Uncle Sam and Uncle O. B.

By

Shelby G. Floyd

September 11, 2009

It was about this time eight years ago that my uncle O. B. Perkins passed from this world. He was in his nineties and had been preaching the gospel for about 65 years or more. He admired N. B. Hardeman and his preaching style was much the same as his preaching style. He spent most of his preaching career in Kentucky, Indiana and Georgia. He was born and reared around Monticello, Kentucky. He did a good work wherever he served.

I would probably not be a Christian today, if my uncle O.B. had not gone out preaching in the surrounding area of Kentucky. My dad, Homer A. Floyd and his brothers and sisters lived in the area of Liberty, Kentucky, in Casey County. My mother would travel with her brother, uncle O.B., to help him with laundering his clothes. It was on one of those preaching trips to Liberty that my father heard the gospel message, responded by making the good confession that Jesus is the Christ and was baptized for the forgiveness of sins. I thank God that I had a Christian father and mother who brought me up in the right way to go.

And also on one of those preaching appointments at Liberty, my mother Lena J. Perkins met my dad and eventually they were married. My brother Harold L. Floyd and I were born from this union and brought up in the Christian faith. I thank God that my uncle O. B. Perkins brought my mother and father together.

After O. B. Perkins retired he continued to preach the gospel and work with small rural churches. At the South Central congregation in Indianapolis, Indiana, where I labored for seventeen years, my uncle spoke several times on at least two occasions and did a great job presenting the “ancient gospel.” Later, it was my privilege to speak at the Fairview Church of Christ, established in 1900, near Munfordville, Kentucky. One Kentuckian told me that people in Kentucky are always from “near” some other place. It was from this congregation that my uncle O. B. retired for the last time.

It was on September 11, 2001 that I headed down to Georgia to attend my uncle’s funeral and memorial, when my other uncle, Uncle Sam was savagely attacked by the Muslim Jihadists. When the towers started to fall, I was south of Louisville, Kentucky, and not knowing where it would all lead to, I decided to turn around and head back home.

Therefore, on this eighth year memorial of that tragic event, I take this means to remember both my Uncle Sam and my Uncle O. B. Perkins. God Bless the U.S.A. and all true gospel preachers. In God We Trust. A-Men! Copyright © 2009 Shelby Floyd, All Rights Reserved