While I get this set up, you know, I sit here and think about from 1920 till our present day, all these, all these great inventions has come about. I don't know why I remember Sister Meadows, Sister Mildred's mom would sit back, she'd talk about all these things she'd saw from the airplane to the to the blimps to the phones and electric and all these things, but she didn't get to see this. Bottle of water for all things. Who would have thought that? Pretty good thing, wasn't it? But anyway, I can think about those things. You know, these kids sang these songs. They always refer back to somebody that sung this song. You know, that's the way my life is. My family was a singing family. Where you go to the old reunions or go somewhere, there'll be a stack of hymnals. And then they could take them on the hymnal, set that in an acapella, and just make the walls shake. We had some great times, I remember. And I remember one time we went to South Webster High, Ain't Ollie Hamilton, and we're sitting out there in the yard singing, and get the old hymn books out, and people stop along the road, you know, and sit and listen to singing. And folks, that's a great thing to think about, all these old hymns. And I can remember my Grandpa Ed, he would just sit and just sing songs all day long. He never quit. And he was a pretty old man at that, had a great voice till he died. Most of them he always relate back to. They were things he learned in school. I remember a lot of things in school I learned as well. The thing about the tent meeting, I can remember the tent meeting. We had the old green tent. Grandpa kept me barn locked over and we took that thing for several years and took it to places and had some great, great revivals about how he feels just like this and sides of the roads. First one I can remember was, I was probably about five or six year old, about that age, and had it set up down there by where Don Flannery's got his trailer set at. There was a man by the name of Ross Hanna, he preached the Indian Reservation, and he held it where I wouldn't. And I'm kiddin', I'm tellin' ya, I can remember this, the message he preached was on the Valley of Dry Bones. And I'd sit over in front of my seat, and I could listen to it, I'd share it with you. The Valley of Dry Bones, you know, I can remember that message, and others as well, just small kids and folks. These stay with us. And thankful for these great memories. These old Bibles and great singing. And so we relate back to that several years. I remember 1960, Mom and Dad, we were members of Salem. They were. And we all moved back in September 1960. I remember Dad telling Mom one day, he said, you know what? Church up at Laurel needs us. We're here in this community. And that church up there at Laurel needs us to be there. That's the reason the Lord let them hear from Salem. I remember a lot of my whole life memories of Salem Baptist Church and all these great times we all had together. And a lot of the young ones, we were young boys. And you know, young boys are young boys. And we all sit back and I'd like to tell some stuff like back, didn't have our condition. We had the hometown heads right there in Grace and Wendlandt. Didn't have no screens in it. One night, Brother Stanton Dowdy was preaching, I'll never forget it. And back, got in the church house. And these little ladies back then wore their hats, you know, they had four of their hats and so forth. And that little bat, he just warped down on the ladies. He'd stand and hunker down. Elvin Smith, brother of Elvin, of all people, who was the brooms of the mob sitting right here behind him, well, he used to give him the brooms. And that old bat, he just warped that so many times it finally did go out the window. But brother Pratt, brother Dowdy, just kept right on preaching. But that's some good times, folks. And these were blessed times. We go back to the things that we knows history. History is very important. History is very important to the Lord's churches. And you go back into the beginning of the ministries of the apostles and the church at Jerusalem, and then the church at Antioch, and then Paul and Barnabas. They went out into Derby and all these different places, organizing churches. And then Paul and Silas went out. All these ministers, missionaries, they went out. They were organizing churches together. There's one thing you'll notice. They didn't go out on their own. They didn't go out and say, I'm going to start a church. They all went under the authority. They all had a mother church. That mother church was Jerusalem, the first church that Jesus Christ organized and said, in order, when he's here on earth with the Mother Church of all the Baptist churches, even for this church today. We can take our history, and we'll see here it goes back. We were organized under the authority from the Salem Baptist Church. You go back to Bam, they came out of Ashland. I believe they came out of Pollard Baptist Church. Then they come out of a little church down here on East Fork, Palomar. It wasn't the Palmyra, but the little church down here that goes back to the times of Andrew Hood and Squire Boone. See, Squire Boone was a Baptist preacher. And they come into this area and they set up these churches. And they all come under the authority of different churches. And so today, we do know that this church goes back under authority. From one church to go around back. And you go back in history, you go all the way back to the days of Christ. You can run back that far. So that's how the church of Emanuel came into existence. I went back, a little while back, maybe back last winter somewhere, somebody had found some old records at Salem. And I went back and I took them all and I could put them all from 19 and 12 to 19 and 19. And I could take them all and I went by the pastors I went by the moderator of pro-tems. That pro-tem means temporary. And I went back to those and I got them all up and I got them in order every year. And here's one of them that came about. I found it June of 1917 and June of 1919. And here's June of 1918. The Salem Baptist Church of Christ met at Salem the Saturday before the third sun in June of 1918. After preaching by the pastor, the church was called. I'll tell you how Brother Walter felt. He wrote words like he sounded. He had a cold, cold church, cold order. And by him, I mean it was a cold order by the pastor. And it says here Brother Lee Illum, moved and it was approved of the trip he made to Arnhill. I went back to the to the uh May and brother I'm trying to think here uh here E.T. Ellis was a pastor he had they give him authority to go to Arnhill And what this was doing, back when these churches were setting up, they were all joining the association, what was called the Greeniff Association, so the Baptists. And he went to O.R. Hill to talk to them and to getting them to join the association. So that's what the trip was about. And then it says here, Brothers E.T. Ellis, Brother Lee Ellum, and Brother Jordan. Now a lot of these names you'll notice here in these old records. Lee Illum, Lee Illum came from Fisher over here, next holler over. He married, he married Addie Miller and he lived right up here. And John Jordan, he was over on Lost Creek. And then E.T. Ellis, the old record, he was from Boris Brushard up on ahead of Leatherwood. In fact, there used to be a church under the command of Salem. It was called the Leatherwood Baptist Church. So, that's where these names come into play. And it says here, Brother E.T. Ellis, Brother Lee Ellum, and Brother Jordan, talk, it said talk in regard to meeting at L.A.R.L. It says moved and second. Now here's what he wrote about this. Moved and second that the pastor and the arms of the church to sit well with Laurel. Meeting they met, they met their approval of this church of people assembling together. So no doubt they were either meeting in someone's home or in the school. Most of the time they met at the old schoolhouse. And these are the records we found here of them meeting in Laurel. And it says peace and fellowship called for and all. united and moved and second that we adjourn until next meeting or call the church. ETL as moderator and Walter Felty clerk. So what this was, it was actually over a little two years prior to the organization of organizing the church. And so there were people meeting here in various homes, no doubt, and various places like maybe the school. That was no problem back in those days, having the church in the school. In fact, that was a lot of things that went on concerning church in the schools and even in government buildings, even in the capitol. In fact, when President Jefferson and those were president, they had a church every Sunday in the Senate chambers. So now we go on and say, what is now the Emmanuel Minister Baptist Church was first named Laurel Chapel Baptist Church on June 28, 1920. Members from Salem Baptist Church met at Laurel for the purpose of organizing at Baptist Church from Salem Baptist Church. There were 13 charter members from Laurel community who were the first members. The first pastor at Laurel Chapel was E.T. Ellis. He was a man we see here that was mentioned in the minutes over at Salem. And see, I went back and saw a group, they went from different pastors over there to Brother Kraft, H.C. Kraft, and then there was Noah Kaiser, and then others, and then Brother, we see here, I can't see his name, Ellis, Brother Ellis. And that's how I got them all in order here. He was in his last minutes from 17, 18, and 19. And so, we see here, it says here that the first pastor, E.T. Ellis, from Brush Hawk, Kentucky, S.A. or Sam McDaniel, he was Brother Tim Underwood's great-grandfather, who lived ahead of Fisher, and A.J. Meadows, that was Arthur Meadows, and they were the first deacons of the church. Soon there were seven more members added to church as members. And that was Brother Meadows and other group that come in a little bit later. Said the Laurel Chapel Baptist Church held its first meeting in the lower Laurel schoolhouse. And until 19 and 21, a lot was, a building lot was obtained from H.J. Moore at that time. And that was down on the other side of the fence, down on what Deborah Kirk called, down that bottom down there. It was a spring right there, down below that spring. And it says here a new church building was built. Dr. G.J. Bowe from Louisville, Kentucky, he was part of the head of the Southern Baptist Convention. He had come here and he traveled a great distance and preached the dedication service there in 1922. There was later a disagreement between H. J. Moore and the membership of the church as to who should be allowed to preach in the church. And what that was, Mr. Moore, he thought anybody could come and preach. Any denomination, they could come and preach. And he, I'm thankful that Brother Mez and ETLs and those set up said, no, we don't do that. They decided they just, and so they come to the point they had to move the church building. And it says here, so they began, they had to disassemble the building to move it to a new lot that was purchased from Mr. King. It was George King who lived over here at what we call Bonnie's Place. And the church was a step simpler for a while. It's right on the side of the curb up on the bank there. And it says here the building was taken to the new lot and then reassembled. And they tried to take it down and move it by sled and was tamed, but it got up here somewhere and started to come apart, so they had to completely take it apart and then bring it up here and then rebuild it. It says here, in February 1932, there were 40 members at the Laurel Chapel Baptist Church. Up to this time, the following men that served as pastors at the Laurel Chapel Baptist Church, E.T. Ellis of Brush Heart, Kentucky, H.C. Craft of Schultz, Kentucky, Clark of Banyan, Grayson, Kentucky, M.B. Riggs of Ashland, Kentucky, N.W. Kaiser, Carter, Kentucky, William Ramey, Togo, Kentucky, and Lee Illum of Samaria, Kentucky. And the deacons who served at this point were E.J. Cameron, F. Hillard Cameron, he lived up where old Wayne Gilbert's place is. H.A. Meadows, lived up where Jared now lives, Sam McDaniel, and then C.T. Miller, who lived up here right above me in Wellman, where we live at. There was several preachers that preached here, and I know for a fact there's other pastors, but you notice there were several pastors that went in, but you go back and look at the old menu, for some reason, the pastor held the pastor for one year. You'll talk about how they did, they elected a pastor every year. Some of these pastors served for one year, then they moved to another church. And that's how you see several preachers come in. And it says here that, and what we see here, Will Ramey, he was over on the side of the creek right over the hill here. And so it goes on to say, on the night of February 15, 1932, H.C. Seacraft at Brother Jim Craft's dad was holding a meeting at the church. Approximately an hour after the service had ended, all had gone home, it was discovered that the building was on fire. There was no insurance on the building at the time, and the building was totally destroyed. The only thing left from the building was the front steps, which are still visible today in the side of the old church. Brother Meadows wrote there when he was living, the steps, they had been there for just a few years, and I think they maybe moved them over when they cleared that lot over. They're still up there. Here's a quote taken from the writings of Eugene Meadows concerning the early struggles that the church endured to carry out forth or carry forth God's mission. Folks, this was not an easy, it was not an easy community. We do know, I know a lot about this community. I don't want to say much about, but it was a, It was a very, very unpleasant place to be in many years. I know it had a note of being a pretty rough place and many things that went on. But we do know that that God was was faithful. And it says or says ours was a trail of blood and heartaches. We can all we can all call to mind one thing was tore all our hearts. One morning, when we unlocked the door, this is what we found. On the stand where we had our pulpit Bible, there was a large family Bible. We found someone had broken in with a pocket knife and cut our Bible to shreds. Ours had been truly a trail of heartaches. One night during service, some brave person threw a rock through the door, breaking out a glass panel. After the fire and loss of our building, a few of the members began having service again at the Loyola Law School again. It was unanimously agreed upon by members of the Laurel Church to begin anew. They were determined not to allow a pile of ashes and rubble to cause them to quit the work they knew God had given them to do. The members then called Brother H.C. Craft as their pastor. And after much struggle to continue God's work and communion, there was soon an end to the Laurel Chapel Baptist Church. And what that meant, that the church they Some of them went to Salem, some went to other churches for a period of short years. But some still continued on. To my understanding, they still continue on with services in parts of this community and home and so forth. And it goes on here and says, out of their continual service to the Lord, it says, came the Emmanuel Baptist Church. A new lot was purchased by E.W. Gilbert. Actually, the purchase was they traded that lot for that lot. That was called the bull lot. You go back and look at the Josh Kelly deeds and that was called the bull lot. They had a lot there and that's where they kept the bulls at. When Mr. Kelly owned this, and we have some more pictures, this here was a big orchard. And all this, the road was not here. It run in the hill and went down across what they call the lower crossing. And so this was, that's what they called the bull lot. You had a lot of cattle. We got pictures of a lot of cattle in these fields here out here. And it says here that said that they purchased a lot from E.W. Gilbert where a building was constructed. And this building was, I believe, built in the early 40s. And it says here in this slot is also where the current building is constructed. Brother Eugene Meadows, one of the first charter members, was then called to preach. He became the first to preach in their new building. And Brother Meadows, he preached for several years. He preached until 1971. And I think he started preaching here in the 40s. 1945, I believe. And I in fact, I've got a lot of your message apart. I got one of our he said my first message. I still got it up there and. So we see here, he says, after H.C. Craft came the following men to serve as pastors. Woodrow Broomfield. Folks, I remember Woodrow Broomfield and Ernestine. He was one of the most humble little fellows there was. He preached here for a good while. He preached at Salem. He pastored at Myrtle Tree. And also we have here Don Primerton. I remember these men. Don Primerton, he preached here. He preached at Grayson or Greenup. Alvin Bledsoe, remember him? He was from up in over Melrose over in Worthington area and he was a he was a man he was legally blind and he could barely see and but he he preached here for us I remember him and Herschel Rowland I can faintly remember him then brother Eugene Meadows. Then on September the 12th 1971 brother Cecil Stevenson from Portland Kentucky was called a pastor for the church. Then and Brother James Craft of Manfred High was then called a pastor on August the 13th, 1979. So you see, they went from the one year up to just, they let the Lord lead and to take care of them from one place to the other. Then after 10 years of faithful service, Brother Craft resigned as pastor. Then on August the 8th, 1989, the church called Brother James Foster of South Shore, Kentucky to pastor the church. Brother Foster served the church as pastor until March the 14th, 2004. At that time, Brother John Lybrook from Crane Creek, Kentucky was called a pastor for the now-known Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church, where he is the current pastor. Throughout the year, many members and deacons and pastors have sacrificed for the continuation of God's work here at this church. Our prayer is that this work will continue by the current members by seeking God's guidance in each and everything we do. So we see here, this is how the church was organized, it was ordained. And going back now, I want to read the things that was brought forth. These were records from the old Salem records, and also we have them in our recorder. This was the time that they met on July the 28th, 1920. Said, we the ordained authority of the following churches sit in council to help constitute the Laurel Chapel Baptist Church. Ordained authority, Ed Stevens, that was my grandfather. I know most of y'all remember him, of Salem Church. Lee Illum of Salem Church. E.T. Ellis of Brush Heart Church. James Smith of Everman Church. This church is to be constituted out of the following members of the Salem Baptist Church to whom it may concern. This is to certify that E.J. Cameron, Effie Cameron, Willis Cameron, Ethel Likens, Thomas Vest, Corinda Vest, Artie Vest, Sarah Meadows, Shirley Meadows, A.J. Meadows, Preston Fletcher, Dosa Fletcher, and S.A. McDaniel is by their request dismissed from Salem Baptist Church in full fellowship in order that they may constitute themselves into a body of the same faith in order at Tolga, Kentucky on the account of ill convenience to attend Salem Church. After reading the letter, the council was seated in order. Motion made that Brother E.T. Ellis act as moderator of the council. Motion made that William Ramey act as clerk of the council. Brother Lee Illum read the church covenant and articles of faith. Peace and fellowship called for and all found to be in peace. Motion made that that Brother E.T. Ellis be the moderator of this church. Motion made that R.T. Vest be the clerk of this church. Also motion made that the deacons be confirmed. Motion made that we adjourn until slated meeting, which is Saturday before the second Saturday at 2.30 in August. for the E.T. Ellis Moderator Pro-Tem, William Ramey Clerk Pro-Tem. And so we see these, that's how Emanuel came to be known as Emanuel Baptist Church. And for a hundred years now, this has been the church. For 60 years, I'm glad to be a part of it, be around it, and be here with it. I had Mom and Mildred. Mildred's been here all her life. I'm thankful for that. And it's good to see this and to be a part of this great church here and go back and see. Folks, it was a struggle. We have got it so easy compared to what they had in some ways. I'm telling you, we listened to Max this week, you know. It wouldn't be as easy if we'd be out there doing what we're supposed to be doing a lot, you know. We'd get too complacent. But you know, these people, they stayed after it. They were aggressive. Brother Matt, he preached, he pastored actually, at 12 places over on Everman Creek, and walked to Everman Creek. But I was telling Jane and Brendan, we was over there the other day, the path, you know, where it come up from Beals and go across the gap and go up and go up and come out to Long Branch, you know. And that was a, that was a main thoroughfare back then. And you take when they were younger, you could cut a pretty good stride and be across there. I, I can remember mom and dad, we went to Lost Creek and they'd bought us bicycles. And, and I, I went up Duncan and went up that left-hand holler up there at the, at the Andy Friend place and went up Old Hill, come out to Montgomery Cemetery and I beat mom and dad to say them on the bicycle. Yeah, I pulled right in front of them. You're pretty good at crossing them hills. It's a short cut with the old sled road, but I remember them roads. But that was the way of travel. And Brother Craft, he lived down on Schultz. He'd come in on horseback and stay, and they'd preach after Sunday night, go back up to church and work at the steel mill the next day. And that's the way it was. It was a burden to them, but you know, I don't know. I never hear no complaining. I remember, you know, these old preachers. I never hear no complaining whatsoever. Brother Wayne talked about Biller Canute. Biller Canute was a little Jew. He was a little small biller. These ladies remember Biller Canute, and I remember him. And he was also legally blind. I remember he had a big old magnifying about that big around him. And he'd hold that magnifying thing and read that Bible. But you know what? He can lay that magnifying down. He can put that Bible first of all. You can follow him. He told it. He knew that Bible to the letter. And these were the days that people were truly dedicated to the work that God had called them into. And I pray this church will never lose light of that. We need to realize that we're called into something here, and it's a battleground. We see a battleground that's getting closer to our home. The battles are gonna start getting closer to us, I'm afraid, and we're starting to see these things going on. But I'm reminded of that one verse which says, God has said, I'll never leave thee, and I'll never forsake thee. And that's the promise we have, that God will be with us. Time and time and time, we don't know how long it'll be. But if it lasts another 100 years, we'll say God blessed us. God blessed whoever will be here. But I'm thankful, as I said, that this church is here and part of the community. And I'm glad to be a part of it. I'm glad you're a part of it over here today. But if you're not a part of it, you're here lost today. I'm afraid God would touch your heart that you would You see a burden coming across your face and be part of this great work here and be a part of this lighthouse. That's what we're to be. We're to be a lighthouse in this community. All right. That's what I have to say.