The Infamous Bobby's Crack

I did a personality inventory when I studied for my doctorate. The presenter told me that I was scored highly in working with my hands and that for me to be creative I needed to build something to increase my creativity. He told me to build something each week if it was nothing but a bird house. I responded that I had been building my whole life until I was called into the ministry.

I have built houses, churches, bridges, cabinets, tree houses, barns, and a "she shed" for my wife Lisa. Everywhere I have served as pastor and director of missions I have remodeled or new construction. I helped create the Chilton Baptist Builders for my home Association after serving with the Carpenters of Christ back in 1982. Was a member of the Bethel Baptist Builders when I was Director of Missions for the Bethel Baptist Association from 2003 to 2017. 

I served as a building advisor for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions helping churches across the state of Alabama build sanctuaries, education buildings, and remodeling. My experience was the reason I was asked to serve as advisor. In each endeavor I learned some that Dr. Chuck Swindoll wrote in his book, Hand Me Another Brick, “It is impossible to lead anyone without opposition.”

When I was called to serve at the Friendship Baptist Church in Clanton in 1995, the church had been trying to build a fellowship hall. The church was utilizing an old house adjacent to the church and were wanting a new, up-to-date building but some members wanted a gymnasium. They had been debating for a decade or longer.

Seeking help, I contacted the ALSBOM (Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions), and they sent a building advisor. I never imagined that I would be one years later.

Friendship had a building committee that could not agree. After the advisor’s presentation, he suggested that we visit a building in the Birmingham area. I knew the pastor from seminary and scheduled a meeting.

My pastor friend showed us the church’s Family Life Center or a Multiservice Building. I asked what he would do differently if he had to do it again. He gave us some very pertinent and valuable information. His greatest selling point was a family life center is anything you want it to be. Friendship wanted a family life center.

The ALSBOM advisor gave us the name of a Cristian contractor, the one that build my pastor friend’s facility. He had been many across the state. To help the church the contractor told me that if the church had some to serve as its subcontractor the church could have ten to fifteen percent of the total cost, which did. I became that person.

I secured all the permits and codes. The first problem was a forty-five-minute rain after the concrete slab was finished washing it down to gravel. The chairman of the building committee said, “Well it’s God’s house and if He wants to wash the concrete, He has a reason.” We continued.

We had one building committee member that eventually “crawfished.” The family life center was seventy-five completed when I had a visit from an Alabama State Building Inspector. The committee member had a relative that was an architect. The inspector could not find any problems other than the architect tried to discredit the licensed draftsman who drew the plans.

The first event in the Family Life Center/Multiservice was a children’s play, Down By The Creekbank. The disgruntled committee never caused any more problems. Dr. Swindoll states, “It is essential to face opposition in prayer.”

But it came to pass, that when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews. And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned? Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall. Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity: And cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before thee: for they have provoked thee to anger before the builders. So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work Nehemiah 4:1-6 KJV

 

The Family Life Center/Multiservice Building made me infamous. After the deluge and repair of the 100’ X 80’ concrete slab and before cutting an expansion joint, it cracked across the eighty feet. They call it” Bobby’s Crack.” All I can say about that is, “It’s a big un.”

 

 

 

 

"Sin Too Great?"

J M’s eldest son asked, “Dad, why don’t you give your heart and life to Christ?”  J M answered, “Son you don’t know what all I have done.”

J M had an intriguing past.  As a five year-old he, along with eight siblings, felt the impact The Great Depression.   Six years later, he witnessed his dad’s suicide.   At eighteen, he left for WWII.

While serving in North Africa and Italy, he had a machine gun and a grenade wound.  He was left for dead in a foxhole, taken prisoner, eventually escaping, and missing in action for a short time.  J M’s mom received word that he had been killed in action.  She responded, “No, he is not because I am praying for him.”  Yes, J M had a praying mother.  Her last plea before her death was that all her children be saved.

Somewhere in J M’s past, he learned his sins were so bad that he could not be saved.  He attended church on Christmas, Easter, and funerals without any persuasion, but had to be begged on other occasions.  He wanted his children to be Christians, but he knew there was no hope for him.  J M always made sure that someone offered the blessing before a meal.  J M acknowledged that God was in control, but could not accept the fact that God could forgive him.

His eldest son could not bear the thought of eternal separation from his dad.  He would say, “Dad, if you ask God to forgive you, Psalm 103:12 says, ‘As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.’”

J M was confident that his sin was too great.  He understood Romans 3:23, for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God, but did not understand Ephesians 3:20, now unto him (Jesus) that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.  The Holy Spirit was working in J M.

Finally, J M could not resist the prayers and pleas of those who loved him.  At fifty-eight, J M asked Jesus to forgive him.  Dying two years later, J M had lived an abundant life as promised in John 10:10b, I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

"To God be the Glory"

In an effort to stay within budget, I volunteered to build the cabinets for the Family Life Center kitchen at the Friendship Baptist Church in Clanton.  The church bought the materials and I furnished the labor.  I made them of oak with raised panel doors.  Along with the cabinets, I had built an island for serving food and fashioned oak underneath the stainless steal sink to hide the plumbing.  It was a big job, as was the entire project.

As I unloaded the cabinets on a Saturday workday, one of my deacons noticed that I had a worried look.  With apprehension, he asked if I was okay.  I think he thought that I was frustrated over the Family Life Center project and my involvement with it.  I had been a subcontractor of sorts for it and saved the church 18-20% of the total construction cost.

I told him that my thoughts were with an old friend.  The night before I received word that my friend JJ had been involved in a terrible accident where he worked.  JJ was severely burned having third degree from his waist down, second degree from his neck down, and first degree on his face.  Prognosis was that he would loss everything from his waist down.

JJ, a wheel inspector for ABC Rail in Calera, stepped on a four-inch gas line in performance of his duties.  The gas line fueled the heat treatment department for the hardening or tempering of train wheels.

As JJ stepped on the gas line, it broke and gas filled JJ’s overalls and then ignited from the flames used in the heat treatment.  Witnesses saw JJ rocket into the air about fifteen feet and then fell about thirty feet onto a concrete floor below.

Had JJ worn pants with a belt, he would have lost every thing from waist down according in ABC Rail Safety officials.  University of Alabama Birmingham hospital doctors said the quick response of the ABC Rail Safety team covering JJ’s burns with shaving cream and the rescue team with the airlift unit saved his life.  The shaving cream sealed and cleansed the burns.

When my deacon friend asked me if I was okay, I did not know much about JJ at that time.  My information was that JJ was in critical condition and he may not live.  I told my deacon friend that I did not know how to pray for JJ.  I did not know whether to pray that JJ live or that Lord take him.  I wanted to install the cabinets and get to UAB hospital burn unit to see my friend.

JJ and I had been friends all our lives.  We were the same age, but were in different classes at school due to our birthdays.  I cannot remember our teenage years with being around one another with baseball, football, and basketball, watching JJ sail off the swing and dive into the Little Cahaba at Bull Dog Bend, or taking a ride in his Dodge Super Bee.  I really think he came to the house to see my sister!

JJ loved playing cow pasture football because his mother would not allow him to play organized football.  I have thrown JJ so many touchdown passes that I am afraid to give you a number.  One Saturday we played football, supposedly light tackle, against some boys from Isabella at their high school football field.  I remember JJ said he was so sore after the game that he could hardly go to work on midnights crawling from his Super Bee to his job on the overhead crane.  We played football well into our thirties.

JJ had his share of troubles.  His wife had been sickly for years and Aetna Insurance had paid the limit for her hospital stays and surgeries.  JJ told me one time that he owed almost eighty-five thousand dollars to Brookwood hospital in Birmingham.  His eldest son got involved in the Gothic culture and became a drug addict.  That son later died in a drug related suicide.

After I installed the cabinets, I visited JJ at UAB.  I will never forget the sight I saw.  JJ did not look human.  Swollen and pumped full with fluids, JJ’s head and body was swollen beyond recognition.  His eyes were as big as a man’s fist and his ears were as large as a man’s cupped hand.  We cried.  I will never forget that deforming image of my friend.

For weeks, I visited JJ at UAB’s burn unit.  JJ suffered excruciating pain from the burns, from shaving good skin for skin grafts, and from the shoulder that sustained damage when he hit the concrete floor.  On one visit, I witnessed JJ break into a sweat as he tried to stretch a rubber hose with the injured shoulder.  He struggled to pull it an inch or two. 

Most people thought JJ would never work again, but he did.  Instead of taking a medical disability, JJ would work at ABC Rail until it closed.  Then he worked at a pipe shop.  He remains an avid sports fan, playing a lot of golf.

JJ has been a deacon in his church for many years.  I had the privilege of doing a marriage renewal for his wife and him.  I was with him at his son’s funeral.  Through all that he has been, JJ has taught me faithfulness and hope.

But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God (Romans 8:25-27 KJV).

I remember being in agony as I prayed for JJ.  Do I pray he live, or for the Lord to receive him?  I told the deacon at Friendship that I finally prayed, Lord may Your will be done and You receive glory.

Why I honor Memorial Day

The Man in the Middle Lives

Appearing as a dark fog drifting from hole to hole

Death, devastation, and destruction shrouded

The sacred ground where demonic fiends

Methodically pierced the hearts of the mutilated

Silent are loud bombs, rattling guns, exploding grenades as

Aromas of sulfur, blood, and guts saturate the air along with

Coalescing cries of pain, pleas for help, and begging God

Become quiet as the grim reaper surveys the carnage

Enthusiastic agents of death with spikes of demise

See three in another death pit to add to their trophies

Two disfigured youth had given the ultimate sacrifice as

Death laughed when his urchins penetrated their silent hearts

One urchin twisted his lethal tool deep into victim’s heart

As his partner made a noxious jab in the other victim’s heart

Shielded by the prayers of a mother on her knees and far away

Her son lies motionless beneath two that died to set people free

Petrified, the son deciphered enemy idiom concerning his plight

With devious confidence, the urchin replies the third one is ours

Blinded buoyancy does not allow them to see the young man’s verve

Death cannot and will not eradicate a mother’s prayer and true life

Anonymous and gone are the two who shielded the man in the middle

Eternal are the praying mother and the son whom she loved

Always present are the agents of evil seeking to kill and destroy

A praying nation will continue to bolster the red, white, and blue

The man in the middle left a legacy behind through his children

Teaching them to be responsible citizens for freedom is not free

My daddy was the man in the middle.  Private Mitchell Clark Hopper fought under General Patton in North Africa and Italy.  Somewhere in Italy dad lay beneath two dead soldiers in a foxhole.  German machinegun fire ripped open his chest and abdomen.  He pulled dead soldiers together and two German soldiers pierced the fallen soldiers’ hearts.  With a limited knowledge of the German language, he heard them say, “What about the one in the middle?”  “He’s dead.”

Receiving official word that dad was killed in action, Granny Hopper said, “No.  He is alive. I am praying for him.”