Written by Deanna Brooks, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Arkansas
In the fall of 1965, my grandparents moved to Junction City, Arkansas, to work with a small congregation. Grandad was 73; Mama Dee was 68 and completely blind from diabetic complications. They moved into a house across the street from the school, and, like they always did, began making friends with neighbors.
About three years later, a family moved into a house on the school property. My grandparents noticed four-year-old Alan, and he could often be found at their house eating cookies and drinking milk while Mama Dee told him about Adam and Eve, Moses, Joseph, David, and most importantly Jesus.
The family did not go to church anywhere. The father was an alcoholic who drank much of his school teaching salary. Alan never missed going to church with my grandparents, and as soon as his younger brothers were able to go, he brought them along, too. Grandad taught Alan to read scripture in public, lead singing, and lead prayer.
There were times when I was visiting, and my grandmother would make a pot of soup or roast and potatoes to take across the street to the family.
Occasionally the mother accompanied her children to church. The father was hostile and told my grandad not to take his family to church, but Alan would slip away with his brothers while his dad was away or sleeping drunk and come anyway.
Then, the family moved. My grandparents grieved, and they often prayed that the boys would not follow in their dad’s, Phil’s, footsteps. When the family moved, the dad’s sister who was a faithful Christian lived nearby and was able to be more involved, and she enlisted the help of the local preacher.
The day came when God got Phil’s attention, and Phil was willing to listen. A few days later my grandparents got a letter from Phil, thanking them for loving him and his family, even though he had been a “no-good heathen.” He wrote about being baptized for the remission of sins and said that he wanted to tell others the good news.
A few years ago, I received a message from Alan who said he had told the story of Jim and Dee Layton all over the world… how they reached out to a small child and began telling him simple truths from the Bible, leading him to faith in Jesus. My grandparents lived 1 Corinthians 9:19b: “I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them” (ESV). They saw a need and quietly met that need.
Phil, his son Alan, and Phil’s other sons have spoken at events over the last 45 years or so, reaching people who would never come into the door of a church building. They have taken the gospel message outside the walls and have told the message of salvation to countless thousands.
All of this started with an older couple who noticed a small child and opened their home and hearts to him. I am reminded of Jesus who said, “Let the little children come to me” (Mt 19:14a).
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Eph 2:10). My grandparents had been doing their good works for many years wherever they were, and the love they showed Alan and his family was just the way they lived life.
Paul wrote to Timothy: “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2Ti 2:2).
An older couple… neither of whom finished high school… a young boy… a sister… another preacher… and the Word of God combined to bring a family into the fold, and that family has been able to reach out to many others.
We look around and see people who don’t know the message someone taught us. Will we be part of Paul’s admonition to Timothy to teach faithful men (and women) who in turn will teach others also?