Kevin's Story

 The Story of Kevin Carroll

 

This morning my pastor Ray Still taught us on James 2:1-15 this passage of Scripture is titled, The Sin of Partiality.   The first four verses give us a great understanding of how this played out in the early Church, and the current Church.  I do not believe any who attended have not done this at some point in their lives.  It reminded me of Kevin Carrol.

Kevin's story, and my first time to see Kevin was at Spring Baptist Church, he drove up in an old white van with peace signs and flower stickers all over it.  But it gets better, he had no shoes and was wearing white painter's coveralls with paint all over them, he looked a mess,  with long unkempt hair, totally unkempt, and I’m sure could have used a bath.  The greeter and others were talking about the bare-footed guy in the hippy van, when our Pastor Harlan Caton heard about the young man and found him in a corner, not knowing where to go or what to do.  Harlen put his arm around his shoulders and told him to sit on the front row and to only listen to the message and to pay no attention to what others were saying.

Our Pastor told us he had a special guest on the front row and he expected everyone to treat him with respect, and if you knew Harlen, that meant to be nice.

Now Jan and I did not meet Kevin on his first visit but we saw him and it did make you wonder, where he had come from, and would he be back?  The next Sunday Kevin was back and we noticed his hair was a little shorter and I believe he was wearing shoes.  Each Sunday Kevin was back sitting on the front row and his clothes were nicer and his hair was short and groomed and we found him to be a very nice young man.

Much later Jan and I were talking to Kevin and asking him about that first visit and why he came to Spring Baptist Church.  This is Kevin's story;  he and a friend were camping out in the deep piney woods smoking a joint and out of nowhere a young lady showed up and began to tell them about Jesus and how much He loved them and the price He had paid so that they could have a relationship with His father and Him.  He said then after a while she just got up and left, and they never saw her again.

That began Kevin’s search for Jesus and as he heard the word preached he met Jesus in a real personal way.  Kevin began to work with the youth, and the more Jan and I got to know Kevin the more we loved this new brother in Christ.  God had done a transformation in this young brother, and later we met the lady that would share His life and give him children. 

The last time we were with Kevin’s family He was a youth minister at Ellendale Baptist Church in Tennessee.  It was on that visit I asked Kevin who had been the greatest influence in his life.  Harlan Catan, he said, was the only man who ever showed me that he trusted me.  Now I was listening, how did he do that, I had only been to church a few times and Harlan asked if I would stay in their house while the family was gone for a week.  He knew I was living in that van and thought it would be nice to have me stay there and be able to bathe and cook my food, no person had ever shown that they trusted me like that, they had a lot of nice stuff.  Kevin saw Jesus in Harlan, and he wanted to become a man other men could trust.

Harlan was a great Bible teacher, I learned a lot under his teaching in my 3 ½ years under his teaching.  I love Harlan, and sometimes he could be hard for many who took him on in a business meeting to love.  I’m so thankful that Harlan lived out James 2:1-13 the day Kevin showed up at Spring Baptist Church.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice