Page 4 - February 2025 - Truth & Tidings
P. 4

od raises men fitted for their   a  flaming  furnace.  He  witnessed  men
               generation. David “fell on sleep”   having accidents and getting severely
        G“after he had served his own         burned. Once, an overhead crane with its
        generation” (Act 13:36). I shared this with   heavy block narrowly missed his head.
        brother Surgenor (or “Uncle Bob” as he   He looked into the intense, roaring flame
        was known by many) before he passed.  and thought, “That’s where you would be
          Robert was born on September 2, 1928,   if you would have died.”
        the only child of godly Christian parents.   He married a nice young lady named
        He was an active, somewhat mischievous   Wilda on his birthday in 1950, and they
        boy. His early years were marked by   settled on Cleveland’s west side. A man
        events that brought him close to death.   invited them to gospel meetings in the
        His mother said, “Robert, you will either   gospel hall around the corner. He had
        end up in the penitentiary or a coffin!”   wanted to avoid that influence but now
        By God’s grace, the first was not true.   lived almost next door! He and Wilda
        When he was 11, his mother took him to   attended, and she realized that even with
        Atlantic City, NJ, and he nearly drowned.   all her good living, she had never been
        He realized that he would have been in   born again. While cleaning one day, she
        hell. This was his first conviction of sin   realized that in God’s sight, all her good
        and the danger he was in. Soon after,   living was like that filthy rag, and she
        Albert Joyce and Herb Harris came for   trusted Christ.
        gospel meetings. He made a profession   Her conversion spoke to Robert. He had
        of salvation, but it wasn’t real.     heard the gospel all his life, and she was
          His behavior was often reckless. Robert   saved before him. The Lord used her to
        once rode on a motorbike from Akron to   show him what it meant to simply believe
        Cleveland at 100 mph. He had his pilot’s   God’s Word. He was her first convert, on
        license as a teenager and once found   February 10, 1952. This profession was
        himself flying in a snow squall with few   real and the change in his life proved it.
        instruments and no idea where he was. On   An older godly man named David Roy
        descent he saw a red light to his left and   took an interest in Robert. He progressed
        realized that it was from a radio tower,   spiritually and began preaching in the
        narrowly missing it. Though none of these   open air in small villages with Mr. Roy.
        incidents severely troubled him, he often   He spent his vacation time in gospel
        thought of death and being in the lake of   work with men such as Archie Stewart,
        fire. But his parents were praying for him,   George Graham and William Warke. He
        and the Lord was moving to subdue this   and Wilda built up the Sunday School in
        stubborn, independent young man.      their assembly from three children to 75.
          His father worked in the steel mill in
        Cleveland and secured a job for Robert.   Early Labors in the Gospel
        The work involved hot molten steel in   In June 1963, he began gospel work

        36   TRUTH kTidings   February 2025
   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9