Acie Ford, A Man of the Cloth
Part Two of Three Interviews.
Today is the 27th of February and I again have the privilege of speaking with Acie Ford, an Associate Pastor of Broadmoor Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. My name is Jim Green.
Acie, we stopped our interview last week with you changing your education from secular to that of Christian ministry. Marolyn was under a clothesline praying for her husband, without any idea who that man was.
ACIE: You know I listened to Marolyn's testimony the other day, I realized again that her prayer started for me when she was 12 years old. She didn't know who I was but she was praying for me. That's amazing!
JG: How old were you when she started praying for you?
ACIE: She was twelve years old. I am a year older than her and I was starting my sophomore year in college when Marolyn was a freshman at Temple.
JG: God has led you to the ministry and has brought your mate to where you were but neither of you know it yet. You're in school and preparing for Christian service. When did you and Marolyn actually meet?
ACIE: I met her in the Fall of 1959. My brother was dating Marolyn's twin sister, Carolyn. Marolyn was going to visit the campus and my brother asked me to show her around. I didn't want to do that because I thought Carolyn had her eyes on other guys while she was dating my brother. I thought to myself, "if they're twins, they'll be just alike!" Then he told me that Marolyn was blind.
JG: What was your reaction to that?
ACIE: I'm not sure. I didn't know I had a mercy gift…
JG: Acie, You're the only person in the world that doesn't know it.
ACIE: Well, I told my brother that since she was blind I would help him out. It might be the blind leading the blind, but I'll do it! So when Marolyn came to the campus we met for the very first time. Marolyn says that when we met and shook hands the first time she knew I was the one she had been praying for all those years, ever since the clothesline pole.
JG: You keep mentioning that clothesline pole. What was so special about that pole?
ACIE: That's where Marolyn felt God speaking to her. She knew God had spoken to her and told her that she would meet and marry a young minister. She was somewhat fearful of that place because she would feel God's leading so clearly. She only told me about shaking hands years later because she didn't want to scare me off. She felt I would have run for sure!
JG: What did you think about it. We've already said you have a mercy gift. Did you feel sympathy for her blindness?
ACIE: Yeah, it was a lot of sympathy, but I never met anyone so close to God in all my life. I felt like I was close to God, but there I couldn't come close to Marolyn's heart for God. I believe God really works on teenagers - at 18 or 19 years of age. He works on us all through our lives but I think He really finds us receptive when our hearts are young and tender. He was talking to me and He was talking to Marolyn.
I noticed she had to have a little help finding her away around because she didn't have a white cane at that time. She could see outlines of forms but no details. Marolyn says it was like seeing shadows rather than details - no color and could not see me. Macular degeneration was beginning to take away what little eyesight she had at the age at about the time we met. We had to weigh it through. I wondered over and over again, "Is this pity I have I have for her or is it love?"
JG: With the gift of mercy I could see that you would have to check your feelings often to make sure they're not based strictly on an emotional response. When did you know she was the one for you?
ACIE: I was convinced later on that it was real love - not when we first met.
JG: At the point you started helping her around the campus, did you think the relationship would go on?
ACIE: She stayed only a couple of weeks and then went back to Michigan. She was only visiting the campus to see if she wanted to come. And the only way she would be able to attend school was to ask her teachers to record the lesson for her to study. I remember the recorder well. It was a heavy Wollensak unit. I never will forget it because I carried it all around campus for her.
Then, after our first meeting we wrote many letters back and forth. When she returned to campus and began attending school I was there waiting on her. That's when our courtship officially began. We had our ups and downs like any other couple.
My life really turned around when another guy at school became interested in her. I realized I was in trouble. His name was Robert and he would quote poetry to Marolyn. I couldn't do that. He was definitely trying to get rid of me. That's when my eyes opened to the fact that I loved her. I guess I was afraid to lose her.
JG: How long did you court before you talked of marriage?
ACIE: About three years after we met. We were married on August 14, 1962, after we finished three years at Temple Bible School. We then went to live with Marolyn's family on their farm in Michigan. I found out quickly I wasn't cut out for farming. There, I attended Grand Rapids Baptist Bible College for two years and graduated in 1965.
JG: Did you know right away what ministry God was leading you to?
ACIE: I thought it might be the mission field, but I never had a real peace about it when I would pray. I was willing to go and later would even have an offer to go, but it just didn't feel right. A school on the Island of St. Thomas asked me to come teach school and serve in the mission there.
JG: But God was leading you elsewhere?
ACIE: God put it into my heart in 1960 to follow Him wherever he would lead. Without a doubt I knew I was called by God to serve Him. I was more sure of that than anything else in my life to that point.
JG: Where was your first pastorate?
ACIE: I served as pastor for Bosco Baptist Church after graduating from Grand Rapids. It was located in Louisiana near Monroe.
JG Would you call that a "good" experience?
ACIE: I think I had a good ministry there. It was a "learning" experience. I was bi-vocational. I was working in a clothing store while also serving as pastor. A person can be in the directive or the permissive will of God. I would have to say that Bosco was the directive will of God for my life. God showed me that I was not ready for the pastorate yet. He was calling me to seminary. So after a year at Bosco, we returned to Temple where I eventually graduated with a master's degree in Religious Education. That was a real step of faith for us. I never will forget it. Everything I owned was in a U-Haul trailer. There we were - Marolyn, me, our stuff - all headed back to Temple because we felt that is where we were supposed to go.
JG: Did you work in a clothing store again while in school?
ACIE: Yes, I worked at a clothing store both in Grand Rapids and Chattanooga. "A man of the cloth" - that's what they called me.
JG: I can see why. There was hardly a time when you didn't work at a clothing store. Was Marolyn working too?
ACIE: Yes, but it was hard with her vision. She tried working in a drugstore for a while but that didn't work. Her failing eyesight made it impossible to carry on her duties there.
JG: Marolyn must have been apprehensive about her diminishing eyesight and her ability to help you while serving as a pastor's wife.
ACIE: She was very concerned about that. You know, a lot is expected from a pastor's wife. But she has done great in that role, even when she was blind.
JG: Where did God call you next?
ACIE: After graduating from Temple in Chattanooga, Tennessee, we were called again in 1972 to go to Louisiana to pastor Cross Roads Baptist Church. We were there for four years. Cross Roads was a rural church. I had a very difficult time there because I was bi-vocational and the church was experiencing a power struggle.
We had two strong families at the church and they struggled against each other for control. It was quite an experience. Cross Roads, like most rural churches, had an annual call for teachers and officers. They had the pastor on the same list where each year the church would either renew the call to the pastor or inform him they wanted to call another person. This is how they kept from getting stuck with an ineffective pastor who wouldn't voluntarily leave. My call was renewed for each of the four years I was there.
JG: Did the church grow at all or were you only able to nurture the existing membership?
ACIE: Nurture, I think. Sometimes that's all you can do. I know God wanted me there but it was at times frustrating.
JG: If I'm not mistaken, Marolyn's eyesight was restored about that time.
ACIE: Correct. Sharon was born in 1968 - our first year there. Marolyn's miracle happened on my birthday in 1972 - the last year there. We served four years in all - 1968 to 1972.
JG: That's amazing. God was to top off four years of frustration in your life with one of the greatest moments in your lives.
ACIE: That's right. It was a pivotal time for us. Later on, we thought it curious that the name of our church described what God was doing in our lives; He had brought us to a true "crossroad". Our lives would never be the same.
After the miracle, I was called to a small town church close to the line between Louisiana and Arkansas - the First Baptist Church of Huttig, Arkansas. It was a sawmill town where I had my first full-time church. It was a loving church. They accepted me and we saw some growth there. I stayed there six years and had a wonderful ministry there.
JG: Did First Baptist know of Marolyn's miracle before they called you? Did a search committee come to hear you at Cross Roads?
ACIE: Yes, they knew of the miracle and they came to hear me before they called me. I'll tell you what, they accepted us with open arms.
JG: I bet some people naturally wondered about the miracle because they didn't know you before you came as pastor. And you went to them claiming to have experienced an astounding miracle. They must have been excited and curious at the same time.
ACIE: By that time, word of the miracle began to spread from North Louisiana all the way to South Arkansas. People hadn't heard of a miracle like that. For that matter, I hadn't either!
JG: Tell me about this church and your ministry at First Baptist.
ACIE: I served there six years in all - from 1972 to 1978. My time there was wonderful. To begin with, they had a brand new parsonage and a new church facility, all on the same acre lot. They had about 250 members of which 50% were fairly regular. It was a good church and I was so blessed of God to be there. The people were loving and they didn't want me to leave, even after six years.
JG: It sounds like time to head for Tennessee, correct?
ACIE: Yes, I accepted a call to Boulevard Baptist Church in Whitehaven and served there for 3-1/2 years as pastor. We had about 1,000 members - quite a change from 250 members!
JG: Did you perform all the pastoral duties - the preaching, pastoring, and the hospital ministry? What did your support staff look like?
ACIE: I had a Music/Youth man, and an Associate Pastor who primarily ministered in the hospital.
JG: One thousand members and three ministers. Most of those who know you recognize your natural ability to serve as a minister with a pastor's heart, serving with a spiritual gift of mercy. You preach very little at Broadmoor but you have said preaching brings you joy. Do you have a sense of fulfillment serving in your role as Associate Pastor in Pastoral Ministry? Do you still enjoy preaching?
ACIE: I enjoy it very much. I love the studying, the preparation and the delivery. But, I feel I am in the middle of God's will for my life at this time. I believe if a person loves the Lord and fully trusts Him, the place you are is the very best place you can be - and the thing you are doing is the very best thing you can do. That thought has stayed with me for a long time. I don't know where it came from or where I heard it. That and Prov.3:5,6 have given me great comfort.
JG: You left Boulevard and came to Broadmoor and have been here for how many years?
ACIE: While I was still at Boulevard, I was serving at the Pastor's Conference as Program Chairman and Jack May, the pastor of Broadmoor, was serving as President. Jack was sharing with me that Broadmoor was looking for an Associate Pastor. Broadmoor, at that time, had 2,500 members. I saw the opportunity to minister to more people in a larger church. Also, there was a lot of change going on in Whitehaven at that time. Many residents were leaving the area. So I accepted a call in 1981 to my current position at Broadmoor. To date, I've been here 19 years and by 2001, I will have served here for 20 years.
JG: We've talked a lot about Marolyn's blindness. Today she has autonomic disorder which has shut down her body functions. What is your life like living with her special needs?
ACIE: What I do for Marolyn today is so similar to what I did when she was blind, it's scary. For example, I do shopping for her clothes, help her around and make myself available as she needs me. She can see today but most of her bodily functions have stopped. I feel like I've been doing the same things for her from her blind days to the present where she suffers from her autonomic disorder. In fact, she has a similar attitude today that she had when she was blind as she deals with her problem.
JG: It's almost like God had you in training through your wife's blindness to get you ready to care for her through her present condition.
ACIE: I think you're right. That's strange, isn't it?
JG: You and Marolyn are one of those couples where the match was made in heaven. I believe God wove you two together to complement each other's need. It certainly appears that way.
Acie you have said that you felt God was calling you to be a man of prayer. On top of that you're also called to be a pastor. What has your prayer life with Marolyn been like? You were praying when God reached down and touched her, weren't you?.
ACIE: Yes, I was. First of all, I'm not an early riser. I like to meditate in scripture as I pray. It might be the morning or the evening. My Dad left me a perfect example. He was a big man and he would get on his knees and pray. There's nothing more beautiful than a man on his knees praying. Marolyn has a beautiful prayer life. I think praying is like playing the piano. You become more proficient as you pray.
Marolyn and I have grown in our prayer life. I always wanted to be a man of prayer. We would pray about school, church and our finances. We'd ask God to give us opportunity to witness. And God's been faithful. He's answered my prayers just this week. These were powerful prayers that He answered.
The thing about it is when Marolyn's sight came back, I was praying but I don't think it was my prayer or my faith that brought the miracle. God just dropped a miracle out of heaven and it happened while I was praying. It surprised me! It's like I was over here and He was over there. I felt more like a witness than the person praying. Dr. Rogers said it was as if God dropped a miracle out of the sky. That's what God did and it landed on us.
JG: But you did ask God to heal her blindness, right?
ACIE: Yes.
JG: When you were dating, even while her eyes were growing dimmer, you were asking God to heal her, weren't you?
ACIE: For all those years, it was more of a prayer for God's will to be done. "Father, thy will be done." Then the night of the miracle, Marolyn and I read something that convinced us to come boldly before the throne and ask Him for healing. We haven't talked about this before because we didn't want any man to take glory for what God had done. In fact, I didn't even save the article and don't remember exactly what it said. But when I dropped to my knees beside the bed and prayed, I could feel the Holy Spirit fill the room.
I think God trusted Marolyn with the miracle knowing she would always give Him the glory. And I didn't do anything. God did it. My testimony also is sure - "This is my way, walk ye in it." That's been my strength through the years. It's not what I say that matters. It's what God says. It's not what I've done - it's what He's done. Real prayer is listening to God more than talking to Him.
JG: I believe that, Acie. Prayer is fellowship, not words. We learn from Him in the time we spend with Him. Only then can we know how to pray. Were you tempted to think that her miracle might only be temporary?
ACIE: Yes, for months. It seemed like a dream. We thanked God for her restored sight, but we still went to the doctor and asked him to explain it. He couldn't.
JG: I confess that when I look into Marolyn's eyes, I often wonder if their beauty is a result of the "miracle". Have her eyes always appeared so clear and deep?
ACIE: Yes, I think so. I'm sure what you see is God's glory showing through her eyes. It was evident before the miracle - even when her eyesight was getting worse. She's been totally committed to the Lord from the moment I met her.
JG: Acie, thank you again for your willingness to share your thoughts with me. Can we talk again about the miracle and your life since?
ACIE: Sure. I'd like that.
[ Watch for Part III of the interview with Acie - March 17th. ]
