Runaway Boys

When my wife, Shirley, my three boys, and I lived in Chesapeake, Ohio, I was pastor of the Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church. We enjoyed three years of service there. While there, as usual, my wife and I put our three small boys to bed. They almost always went right to sleep, and we heard nothing until the next morning.

About 20 minutes after we had put the boys to bed, I received a phone call from Bro. Max Pemberton, who was a neighbor down the road and a member of our church. He said, "Are you missing some boys?" I said, "No, I just put them to bed a few minutes ago, and they are asleep." Then he said, "Well, there are three little boys standing here in my living room that look exactly like your boys."

Alarmed, I hurried down to his house and picked up three little boys who actually did look exactly like my boys. My oldest boy, Scottie, had planned to run away from home. He talked the other two boys into going with him. He had placed a concrete block under the window outside the house so they could climb out the window after we put them in bed. Scottie was about five years old, and the other two were two and three years old. The highway just in front of our house was very busy, but the Lord protected the boys from any injuries, thankfully. My youngest boy Chris, carried his pillow with him for security.

When I got the boys home, I put the two smaller boys to bed, but I kept Scottie up for a while scolding him for what he had done and reminded him of the danger to him and his two brothers by doing what he did. Finally, I put him to bed, also. Things were fine after that except for one thing.

The next Summer I stopped at a yard sale a mile or two from my house, and I told the lady there who I was--the pastor of Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church. She said, "Oh, are you the one who had the three little boys to run away?" Boy, did I feel really small! I admitted that I was, and we had a little laugh out of it, but I said, "I suppose everyone in the neighborhood knows about this." She said, "Yep." Some in the neighborhood may think that I left Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church because of this, but that is not true. Now my wife--that may be a different matter (ha,ha)!

Footnote:  This received from the pastor at Chesapeake, Ohio, after this story went out on e-mail: