Well, we are excited to be here today. Certainly want to welcome each and every one of you who are watching this recording of the Emmanuel Discipling Network. We will stream this out through or we'll send this out through the Delivered Orthodoxy podcast. We'll have it on our Facebook, different things. However you found us, we want to thank you for watching today. And I know you didn't come on here. Most of you, if you saw the name of this stream, you didn't come on here today to see me or to hear me talk, but instead our special guest. We're going to have a couple of special guests with us coming up here in a few weeks. On October the 5th, we're going to be having our anniversary Sunday, 75 years, celebrating 75 years of ministry here at Emanuel Baptist Church. And we are so thankful. for those who have come before us and laid such a wonderful biblical foundation for our church. And so many of you who are part of our church who have been longstanding members and so many new ones as well. And so I want to introduce you today or help you remember and also celebrate the ministry of Brother Sam Wheat. who was with us for some time. I'm not going to say much about him now, but I'm so thankful to have him with me. And we are looking forward to having him with us on the 5th when he will be here helping lead us in worship. And so I'll bring Brother Sam on at this time. There you are. There's Brother Sam. And certainly we're excited to have you here and be able to talk with you a little bit today. And in full disclosure, I gave Brother Sam a few questions for him to answer. And so we just kind of got our interview. And so, Brother Sam, as we look forward to the fifth and having you here with us, I just would ask you to just introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about your family, where you live and what you're doing now. Okay. Well, I am Sam Wheat, and we live in East Mountain, which is a little community just outside of Longview, Texas. We moved here in 2019 after our retirement manual. We built our retirement home on this piece of property that belonged to my wife's family. Her parents left this to her and her sisters, and Patty is the only remaining sister. And so we have this property, and this is where we built our home. And we came back here, Patty came back in, I think like April of 2019, and continued working here and lived with her sister. And we started building our home, and then I retired the end of May. and moved here, and we moved in our home in July of 2019. When we got back here, we visited around the area, but we ended up back at her home church, East Mountain Baptist Church, and that's the church where I met Patty. A few years ago. A few years ago. Full circle there. Full circle. I came there right out of seminary and served there as their minister of music, youth, and education. Just did a few little things there. We, after leaving there, we've been to other places, but we spent the last 13 years at Emanuel, 2007 to 2006 to 2019. And so I have my wife, Patty, is now retired as a physical therapist. We have one child, our son, Adam. Adam is the Director of Career and Calling at Washtenaw Baptist University in Arcadelphia. He's been there the last 10 years and in different positions there, but he is there on staff there and does adjunct teaching. He's also a deacon at First Baptist Church there in Arcadelphia. That's great. That's a little bit about our family. Okay. You asked what I'm doing now, right? Yeah, there you go. That's right. You're not quite retired. I mean, I wouldn't really classify what you're doing as retired. Well, we joined Eastmount in August. And then in October, the man who was leading worship resigned, and they asked me if I would serve as interim. So for a year, I served as interim. minister of music, and at the end of the year, I stepped down from that position, but I stayed on to lead the choir. They didn't want me to quit working with the choir, so I continued working with the choir. And then a couple years later, the gentleman who was doing the finances for the church started having some health issues with him and his wife and stepped down, and they asked me to take over that role. So I'm now the finance administrator. And then a couple years ago, they asked us to teach young marriage, young adult class, and so we're teaching that. And I'll lead a men's Bible study on Thursday morning. So just a few things. There you go. Just a few things. You just got a few irons in the fire. Well, you know, it's just such a blessing to hear of you and Patty just, of course, enjoying your time, having a little bit more discretionary time and but also using that discretionary time to glorify the Lord and still seeking to serve him in that way. And the two of you serving together, you know, as you teach that class and do those things and Now, does Patti sing in your choir? She does, and she's also leading a ladies exercise class. She does that two days a week, Monday evening and Thursday morning. She's entitled to Inside Out, and they do scripture memory as part of that. So she's tied the scripture into that study for them. Oh, that's awesome. Well, that is just so good to hear it. I know y'all are enjoying your time there. You settled me in and and guys just using you. And so that's that's great to hear. Well, I do want to, of course, we're reflecting back, we're thinking on the 75th anniversary and certainly a good portion of that time, 12 years or so, 12, 13 years at that time, you were here at Emanuel. How did you come to serve here at Emanuel as you reflect back on your time here? How did you come to serve at Emanuel and what was your ministry role? I guess you already kind of shared a little bit about your time of service, but how did you come to serve here and what was your ministry role here at Emanuel? That's a loaded question. I know when I think about your ministry role here, that's a loaded question, but go ahead. I was serving as minister of music and education at another church in another town. that church went through a pretty major split. And so we realized at that point that God needed to move us. And so a good friend of mine was the director of missions and where I was serving. And he knew the director of missions in your area. And he made a connection with them. And then so your committee called me and we visited. I have to admit, in over 40 years full-time ministry, that was probably the fastest time God ever moved me from one place to another. I came there as Minister of Education in 2007. That was the major role, but as time progressed, I then became basically the administrator. I had a lot more responsibility as well. I worked with the senior adults as well. Yeah, you had a lot of roles. Now, you didn't share anything about, you know, you became the, you know, people talk about being the chief cook and bottle washer, but really, you did a lot of things and took on a lot of hats, really just wherever you were needed. And that's a, you know, I can testify to that personally in terms of whether it was moving chairs or whether it was baking cupcakes or, you know, cooking Wednesday night meals. I mean, it was just you did so many things here. And and I know you wouldn't say it, but I tell you, you spoiled our senior adults so terribly. I mean, I tell you, it was just so you took them on those trips and coordinated those things. And And they just speak so fondly of those wonderful times that they had with you. And they just think so much of you. Yeah, I do them as well. Yeah, I know you do. Some fond memories. Some fond memories there for sure. Well, and I don't want to jump too far into those mirrors without kind of following on with our questions here, because I know you're prepared to kind of respond to some of those. But what were yours and Patty's impressions of Emanuel when you first came? When you first came to Emanuel, what were your impressions of the church here? Well, what we found was a really loving group of folks, very accepting to us. We were hurting a little bit because we had some good friends, and they were really two strong power groups that kind of got at odds with each other, and that's why that church split. We had friends on both sides. As a matter of fact, two churches formed out of that. And when we left there, we had, you know, both sides did a going away thing for us and we got gifts from both sides. It was really, I felt like we had a good relationship with everyone on both sides, but we were hurting because that was, you know, when you're in part of a church, that's family. So I found a man to be very loving and very caring and accepting. And so it was just a healing time for us in that sense. Well, that's such a such a common theme, you know, even amongst the staff, you know, that we have here now. And and, you know, the fact that Emmanuel is the love that this church shows and the way they welcome people in and and the healing effect that can have when you're coming from from a difficult place and not necessarily that the place was difficult, but difficult situation experience there. Um, well, you know, just share some of your, if you don't mind. And I know we, I, and I sort of alluded to some things I have, you know, I have trouble keeping my mouth shut, but, but, uh, you know, what were some of, some of your fondest memories of your, your time here? Uh, and then we'll, you know, we'll, and then we, as we think about that, what were the, what were the high marks, you know, or the, the, the things that you're thankful that you experienced, you know, here at Emmanuel. Okay. Well, obviously you alluded to one of them, that's working with senior adults. I really enjoyed that, you know, the monthly meetings we had and just fellowshipping with them. And yeah, the trips were a lot of fun with all those folks. As a matter of fact, since I retired, I've not taken a group anywhere else. They wore you out here. But it was a lot of fun, but it's a lot of work too. Yeah, it's a lot of work, but they were a joy to take and they were always so appreciative and very loving. I can't think of a time that folks were not offering words of appreciation. I felt really appreciated and loved there. Also, the college ministry was a real highlight, too. Pat and I enjoyed, once a month, since I love to cook, we'd have the college students over once a month at our house and feed them, and so we went through saw a lot of different college ministers going out and of course the college ministry went up and down. We had as many as 50 to 60 in our home at one time at one of the high points of the college ministry there. I got the privilege of going on mission trips with them. That was always a real joy. As a matter of fact, we were at the SING conference, which Kristin and Paul Geddes put on in Nashville last week. And as we're going through the booth there, we walked by a booth and this girl said, Sam. And turned around, it was Lydia Stebbins. She is now married, but Lydia was one of the young ladies in the college ministry. Now she's married and was involved in working in a ministry there. And so it was really neat just to reconnect with her and meet her husband and talk to them. And she was talking about the memories from that. So that's a highlight as well. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely was. And we know in ministry, it's always the people, you know, that we that we were able to connect with. And but certainly, you know, I tell you, you are such a blessing here in so many different ways and kind of like you're doing there, just plugging in wherever you were needed and being used by the Lord. Well, as we think about, we're about to have this 75th anniversary celebration. And we have those, I think at one time y'all were having those anniversary Sundays every year. We chose to kind of go to them on the fifth year and try to give a little more time and attention to those things. And certainly 75 years is quite a milestone. But, you know, as you think about Emmanuel, and certainly you were here for a good long period of time, and I feel like you know the DNA of the church. You know, things do change, but so many of those same people are here. Do you have any words of encouragement for the church as we prepare to celebrate 75 years of witness here in Ruston? Yeah, well, I know when I first came, the sign outside called Emmanuel Baptist Church, the Lighthouse for Jesus. And that was the thing that kind of played on during those years while we were there still. And so I would just say, you know, that was what the church was known for. You know, the logos changed, the motivations, the moods changed. But the whole idea is still we are to share the love and light of Christ. That would just be an encouragement and challenge to the church just to keep shining forth the light of Christ. It doesn't matter what the logo is or what the theme verse is or whatever. The whole idea is that we are to be the light for Christ. That's right. That's right. That's right. Amen. Well, I certainly appreciate you coming on here with us today. And we are looking forward to having you here with us on the 5th. And I know you're going to be leading us as we sing and just lift up songs of worship during that time. And so I know you and Dee are going to get together on that and kind of work all those things out. And, uh, but, but certainly we're, we know we're going to have a good day. And, um, that's it and give you a little responsibility that way. I can make sure you can't back out. We've got to have you here. We just don't want to send you an invitation. We got to put you to work. And so, and so I know that'll work out just fine. So, but we're looking forward to seeing you and I thank you for coming on here with us today. You're more than welcome. It's been a joy.