Over opinionated with Josh Scott
Thank you for your time. Please enjoy and if you like the podcast feel free to check out my other episodes listed on my page. God Bless you All.
- Josh Scott, Host of Over Opinionated.
Over opinionated with Josh Scott
Faith, Family, and the Holy Spirit: A Conversation with Don and Evelyn Scott. #90
When was the last time you truly listened to your grandparents' stories? In this intimate family conversation, a grandson sits down with his grandparents, Don and Evelyn Scott, to capture their voices, memories, and wisdom for future generations.
Don and Evelyn take us back to childhoods marked by material poverty but spiritual richness – homes without electricity where oil lamps provided light and pot-bellied stoves offered warmth. Their courtship began in 1959 when Don was serving in the Marine Corps, leading to 64 years of marriage that produced four children, eight grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
The conversation turns deeply spiritual as Don shares his unexpected calling to ministry after teaching Sunday School, leading to 55 years as a Pentecostal Holiness pastor. Both grandparents speak movingly about their "baptism in the Holy Spirit," describing it as "like electricity" that empowered their faith journey. They thoughtfully address misconceptions about Pentecostal practices while emphasizing the denomination's historical inclusivity across racial divides.
Most touching are their reflections on family legacy. "Our grandchildren and great-grandchildren are God's gifts and treasures," Don says, while Evelyn adds, "They have brought so much joy to our lives." Their message to future generations resonates with both spiritual guidance and unconditional love: "It doesn't matter what you've done before or how far you've run away... You're never too far away. You can always come back."
This conversation offers more than just family history – it's a powerful testament to how faith, love, and perseverance can create a meaningful legacy across generations. What stories from your family elders have you preserved?
Okay, everybody, I wanted to interview my grandparents, very two special people. So Evelyn and Don Scott are here. If anyone's listening to this, when I'm older or anything, this is what your grandparents sounded like. So y'all want to say hi.
Evelyn:Hello, I'm Evelyn, I'm the grandmother.
Don:Okay, my name is Don. I'm the grandfather, okay my name is don.
Josh:Okay, why don't y'all tell? Me your story growing up and how you met how we met.
Don:Yeah, how just your story about you and how you met each other and how y'all grew up. This is a long, complicated type of a story.
Josh:We're not timed, so I want to hear from you. I want to be able to play this back one day, okay.
Don:Well, we had a. My childhood in some ways was very good, and other things in other ways it wasn't. It wasn't in the fact that we were a very poor family, and I can remember going back so far where we didn't even have electricity in our home. Our light was an oil lamp, Our heat was an old pot-bellied stove. We again, we were kind of poor growing up. We had to kind of entertain ourselves. One of the things that really kept us going was our close friends. When we were growing up as children, we would get together and we would throw down four rocks and we'd have a baseball game, we would frog hunt at night and things such as that. We had to entertain ourselves. So that is basically the way that we grew up. Okay, what about?
Josh:very similar for you, Ne, growing up.
Evelyn:Somewhat similar, but not quite that poor. I was one of ten children. I was the seventh. We grew up. My mom farmed, my dad had a public job and she always put out a big garden. We always had to help do that. My mom was a great cook. We always had lots of good food. We always had someone to play with, not necessarily the neighborhood kids. Our cousins lived near to us. We didn't have a lot riches money-wise, but we were a very close family, still are, still have been. And that's about it, you know.
Josh:Right? Well, both of y'all had a lot of siblings and a lot of brothers and sisters.
Evelyn:We did. I had five brothers and four sisters, yeah.
Josh:And I know Paul had a bunch of brothers and four sisters. Yeah, and I know Paul had a bunch of brothers and sisters. How many brothers and sisters did you have?
Don:I had one sister and I had five brothers you didn't have five brothers.
Evelyn:You had four brothers.
Don:Four brothers. I'm sorry.
Josh:Well, that's why it's always good to have a good woman to correct you. So um did. Now um. So y'all got married when you were in the Marine Corps, right, yes, okay, how did? How did y'all meet? How was um? If you want to walk us through that, if you want to talk about being in the Marine Corps, because what you were in the Marine Corps when you were 16, is that when you went, I went in the Marine Corps when I was 17.
Don:Okay, I first seen Evelyn at a local restaurant in the community. I was immediately attracted to her Very pretty. Initially I was just too shy to talk to her and one night, as she was on her way home, we offered to give her and her friend a ride. They accepted. As it happened, I think maybe Evelyn got in the vehicle with me and sat beside of me and that was the beginning of our courtship.
Evelyn:Okay, Okay, don left out a very important thing. One of his friends was madly in love with my younger sister and he wanted JC, another friend, to bring him over to see my sister. And that's why Don was with them, and my neighbor and Helen and I. We were walking home from church, from the tabernacle, and we were almost home when they got there. So that's how we met, because one of his friends loved my little sister. That's how we met, because one of his friends loved my little sister. That's how we met.
Josh:Yeah.
Evelyn:And he was in the Marines then. Right, I'm glad it happened, because if it didn't and that was in July of 1959, and we got married in March, the 11th 1961.
Josh:Okay, I got you. Was it hard when y'all were dating each other when you were in the Marine Corps? Is that hard?
Don:It was very difficult, very hard. Words really can't describe the depth of the love that I had toward her, and it literally hurt me to be away from her, and I would usually, whatever chance that I had, of course, I would come back home and visit with her. I was stationed at Camp Lejeune, which is somewhere around 300 miles. I would get home in a way that I could Sometime I would have the money to come home in a bus. Other times I would get a ride home with someone that was traveling to this part of the state and I would ride with them. She and I would spend as much time together as we possibly could, and always on a Sunday afternoon I would have to go back to the base, because I had to be back there on Monday morning, and so it was very difficult. Sometimes I would have to hitchhike, oftentimes practically no money in my pocket, and so it was a very difficult time for me.
Josh:I'm guessing you always made it back to base.
Don:I was never late going back to base, but come Monday morning and it was time to go to work in Marine Corps, you had to be there, and a lot of times I didn't get back, maybe to about three o'clock in the morning, and then at 530 that morning we had to, we had to be on the job, and so that was very difficult, very hard. I was usually pretty much beat every Monday morning I got you.
Josh:Was that hard for you, Ney, when he was in the Marine Corps?
Evelyn:I miss him very much, yeah, and I loved him. I loved him very dearly and I always look forward to seeing him. And when he couldn't come home, I was very lonely. I wrote him letters every day. He got letters from me every day that he needed to get to come home, but it was worth it.
Don:Can I intercept something here? Yeah, you can jump in any time you want. I really look forward to those letters and, as Evelyn said, she would write to me practically every day. And someone that is away from home and the Marine Corps away from the person you love very dearly. Those letters meant so much to me. After I met her I stayed homesick. I wanted to come home, but of course in your military you can't do that and I always looked forward to the day when I would get out. I got out on October, the 20th 1962. And it was a very happy day for me. Yeah.
Josh:Well, so you had a kid before you were out of Marine Corps, didn't you?
Don:I did, yeah. Jimmy was born and she was pregnant with Rhonda, our daughter. Okay, when I got out, Okay, yeah.
Josh:Well, if I said then, dad was born in 64 and Phillip, how old are we after?
Evelyn:that 66.
Josh:66. And then he had four kids, many grandkids and many great grandkids.
Evelyn:We have four children, eight grandchildren, we have three grandsons, five great five granddaughters, and we have three great grandsons and two great granddaughters and they're the smartest and the most beautiful all of them are. That's ever been, ever been, no question, and we love them all that's true.
Josh:I, I I've seen friends and other people be around their grandparents and it really touches me because, um, there, I mean there's some affection there. But I, I really do think y'all are much loving grandparents anyone could have. I, um there's a lot of people that didn't grow up with the amount of love and support that you two gave us well, we feel like that.
Evelyn:Our grandchildren and our great grandchildren are god's gifts and treasures and we love all of you all very, very deeply. It's very your. All of us are. All of you are important to us. We want you to be happy. We want you to be successful and that's just how we are well, you're important. You're important to me from from the minute we first laid eyes on chris when he was born. That's how the grandparents love started and it's never ended. And it it never will, will it honey?
Don:Never will. Oh, I'd like to add something else to my childhood. Yeah, you can add anything, okay, something that was very, very important to me growing up there was a little small Pentecostal holiness church within walking distance of our home and we would go there every Sunday. We would walk. This was a very spiritual church. By spiritual I mean there was a lot of emotion. The singing was very spiritual. There was a lot of emotion, the singing was very spiritual. There was a lot of shouting in the church and it really made a lifelong until this very day impression on my life and that impression will always be there.
Don:And did your mom take you to church? Growing up? My mom would go to church with us and, like most families, we wouldn't be there every Sunday, but most Sundays we would be there and we looked forward to it. And words can't express the impression that those old-fashioned Pentecostal services had on my young heart. Conviction would get on me, and by conviction I mean a strong, pulling desire that I needed to make my way to the altar and pray, even as a child growing up I'm talking about eight and 10 years old and that is something that I always remember.
Josh:Yeah, how about you? You went to church growing up too, didn't you?
Evelyn:I went to church at St Paul's Church.
Josh:Yeah.
Evelyn:Right above. We walked to church there, right, my mom and dad didn't go to church with us. We went by ourselves to Sunday school and then, later on, daddy started going to Liberty Hill Church and, matter of fact, that's where Donna and I both got saved. What year? 1964. Okay, both of us and we loved going up to that church. They had I love good music and they are known for their beautiful singing.
Josh:I get even back then they were what? Oh yes, always beautiful now I know when I've talked to you before. It's precious to me you always bring up the flannel grafts.
Evelyn:Yeah, there was when we were going to school, Don, too. There was a Mrs Hess and Mrs Loffers, and they were Bible school teachers. Yes, and they were with the Methodist Church, I believe.
Evelyn:They funded them. But every so often they would come around to the schools and they had flannel grass and they would tell Bible scores and they would use these little characters and it was precious. All the school children looked forward to that and we loved it. And every Christmas they would give us some big manila envelope and it would have Christmas cards and poems and things that they had made and that was precious to us too. We loved that and while we were in school, most all the times we we had morning devotions and we said the pledge of allegiance to the flag, and I think that needs to be done today yeah um, we uh.
Evelyn:When don and I got married, one of my goals, and don's too, was that we wanted to have a permanent home when jimmy got in first grade, because we didn't want to be moving here and yonder to take him in school and out of school. So some property became available. We were able to buy a lot and so we had my uncle built us a house and we moved in it in June of 1966. So we've been here ever since, yeah, and we started going back to St Paul's Church, my home church, and we're very, very happy there, very involved in it, in everything. And that's when God called Don to preach. And you can take it from there, don.
Don:I would just like also to add to what Evelyn said a moment ago about these two ladies. We referred to them as the Bible teachers and they also made a great impression on my life. They were outstanding teachers and I think it is awful that in today's world that they can't do more of that in our schools today. It's my understanding that our government won't allow that, but I think at a tender young age, little children need that type of teaching and in the eye of my mind I can still see these two Bible teachers.
Josh:I can still see what they look like they would come to your school.
Don:Yes, they would come to the school and they would teach a Bible lesson, and they were very skilled. For example, if she was teaching about David and Goliath, you could almost see David with the sling and you could almost see the stone hitting Goliath in the head. They were that good. It made you feel like that you were actually there watching this take place.
Evelyn:You went into the library, the class each you know they would take up like the sixth grade in the elementary school. Of course, now, back then there was only one first grade, one second and so forth. Schools weren't as large as they were, and so they would take them a grade at a time and spend about a half an hour or 15 minutes in order for them to get the whole school yeah but they would come, I think, maybe once every six weeks okay and they were called the Bible School Teachers.
Evelyn:Yeah, and that's what they were.
Josh:Okay, and they.
Evelyn:And everybody loved them.
Josh:They went to different schools.
Evelyn:Yes, In Wythe County they went to the.
Josh:Yeah.
Evelyn:I know they went to all the elementary schools.
Josh:Okay, because y'all didn't go to the same elementary school.
Evelyn:No, I don't think okay because y'all didn't go to the same elementary school. No, thank you. Uh, I went to salome for three years and then I went to sheffy for the last four years. Then you went to jackson he went to jackson and no, he went to austinville elementary school the little small building that he took me to.
Josh:It turned into a barn the little barn.
Evelyn:He went to the first grade. What? Was the name of that school.
Don:That was called the Matthews School.
Don:I don't know how many years that little school, that school building, was there, but it was very small. We had seven grades in one room. I still remember the teacher's name she was Mrs Humphrey. I still remember the teacher's name she was Mrs Humphrey. I still remember we didn't have a school bus to pick us up, we had to walk and we were kind of like the little house on the prairie when you see the little children running down through the field and they're finally arriving at the school Right, and I went there for one year and then the school closed and I had to transfer to the Maximillian Elementary School. Okay, one more thing about those Bible teachers that Evelyn was elaborating on. These were two ladies. To my understanding, they were never married. They devoted their entire life to teaching the Bible in school. So if anybody listens to this interview, it's important that little children hear the Gospel, and I learned the Gospel from the little church I attended and also from these Bible school teachers that came to the school.
Josh:Well now, the laws were definitely different when I was in school, but we did have something called the Bible bus when I was in school and they would take us. The parents had to give permission, and of course dad did, and they would come pick us up on this bus and then they would drive us to a church on the hill right next to the school because they had to be off school property and they taught us the Bible there. And I know the lady really well, her name is Miss Finstemaker very, very good lady. Um, she didn't drive the bus but she taught the kids and, um, that was a big, a big thing in our school system and they're allowed to do it legally. They're allowed to do it.
Josh:We did it. I think we did it once a week for about 20 minutes, so during gym class. I think I can't remember if it's the third or fifth grade, but that we did do that. But I think that's great and I think it's funny. A lot of people have no idea what a flannel graph is. I barely know what a flannel graph is, because when Dad was taking me, I think, to Draper Valley and I know y'all know Draper Valley I think they had a flannel graph, but um, it's just a cardboard. It's cardboard.
Evelyn:You just put the cardboard character on there, it's uh right, you had an easel and it was something like a baby's blanket okay and it was on there and then the little characters.
Josh:It stuck to those okay, um, so you're back home. You're from the marine corps, just from the out of the marine corps. You're, um, married. You have a kid. Um, you know you feel called to ministry pretty early on. You know you feel called to ministry pretty early on back home, after you're saved, just walk me through being called to ministry and being a father and a husband.
Don:Okay, first of all, me being called into the ministry. This is the last thing that I've ever thought that I would ever do in life was to be a minister of the gospel. I didn't have the educational background, I didn't have the Bible knowledge to do that. I have to back up a little bit, I think, probably to the little church I attended. The things that I learned there, the impression that the little church made on my heart. It stayed with me. We went to church one night. There was an altar call. I responded to the altar call. I responded I mean, I got out of my church seat, went to the old-fashioned altar, I got on my knees and I prayed the best that I possibly could and my prayer probably went something like God I want you to forgive me of my sins. And I accepted Christ into my life and into my heart, christ into my life and into my heart.
Don:After that, evelyn and I were very faithful to the church. We dearly loved the church that we attended. We got close to the people. Eventually I was elected to the church board. I became one of the deacons of the church. Where was that at? This was at St Paul, st Paul.
Don:Now I accepted Christ at the Liberty Hill Church. We transferred our membership to the St Paul Church because we moved to the St Paul community and it was close. This is nothing against the people of Liberty Hill. We love the church, we love the people. They made an impression on our life, but Evelyn had grown up in the St Paul church. We moved in the community where St Paul was located and we just felt like that's where we needed to be, that that's what we needed to be.
Don:So we transferred our membership from Liberty Hill to St Paul and they asked me to become a Sunday School teacher and I accepted that.
Don:And, of course, being a Sunday School teacher, you have to do a lot of reading, a lot of studying, a lot of preparing, a lot of studying, a lot of preparing. And so I did that and in the course of my studying for Sunday school and preparing my lesson for Sunday school, the Bible really came alive to me. I could compare it, in all sincerity, like a fire that was burning within my heart, in my mind, and so I began to pray, teach Sunday school every Sunday morning, and I suddenly began to have this urge where I needed to declare the gospel to everyone. Yeah, and I called my pastor one day. He came and I shared with him that I felt like God was calling me into the ministry, and I guess the rest is history. I went on a study course in my denomination. It took me about four years of studying, taking different tests, studying for the ministry, and finally I was licensed and ordained and my denomination assigned me to a church and I've been a pastor now for about 55 years.
Josh:So the majority of your life you've been a pastor? It has, yes, yeah. So, nate, do you mind me asking you when, after you get both get saved, pa starts teaching Sunday school at St Paul? He feels like he's led the ministry and he tells you about this. Is there anything that's running through your head?
Evelyn:Yes, I will never forget the first time he took me into our children's the boys' bedroom and he was crying and he told me that he felt like that God was calling him to preach, which did not surprise me because Don is always good, being a good, moral man. He's always been good, always, even when he wasn't a Christian, he was a good man. And it didn't surprise me at all because he was so involved in that church and he wanted to see people saved and he wanted them to have a good experience with the Lord. And he said can you see me being a minister? I said, yes, but I can't see me being a minister's wife. But that's exactly what I have been all these 50-some years. I may not have been the best, but I have tried my best to support him At each and every church. I've always been involved, I've always worked, I've always participated, I've always worked, I've always participated. Our children were always involved. They always went to church, was involved in their activities until they got married and went on.
Evelyn:And there have been some bad times, bad experiences with a couple of churches, but the good times are far so outshattered the bad, and we have made wonderful, everlasting friends at every church we've ever been to. Now we're at one of the smallest churches that we've ever had, but it's also one of the very best. The people are wonderful. We love them, they love us. And we're old now. Both Don and I are both old, but I don't think that we've got a lot of regrets. We've been married 64 years and it's a good marriage. We love each other very deeply. We love our family.
Evelyn:We love God, we love each other and that's most important and we're happy. Don is a very funny person and he makes me laugh yeah. And I'm very, very glad that I married your grandpa.
Josh:I am am too. I'm glad you married him too.
Evelyn:I have some I have something else to add to my head to add to my story.
Don:Yeah, yeah, you know there is a lot of church denominations that only teach a saved life. By saved I mean your sins are forgiven, your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and when this life is over, of course, you can go to heaven. But the church that we attended always taught that the saved life is wonderful and good, but there is more to be had than just a saved life, and I was taught that you needed to seek God. By seeking God I mean pray and ask God to fill you with the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. And so this happened to me. This happened to me at the Liberty Hill Church.
Don:I was kneeling at the altar, praying and suddenly there was something like electricity came upon me and I could feel my body kind of slumping down at the altar, and that was the baptism of the Holy Spirit. From time to time, from that day to this, I have felt that same power and that same spirit. It might sound a little comical to some people, but to begin with it was just in my hands and then later on, in my experience, it moved from my hand here's the funny part and it got into my feet, and it was like electricity that was just vibrating within you, and when this electrifying power of the Holy Spirit came into my life, I felt like this was something that I needed to share with the world, and so God called me, and I answered the call, and here we are today.
Josh:That's something that's pretty special to you.
Don:It is. It's called the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and anybody that's listening to this interview I have no reason to try to impress anybody that's out there. This isn't a story that I've decided to make up. The power of God is electrifying. It is spirit. It is the spirit of God. It is like a fire that burns within you, and I would encourage anyone to go beyond the saved life and seek God for deeper, more powerful experiences. You know in the book of Acts one of the last things Jesus told his disciples before he went back to heaven. He said Tarry in Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high and you shall be witnesses unto me in Judea and Samaria and the outermost parts of the earth. And Judea and Samaria and the outermost parts of the earth. And in that verse it tells us that there is a spiritual power that God can clothe us with to do his work.
Josh:Yeah, yeah, I understand. So you're saying that being saved is great, but there's a deeper relationship that you can have, right?
Don:That is well put. That is what I'm saying. There is more to the Christian life than just being saved. Now, I know I'm repeating myself a little bit, it's okay. But you can be saved and go to heaven. But there is a spiritual power that God can give to us to empower us to go beyond the saved life, and if anybody is going to accomplish a whole lot for God in this life, we need that power. It is a power to witness, it is a power to teach, a power to save, a power to minister God's Word, and this has been one of the things that has kept me going in a lot of discouraging situations I've found myself in yeah, I understand that.
Josh:So you know telling people, even still today someone asked me if my grandparents are, if you're a minister, if I tell them and they'll tell me what you know what church, and I tell them and some, unless you're Pentecostal. Every time I say Pentecostal, holiness, a lot of times their eyes go up a little bit and I understand why. But it seems to me like my impression with a lot of other Christians is there's a lot of false conceptions about being a Pentecostal or a holiness in general and you know they point out to the speaking in tongues a lot. That's a big objection, that and dancing in the spirit being a spirit-led church, a spirit-led church.
Josh:But when I go to your church I grew up around this. My limit of comfortability around a little bit of rowdiness is pretty high. So when I go to your church and I hadn't been there in a couple years, but they're super nice people and it's very relaxed it's not the majority of the time you're very, very relaxed and something that people would be used to in a Baptist or a Methodist service a lot of times. But I guess you've been with the Pentecostal holiness church, iphc for what?
Josh:55 years as a minister longer as a christian, um, but I guess my thing is, the majority of services you've been to and administered under, people are just not speaking in tongues and dancing the entire service, are they?
Don:Oh, no, yeah, no. That is a Misconception Misconception of a lot of people about the Pentecostal Olden Church. It's not the intentions of this interview for me to give everybody a Bible lesson on speaking in tongues or the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but if we stop to think about it, every writer that wrote in the New Testament, with the exception maybe of Titus, spoke with tongues. Matthew, mark, luke and John was in the Upper Room. The Apostle Paul wasn't in the Upper Room, but he said I thank God, I speak in tongues more than you all and all the disciples was in the upper room. The mother of Jesus, mary, was in the upper room, and so it has to be. This has to be a biblical teaching, a biblical doctrine that we need to teach people. And you don't have to speak in tongues to go to heaven. The Bible doesn't say that, but the Bible does teach us that when they were filled with the Holy Ghost, that they spoke with other tongues.
Josh:Yes, yeah, I agree, and you know I mean I'm very charismatic, so I believe in the gifts of the Spirit for sure. And, and you know I mean I'm very charismatic, so I believe in the gifts of the Spirit for sure, and it's not because I've experienced them or have seen them, because you know there are people who have seen and experienced things that don't line up with the Bible, but when I read the New Testament, I definitely believe the gifts are for today.
Josh:Now I think 1 Corinthians 13 says that prophecy healing will cease when the perfect comes, but that perfect means Jesus, and he hasn't come back yet. Am I right about that? That's true, very good, yeah, I thought so and I fought you to prove. But yeah, and your church is really big on holiness, trying to live a holy life.
Don:It is. Yeah, there's a verse of scripture said follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the lord. Or, in other words, we, we need to live a holy life and, uh, I believe that.
Josh:Yeah, but the thing is, no one, before they are saved, lived a holy life without the Holy Spirit, and anyone can come to Jesus. Yes, it doesn't matter what you've done before does it? It doesn't matter what you've done before does it?
Don:It doesn't matter what you've done before. We can give you some Bible examples if you want me to. Yeah, if we read the story in the Bible of David, he committed adultery and then had Bathsheba's husband killed. And later on in the book of Psalms, where we read David's prayer, he said. He said there's another verse of Scripture in the book of Romans that said where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. And so David, even though he committed those terrible sins, there came a time when he gave his life to Christ and he was forgiven.
Don:The apostle Paul on the road to damascus the bible tells us that he was a persecutor of the church and he made havoc of the church, but yet god saved him and he turned about, turned out to be one of the greatest christians that ever lived and wrote 13 books of the New Testament. Yes, the woman at the well. When Jesus met her, she was a woman that had five husbands and she was already living with someone that she wasn't married to, and Jesus saved her there that day, at the well. So it doesn't matter what we've ever done in life, if we will confess our sins to him. He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Josh:Yeah, god is a God of love and forgiveness. Yes, do you all both have a knee? I'll ask you first. Do you have a? Do y'all both have a knee? I'll ask you first. Do you? Do you have a favorite bible story, a favorite bible passage, or? Um? If not, I'll ask him my grandmother is there a favorite bible story you'd like to share that you have.
Evelyn:That means my favorite Bible story that I have is the story of Joseph and the life that he lived, the way he was sold into captivity by his brothers, and how that he stayed faithful and how he was reunited with his father and his brothers with his father and his brothers and to me that's the greatest example of forgiveness that is in the Bible. And, of course, we were all like the brothers. You know we were all guilty, but Jesus still loved us, even though we weren't perfect, and he saved us, and so that's my favorite one in the Bible yeah of course, all of the ones in the Bible is good.
Evelyn:Yeah, don't get me wrong, but to me that's my favorite yeah, and you're.
Josh:I think it's fun. So one of the characters that aggravate you the most in the Bible is King David, isn't it? Yeah, that's all.
Evelyn:Yeah, I just didn't Well. In the first place, I never understood why a woman would want to carry a tub and water up on the rooftop to take a bath in the first place.
Josh:Yeah.
Evelyn:It didn't make sense to me. Never has, never will.
Josh:You know, who aggravates me more than anybody in the Bible is Samson. Oh really, yeah, because he tells Delilah several things that would make him lose his strength on multiple occasions, and then he's surprised that she does the same thing that she did multiple times. Sometimes I really think that he is probably the dumbest person in the Bible, but God still used them at the end and God still loves them, you know.
Evelyn:That's true.
Josh:Paul, do you have a favorite Bible story?
Don:That is a very hard one, I would have to say, the story of Jesus. He was God that became a man and was born of a virgin, grew up in a life of poverty, left all of the greatness and the riches of heaven, to come to this world and to be ridiculed like he was and eventually to go to the cross and suffer the pain of the cross. All of his disciples had forsaken him and had left him, and there he hangs by himself on the cross for our sins, and to me that's a beautiful story.
Josh:Yeah then he raised from the dead. Yeah and yeah. The story of Jesus definitely makes you wonder forever. The incarnation, his life, death, burial and resurrection, his ascension, and then you know. But one of my favorite things is right before Jesus leaves, he told us I'm not going to leave you alone and I'm going to give you a great comforter. Yes, and I think that's a big thing.
Josh:The whole Pentecostals and charismatics are very big, and this isn't even talking about speaking in tongues. Y'all are very big. We are very big on emphasizing the Holy Spirit and I'm not all Christian churches believe in the Holy Spirit, but it's Charismatics, pentecostals, some Methodists. The Holy Spirit has a big, huge emphasis in following his lead. You don't have to answer that, it's just an observation.
Don:I'm sorry I didn't hear the question.
Josh:No, no, it's not a question. I was just saying that Pentecostals and Charismatics put a lot of emphasis on the Holy Spirit. Following the Holy Spirit in his lead today.
Don:Spirit, following the Holy Spirit and his lead the day. Well, he, there is a lot of churches today to teach that the Holy Spirit failed on the day of Pentecost in the second chapter of the book of Acts. But it was for that day only and for that moment only. But if we read the entire book of Acts, there is three other times that the Holy Spirit failed and each time they spoke with other tongues. If we read about something that's happened in one time in the Bible, it was for that one time, but if it continues to happen over and over again, then we take that to mean that it wasn't just for the day of Pentecost, but it was for our day and our time we live in.
Don:And you know the prophet Joel. He prophesied and said that in the last days I'll pour out of my spirit on all flesh Right and the sons and daughters would prophesy and old men would dream dreams. And that happened on the day of Pentecost and in the. I think it's the 13th chapter of Acts, I think. Is that the 11th chapter? Yes, okay, the 12th chapter of the book of Acts? I think it is.
Josh:Well, the first, corinthians 13,. Right, that's the love chapter.
Don:Yeah, and you know, in the book of Corinthians, the Apostle Paul is given the gifts of the Spirit, and one of those gifts of the Spirit is speaking in tongues, and so it would be no reason for Paul to write about it if it stopped on the day of.
Josh:Pentecost and when you read people that believe that the gift of tongues is either ceased or that it's just speaking a foreign language for evangelism, they often cite 1 Corinthians 14, and I don't think they have a good argument, because St Paul is correcting the church that is enthusiastic about the gifts, but they're practicing them improperly. And at the very end end he says do not forsake speaking in tongues.
Don:I thank god, I speak in tongues more than you all, but what he was saying is throughout the worship service we need instruction and in preaching and and he never condemns them, he just corrects them okay, okay, anybody that in the future that might be listening to this interview, they might be of the opinion that they are fearful of the Pentecostal church because they think that to go to a Pentecostal church that you have got a number of people sitting in church and a half a dozen of them are speaking in tongues and you can't understand what they're saying, and so what's the benefit of it? Yeah, but I've been at my church that I'm pastor now for 14 years and it's very little of that happens in my church. We believe in it because it's a Bible teaching and a Bible doctrine, but it's a false concept that if you come to a Pentecostal church that a dozen people is going to be speaking in a language you can't understand. It very seldom happens in my church, but it does occasionally.
Josh:What was you going to say, Nhi? What was?
Evelyn:you going to say Nhi? My understanding of speaking in tongues is that it's not for the people around them to hear and to understand what you're saying, Because that is between you and God and you are edifying God. It's not for the understanding of the other parishioners. That is edifying God, yeah.
Josh:When you're speaking that way. Well, I know they go to Acts 2, because in Acts 2, everyone speaks in tongues in the upper room and then the average guy can hear them speak in his own language. That's true, that happens. But then Peter, st Peter, gives a sermon in one common language and in that day in Israel and in the Roman Empire they were very bilingual.
Josh:Jesus probably spoke multiple languages. He definitely spoke Hebrew. I mean sorry, he definitely spoke Aramaic. He definitely spoke Greek. He probably spoke a little Hebrew and a lot of, even a lot of Israel. Even a lot of the Israelites at the time weren't speaking as much Hebrew. Only the Pharisees, only the rabbis that were reading the Torah, would be speaking Hebrew and a lot of them were reading the Septuagint, which is the Greek Old Testament, and so a lot of them were speaking Arabic at the time, and especially Greek. So they didn't.
Josh:I don't think this idea that it was just an evangelistic tool. I mean, I believe God can use it as that, but I I don't buy the notion, because when you read first corinthians, chapter 14, it definitely seems like people are praying in tongues and prophesying. But um, you know, I do think it's a misconception. I've heard a lot of snake jokes that you're going to be holding snakes in the church and there. There are very few small independent Pentecostal churches in West Virginia that hold snakes, but we're talking about a microscopic level. I've never seen it and I don't want to ever see it.
Josh:But that's not a huge deal to me because it's very easily debunked.
Don:If anyone comes to my church, what you will see usually is we will take prayer requests, yeah, and we will take prayer requests, yeah.
Evelyn:And we will have a congregational prayer.
Don:We will have the choir to sing some songs. Usually it's a couple of songs, and we have a very talented lady in our church that sings beautiful and she will usually sing one or sometimes two songs. Yeah, then I will preach the best that I can, and we always have an altar service and we'll all gather around the altar. Anybody that has special needs, we invite them to come for prayer, and usually about everybody in the church will come forward Right, and basically that's what our church service consists of.
Don:If God sees, and if it's God's will and the Holy Spirit moves upon someone, then at that point there will be some speaking in tongues possibly, but it's very rare in our church. I wish to tell you the truth, I wish it would happen more often than what it does. Yeah, but nobody has to come to my church, which is a pentecostal church, and feel like that you're going to, something's going to happen, uh, that you need to be fearful of. You don't have to be afraid.
Josh:No, no, but um. Before I let y'all say your final words, whatever you want to say, I do want to say this I have done a little reading on Pentecostal history Not a ton, but a little. And William Seymour? He's African American. He was born right after the Civil War in 1870. His mom and dad were both born into slaves in Louisiana.
Josh:He desires a gift more than just salvation. He goes to a Bible school in Topeka, kansas, where the Holy Spirit outbreaks there. They wouldn't even let him in the school. He has to sit outside and listen through the doorway and then he goes. He doesn't let that harden his heart. It really impresses me because here he is, he's a man of God. It really impresses me because here he is, he's a man of God. He wants to seek more. He wants to seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He wants to know what that is. He just has a Bible. His parents were born into slavery and the people that he's going to school with won't even let him into school. But he doesn't let that harden his heart and he goes to Southern California Los Angeles, I think in a place called Azusa Street.
Josh:It's like a. What I've read is it's a what I've read. Azusa Street was basically a barn. They are an old building. They converted into a church. That they are an old building. They converted into a church and the Holy Spirit works there and gives birth to the modern-day Pentecostal and charismatic movement. Go ahead.
Don:I really appreciate your knowledge in this, josh. Yeah, you can tell by talking to you that you have done some reading Right. You correct me if I'm wrong.
Josh:Okay, I haven't done it.
Don:If I'm not mistaken. I think that when the Holy Spirit fell on Azusa Street, am I right that they made the church move because of tongues and they had to move from that location and maybe go to a private home, I think?
Josh:Okay.
Josh:So you're asking me something that I have read, but it's been a very long time and it would not surprise me. It does sound somewhat familiar. But my point in this is there's this African-American man Parents were slaves when he was in Topeka. They wouldn't even let him into school, but he didn't harden his heart. In this is there's this African-American man parents were slaves. What? When he's in Topeka? They wouldn't even let him in the school, but he didn't harden his heart, he still kept, he still wanted God. He's preaching, sermons, him and Charles Palmer, I think. Am I right? Okay, and they go to Azusa Street, give birth to the Pentecostal and charismatic movement today, and tons of missions come from it.
Josh:The Assembly of God forms pretty early on. The Pentecostal Holiness Church that you belong to started off as a holiness church and then accepted the gifts of the spirit, if I'm right. Um, and then we have the church of god, church of god and prophecy, uh, calvary chapel, which is very similar, charismatic, um and um. God moves in a big way. So this is, this is happening, and it's this revival is being led by a black man in an era where blacks and whites don't go to church together.
Josh:You don't see that there's a ton of racism, and I'm not picking on anyone that belongs to the Southern Baptist Convention, but the Southern Baptist Convention. They've repented for it and they've apologized. But they started off. They split from the American Baptist because of slavery, because they wanted to keep slaves, and after that, after slavery was abolished, there was still a huge, huge racial divide and Pentecostalism, methodism, charismatics. I'm not saying there's never been any racism, but there they have been very good about including everyone of all different colors in the church. Have you had a lot? Have you had a lot of it? We colors in the church, have you had a lot of? We live in a very wide area. Have you had a lot of experience with different races in the PH church and different ministers? I know you're aware of Azusa Street. I was just wondering, being around you, being around you.
Don:I am not aware of any racism, if that was your question.
Josh:Well, not only that. Just you know, african-american ministers. That's not a, that might not be normal around here, because we live in a pretty white part of the country, but there would be no problem with a black man being a minister. Oh, no, no absolutely not. Yeah.
Don:In the church that I pastor, we welcome everyone. Sure, yeah, if they're rich or poor, it doesn't matter to us if they're black or white, we will welcome them any of them, and I think that I can speak for every Pentecostal Lowlander's church in our conference, and there's somewhere around 150 churches in our conference, so that's a pretty accurate number and I think I could speak for every one of them. There's no racism and we welcome everyone from every walk of life and we will welcome them as our brother and as our sister.
Josh:Yeah, and y'all guys have churches outside the United States. I know you've talked to me. Y'all have some churches in Ukraine, right?
Don:We get into world missions of which I am not real familiar, other than I think we have churches in I think it's 120 other countries around the world. We have Pentecostal holiness churches.
Evelyn:And missionaries.
Don:Yeah, and missionaries. Well, and listen in the assemblies of God which y'all are close with Well and listen in the assemblies of God which y'all are close with. There is more Pentecostal holiness churches around the world than there are in the United States.
Josh:Outside the United.
Don:States. There's something like. I heard figures this morning. I would say that there's probably 10 or 15,000 Pentecostal churches around the world.
Josh:Well, it's really growing. In Africa and South America, yes, and Brazil, a lot of the Protestants are becoming Pentecostals and a lot of the Catholics are becoming Pentecostals. Now, y'all aren't part of the Assemblies of God, but you are almost the same in doctrine. There's no bad will. Y'all love each other. Oh, yes, and the Assemblies of God is huge. It is absolutely huge around the world.
Don:If I'm not mistaken, that's the largest Pentecostal denomination.
Josh:Yeah, they are. It's not even close and they are absolutely huge. I have a really good friend that's in the Assemblies of God but I'm going to let y'all go. But I'm going to let y'all go, but before we leave I'll let y'all say anything you want to, anything you would like future Scots to hear that you might not be able to meet and I might not be able to meet. That's a big reason I'm doing this is for our family. There's so many times when I was looking back at my ancestry that I said I wish I could hear him talk. I wish I could hear her talk. Is there anything you'd like to tell your future, future descendants, future family?
Don:the biggest thing that I like to leave with everybody was the depth of our love toward our family, all of our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It is a little bit of troubling. I don't know this for a fact, but I think that there are some of our grandchildren that are not involved in church now as I speak, and I hope that I'm wrong, but I would like to encourage all of our children and grandchildren to take their children to church. It's vitally important that they hear the gospel, and that's probably the biggest message I'd like to leave behind for everyone Our love for the family, our love for the church. It's important that we become involved in the church of our choice, preferably Pentecostal, because that's my church, yeah.
Josh:And I will say before I let Nise say what she wants. To anyone that's listening to me, it doesn't matter what you've done before or how far you've run away. Everybody's made mistakes. I've made a lot of mistakes. I'm not really qualified to say some of the things I've said, but I'm trying to do better, trying to live a holier life. You're never too far away. You can always come back.
Don:There's a verse of scripture, josh, that I'll give to you. I don't think I've quoted it in this interview. Yeah, and I think it's well. I know it's in the book of Romans. I want to think.
Don:Somewhere around chapter 13, somewhere it said where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. Yes, sin abounds, grace does much more abound, yes, and so, uh, of course, that doesn't give us the license to sin, right, because we know that grace of god is great. Uh, he expects us if we make errors. He expects us to do better, yes, and to live a holy life, right, but if we mess up in life I'll use that term we can always go to him, and we used, a while ago, the example of David, the example of the Apostle Paul. Peter is another example. He failed God and God took him back, and so if you're out there listening to this and you feel like you've gone too far to turn around, you have it. Amen. All you have to do is repent and come to God. God is love and His mercy is great and His grace is great.
Josh:Amen. So, trudy, is there anything you'd like to say to the future?
Evelyn:Yeah, I just want to reiterate how thankful I am for my family that consists of my children, my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren. They have brought so much joy to mine and Don's life. We love them. We love all of you. We're very proud of all of you and we will always be there for you if you ever need us at any time.
Josh:That's sweet. Yeah, that's sweet. Thank you all guys so much.
