Dr. Ray Dugger 3

 Dr. Ray Dugger 3

We all liked the magnificent preaching job done by Reverend Dugger. (Being Baptist, we did not refer to him as reverend. Rather he was “Pastor Dugger”.) He would always make a big deal out of removing his wrist watch, and setting it carefully on the pulpit. His standard joke about women worrying about their roast in the oven became a staple for us. At 12:00 sharp, he would stop and sometimes it seemed almost in the middle of a sentence. I was so hungry for his teaching that I surely wished he would forget about the roast and finish his thoughts.

It was from Dr. Dugger that I learned to reverence the Word. He worked hard to teach us that every verse needed to be understood, not only for what we thought it said, but to go back, studying the context and trying to draw the exact meaning from the text itself. That lesson I have tried to carry out through my life.

Being in his eighties, and having lived a life of walking with God, he seemed to have endless anecdotes to tell us. I remember one anecdote in which he described coming home from church and having to step aside for a team of horses pulling a wagon. The driver cursed the horses, yelling at them, “God damn you horses!”

Pastor Dugger said to the man, “Your prayer is answered.”

“What prayer,” stammered the man?

“You just asked God to damn the horses. He is going to answer your prayer.” With that he turned and continued his walk home.

On the way home the driver of the wagon hit a sudden thunderstorm. Lightening came flashing out of the sky and struck dead the two horses.”

Dr. Dugger paused his story, with a twinkle in his eye, just saying the next Sunday the man was in church, where he remained until the end of his life.

Pastor Dugger was used to a life calling before lots of people, thousands instead of a few score. One Sunday after service, he was talking to one of the other young men, and I overheard him muttering that he did not quite understand why God sent him to such a small church (on Easter Sunday we might have 80 souls). I did not reply, as it was not my conversation, but I remember sharply thinking that I knew exactly why God had sent him. To give me what I needed for my Christian life.

I never got a chance to tell him that. But I look forward to the time when I will be able to thank him for getting this poor farm boy a start in his Christian Walk.