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1:11A couple of suggestions for tonight that are appreciated. We may have quite a few testimonies. I would ask you to seek to limit your time to about two minutes. And if we can get back around and maybe take another two-minute cycle or something. Something to that effect, obviously. It's a general parameter. I want to be courteous and try to get everybody to be able to share that wants to share, and that may be difficult to do, and even the time we have tonight. But also, just give some thought to what you're going to say beforehand. We want your words to obviously be charitable, well-chosen, that kind of thing, and edifying. Also, if you could think through just a little bit of what you're going to say, so maybe you're not up here rambling kind of like what I'm doing right now.

2:13Yeah, so with that, and I may just interject a few of my memories just to get us started, and I'll probably just interject them throughout the evening. But one of the many, but one of the things that I remember about Clyde is his zest for life and just how he attacked life. He enjoyed many things. He was a lover of good things. And one of the first times I really found myself trying to keep up with him was in his beekeeping days. And so he has all these bees out there right across from the church in our downtown location. And he says, Come with me to Take care of the bees. Okay, I'd like to learn. That sounds like fun. And we go out there, and you know, he gets the little smoker going, kind of. And then he says, Well, let's go get him. I said, Well, you know, I've always seen people covered in, you know, chain mail, you know, really, you know, so you don't get stung. He goes, Yeah, we don't have time for that.

3:22I said, and so he starts walking over there to the hives, and I said, But aren't you going to get stung? Oh, yeah. Well, Clyde, you'll probably get stung too. I don't know if I want to play this game. Sure enough, we get over there, and bang, he gets stung, and he says, Hey, just pull it out like that. And then he says, Get that smoker going. Well, it's not hardly even lit, you know. And so, yeah, just put it there, and bang, I got stung. He goes, Yeah, come here, you just pull it out like that. And then later in life, he told me, He said, You know, I heard that bee stings are good for you. And he says, You know, I don't have any pain, and I don't know, like arthritis or whatever. He said he didn't have pain, and he attributes it to bees.

4:08So that was one of the first memories I have of his zest, and one more of his zest for life. It shows up later in life. I believe he is 97, and he still had his driver's license, right? And this was an interchange between Aaron Wilton and Clyde, and it was classic. And I don't know if I'll get the exact words right, but this is. This is what took place. You know, we'd see him show up in a new car, or a pretty new car, every so often, and then every once in a while, a few days or weeks later, you'd see a big scrape on the side. Clyde, what happened? Well, you know, that fire hydrant jumped right out in front. Yeah, I know, they do that, right? And so somewhere around age 97, you guys took away his driver's license. Wasn't that about somewhere about that?

4:59Well, that's not his story. I'm telling you, this is my recollection here. This is my story sounds better. Okay, so the doctor may have taken it. So this is what so Aaron and Clyde are sitting there, and Aaron had taken away his, or whatever. However, he didn't have his driver's license anymore. So maybe the doctor gave the orders and somehow he blamed it on the kids. And then so we're sitting there talking, and he turns to now, he had just taken his driver's license and it passed at the state of Texas. And so he got it renewed, right? So he had some life left on this driver's license. And he turns to Clyde. I mean, Clyde turns to Aaron and says, so when are you going to give me back my driver's license? And he says, well, Clyde, we don't think it's really safe for you to be on the road. He says, well, that's not what the State of Texas thinks.

5:58And I said, well, he's got you there, Aaron. And I'm like, what are you going to say to that? And Aaron's kind of like, well, that doesn't mean it's true. He's got you there, Clyde. But we'll talk about this later. Anyway, but that just shows his zest for life and just the way he life just tackled it with zest. Okay, so maybe we can just start and kind of work our way around the room. Anyone got? Okay, come on up, Rob.

6:27Stand up here and talk into the mic. We've got a couple of recordings going. This is a continuation of the driver's license tale. There's a whole lot more to it than what your pastor just said, what our pastor just said. I was sitting talking to Clyde, and Foncine had been begging him to stop driving, as had Stan, as had Aaron, and they were told me he was really resisting it. And one night, either at our house after Sunday dinner or something, I looked at him and I said, Clyde, have you lost your mind? You are not fit to drive. And he got this quizzical look on his face, and he said something like, You may be right.

7:15But I don't know if I had anything to do with it, but he quit arguing about it after that. And I could say that, and Foncine didn't want to tell him that. She was too nice. But the real thing I want to tell you is, I have an older brother who was here for. The funeral, and he was at Jacksboro yesterday, lives in Wichita Falls. My brother and I grew up in a church, never missed a Sunday. And this was back in the days when Sunday schools gave attendance things, and he had a list of them this long.

7:47But when he went to college, he drifted away and he got into things like Zen, Buddhism, studying atheism, and transcendental meditation. He was a doctor of psychology, and he just went off on a tangent until he met Clyde Wilton. And Clyde, in his some kind of way that Foncine, Tom could probably explain it better than me, he influenced my brother Johnny with his behavior and the way he loved people as Christ did. My brother's kind of a strange individual. He was a psychologist that didn't like people.

8:41And yesterday, or at the funeral, I can't remember which, he came up to Foncine and he said, I love that man. And he brought him back to Jesus. Wonderful. Somebody. Else, Patrick, come on, don't be bashful. You know, just I'm talking to the rest of you. I actually got several, but I'm only going to do maybe two, and then if we have time, I'll come back up here. Here's the titles of them. You finally came. The vice president calls, no hanky-panky, and grab that kid.

9:36All right, so we'll see how many I get to. The first I really wanted to share with you during the service, but I was instructed to chop, and so I chopped and didn't get to this one. It was when first, you know, basically Tom and Tom, I want you to tell about the first time you met Clyde. You hadn't done that yet, very first meeting. But Tom had already come down, talked to Brother Clyde about the Pioneer Program. We were at Bethel Baptist Church at that time, and so he welcomed the entire program to come down to Emmanuel. And so I went a little bit earlier. Tom had already talked with Clyde, cleared everything, and I wanted to check it out. I didn't know too much about it. And of course, as I shared with you, I was there, second service, he had me singing. But of course, you know, with my voice and you got seven people there, I do tend to stand out. So that's.

10:33So, anyway, you know, after we scoped it out, we did the first, you know, Pioneers there and a few Fridays. Next thing I know, a bunch of those college students join. And I mean, I think that was really the turning point at Emmanuel. All those college students coming and joining. And man, it was a happening place. Because folks forget this, but we not only brought the kids on Friday nights, but we also brought them on Sundays. Can you imagine Pioneer Sunday morning? That was interesting. But anyway, we're up there, and I don't know what was going on. We were doing something at the church. We're always trying to fix stuff and all that kind of stuff. And I'm walking with Clyde that back alleyway, you know, going towards Ed Buildings. And he's walking beside me, and suddenly he kind of stops, and I kind of turn around, look at him, and he's just bawling. And I said, Clyde, what's wrong? He says, I'm just so happy. I said, you're happy, you're crying. He says, you don't understand. It's been so lonely. I prayed for helpers to come help us. It's been so many years, and now you're here. You're not just talking about me, he's talking about all the college students. And so that was just, oh, that he had me for that point on, you know. All right. Then, no hanky-panky.

12:05This was told to me. I wasn't actually present. But in the early days of the shelter, it wasn't just for women. One house was for men, and one house was for women. Now, that shows how naive we all were, including Clyde. And let's just say some things were happening, shouldn't have been happening. Clyde and LaRue found out about it, and several of the residents were Hispanic, and particularly some of the guys that were causing problems with some of the ladies. And so they wanted to make darn sure that they understood exactly what they're upset about. So they brought in Al Gallegos. I don't know how many of y'all remember Al. He passed away here this last year. But Al was just brilliant, brilliant chemist at AM and just fluent in Spanish and English. And he used to interpret for the Spanish speakers Clyde's sermons. They used to have sermons. He would have Laotians. They'd have translation for them. They had Hispanics. They had Al would do the translation for Spanish. So they had three different languages going simultaneously. And so they call in Al, and they meet and I would embarrass a certain person that actually attends this church still. He is in that meeting, and he is one of the residents. And some of y'all know from me telling you that. But anyway, he was talking to these guys, and so Clyde was saying, No more, da-da-da-da-da. And I'll was no more da-da-da-da in Spanish, and no more of this, da-da-da-da. And LaRue is just getting more and more agitated, more and more agitated while he's going because she doesn't think Clyde's getting to the point. And LaRue is very feisty. And so LaRue finally just burst out, and Al, you tell them no more, Hanky Panky.

14:09And Al goes he and he's, there is no equivalent in Spanish for no hanky-panky for the only time in his life he couldn't translate it. And the thing is, the guys actually do enough English. They burst out laughing when they saw Al couldn't translate it. But anyway, that's what. Somebody else. Okay, please. So I just started attending this church maybe eight years ago, and so I didn't know Clyde well, or hardly at all. Being here for a while, I decided I would like to know Clyde. I didn't have a father that was a believer, so I didn't have that. And Clyde was about the age of my dad. And so I thought, well, I'll sign up for Greek. I could learn, I could get to know Clyde privately doing Greek. So he was so generous. Oh, you're such a good student, which was such a baloney. And but we were there and we talked about so many things, and it was just such a joy to go every week. And I'd plod through the translation. It was just terrible. But anyway, but one day, most of you that knew Clyde knows he did checkers. And he was always trying to get me to play checkers with him. I thought, I don't want to play. I'm going to get whipped every time. So one day, I hadn't done any Greek, and so we played checkers. So it's funny. So, you know, he's talking about how he's played checkers all his life and he's really good, and this, that, and the other. And so we played one, and he wiped me out. We played two, and he wiped me out, and he lost his place in the third gate, and I beat him. And so he was going, You won! Like, you won! Yeah, it was pretty fun. I don't want to play anymore.

16:10That's a good choice. Somebody else. Come on up. Tristan, tell us your name. My name's Tristan. I am a great-grandson of Papa Clyde, as I call him. On that note about the checkers, we used to go to his. His house whenever he had a house, and it was Granddad, Mimi, and my mom. And Granddad, as soon as we all walked in, they would all go to the table, sit down, play checkers, and I would watch. And I'd say, Granddad, you might lose. And then Papa Clyde would say, Well, he might.

16:51And then after they would finish playing, I'd say, Papa Clyde, can I play? He said, Sure. And you know, we would play, and he'd beat me. Next time we go over, Papa Clyde, can I play? He's like, Would you get any better? I was like, No, but I'm going to try. And he wiped me out. And then the third time, I vaguely remember this, so it might not be as accurate as when it happened. But we play, and I was like, Papa Clyde, why are you so good? And he's like, Well, I think ahead. And that resonates with me because, well, I'm a 16-year-old and I tend to be pretty impulsive, as my parents like to tell me.

17:36As soon as they tell me that, I say, No, I'm not. You got it. But I say that because recently, this past summer, not recently, but this past summer, we spent two weeks with my granddad and Mimi. And I just kept thinking about that, thinking about how he said, you got to think ahead. And it's like the game of checkers. Life is like the game of checkers, you know. You can't just blindly move the pieces around the board and expect to do anything, because that's what I did for a long time.

18:11Just boom, game's over, you lost. Try again. So what I'd like to say is that he really taught me to think ahead and to think methodically and to think with care, not only thinking ahead, but to think with care. And so I'd just like to say thank you to Papa Clyde. Good. Thank you. Yeah, some people keep talking about Clyde's kindness, and that he is, except somehow on the checker field. Brutal, exactly. I remember a story about Clyde. Just I love him as he, when I first met him, I'll tell you about when I first met him.

19:06We were at a church here in town, and I'll give you the way I remember it. A couple individuals didn't really care for our program, the children's program. A couple individuals in the church had an issue with the kids that we were bringing in, and they made such a big enough stir that the pastor really didn't know what to do. And tried to mediate the situation and basically took me down to see Clyde Wilton. He said, Well, I've got the solution. We can take the children's program down to Emmanuel Baptist Church. There's a church there. And when I so he takes me up there, and I'm been out riding my bicycle. So I'm riding I'm still in bicycle clothes. And at the time I was doing a lot of cycling. And so the pastor goes, takes me down there, and Clyde's up there at the shelter working on the shelter. And just went up there, and I remember him coming out and just, well, howdy, and very now, Pat, there's something you wanted me to say about that meeting that you.

20:23Yeah, that's what he was doing. You left all that out. Yeah, yes, yes. About what year was this? This would have been 1989. 1989. Yes, I'm going to say it may have been even 1988, but it may have been January 89 or something there. It was this it was it was cold and and so anyway, I remember sit sitting down and he was up there working under yeah, he was working uh on the the shelter and just So Clyde was 69. Yes, that's about 30 years ago. He was under the house. He was under the house and came up and.

21:11December 89? No, no. December 88, probably. Yeah. Maybe it was 89. I don't know. It's right there, somewhere there. Thank you. So anyway, I asked him, you know, so the pastor that took me down there introduced me, and I told him about the kids' program. And I could tell already, you know, he just said, you know what? They are welcome here. They are welcome. And he said, you can have the whole place. The gospel is for all peoples. And I just remember from that moment just really connecting with Clyde and just his love for people and his vision for the gospel to go into the nations.

22:02And one day he told me about his testimony. This is a second story. He told me his testimony. He said, you know, he's talked about how he became like the prodigal son. There was a time when he wasn't real serious about the Lord. And I think it's sometime in his college years or something. He says, he says, and you know, I stooped so low, and his nose would get rid of. Wrinkled, if you've ever seen that. I stooped so low. I wandered so far away from my father's home. I woke up one day in the pigsty. I stooped so low as to take a ballroom dancing class.

22:51And that's when I woke up and I knew I need to return to my father. This is way out of line. Boy, times have changed, haven't they? Okay, I see a hand back here. Randy, please come on up. Why not tell us? Introduce yourself. Okay, I'll be a nice doctor. My name is Randy Wimpy, and I came to, I was born in Bryan, and I came back. My father was a Baptist minister and chased him all over the country wherever he moved as a Baptist pastor. And then in 1969, I came back to school.

23:35I came here, moved back to go to AM exactly 50 years ago. And it was at that time that, of course, I got real involved in the Baptist student ministry at AM and quickly heard about this little church in downtown Bryan that had a ministry across the street called the House of the Rising Sun. It was a little closer. How many of you remember the old coffee house things that they had? Well, that's what. So it was actually located where one of the women's homes is now.

24:08It was torn down. I don't know. It should have been torn down before I got there. But it was at that place that I encountered the Wilton family. And not too long after that, began to lead worship at Emmanuel for four or five years. And continued on, have been leading for 50 years now. And still, in fact, still leading worship. And I'm so, so grateful for Emmanuel Baptist and for Clyde Wilton for giving me that opportunity and opening that door for me. You know, I could, if I was at my deathbed and someone were to ask me, tell me the five most influential men in your life.

24:52And there is no question that he would be right there in the middle of that. And I am just so grateful for all that he stands for. And I learned very quickly who he was because early on, I was dating his daughter, and we were standing on the front porch of his house, and there was a bright yellow light. You remember the bright yellow light in the front of the house? And we were sitting there, standing there after this date. That we'd had, and I well, I'll blame it on Kathy. She turned the light bulb off. She's not here, so she cut the light bulb off so we'd have a little privacy. And it wasn't two seconds later, the door creaks open and a hand comes out and screws the light bulb out.

25:53I knew exactly what I was in for. And I'm like the lady that spoke back here. I took Greek for a year one day. If you know what I'm talking about. And I could go on and on with so many memories. But the main thing that I want to say is this: I want to say thank you to this church and its leadership for allowing the roots of Clyde Wilton, his heart, to continue on in this church.

26:27Through your pioneer ministry, through your faithfulness to preach the word and its simplicity, to accepting people who other people won't accept, to having your arms wide, wide open, to remaining, no matter how big you get, to remaining a family church. And that is, I can't tell you how important that is to me. This is the thing that attracted me to Clyde Wilton and to Emmanuel Baptist from the very beginning. The church. Was all about families. It was all about relationships. And I have, from a distance, I've witnessed that in this church over the years, and I'm so, so grateful. And I know that that will not be something that's temporary. It will be something that will continue on. The heart of Clyde Wilton will be planted deep within this church. And I just say, let it live out, and you won't go on the wrong path. I promise you that.

27:29Thank you. I saw Darren. Yes, I saw you. I saw his hand. Man, my brain is flooding. Even seeing this pulpit, man, the memories that I got three points, but I'm going to try to make it quick. But even when I first visited Emmanuel, I think it was December of 89. Because I was in the Marine Corps in December of 88, and that wasn't happening. Okay, so anyway, but I remember talking about Clyde says, whatever you can do, you can have this place. Well, Emmanuel was in rough shape, man. That was, it was like a car with 400,000 miles on it, man. I remember walking in the hallway, and they had more pans and pats running everywhere, and it's raining inside and outside. Half the, half the, I don't know, maybe a tenth of the pews were broken. They had the old theater. Seats that were right there, and you be careful the ones you sit in. And during the preaching, I remember somebody, ah, like, anyway, kind of little joke, and Clyde said, that was the Lord. Anyway, so anyway, but Clyde, anyway, he, yeah, he was, I knew, I knew Clyde very well. That was six and a half years the first time in Emmanuel, seven and a half years the second time. I would definitely say Clyde totally loved people, totally loved the rejects.

29:06Clyde would love people that it was hard to love. I remember sitting in the office with him with some prostitutes, and he was just telling me about Jesus, and it was good. Because I'm like, man, I have no patience for some of this, but he was loving them, and we give them 20 bucks. Oh, Clyde would always give him money. I'm like, Clyde, you can't do that. You can't do that. I think the Lord's going to take care of it. I said, Clyde, you can't do that. You can't do that. Well, he says, Give it everyone to ask you. And I said, I believe that. I believe that. But Clyde did love people, and he would let anybody preach in his pulpit, which about two-thirds of the time was good.

29:54You know, and other times, too, I remember we would clap at the end of the message. Gene at one time leaned over and said, Well, sometimes you can clap that it was good, and sometimes you can clap that it's over. Anyway, but that I mean, I remember Clyde sitting here with all of his books and his 200 little markings, you know, and sometimes they're all marked with toilet paper, and I'm like, I don't wonder how I got those notes. But anyway, okay. But anyway, okay, I'm just not trying to do a stand-up routine. But anyway, Clyde for sure loved people. Amen. And one thing, too, if you asked Clyde to pray for you, he would pray. I can tell you so many times in ministry I would say, Clyde, would you pray for me? And he would come back again. I've been praying for you. And even when LaRue was around, he said, he said, we've been praying for you every day, every day, every day. And even when there was a girl before my wife that almost took down my ship, he said, I'm praying for you, Darren. And I said, thank you, thank you. And he would really pray. And I remember one time he told me that he was praying about three hours a day. I'm like, I don't know anybody that prays three hours a day. But he would pray, and I still got, I mean, I got it. I got it at Christmas. Y'all got the cards right? Darren, thinking of you. I still get those. Okay. All right. Cool story. So he loved people. He prayed for them. He heard from God. I can tell you 10 times where Clyde would just come out of nowhere and say the Lord had spoken to him something. And I didn't know how it affected anything, and he was 100% on. I got my first ministry job at St. Michael's Academy, and I was so excited because he asked me to teach the Bible. It was like for like no pay, but I was like, I don't care, barely. It was like minimum wage or something. And I was teaching these kids, and it was real exciting, and some kids were getting it. And then Clyde came in on a Sunday night and said, The Lord had spoken to him that all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. He said, I got this this afternoon, like the Lord just gave me this, and I want to preach about it. And he really spoke to me that night. And anyway, the next morning I get a call, or maybe I got home that night, and somebody, St. Michael's, was mad at me, supposedly, because of things I was teaching. And I didn't know how to handle it, but I remembered it says, All who desire to live godly will suffer persecution. And so they actually pulled in the bishop from the area. St. Michael's came in, and it all worked out for awesome because they got to share the gospel with the Episcopalian bishop and with a whole bunch of people. And they said, Well, officially on paper, you teach him what we believe, but we don't really kind of, anyway. But it was real cool because Clyde really helped me prepare for that, that it was really there. I mean, so Clyde definitely heard from the Lord until about different times he would feel led to give a message, and it was really, really good. And I know y'all know this too, but Clyde was the real deal. You know, you hear things about different people in town and something like this, and they say, Well, so and so. Goes to so-and-so church, and he claims to be a Christian, and then through counseling, I find out some bad story or something.

33:06And I can tell you, being around Clyde, that he was the real deal, that he wasn't fake in any way, and he's going to have giant, giant rewards in heaven. I believe, I mean, I believe in Clyde came, he was a standing ovation. He was real faithful, and I wouldn't be here either. I don't think any of us would be here if it wasn't for Clyde and his faithfulness. So, I appreciate him very much. Yeah, it's a lot of people don't finish well in our generation. We're seeing a lot of ministers not finishing their race well, and certainly Clyde is faithful to the end. Okay, I saw some hands. Okay, Marilyn, why don't you come on up? We'll just keep working our way back this way, and we'll come back around.

34:10Well, I'm going to try and remember the three things that really stand out. One is sort of a I think it happened, but it's sort of a hazy thing. Excuse me. Some of you remember Rambo, and he had surgery. And after surgery, we took him into our home for two weeks to help him recuperate. And for breakfast, it was Howard and Rambo and Clyde. And that was, I stayed in the kitchen. But what really has struck me is that when I first came to the shelter and he came to me and he said, Would you just go and would you just be a friend to Maria?

35:14As we grew known and speak and give her and cry and clap. And then every time we would go, he would come then that Sunday and he would put his arm around me and said, Thank you so much for loving Maria. And it wasn't hard to do. But he always, always, always asked, How did it go? Is she okay? And just his concern for people. But one thing I really remember about him was that I think it was his 90th birthday.

35:57To me, Clyde was a man. Who was very low maintenance, and particularly when it came to food. And I remember, I think it was Keith Richardson, I mean, Keith Christensen, who stood up and shared, he was living with Clyde at that time. And he said, I want to share with you Clyde's favorite meal. I thought, well, this is going to be good, because I know he liked beans and rice. And I know when he came to my house, he didn't eat the meat. So I thought it was interesting. He said, you take two pieces of bread and you slice a big slab of onion and you put it between the two bread.

36:39And I was waiting for it. Tomato, mayo, something. Nope, that's it. You put a little pepper on. That's his favorite sandwich. And that really, to me, pictured Clyde always reaching out to others but low maintenance himself. What a man. Yes, bee stings and onion sandwiches. It'll take you a long way. And what's that? And buttermilk, yes, buttermilk. One thing, a quick story. I remember some people had panhandling, came around, knocked on Clyde's door and asked him for some money, for some food.

37:30And Clyde said, Well, you know, I just had a peanut butter sandwich in here, and I'll be happy to make you one. He goes, No, I need a hot meal. A hot meal. He's like, I guess we could warm it up. But I just had one of those. Why wouldn't that be good for you? I saw another hand back there. Come on up. Well, as Darren said, there was about two-thirds of the sermons that were good, and one-third that wasn't. And I was probably one of the one-thirds in the beginning for sure. And I blame it on Darren because he's the one that forced me to get up here. And he told me, Brother, it's just, you've got to preach. I don't know what I'm doing. He says, okay, it's all right, just get up there and say what's on your heart. So I did. And I think it was on faith of something, some book you probably gave me. I pulled out and had some form of outline. But I preached, if you want to call it that, and I come down. Clyde was sitting there at the downtown campus.

38:50And if you knew him well, he would always keep notes. He's always writing stuff down. I could see him while I was talking. I wasn't quite sure. What he was writing, and then I get down there. Well, help was all right. And then he kind of frowns down on his paper and looks back up at me and he says, 94. I'm like, that's pretty good. 94. He's like, no, you grunted 94 times. You grunted 94 times. Well, that's something to work on, I guess. Hopefully, I've gotten a little better.

39:31But so that was one of the first memories I had of Clyde. But one of the other things I wanted to share was: I may have shared this with some, but when it comes to people's giving, Clyde was a very generous man. And I think we all saw that with his time. He was generous with his time and spent time with people, loved people, and we've been saying that. But when I first started coming here, I took over the finances from Darren's wife. And those were some times where Emmanuel was, I don't know how we kept the lights on sometimes. And we had to structure how we wrote our checks to pay the bills.

40:30But there was one thing that came every month, and it was the check that we wrote Clyde to be the pastor here, and he just signed it over every month. And so he counted a lot of things, but one of the things he didn't count that I saw was his money. He was very, very generous with that. So much so that he would always track me down and say, Matt, I'm in my 90s, and I can't always remember if I've written my tithe check. And so I need you to remind me, if you haven't gotten it this month, come find me and I will write the tithe check. And he didn't forget.

41:10He never forgot. But anyways, he was, I just, you can't share that when he's with us, and you're not supposed to tell what people give. But y'all probably know that and should know that. He was very generous. He put his money where his mouth was. And so that's impacted me personally. James, come on up. Just a couple of quick comments. I've only been going to Emmanuel for about ten years, but when Clyde found out that I knew a little bit about computers, he asked me to help him out. And I remember the first time that he brought me over and he says, Well, you know, here's my computer, and here's what I like to do.

42:09And he said, I needed to print this, and I need to look up the addresses here. He's in the process, I think, of sending out his yearly letters and things. And so I was impressed that at the time an 80, 90-something-year-old could get as far as he did. But I would say, Well, okay, Clyde, here's what you need to do. You need to go here, here, and here, and do this, that, and that. And he would look at me and say, Well, all right. But to this day, I am certain he had no idea what I was saying. So he probably got someone else, like Aaron or someone, to help him. Between that and getting his email, there was always, hey, Brother James, can you come over? I'm just, I'm having trouble with that email. I need your help with that email. All right, Brother Clyde, I'll be there Monday. And anyway, it was always a hoot, and he would just, you would look at, yeah, okay, mm-hmm. But he wasn't, you know, so it's just a different generation.

43:05But to echo what Matt said, I remember the first time that I preached, he was the first one to make eye contact with me afterwards. I was a nervous wreck. I did okay, I think, but it got a little bit better. But he, you know, I sat down, I said, well, how did I do? And he said, well, I don't remember the number, but it was high. It was probably in the 50s, 60s. Well, I can't. Counted about, you know, 40, 60 ticks. I was like, okay.

43:34And told me the time and whatever I took and all that. And he said, well, okay, you know, you got something to work on. I said, all right. And I remember the maybe one of the last sermons that I preached, probably was Sermon Junkies. And I had spent a little more time on that one, a little more prepared, thought through it. It was more in my heart. And so I'll preface by saying, I'm not sure how much of the sermon he actually heard. He might have been asleep or something, but I get down there and say, well, I don't remember counting any ticks. I think you did all right.

44:08I said, all right, well, I guess I graduated then. And the last thing I remember, my wife and I finally made it through Greek with him. But some of us more than others. She did great. I don't know if I would say I made it through, but he helped me out. And we would have these fantastic conversations with him in his house. I think half of it was just talking with Clyde, half of it was learning the Greek. But his faithfulness to teach us and to encourage us and to think through all things was just always an encouragement. Grace and I talk about it often, about the times that we got to speak with him and think through things with him. And we just loved that. And so that's about all I have.

44:58Yes, if that come on. Up. Yeah, if this pulpit could speak, some of us would probably run for cover. I know I preached my first sermon here, or significant sermon here. And as I said earlier, it was a miracle that Clyde encouraged me to come and preach another one. And so come on up. Please introduce yourself as you do. I am. I'm Kate Nash, and I just come here on evenings because I like the services here. We go to Living Hope in the morning. But one thing that I will always remember was the first day that I met Clyde. And I haven't known him very long, probably about five years, I guess.

45:56The first day I met him, I came in the house. My husband, who we were just dating at the time, came in first and he said, he said, Pastor Clyde, I finally found her. And I was like, okay. And he stands up and he has this, you know, Clyde's adorable giggle. I love his giggle so much. He's giggling and he stands up. He goes, I'm so happy to finally meet you. And he shakes my hand. And I was like, what in the world? Because I don't, like, have they been talking about? About me, you know, and it turns out that my husband had been praying with him for a long time because he had asked God to skip over all the girls that were not meant to be. Just lead me to the right one and just get her done, right? And so, you know, he's like, I don't want to deal with all these other girls. Just leave me to the one that's for me. And him and him and Pastor Clyde had been praying together about that. And so when he introduced me, he's like, I finally found her. And I was like, that was the sweetest thing ever. And his giggle. I just will miss that so much because he just turned into this little potted jelly whenever he laughed. It was the cutest thing.

47:14And one other thing that reminded me when you were talking about the onion sandwiches, I actually enjoy an onion sandwich on occasion myself. Not like with nothing on it, though. But someone here the other day had said that they thought he would turn into an onion sandwich. He ate so many of them. And it reminded me of my mom when she was pregnant with me. She craved onion sandwiches with mayonnaise on them. And she's like, I'm surprised you didn't come out smelling like onions. So it's just, you know, me and Pastor Clyde, we share the fact that we're made of onion sandwiches.

47:55And but one thing that I've taken away from The short time I've known him, which I wish I'd known him a lot longer, honestly, but he was not afraid of anything. At least he didn't let on anyway. If God told him to do it, he did it. And it didn't matter if it seemed crazy, or if it was scary, or if it was going to cost him a lot of money, or, you know, if someone said, oh, you're too old to do this, he was just going to do it. God said so, and therefore I'm going to do it. And I've tried to adopt that in my life because, you know, if he can do that in his 90s, you know, I can do that as a youngin' in my 40s, you know. And I just, I wish I'd known him a lot longer.

48:47But I'll always carry his little happy giggle. And when I see buttermilk, I will think of my Clyde. We've got time for a few more on scene, of course. We moved here in 1967. Dad was the pastor of this church, so we've seen the church full, and we've seen it shallow. I don't know. We've seen just a few people here. Dad told me a lot. Time ago, that when it was really down, skimpy or skimpy crowd, and it broke his heart when people left. And then he would open the doors for other churches to join us to be a part of the building. And they had services in different places at the same time or even at different times. But he said he had one day when he went home for lunch and laid down on the bed. He said he was just laying there praying, and it was like a vision to him. Pat, I don't know if he ever told you this. He did. But he lay on the bed and he said, God gave him a vision that this church would be full one day.

50:09And that carried him on through all the slack times. And he had a vision for what the church would be always. And when Tom came along, he knew that that was who he was going to be happy to pass the torch on to. And Tom, he regarded you as one of the best preachers he'd ever heard. So all of the stories that y'all have told remind me of different things. And yes, Randy, the House of the Rising Sun, was the first mission, I guess. It was for the youth. And we had the two buildings over there, one building more especially. But every Friday night, the kids got together and there was a band and we had refreshments and it was a great place for kids to go. And then it turned to different things throughout the years, the Laotians and the Other folks that came, but just to let you know, well, let me tell you one thing too about the bees. I remember one time when my son was very little, and dad was telling him about the bees, and dad always told him, The bees won't hurt you unless you hurt them. So, at the ballpark one day, there was a bee stuck in a cup, had some water in it, and so Chad went over to let the bee out. So, he reached down to get the bee out, and the bee stung him. And he was so scared and petrified because dad lied to him. His grandpa lied to him because he didn't hurt him, he was just trying to help him, and the bee stung him.

51:40But the buttermilk thing, we used to live in Japan, and we had during the Japan days, we had different Japanese people live at our house that wanted to learn the language. So, dad would always invite them over. And this guy's name was Hiro, Hiroshi. We called him Hiro. He was a young teenager that wanted to learn English, and dad was teaching him English as he lived with us. He was teaching him from the book of John. But Hero, when he would come to the dinner table, he would think that he would have to eat the same things that we ate. And Dad served buttermilk. So nobody knew that he hated buttermilk. None of the kids ate it and drank it because we didn't like it, but he thought he had to because Dad would say, You want some buttermilk? And he would say, Okay, yes. And the first time. He drank it and he had a hard time getting it down. But the next time, Dad said, You don't have to eat this. He said, Okay, good. So he didn't drink that.

52:41Dad was very strict when we were growing up. We had those four of us, and my older brother was a perfect child, and then I came along and I was a brat. And then my sister was a perfect child, and then my younger brother was a bigger brat than me. But they had two and two. I gave my parents so much heartache, and mainly, and what I remember is he was so very strict, and I didn't like strict. But what I learned was that there is a plumb line. And that plumb line taught me, Dad taught me through that, the strictness that he was and said, no, you can't do this, but yes, you can do this. But it taught me that there's a right and a wrong, and if you just listen to the world, there's no right and wrong. But there was a right and wrong, and that taught me early on that the plumb line is not a bad thing. So he was very strict, and I learned right from wrong. Some of you may not know that we lived in Japan. Well, I told you just now, but he was stationed in Japan for three years. And a lot of you know that he wrote a letter when we lived in this area. He wrote a letter every day and kept in touch with people that he had contacted through the years. So he had friends in Japan that he had kept in contact with.

54:05When dad was there and in the military, he made friends with the Japanese and off base. He spent a lot of time on his free time helping build a church, a Japanese church. And he was instrumental in getting that started. There was a Japanese guy, whose name was Johnny Ishikawa. Johnny, after we left, would always send mom and dad cash in a Christmas card, sometimes $500, $300 in cash. One year, he sent dad $2,000 in cash in a Christmas card, and he said to Dad in the card, You and LaRue, please come to Japan. At that time, and it was 29 years ago, at that time, mom wasn't able to travel, so I got to take her place. And when we got there, Johnny had the whole 10 days scheduled of things to do, people to reunite with. And I was a kid when we lived in Japan, so this opened my eyes.

55:09I'm thrilled that I got to do this, but it makes me sad that my siblings were not a part of this. But when Johnny scheduled our time together with this person in this town, because dad meant so much to them, and they helped him in this way or that way. And then the next town, and the next town, and the next town, the last day that we were in Japan. Japan, our task was to go visit Misawa Baptist Church off base, and it was a thriving Japanese church, Baptist church. And we walked in, and in the foyer, there was a countertop that had open picture albums, and we were there a little bit early, so we were flipping through the albums, and there were the days of the early days in those pictures, the days of it was just dirt, and they did groundbreaking. And there was dad baptizing people. And when the people started coming in, we were so, dad more especially, so emotional about it. And we said, this is dad. And they got so thrilled that they asked him to come on the pulpit. And through a mission interpreter, Dad got to say a few words, and he just practically couldn't get the words out. He was so touched that that continued on. And that was, I don't know, 30 years later.

56:39And one thing about the computer, Mary, before James, you helped him with the computer, there was a girl named Mary Ann. Mary Ann was, he had two Mary Ann's in his life, Maria and Mary Ann, the big Mary Ann and the little Mary Ann is what he called them. Big Mary Ann was a whiz in computers, and he would help me. Mom, get, I'm gonna help him get set up, and then he would have the questions, and she would say, It's just this, and it's like talking two different languages. And he would say, uh-huh, uh-huh. And then he'd be, and she'd say, Don't do this, and punch this, and uh-huh, uh-huh. And then she'd be gone, and he'd try to figure it out himself, and he'd mess it up. And she would say to him, What did you do, Clyde? So she'd have to go back and finish it. But remember, I remember when dad started getting computer stuff, mom said mom wanted to think of something that she could buy and have fun with, too. Dad never thought she should pierce her ears because if people, if God wanted holes in your ears, he'd have made you that way. But I went with her and she got her ears pierced in the mall, and then she started buying earrings, and she was having such as good a fun as dad was.

58:00Oh, he didn't care. He did not care. He did not care. But he was a toastmaster, and that's why he kept records. I mean, he kept count of the grunts. He would come with a pen usually every Sunday morning, and sometimes at the end when he didn't have a pen, he would ask me for a pen right there. And it was so he could write down the time the preacher started and the time the preacher ended. And then it was like a quiz after church. How many minutes do you think he spoke?

58:33What a tribute. Well, we are out of time. Is there any we may somebody just really okay, why don't you come up here and do a quick one? And this will. As I was hearing everyone talk, it brought me to my one point that I'm going to end on. Oh, I'm Sarah, daughter of Robert and Foncine. Legally and on paper, I am step-granddaughter to Clyde, but never in a million years did he ever let me to believe that he thought that that was the truth.

59:09I could talk about his hilarious wit, and that if you weren't paying attention, you would miss some of the most hilarious comments and phrases. And that famous phrase we always heard when you were telling him something. Well, is that right? Every time. I could talk about coming to visit my parents and saying, what are we doing tonight? Oh, going over to Papa Clyde's house for dinner, which meant bean supper, bean dinner, and walking into his house and knowing that you had to add the rotel at the last 10 minutes of the bean cook, otherwise it wasn't good. And seeing his juicer with all the orange stains and thinking that drinking barley grass was a normal thing might be part of his healthy living. But what I want to end on, my favorite thing.

1:00:00Is hearing everything and knowing all of these things, and the stories, and realizing that I may have taken a little advantage of the fact of who my grandpa was. Thinking of telling friends, you know, well, what did you do this weekend? I went and saw my dad and my mom and seeing my grandpa, and you know, he just put out his new book about Ruth. Like, oh, wait, your grandpa didn't do that? Everyone's grandpa writes a book about Ruth and the prophets, and coming back with my CD of the New Testament, the Wilton translation. Wait, your grandpa doesn't write his own translation of the Bible? You know, I thought that was normal. Or the fact that he was in 80s, in his 80s, running and riding bikes and going swimming. That was just a normal thing. And not realizing what an amazing legacy he has left for me, for my children. He gave them their first Bible with an inscription. And knowing all of his travels and times he spent with each of you and letters he wrote to each person he came in contact makes it that much more special. Every newsletter we got, every card we got, every book personalized to each of my children. So knowing that there are some big shoes to fill, but good gracious, I'm glad he led that legacy and that we were able to be a part of it. So thank you.

1:01:23Well, and in closing, I want to say just a couple of remarks. I know there were some humbling days in the life of Emmanuel Baptist Church. And I think a pastor, a minister of the gospel is on collision with the culture of the earth, trying to bring the government of God into the society of man. And sometimes the places that should be the most accepting of it are sometimes some of the most opposed. Jesus found that out as he went into the temple.

1:02:07But Clyde landed on the right side of a critical issue. Back in the days where segregation was still the norm, Clyde stood on the right side. He said, no, the gospel is for all people. And we must be a church that is diligent to take the gospel to all nations, all peoples, and even within whatever nations, whatever their background is, the gospel is for all. And that is what he really impressed upon the church. And yes, the church had to go through a very humbling time.

1:02:52And I'll tell you this much: you can't be part of a church named Emmanuel and not be humbled. The times that Emmanuel literally means God with us. The times that God walked with Israel through the wilderness, those were humbling times. There is no exaltation of self with Emmanuel. He shares his throne with no one. And so the church had to go through a humbling time. And yet, the church is alive today because I believe obviously God and his plan, God is doing all things, working all things to his good pleasure. But it was critical for Emmanuel to embrace its role to take the gospel to the nations. And there are sister churches that I have seen, and I am very much active in this association and aware of other associations. There are churches that landed on the wrong side of the race issue, the ethnic group issue.

1:04:08And they are dying. Some of them are dead. The gospel is for all nations. And that's one thing that we heard over and over from this pulpit and saw lived out in the life of Clyde. We're way over, as I thought, and I imagine if we kept going. There, we could just keep going because I see a lot of people who have not said anything that could say several things. But that will have to be sufficient for now.

1:04:42Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do give you thanks for your goodness, for your love for the church. Father, as we saw in Clyde, a love for your word and a love for people, a love that we know is really just ultimately a reflection of your love. And so, Father, we turn to you with gratitude and thankfulness that you are the God who loves us and who has given yourself for us. Father, help us to set before ourselves godly examples, men and women who we can learn from and emulate. And, Father, I just thank you that you have given such gifts to your church and that many of them have come through Emmanuel and are here tonight and have come through these doors. We thank you, giving you glory and praise for all of it. In Jesus' name, amen.