Page 4 - February 2025 - Truth & Tidings
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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