E-mail from dad

The privations, toils, and exposures incident to many of our old preachers are worth remembering. Though years have elapsed since the following incident took place, and nearly all that generation has passed from earth, yet many members are now living who trace their religious impressions to Bro. William Johnson’s labors.
In the month of February 1951 or 52, a deep snow fell in Edmonson County and the following day, the temperature plummeted to 19 below zero. A revival had started at Mt Zion and Bro. Johnson felt to attend the meeting. He had a wife and several children to support, but he forgot the business of life to heed the call of the Lord.
Bro William caught a ride to Pleasant Union Church but the road leading down the Mt Zion Ridge was impassable. He started walking and with the wind blowing from the north-west, his right side was exposed to the full force of the bitter cold. Consequently, he suffered minor frost bit on that side of his face.
He stayed with us during the revival. I was about 4 years old but remember him as a pleasant man who won my child-like admiration. With his fervent piety, he made an impression upon me and the church that two generations have not erased.
The meeting house soon ran out of fuel for the stove, and farmers living nearest to the church began sawing up their barn poles, for fire wood. The meeting lasted for nearly two weeks and many sinners were awakened and converted.
Bro. William once told me that at the close of the revival, the church met in the altar and he felt to walk across the building and shake hands with my dad. He said that when he did, the moment he took hands with dad, the power of God came down in a most remarkable manner and the church was filled with the glory of the Lord. It was in that revival that Johnny Webb and one of his sisters was saved. Johnny, a few years later, died in a car wreck, as did his youngest sister, Lola Mae.
“The memory of the just is blessed;” (Prov 10:7)