Well, I appreciate the pastor letting me say a word. I've thought about what I should say and a whole lot about what I shouldn't say. But I was looking at the pictures on the screen here and I noticed the Sunday school, men's Sunday school class out front of the chapel on the Whitehorse Road side here. And that was a men's Sunday school class. just the men's Sunday school class. There was other classes as well. And then there was also a picture there of this auditorium after it was built. And it was full downstairs. I don't think there was anybody in the balcony, but it was full downstairs. And this auditorium would seat 1,500 comfortably. and some of the largest crowds that we experienced here. were during the Christmas revivals or the homecoming revivals of Dr. Oliver B. Green. Dr. Green and his family, he had two sons, and both of those sons are lawyers. One of them you see advertisements on television of him, David, and they were members of our church. And of course, Dr. Green had the Gospel Hour radio broadcast And he was always an evangelist, he never was a pastor. And of course he traveled in the big green, or put up the big green tent. And he would come here at Dr. Seitler's invitation and hold meetings here. And we would have to put out chairs across the front and down both aisles in order to seat the crowd. So somewhere in the neighborhood of probably 1,800 to 2,000 people would fill this auditorium on a Sunday night. And he would preach. And so that was some of the biggest crowds, of course, in this auditorium. This building was built in 1956. But you see the front part of the chapel auditorium down here, that was the first building built and still standing today. And of course, the property here was in a triangle. Whitehorse Road was a two-lane a gravel road. This was a gravel road down this side. And Dr. Seidler had pastored the Pelham Baptist Church and also the First Baptist Church of Malden. He pastored those at the same time. But he chose, he had to make a decision between the two churches, and so he chose to stay at Pelham. And let me see if I can get my figures right. Anyway, there was a year of the church there at Pelham when they only had, I think he said, two or three baptisms for the entire year. And he said God burdened his heart about that, that they were not having more people saved and baptized and coming into the church in that fashion. And the Lord so burdened him that he called the church to prayer. And he said, now we're not going to have preaching, singing, not going to have refreshments, there'll be no coffee and donuts. We're just going to pray. And we leave the doors open and the lights on in the auditorium. And he put chairs across the front of the auditorium there at Pelham Baptist Church. He said, now you can come, get down and pray. And when you get finished praying, just get up and going home, come back the next time. And so that'd be all. We're not gonna preach or sing or fellowship. We're just gonna have prayer. And we're praying for two things. We're praying for evangelism of the lost. They had a long list, I understand. My sister, Sarah, told me this. She was there at Pelham years ago, and she said they had a long list of people. And my mom and dad, maybe my name, I don't know, but my mom and dad were on that list because my dad wasn't saved. He was bad to drink, bad to gamble, playing pool, shooting pool, and wasted money. But they were on that list. And we lived down at Woodruff, on the Mill Hill down there. And that's where I grew up. And they got to praying from my mom and dad, along with a whole lot of other folk. And they prayed morning, noon, and night. And they would come, if they worked on the first shift, they'd come second shift, or come to the church and pray, or third shift, or overnight. And they just prayed. And then they'd go back home. And then they'd come back the next time. And God started blessing and people started getting saved. My mom and dad got saved at that time. And it was as a result of prayer. And people started getting saved and it was so good that he carried it on another week. Then it went on a month. And he carried it on another month. And ended up five months straight. The lights were never turned off in the church auditorium. The buildings were never locked. Day and night, people were coming and praying. And God moved and sent revival. And God moved in this area. And through the Piedmont of North and South Carolina and Tennessee, Georgia, God gave a revival. That's back in the 40s. And the Greer Baptist Camp Meeting came out of that in 1947. And we celebrated 78 years this year of the Greer Baptist Camp Meeting. Dr. Seitler and four other preachers started that camp meeting. They were all in the convention. There were no independent Baptists to speak of. I think Greenville had two independent Baptist churches. Hampton Avenue, which is now Hampton Park, was independent, and Southside, which is now Greenville Fellowship, that church was independent. But there was no other independence, and Dr. Siler himself had always been a Southern Baptist, and the Lord had called him to preach in the ministry as a Southern Baptist. And as a result of that revival, and a lot of people got saved during that time, my mother and dad got saved and were baptized at Pelham. And that's before Tabernacle started. But God burdened his heart to come to Greenville. He had a couple, a family called the Chapelier family. They lived down here on Anderson Road, just as you get to Anderson Road, turn left, and their house sat on a knoll just behind where that shopping center is, just behind Wendy's down there. And they heard about what was going on at Pelham. And Dr. Seiler started a Sunday night second service. Now most churches today, they have maybe they have two services on Sunday morning. It's all Sunday school and built by bus ministry. But they had two services on Sunday night. And before the days of internet, before the days of television, before the days of a lot of communication, and so by telephone line from Pelham Baptist Church to WESC, 616 Dixie, Country Music Station. They broadcast all night. They were a clear channel AM station, and so they broadcast all night. And so when the first service at Pelham would finish, then they would have another service start about 9 o'clock or 9.30. And they would broadcast by telephone line to WSC, and it would rebroadcast on the night program. Well, that caught on. And Brother Holbert, his dad was preaching. He pastored down in Union and what's the other town down there? Anyway, Brother Jeff Stevens and Holbert tells me about when he was just a little boy on Sunday night, they'd have their service in their church and then they'd all get in the car and they'd come to Pelham and be in on the second service at Pelham. And God was moving and the revival was sweeping through the area. We're not talking about five days or, you know, or a couple of weeks. We're talking about a revival that went on for years and years. Well, as a result of that, the burden on Dr. Sightler's heart was to come to Greenville because Mrs. Chapelier would call him up every once in a while and she'd say, this is the Macedonian call. Come over into Greenville and help us. We need an old-fashioned church in Greenville too. And God burned his heart as a result of that. And so he and several of his men, I think it might have been five or six men, came over and he found this property here and it was back where the chapel auditorium is, and then this was just open area, and it was right about where our front porch is out here, was a filling station, a gas filling station, and a grocery store. And the man that owned the store, I think, had something to do with the property. Anyway, they were able to purchase this property. And so five men, mortgaged their houses, a second mortgage, mortgaged their cars, and got enough money to buy this property and to build that first building. And that was in 1952. And the ministry began. Well, they were, as I said, they were Southern Baptists. They wanted to, you know, and so The, what they call them, the, I can't think of the name of the man. Anyway, he told Dr. Tyler, he said, we don't need another church out there. And you don't need to build there. And they didn't want him to come here and start this church. The convention didn't. And the associational missionary, that's what I was trying to think of, the associational missionary told him that. We don't need another church. We've got Welcome. We have Washington Avenue out here. And then Tanglewood, which they've changed the name of it now, but Tanglewood was Julian Avenue Baptist Church. And a brother by the name of Leslie started that work. And so they said, we don't need another church out there. But the Lord told him to come here and build, so he brought those men out here and they got down on this property, just a sagebrush field, and they prayed and asked God's direction and leadership. And then they went about to get the money together by mortgaging their houses and their cars. And they came here and started and built the chapel. And this is the only church I know of anywhere that started and already had a building when it started, when it organized. And they had an organizational service on a Sunday afternoon, the third Sunday in July in 1952, and we celebrate that 73rd year now of that event. And they, They felt like that this was what God wanted. And so the deacons of the church made application to the Southern Baptist Greenville Baptist Association. And Dr. Seidler, I don't know what happened in the meeting. Jimmy didn't know. He said his dad wouldn't let him go into the meeting, but they had a meeting about whether or not they would accept Tabernacle into the Greenville Baptist Association. And the convention decided not because he didn't do what they wanted him to do, or he did what they didn't want him to do. But anyway, Tabernacle came into existence. And so Dr. Seiler was out of the convention. He didn't leave the convention. They left him. And he went to see Dr. Lee Roberson. in Chattanooga at the Great Highland Park Baptist Church. And Dr. Robertson had just left the convention himself, and Dr. Lester Roloff out in Texas had left the convention. Dr. John R. Rice with the Sword of the Lord over in Tennessee had left the convention. And so he went to see Dr. Robertson. He said, Dr. Robertson, I've always been a Southern Baptist and I supported missions by the cooperative program. What do I do in support of missions now that I'm an independent? And Dr. Robertson said, opened the drawer of his desk and took out 10 prayer cards. Y'all know what a prayer card is? Missionaries do. He took out 10 prayer cards and he counted out five to Dr. Seitler, and he said, now take these five on at $35 a month, and you take those five on at $35 a month, and that'll get you started. Well, a couple of those missionaries that were there in that list was Dan and Mary Truax. And Dr. Seiler took them on as one of the first missionaries. Then there was another missionary that was, I probably can't remember his name, missionary to Cuba. Roy Ackerley, thank you ma'am. She knows him because she's part of the family. But anyway, Brother Roy Ackerley was one of those five, and I don't know who the others were, but that began the mission program of Tabernacle. And at one time, we supported close to 500 missionaries on a monthly basis, and thousands of dollars given to missions. And today, almost 300 missionaries that we support on a monthly basis. And numerous, numerous members of Tabernacle have served around the world on mission fields. And today, if you go back to the chapel, there's a wall back there, of course, with all these pictures on it. And those are missionaries that are under Tabernacle Baptist Missions International. But they're a part of the almost 300 missionaries of Tabernacle Baptist Church. And some of you here are under that ministry. And that's a part of the mission outreach of Tabernacle. But the Lord blessed the church. and blessed in missions. Some people laughed about this, but I know firsthand experiences. Dr. Seitler, if he had financial difficulties here at Tabernacle over the years from time to time, you have financial problems. Well, what he would do is take on more missionaries. And one Wednesday night, I stood here and read the minutes. And of course, I was a song leader at that time. And I read the minutes, and then I read the financial reports. And in the church financial report, we were $6,000 to $8,000 in the red, bills that we could not pay on that Wednesday. And I read that. Well, on that same Wednesday night, We took on 16 different families for missions. 16 different families designated for missions. We voted to do that. The church voted. Not one person dissented. They were all for it. Well, you know what? The next month and every month since then, we've had a balance. Not a deficit. You say, oh, that's coincidental. No, it's not. It's God moving and God working and God doing what he said he would do. He told the Philippian church through the Apostle Paul, my God shall supply all your need according to the riches and glory by Christ Jesus because you have met my need as a church planter. Amen. And so I believe God's still in that business and can still provide, take care of the needs. And so why are we still here? We're not done yet. No, sir. We're not done yet. Yes, sir. And I'm thankful to the Lord that he's allowed me to be here over these years. And I appreciate Brother Logan, who pastored after me. He asked me to stay, and I stayed at his request. Brother Josh McBriar, he was here only nine months, but he asked me to stay, and I was here at his request. And Brother Benton, our pastor now, allows me to be here. And I'm here at his decision. And I appreciate these men allowing me to stay here. A lot of men would not do that because they don't want the founding pastor or they don't want the last pastor or the pastor before to be on the pew. But these men are gracious in doing that and I appreciate it.