[Granville-Hough] 26 Aug 2009 - Preachers
Trustees for Granville W. Hough
gwhough-trust at oakapple.net
Sun Aug 27 19:47:22 PDT 2017
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 08:12:41 -0700
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: Preachers - 28 Aug 2009
The Itinerant Baptist Minister, Cousin Ira L. Sullivan.
Some people are called to preach, and they are very good. Others are
called to preach, and they are very sincere. Then there are others. One
story I once heard circulating in SullivanÆs Hollow was of a young man
who was plowing in a field and came to a fence where he had to turn and
go back and plow the other way. As he was turning, he saw in the furrow
the initials: G-P-C, which he interpreted as ôGo Preach Christ.ö Those
who heard his first efforts, then his later efforts, said he definitely
misunderstood the message. G-P-C meant ôGo Pick Cotton,ö and that is
what he seemed best fitted for.
Be that as it may, there were many who heard the call and answered it.
Some mastered their difficulties and did much good. Billy Graham once
said on TV in an interview that the first thing he was going to ask God
when he met him in heaven was why he was chosen to be a minister. Billy
said he was not well educated, he did not know how to preach, and his
first efforts on the streets of a city in Florida were miserably
ineffective. Why God allowed him to continue was incomprehensible. Yet
Billy Graham inspired more to believe and change their lives than any
other man in recent history.
Some ministers farmed on the side so they could feed their families and
survive. Those who depended entirely on their congregationÆs support
frequently had to serve four or even eight churches. In most Baptist
churches of Smith County, and through most of the rural South, you had
church once each month with a regular preacher. The other Sundays, you
had Sunday School, singing, and other church activities. When the
Preacher came, everyone got on his or her best behavior. Other Sundays,
they were more relaxed.
Of course, Cousin Ira L. Sullivan was son of Loughton Sullivan and
grandson of Reverend Wilson West. He truly had a heritage to maintain. I
found him as a minister on a Louisiana census record, but I never had
contact with a descendant. How well he did his ministry, we do not know;
however, I hope his descendants follow in his footsteps.
More information about the Granville-Hough
mailing list