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I helped David Pittman, whose Daddy S.L. was a deacon, with his farm. David grew tobacco, corn, soybeans, pecans and raised hogs. We worked hard but had fun working and we always ate good dinners. David's wife, Ruby, his Mama. Mrs. Pittman, and his mother-in-law, Mrs. Harper, took turns cooking for us. We ate like kings! When Wednesday rolled around, we always knocked off early so we could go to prayer meeting. They were well attended and
Lord answered many a prayer put up at these meetings.
When I was 19, I joined Army and stayed for several years. Whenever I would come home on leave, I would visit with my old friends at Youmans Chapel. In 1987, I was released from Army and moved back home. My three children and I (I was a single parent) started attending Youmans Chapel. I taught Sunday School and sometimes would preach...behind that very same pulpit where my Daddy had once stood. The pastor, Rev. Lowell Lee, was a spirit filled man of God, and greatly encouraged me to preach God's word. Later, Brother Lee, retired, and then Lord moved me to other places. I no longer attended Youmans Chapel, yet I would go there on occasion. The last time I preached from that old pulpit was New Year's Eve, 1993, at a watch night service. There were only a few of us there, but presence of Lord was very special that night.
Now old church sanctuary is mostly used for youth. A big new building, including many Sunday School rooms, a large social hall, pastor's office, reception area, and more sits on some of land where I used to help David farm. Most of farms in that community are no longer there. In fields where acres of crops once grew stands subdivisions. The Youmans Chapel community has rapidly filled with people and I hope church is still a shining light on that small hill. Things change, people come and go, but Lord changes not. Sometimes I feel like change is not for better...like that old expression "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".
Yes, as I rode by church, I remembered my childhood days, that small sanctuary full of people of all ages, lifting their voices to heaven as they sang about Jesus. Times were less complicated then, and in my humble opinion, churches were, too.
"O, I'd like to go back to that old country church, to hear them songs of praise...I'm redeemed by love divine, glory, glory, Christ is mine, all to Him I know resign, I have been redeemed. In sweet, by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore."
Isaiah 46.9 "Remember former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,"
Copyright 2005 Irvin L. Rozier
