The Rock Wall

I’m sitting down for this chat with you because we printed something in an obituary that wasn’t true and I knew I had a way to check it. And to tell you where my sister’s middle name, Ellen, came from.

In the June 25, 2026, issue, we published the obituary of Gary Wayne Henry, a member of the EHS class of 1964, my class. His parents, Lee and Mabel, owned and operated the store at Olympia, MO, on Hwy. 97 south of El Dorado Springs.

The obituary said that in 1960 Gary “accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and was saved by the Grace of God.” I talked with Brother David Benham, the Pleasant Ridge Missionary Baptist at Pacetown church clerk, who told me that Brother Gary was really saved and joined the church in 1960 when he would have been 14.

I was saved on Friday evening June 23, 1961, at age 14 1⁄2 in the altar at Grace Missionary Baptist church in El Dorado Springs which later closed.

What did it feel like to be saved? Instantly I felt a perfect peace. For months I had laid awake for hours after I went to bed because I knew that if I died in my sleep I’d wake up in hell. Now that fear is gone. I get a blessing out of hell fire and brimstone preaching that used to bother me.

The wooden mourners’ bench Dad and Mom built with white oak lumber donated by Brother A. D. and SisterDora Belisle, and where I was saved, is now at the front of El Dorado Springs Missionary Baptist church.

By the way, Brother David said his dad, Brother Ralph Benham, our former pastor at Concord Missionary Baptist Church where I am a member, got out of the nursing home and is home. Brother David is the son-in-law of my late cousin, Sister Murneth June Ingram Fast, Murnie.

In order to join a Missionary Baptist church, a person will go forward when invited from the stand. The preacher will then ask the person to tell his or her experience of salvation. If the congregation likes what they hear, and they usually do, a member of the church will make a motion to receive the person as a candidate for baptism and after baptism and the right hand of fellowship (the church members filing by and shaking the hand of the new member, which usually takes place at the edge of the flowing stream where he or she was just baptized by an ordained Missionary Baptist preacher, all rights, privileges and responsibilities of the church. A member of the church seconds the motion and the church votes.

I can guarantee you that if someone tells the church any form of they “accepted the Lord,” the Missionary Baptist Church will not receive him or her as a candidate for baptism.

I’m not saying no one gets into the church without salvation. I know of a few who did but the Lord convicted their heart and they were later saved. They joined the church again. This time with a real experience of salvation.

If a person never seeks the Lord even though a member of any kind of church or not, in the King James version, the only Bible we use, Christ said that at the judgement “Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” KJV Matt.7: 21-23

So, you can’t accept Christ. You must seek him until he accepts you.

“The Lord is near to them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite sprit.”

”How will I know what to do?,” Dad, a 16 year old, asked. His mother said, “ You’ll know.” Same answer for how he would know when it was time to seek the Lord.

I watch the Old Fashion Gospel Hour at 7 a.m. every Sunday, a 30 minute program that we used to get on Channel 10. Our remote doesn’t show channels now. A few weeks ago it was program No. 3052. Find it at ofgh.org on the internet. A God called man will preach what is on his heart not from notes.

And why didn’t Brother Gary Henry’s family know that he was really saved? Because Christ saves the soul and not the body. Satan works overtime trying to steal a saved person’s influence. -Grandma Long was saved as a girl lying flat of her back under the mourners’ bench in the old Sand Ridge School a mile south of the church. She joined Pleasant Ridge Missionary Baptist church but didn’t attend when she had a young family. -Grandpa Long was saved in a blackberry patch when a young man and joined Pleasant Ridge. He didn’t attend because he had a temper and beat his work horses and people didn’t like that.

Grandma Long’s sister, Aunt El, was married to the preacher, Brother Dude Pace. God put Dad, Uncle Cleo and Aunt Blanch on Aunt El’s heart. She went and asked Grandpa if they could go to the revival in progress at Sand Ridge. He said, “Yes,” and they could even take the family car, a really big deal in 1939.

Dad said at first he was amazed at the preaching. Dad said that after a few nights, the Lord convicted him and led him to go to the altar, but he wouldn’t go even though people came to him during the altar call. One night as they were walking home, Uncle Dude, who also lived near the church and the Longs which were about two miles apart said, “Clifford, would you come in and let us pray for you?” Dad replied, “I will, but it won’t do any good.” Uncle Dude said, “You might be surprised.”

Dad said that when he bowed down at the chair, the Lord showed him how foolish he had been to resist seeking Him. He said he told the Lord he would go to the altar the next night or do anything He wanted.

Dad said everything went black. He said that when he came to, he was sitting on Uncle Dude’s lap rejoicing.

And that is why our parents gave my sister, Margaret, her middle name, Ellen – a tip of the hat to Aunt El.

Preaching services at Concord Missionary Baptist church, Cedar Springs, begin at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. on the 1st and 3 rd Sundays. At El Dorado Springs Missionary Baptist church, corner of Lafayette and Ohio, full time preaching services begin Sundays at 11 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. except the 5th Sunday evening.