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December 21 1987
- Texas A&M University Press
- Chapter
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December 21 1987 [3.85.9.208] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 15:21 GMT) Vermena That day we done all got together at Big Hammock and met up with Pastor Varner and walked down Highway 16 until we got to the little gravel road that led to Miss Tucker’s place where she was shackin up with that Wallace boy was one I’ll never forget. Like I said earlier we had done got all filled up with the Spirit the night before during meetin, folks speakin in tongues and fallin on the ground, Pastor Varner slappin they foreheads and they go to floppin on the ground like electricity was goin all through them,so we was still all full of God’s fire when we started marchin our group over there the next afternoon to rid our town of Joe Wallace’s and Miss Tucker’s sins so that God would give us some rain. Pastor Varner had called us sinners too for not ridding our town of this sooner, said we was just as guilty in God’s eyes, that’s why we was all sufferin. This was a test, he said. He said this Joe Wallace was not back here by accident, that God sent him to test us, test our moral fortitude, see if we could recognize true sin for what it was and then take the steps to rid ourselves of it. God was always testin us, he said. And true Christian folks saw these tests 127 for what they was and made the right decision every time. Were we true Christians, he asked us. Yes, we all yelled. He asked us again. We all yelled yes again and the whole congregation broke out into furious song and speakin in tongues until not a single one of us was sittin still or had dry eyes. God had filled all of us with His Holy Spirit that night and it was still inside us as we marched on over to Miss Tucker’s place come the next day. I was carryin my Bible and so was my husband and most of the rest of them. We was prayin silently as we walked and Pastor Varner stayed in front of us and led the way. He was readin from his Bible, holdin it up to the sky every now and again when he was recitin from memory, sayin things like: If a man be found lyin with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from the land. Amen, someone in the group shouted. Pastor Varner kept readin and recitin, wavin his white handkerchief and sayin: If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto a husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her, then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones until they die. Amen, we all yelled. The damsel, because she cried not (Pastor Varner was still readin now),bein in the city,and the man,because he hath humbled his neighbor’s wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you. Amen, we yelled. Put away the evil among us, he yelled. Put it away, we yelled again. Rid ourselves of it for good. For good, we said: and we kept marching, jubilant now. And damned if just before we got to Miss Tucker’s driveway, we didnt see a truck pulled over on side of the road with its hood up and two men lookin into it. Looked like old Jebediah Willie’s truck, but we aint seen him there. Then these two turned and looked at us and one of em walked over to the passenger’s side door and leaned in and someone must’ve been sittin inside the truck and handed that man somethin look like a gun. (We could just see a arm come out the window and then we seen that man 128 [3.85.9.208] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 15:21 GMT) 129 put somethin in his pants.) Then he come back around to the front of the truck again and was sort of standin there waitin for us to get within talkin distance, but Pastor Varner closed his book and yelled to the man anyway from where we was. Hello Brother. The...