Who was that man…

Journal, I’m still marking time until my original journal is back up and running. (Don’t want to lose my prior entries.) But I haven’t stretched out, other than to annoy Jenni over when things will be back in place. Actually it has been quite restful. I’ve been able to set my mind on other things.Continue reading →

Journal,

I’m still marking time until my original journal is back up and running. (Don’t want to lose my prior entries.) But I haven’t stretched out, other than to annoy Jenni over when things will be back in place. Actually it has been quite restful. I’ve been able to set my mind on other things.

OK, let’s break the silence. Thought I’d take a moment to muse a bit. (Not that everyone will enjoy my musings.)

An interesting thing happened this last Saturday. I was on my way to my youngest sons for a fish fry. Knowing that I would pass near our community cemetery, the thought kept coming to me about a grave marker in our family cemetery that I’ve always wondered about. I wondered…

Who was that man?’

Most of the people buried in the old Campbell Creek Cemetery are my kin. But it is actually a community cemetery. Anyway, in the picture below, in the bottom row, beginning on the left is my dad’s headstone, Lawrence Bert Martin. Next to him in the brown colored headstone is our son, David Lynn. The double headstones are my grandfather and grandmother Martin, John Allen and Frances Ella. Further up still, without a head stone is my great-uncle, Jessie Martin. Then the next two standing stones are my great-grandfather and great-grandmother, James Erwin and Mary.

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At the very top of the picture is a home-made head stone with the writing, ‘Charle s. Martin,’ died June 10, 1895. (The ‘s’ is backwards and the ‘9’ in 1895.) I knew that he was kin but I could never find exactly how. We have a number of Charles Martins in our genealogy.

And here is the blessing. At the fish fry I got to visiting with two of my long distant cousins who are very much involved in genealogy. Sonny asked me, ‘You don’t know who that Charlie Martin is?” “That is your great-grandfather’s, father.”

Wow – It lite up like a candle. Charle s. Martin is really Charles Seth Martin. He was born about 1825. What a connection! I was never able to find where Charles Seth was buried and there he was all the time in Campbell Creek Cemetery. Charles Seth was my great-great-grandfather.

But the story doesn’t stop there. What makes this even more interesting is that Charles Seth Martin is the son of Billy and Elizabeth Martin, the revolutionary soldier and his Indian wife, who are buried at Anacoco, Louisiana. (Mitchell Cemetery. Also known as Cold Water Cemetery.) Billy and Elizabeth came to Louisiana in 1803. Billy and Elizabeth were my great-great-great-grandparents. And now I have the entire lineage of my Louisiana Martin ancestry in place.

I’m not through yet. All our Martin men and their wives have been Christians. According to our genealogy, Billy Martin was a Methodist. And that brings me to the next musing. It’s about…

I Know Whom I Have Believed…

As is my custom, this morning I picked up my good friend Art Baker, for our weekly time of fellowship. We gather at a local restaurant. Art is a retired Methodist pastor. (Art is 83 years young. I’m just a youngster at 69.) Since 1988 a group of we pastors and other ministers have met once a week just for a time of laughter and sharing. When Art got in my truck he said he had a song he wanted me to hear. Art began to sing, ‘I Know Whom I Have Believed.”

What a wonderful voice. My eyes became misty as I listened to my old friend sing from his heart. Anyway, thought I’d share the song with you. Why not take a listen…

How about it? Do you know in whom you have believed? Are you persuaded that He is able to keep what you have entrusted to Him for that day?

Think about it.

Enough on my musings.

Love in Christ always,

Buddy

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Lawrence "Buddy" Martin and his wife Betty are co-founders of Christian Challenge International. They have served the Lord in the ministry since the mid-1960s. They began Christian Challenge in 1976 with a stewardship from the Lord. The ministry began as a ‘School for Christian Workers’. It was Brother Buddy’s vision for ministry and missions that has led graduates of the school to enter the ministry as pastors or missionaries. Multiplied hundreds of disciples have been trained under the auspices of Christian Challenge.

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