Along the Gospel Trail

My Life and Ministry In Pictures



The picture on the left is of the house where I was born in Buckeye, Kentucky. The house was located across the road from Liberty Baptist Church. My mother attended services there before I was born and carried me there in her arms when I was a baby.  The second picture is of my mother and father, Ed and Texie Arnold. My mother was the daughter of Farris and Emily Agee.  The third picture is of me. Guess my age. I have no idea how old I was when the picture was taken.   

  I was saved when I was 10, and I soon knew that God wanted me to preach. I used to preach to my schoolmates as we walked to school. (School buses were unheard of then), I probably would have entered the ministry at that young age if someone had given me guidance. As it was, I did not enter the ministry until after my 18th birthday. When I did answer the call to preach, I hit the ground running for Jesus, and I've been running ever since.

 
The picture on the left is of my boyhood home in Garrard County Kentucky. It was at the end of the road and the head of the creek.The road was County Pike. It ran past the County Poor Farm.  Our family moved there when I was six. The second picture is a  painting of Salem Baptist Church done by Marie Adkins, Salem was on  Scrub Grass Creek 3 miles from Mitchellsburg, Kentucky. The third picture is of  Mitchellsburg Baptist Church. Both churches called me as pastor the same Sunday, and  I pastored them simultaneously. 

I became pastor of Mitchellsburg and Salem Baptist Churches in 1933. In 1937 I pastored Liberty Baptist Church in Buckeye, Kentucky. The church was located across the road from where I was born. The next year I pastored Wallaceton Baptist Church near Berea, Kentucky. In 1939 I became pastor of First Baptist Church of Inez, County Seat of Martin County in Eastern Kentucky, I organized two churches while pastoring in Inez, Warfield Baptist Church in Warfield, Kentucky and Belfry Baptist Church in Belfry, Kentucky. After leaving the pastorate at Inez, I pastored Warfield Baptist, West Van Lear Baptist, Belfry Baptist, and Denver Baptist Churches simultaneously. Pastoring these churches, I preached three times every Sunday and several times during the week. I even recorded some of my sermons on disc recorders (the only kind available at that time) and had the men of one of the churches play them when I could not be present. In 1941 I went to Ashland, Kentucky to pastor Central Baptist Church. The following December the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States declared war. The following year I resigned from Central Baptist Church and went to Louisville to enter the Southern Baptist Seminary. Soon afterward I was called to pastor the historic South Elkhorn Baptist Church near Lexington. While I was at South Elkhorn the church burned, and I led the church in the building of a new sanctuary. I also organized two churches while I was there, Westside Baptist Church and Central Baptist Church, both in Cincinnati, Ohio. I bought half interest in a Piper Cub and learned to fly so I could commute between Lexington and Cincinnati and help with these churches.
While I was pastoring in Inez, Kentucky, I needed a desk for my office in the parsonage. Money was in short supply, so I built the desk from scrap lumber. Russell Williamson, coach of the IHS basketball team was building a house next door to the parsonage, and let me use discarded scraps of lumber and a refrigerator shipping crate to build the desk. A local grocery store donated discarded apple boxes for drawer fronts.


The first picture is First Baptist Church Inez, Kentucky. I became pastor there in 1939. The second picture is of my first desk. I built it from scrap lumber. The third picture is of me preaching in a radio studio. The fourth picture is of me making an early sermon recording in my home.

  
The first picture is of the historic building of the South Elkhorn Baptist Church, located near Lexington, Kentucky. I became pastor there in 1942. The building burned while I was pastor, and we built a larger building. The second picture is of a crowd attending a baptism following a tent meeting I held on the front lawn of the church. The third picture is of people in a pond ready to be baptized. In 1947 South Elkhorn led the Southern Baptist convention in baptisms for churches its size.
I started using airplanes in my ministry in 1944. That year I bought a half interest in a Piper Cub and learned to fly so I could expand my ministry to churches I had organized in Ohio. I soon started using the plane to travel to revivals in other places. Clark Karsner, a layman, conceived the idea of beaming my messages down from a plane with a powerful amplifier. He had the equipment built and won many souls by flying my messages over Kentucky towns. Later I had another plane equipped with the same type of equipment and used it in places as far away as Florida. Later I bought a faster plane to use traveling to revivals. Still later, I bought a newer, better plane to use in mission work in the islands off the Florida coast.

The first picture is of a Piper Cub plane that belongs to my good friend, Rev. Ray Rogers, former pastor of Central Baptist Church, Canton, Ohio. I learned to fly in a plane like this and used it to travel between churches I pastored in Lexington, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio.  I also used it to fly to meetings in other churches. Large crowds came to see me land on hillsides near country churches and stayed to hear me preach. The second picture is of an Aronica plane that belonged to the late Clark Karsner that was the plane he equipped it with a loud speaker and flew my recorded messages at his own expense every week day, weather permitting. Many were saved after hearing the gospel from the air. The third picture is of my second plane, a Stinson. I flew it to many revivals.

In 1947, after resigning as pastor of South Elkhorn Baptist, I held a meeting in a tent on G E Drive in Lexington. On the first invitation 35 people responded. Other souls were saved night after night, and at the end of a three-week meeting, I organized Rosemont Baptist Church with 70 charter members. After some time in evangelism, August 6, 1950, I organized Fellowship Baptist Church in Lexington with 70 charter members and with others awaiting baptism. We worshiped in rented space in Old Johnson School at Fourth and Limestone. We soon outgrew the space, tore out walls, remodeled, and moved into a space that would seat 700. We packed the space for the first service. The building burned the next day, and we had to move into a tent.

The first picture is Westside Baptist Church congregation in Cincinnati, Ohio. The picture was made soon after I organized the church from a revival I held in a store-front building. The second picture is of a tent used by Fellowship Baptist Church. The third picture is Fellowship Baptist Church auditorium erected by faith after fire destroyed our meeting place at Old Johnson School. The church was located at 1313 North Limestone. An estimated 4 thousand people blocked all access roads in an attempt to reach the church on dedication day.


 During my years as pastor of Fellowship Baptist I was constantly busy in revivals in churches, tents, and courthouses. Because of my radio ministry overflow crowds attended my meetings. Many were saved in these meetings.


The first picture is of an estimated 2,000 people that crowded in and around a 60 by 120 foot tent at Fourth and Limestone Streets in Lexington, Kentucky. A smaller tent was set up beside the big one to hold the overflow crowd. The second picture is of a typical altar service. There were more than 25 converts the night the picture was taken. The third picture is of an overflow crowd in Fellowship Baptist Church.      
                


The first picture is Dr. Hyman Appelman, famed Jewish evangelist, arriving for three-week revival in Fellowship Baptist Church. The second picture is of Dr. Appelman in the pulpit.
While pastoring at Fellowship I started holding revivals in the Bahamas. Above is pictured a crowd beside the bay at West End, Grand Bahama.


  Some of our best meetings were in the Bahamas. People were saved in every service, sometimes in great numbers. At the closing service of a meeting at West End, held at 10 o'clock on a Monday morning, the building and the ground around the building were filled with people. When the invitation was given, people fell upon their knees until there was no more room at the front or in the aisles. Many also knelt outside---all around the church. When the invitation was given one night in an outdoor service at Pine Ridge, I counted 50 men on their knees near the platform. Men, women, and young people were kneeling as far as I could see in the darkness. To God be the glory. In 1957 I resigned as pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church to spend more time preaching in the Bahamas.


Part of the Monday morning crowd in front of church at West End, Grand Bahama.  The second picture is of  the 94 year old pastor of a church met on the Island of Water  Key. He had pastored one church for 70 years.
We rented the boat pictured to go from island to island to hold outdoor meetings. When we reached an island we went ashore and visited every house to invite people to come to the dock to an outdoor meeting. The people would not come, even to an outdoor meeting, without dressing in their best clothes. We waited until then came, then had the service.  
         
The people of the Bahamas make their living from the sea. They catch fish, conchs and crayfish for food and for sale in Florida. Another source of food is huge sea turtles. Pictured above is a large hound fish I caught trolling in the bay.

                                                                                 
   Plane I used to travel between Florida and the Islands.   Tabernacle where I held a meeting in Barbados.  One of the schools where I preached in Jamaica.  There were 285 professions in this service.

                                                                                                                      
One of the missions where I preached in Mexico. Many were saved on this tour. 
In 1952 I made my first trip to Bible Lands Dr. B. R. Lakin, Dr. Dallas Billington went with me on my second trip two years later. We visited 15 countries in three weeks.  
The third picture is of a packed crowd in a church revival. Before the advent of television buildings were not large enough to hold  the people who attended our revivals.

               Summary of Some Events 

September 30, 1957 I resigned from Fellowship Baptist Church and moved to Florida so I could devote more time to mission work in the Bahamas. I commuted from Florida to the islands in my plane. The climate did not agree with me so I returned to Kentucky the next year. Early in 1961 I organized Preston Highway Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. The first week of July that year, (at the invitation of Dr. Fred Garland, I went to Urban Street Baptist Church in Winston Salem, North Carolina to speak and to help organize the International Fellowship of Fundamentalist, now called the International Fellowship of Fundamental Baptist. Later I was elected president of the organization and served three years.

Soon after the IFF was started, Dr. Garland started having IFF meetings across the country and asked that I take three months to travel and preach in them. In those months I preached from Florida to Arizona, sharing the platform with many of America's great preachers.

While in a IFF meeting with Dr. D. M. Hardison in Good News Baptist Church in Norfolk, Virginia (August, 1961), all the news was about the Russians building of the Berlin Wall. Dr. Garland suggested that I go and preach to the refugees who were escaping from Communist East Berlin. The miracle of this trip is related in my book, The Way Things Used To Be. (See Book Page on website). While I was in Germany God burdened me to return to Lexington and start a new church. The following February Mrs. Arnold and I had a prayer meeting in our home. Fifty people attended. Several were interested in helping start a new church. We soon started meeting in a rented building, and the following November Clays Mill Road Baptist Church was organized with 100 charter members. One year later the membership was 250.

While pastoring at Clays Mill I held two citywide meetings in Norfolk, Virginia. In 1962 I led a team in island-wide meetings in Jamaica. There were many converts in these meetings. In 1963 I held a revival in a large tabernacle in Barbados. There were converts in every service.




Dr. Fred Garland with me in typical pose for him.  Some pastors of sponsoring churches of our first citywide meeting in Norfolk, Virginia. The third picture was taken during an invitation during the citywide meeting.



The first picture is Clays Mill Road Baptist Church as it looked when I resigned to go into evangelistic work in 1972. The second picture is the crowded auditorium near the end of my pastorate there. The third picture is Clays Mill as it appears today. Dr. Jeff Fugate has been pastor since 1991. The church has grown wonderfully under his ministry. Sunday attendance now averages more than 1200. The church operates a Spanish speaking church, a Christian school, and Commonwealth Baptist College. Services are broadcast daily on radio and on PAX television.
                          
 The picture on the left is of our ministries building at Gospel Acres in Jessamine County, 20 miles South West of Lexington, Kentucky. The center picture is of Brother Al Huber and his trick horse, Nugget.  Brother Huber and Dr. B. R. Lakin founded The Voice of  the Appalachians radio network in 1967. Due to failing health Dr. Lakin turned The Voice over to me in 1974. In 1995 God lead me to turn The Voice over to Dr. Jeff Fugate. He continues to broadcast to multiplied thousands over The Voice each week. Brother Al Huber is now in full time evangelism. He is preaching, singing, and showing Nugget in many churches,
The third picture is of me at my computer working on a book. For several years I wrote a book each year, but my crowded schedule has slowed my writing. I have finished a devotional book that is not yet published, and I am working on three other books. I look forward to finishing them and seeing them published.

        

The first picture shows some of the books I have written packaged for mailing. We shipped them to every state and to some foreign countries. The second picture shows me signing my autograph at the prestigious Kentucky Book Fair. I have been invited to the book fair six times. The third picture is of me and Governor Martha Lane Collins during a book fair reception at the governor's mansion. The fourth picture shows the trailer I pulled to meetings for several years. It was my home and office away from home.

Meet Our Mascots
Through the years Mrs. Arnold and I have had many dogs. Two of them have been outstanding. Our first dog was named Prince, and he was a prince. He was in the genius class. Our present dog is named Victoria. She is sure that she is human, and she believes that she is a queen. Why else would she be named Victoria.



Our dog, Prince, loved to go fishing. One day when I caught a large bass and put it on a string that was fastened to the side of the boat, Prince spent hours playing with it. Each time the fish swam out of sight, Prince pulled it back by the stringer with his teeth.
Prince loved to travel, and he never wanted to be left behind. One day when I was loading the car to go to a meeting, he tried to stow away. He got in the trunk by some bags and hoped that I would not see him.
On moving day Prince was really upset. When we started rolling up a carpet he tried to roll it back on the floor. When we started loading furniture, he got on the trailer I was using and tried to hide beside some boxes.
A preacher friend often recalls the day I sent Prince upstairs to get the briefcase he had left behind. Prince bounded up the stairs and soon returned carrying the briefcase in his teeth by the handle.  
Our present dog, Victoria, isn't really looking down her nose in the picture. She is always in high spirits. She usually travels with us to see that we get to our destination. 
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