T-shirt for my daughter that says, “I am the daughter of a veteran.” You can buy them all on Etsy. Etsy, where I got all these shirts. I’ve got all these hats, rather. This one says Vietnam Veteran. I’ve got one that says “all gave some and some gave all”. 58,874 gave all. I’ll wear that to church sometimes. And I got one that says, “Jesus Is My Boss.” Pastor says “ I like that hat”.

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Caring for Alice 
Through Her Final Three Years

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I love my wife. I miss her so much. She was sick for three years. Diversicare.  I’ll be all right.

I made a vow to her when I put a ring on her finger, till death do us part. And I was at the foot of her bed on Sunday morning at 9:30, when she went to be with the Lord, on November the 2nd… And the nurse came in, and she says, “Mr. Roberts.” I said, “Yeah.” She said, “She’s quit breathing”.  And I said okay. And the guy came in, fixed her face so… She died with a smile and they fixed her face. I was there every morning for three years, from seven o’clock in the morning to six o’clock at night. I would, I would take supplemental shakes because they don’t have good food, so she also didn’t have good food, but I would feed her what she would eat. And I would give her nutritional shakes, and the nurse’s aides would say,” that’s as good as a meal”. And I would give those to her, and she’d drink them.

And every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, for the last six months, when hospice came in… They were giving her medicine, or she had… She didn’t have any cartilage in her knees, which means her knees hurt continuously regardless, and I would take her to Huntsville and get a hyaluronic acid shot in her knees to give her some lubrication. But the lubrication did not give her any pain relief, and Diversicare cannot give you a narcotic pain reliever… What is it called? Narcotics. They couldn’t give her morphine until hospice came in, and that was the last six months. And then they could start, because hospice ordered it, and they started giving her morphine by mouth, and that gave her some pain relief.

But we had a nurse from hospice that would come in every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and pick her up under her arms and under her legs and sit her in a wheelchair. And she said, “Come on, Alice. You, me, and Jesus are going to go take a shower.” And she would take her down the hall for a bath, so that they wouldn’t have to give her a bed bath. I would take her sausage and biscuits and things like that. Of course, I could afford it. I got a good paycheck from the government, from the Air Force and from Civil Service.

And they said when hospice comes in, that’s a six-month death sentence, usually. And they were right. We were there six months. Thanks, hospice!

And it’s okay. People say, “Why do you cry?” I said, “Because it hurts.” I don’t need Medicine? I got God for my medicine. The Lord takes care of me.

“Oh, no, you’re not.” “Yes, I am.” “I don’t know. You’re not. You’re not going to do anything.” “I’ll be back in a minute.” I’d walk down the hall. “You’re back! Where have you been?” I said, “You told me to leave.” “I did not.” “Yeah, you did.” She says, “You don’t love me.” I said, “Yeah, I do. Yeah, I do. I’m here every day.” “No, you’re not.” “Yes, I am.”

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Raising Six Grandchildren as Our Own

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Shelbia’s mama was born in Nebraska, and we went to England. The babies, her babies, were all born in the United States after I got out of the Air Force. So they didn’t go.

But Jeremy, our youngest, he’s 60, 60, 61 now. He’s my baby boy. He’s called me Dad forever. It’s only money, Dad. You’ll make some more.” I said, “Yeah, I know.” He’s in Florida. He’ll be back in January. He was just up here last month, he and his sister, Amy.

They have the same mother, but different daddies. Jeremy was born in Germany, born to Jerry Hammond, my wife’s first husband. I knew him very well. He was retired Air Force, but he was 18 years older than my wife. Oh, she got married when she was 18. They were married for nine years, and I wasn’t the cause of her divorce from him. She was divorced when I met her at the NCO Club. One good-looking woman. They wore miniskirts back then. Do you remember those? And Carrie, Shelbia, Alicia, and Michael, Adrian and Hannah, Hannah Elizabeth. My baby girl! Okay, I love her. She is… She’s 27 now! She’s still my baby. She’ll be over… Today’s Friday. She’ll be over at the house tonight. She’ll spend tonight, tomorrow, Sunday, and she’ll go back to work Monday morning. She comes over every weekend. She’s my baby, always will be.

And my daughter says, “I’m your baby.” I said, “You’re one of my babies.” Hannah will have nothing to do with her birth mother.  Because she didn’t know her. She has nothing whatsoever to do with her. She was 18 months old, two years. She was two years old when we got her.

And the courts in Arizona had given my wife custody of the others. They had given us custody of the others at that time, and we had to go back again. I had to go back a separate time to get Alicia from the court. We went to Arizona. My wife said, “You want to adopt them all?” I said, “You want custody of them all,” because we’d already adopted Shelbia and Carrie.

Their mother and her useless husband, because he could not keep a job. He couldn’t pay his bills. I bailed him out so many times, it was ridiculous. But we went to Arizona, went to court, and we got Alicia, Michael, Hannah and Adrian.

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Winning Custody in Arizona: “My Husband Has Two Master’s Degrees”

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We went to court. They gave my wife custody of them. And she got into a big argument with one of the lawyers. The lawyer said, “What makes you think you and your husband are qualified to take care of them?” And she said, “Well, my husband has two master’s degrees.” I have one in public administration and one in counseling and human development, a bachelor’s in business and management, and an associate’s degree from the Community College of the Air Force.

I got two master’s degrees from Troy State University who had a campus in England. Jackie Suggs and her husband, Harold, were missionaries, and she was employed by Troy State as their Registrar admissions officer, because we had classrooms over there. And I was taking Accounting I and Accounting II and other courses over there.

And Troy lost the contract to the University of Maryland. Well, I had to transfer all my undergraduate hours from Troy to Maryland and finish my bachelor’s degree with the University of Maryland. And then I moved to Florida, and Troy has a campus in Fort Walton Beach. What’s the difference between Niceville and Fort Walton Beach? Ten miles. So, and my teacher for my master’s degree was a retired colonel, and he worked for Troy.

And I said all of that for what purpose? I have no idea. Oh, when my wife told the lawyer, “My husband has two master’s degrees,” it shut him up real quick, and the judge kind of giggled, because he thought it was funny that one of his smart alec lawyers was trying to belittle a woman who had good intentions of taking care of the children.

And we got… It’s amazing what God can do. You don’t need an education from a public university. God will supply all your needs. He will teach you. He will, he will, he will. He will teach you things that you cannot believe, that you can believe.

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Health Today: Blood Pressure, Eyesight, Tinnitus, and Beating Skin Cancer

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I went to the doctor. I take simvastatin for cholesterol. I take … I have low thyroid, so that produces whatever my thyroid is. And tamsulosin, which helps me with my prostate, and a baby aspirin. That’s the extent of my medication.

My blood pressure… I went to the… I went to the… I go to Family Premier Care. Valerie is my nurse practitioner. All of my test results were green! Everything was green, except for my hemoglobin. So, she told me, “I want you to get your blood work done.” This was on the first of November. She said, “I want you to get your blood work done on the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth… 13, and 14, and come see me back on the 15th.” Well, I went to CVS Pharmacy every day of those 14 days and had my blood pressure checked. I wrote it down. And my blood pressure is on every one of those little… Let me see if I can get it up for you. No, that didn’t do it. One moment. Anyway, my blood pressure is good. I took it this morning. It was 130… 113 over 79, and my pulse was like 71. So, am I in good health? I am.

The only thing is, I had an eye infection in this eye, so it’s like spiderwebs. I go see an ophthalmologist in Huntsville, Dr. Frederick. He is a brilliant, brilliant man. I’ve been seeing him for two years, trying to get my eyesight recovered in this eye. It’s 20/40 in here, which is… As long as I’m 20/40, I can drive. And I still have my license. I went to see Dr. Reynolds at EyeCare the early part of this month, and he says, “You’re legal.” I said, “Thank you, sir.” And he said, “I’ll see you in six months.” I said, “Thank you, sir. Not a problem.” So I’ll see Valerie again in four months. I’ll take my blood pressure occasionally.

I have, a steroid. Yeah, I lay down in the mornings, and I put one drop in it. And I don’t know what good it does, but he said do it. I said, “Yes, sir.” And then, the only thing bad about it is, it affects my depth perception. So when I stand up, I have to stand… People say, “You all right?” “Yeah, just give me a minute. I’ll be okay.” I like to grab a hold of something. And it takes me a little longer to get out that door, down those steps. And I’m gonna grab those rails. There’s a couple. I grab a tabletop. I’m gonna grab anything I can to get balance. So, am I okay? Yeah, I’m okay.

Oh, my shoulder. Oh, my shoulder hurts. That, but that’s… Arthritis. Yeah, you’ve heard of it. I go to bed at night, and they’ll get like that, and I have to get up in the morning and rub them. And when I go to bed at night…

I’ve got edema. This is ……. or something. Normally, I’ll wear compression socks. I took them off and threw them in the washing machine this morning, because I had forgotten to wash them yesterday. So I put something else on, but I’ll get my compression socks, and I’ll go back this afternoon and put them on. And that’s about it. I don’t have any complaints.

Oh, I have tinnitus. Oh, this one? ^Yeah. That and this one. These were basal cell carcinoma cancer. And they are… They’re good. The plastic surgeon was kind enough to cut off half my ear. I said, “Thank you, sir. I appreciate that.” But he got rid of the cancer, got rid of the cancer here. And the plastic surgeon did a skin graft over that. So I’m cancer-free.

I don’t remember. It’s been so long, you know? I don’t… I don’t even go to a dermatologist, because… One of the people in the nursing home… It’s been… It’s been since my wife died in 2025. So? It was after 2023 and before 2025, because one of the CNAs, nurses, over there said, “James, you need to get that ear taken care of.” She recognized it. I said okay. So I went to a dermatologist, and the dermatologist said, “We’re going to send you to a plastic surgeon,” and the plastic surgeon cut it out and did a skin graft.

And little people say, “What happened to your ear?” I said, “Cancer.” And their mama says to the little person… They know what cancer is, and they said, “I’m sorry.”

But I’ve got tinnitus. So? Do your ears ever ring? Do they ever ring? Never, never, never, never? Have your ears ever rung? Can you imagine that they ring at the highest pitch and never go away? Never, ever go away? Since 1983, I’ve had tinnitus.

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Small-Group Bible Study and the Teachings of Kenneth Hagin

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Okay. Encounter was good. Grow One, Two, and Three was a refresher course on being born again. I have had probably every scripture that they have covered, and I have read Grow One, Two, and Three. I have the book that Bill is teaching out of. Go online if you want to, and you get a copy on Book World, or you can get a copy for like six dollars, and he ordered them, and paid for shipping. Twenty dollars, and I said I bought four, and gave one to Michael and Shelbia. I gave one to, to… You know John? Yeah, John Wesley. John Wesley does my yard. John, he does everything. He does a lot of gutters. He’s a miracle worker. I gave him one, and I gave…

I do small groups. I… Whatever is presented, gets presented to me, to help… People say, “Why do you do that?” I said, “Because I feel like I should.” It’s okay. Do you have a still, small voice? I don’t know. Kenneth Hagin says that’s your conscience. Have you ever read anything by Kenneth Hagin? I love Kenneth Hagin. He was born in 1917;  he died in 2004. He had R-H-E-M-A, Rhema. That’s his ministry that continues today. That’s what Bill is teaching out of today. If I had the money, I’d buy everybody at Liberty a copy of that book, because…. No, you’re not. I don’t quit. Good. That’s what I’m saying. I’ll do every single thing that they say to do or not to…

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Setting Pride Aside: 
Accepting Kindness from Strangers

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Because when the Lord, when the Lord says don’t be like the Pharisees… The poor boy has lost just about everything he can think of. He didn’t have enough money to pay a co-pay. It’s like the pastor says, when you get older, you have more discretionary money. I’m gonna call it discretionary money.

I don’t, I don’t have any pride. If people want to help me, I’ll take your help. I took my pride and stuck it in my back pocket, and when they help me down the stairs, when they open doors for me… I’ve had young men, when I’m trying to get out of Wendy’s, come over: “Let me open that door for you.” I say, “Thank you.” I don’t have any pride when it comes to assistance.

I, I don’t. I just… “They’re taking advantage of you.” No, they’re not. I mean, I’ve taken advantage… “You, man, I’m helping you now, and I’m gonna help you to the best of my ability, because I will have situations presented to me.” The Lord will tell me when to do it and when not to do it, or how to do it or where to do it.

And I don’t, I don’t, I don’t know. But I know Bill always… Bill said, he said, “You’re good, man.” I said… And I don’t dare say, uh, I don’t dare say that… There’s nothing, not good, no good. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. He knows that; I know that. But I just say thank you.

And I’ve had women, not in Arab, in Walmart, standing at the register with 80 dollars’ worth of merchandise, and the lady says, “I got that.” I said…  “You don’t have to do that.” She says, “The Lord told me.” I said, “I’m not going to ruin your blessing.” She paid for it, and that’s not just one time that people have done that for me in Walmart. I cannot pay for that. “The Lord told me.” I said, “I am not arguing with you. If the Lord told you to do it, you do it.” And I didn’t say that to her. I just said, “Thank you very much.”

I had a lady come out at Walmart. I had my hat on. She says, “Thank you for your service.” I said, “Thank you very much.” She says, “Do you know Jesus?” And we’re standing at the double doors outside of Walmart, and I said, “Yes, ma’am, I do.” And I said, “He knows me.” And we stood there and talked in front of Walmart. Arab’s a good place to live. It is. I’ve got good people. I have had encounters, I don’t know what to do except say thank you. Thank you. And “Give,” the Bible says,” Give and it shall be given unto you: pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall men give unto you. It doesn’t say God is gonna give it to you. He will give somebody the desire in them to give to you when you are doing what the Word says, and that’s clear, and it shall be given. How much clearer can that be?
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A Halloween-Born Grandson 
and Memories of the Good Old Days

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I love that Pastor. Here’s the little things back at the house. I share them with my grandson. He goes to the Baptist Church over there. It’s right down the street. He was born October 31st of 1995. He’s 31. He was born on Halloween!

Yeah. We don’t celebrate his birthday then. We celebrate it on the 30th. I don’t have the heart to tell them not to celebrate Halloween. I have to leave the witches and warlocks and all of that before… Yeah, but he said…

When I was in grade school, when I was in grammar school, we had apple bobbing, and we did all kinds of things. Did you celebrate Halloween? Of course. That was… That’s when you could do things. It’s cool. You can’t do them anymore. That’s when we had Christian teachers. You don’t have them anymore. That’s when you got up and you said the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America before class began, and the teacher led it. And the people say, “What makes you think those were the good old days?” I say, “You didn’t have a lot of this, this, and this.” So, I would say that that nation was a tiny bit better than what you’re experiencing today.
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Retiring as a Master Sergeant 
and Reading Ahead for Small Group

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Air Force Master Sergeant, E-7. E-7, out of the top rankings, you know, E-7, E-8, E-9. It goes from one to nine. I mean, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. And then I didn’t make E-8, and I didn’t make E-9, because only three percent of the enlisted force make E-8, and only one percent make E-9. Bill was a command chief master sergeant, which is even more difficult, because it’s one thing to be chief master sergeant at squadron level or wing level. Oh, but it’s totally different to be at command level. That’s when you are in the elite…

That’s why I said, when he said he was having small groups, and he was teaching Kenneth Hagin, and he’s a chief master sergeant, I can… Hey. I went home, and I went online, and they have… It’s called World Book, and they sell used books, and they sell the books that he’s teaching out of. I got four of them for twenty dollars. Like I said, I gave them away. And I read it front to back. And I read it again, front to back, before small groups started, and I highlighted things in there. And so, when he started, I’d already read it twice.
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Until the End: A Love Letter to Alice Faye

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From September 2022 until November 2, 2025, I spent every day at Diversicare Nursing Home’s Memory Care Unit and loved our companionship until the end. In conclusion, I want to recognize my wonderful, marvelous wife of 52 years, 11 months, and 2 days, who passed away on Sunday, November 2, 2025, at 9:30 AM and broke my heart. God bless You, Alice Faye.

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