My Granddad Rev. "Kemp" Jones

Today it has been 31 years since my "Granddad" the Reverend "Kemp" Jones went to be with the Lord on July 17, 1976. I never will forget it because his death was the first close relative I experienced as a loss. I remember people trying to comfort me and telling me to "just be happy" for him. I have vivid memories of thinking how "these people must be nuts" telling me to be happy when I am so sad!

I had spent those first thirteen years of my young life under his preaching...and I do mean preaching. He was a man of tall stature with strong arms and a firm handshake. He was not afraid to get loud and excited about the good news he had to share! He preached much of his adult years life and as a planter of several churches in Harford County, Maryland and southern York County, Pennsylvania he endeavored to follow the Lord's plan for his life. One church he started was formerly an old school house and another one was a bank building. He used his inheritance to build another church - a new building from the ground up and never asked for a cent in return when he moved on to other works. He chose to work to earn a living-driving trucks and drilling wells. He liked cars and was always buying, selling or trading to get a different one.

Grandaddy loved preaching in the sawdust...which meant during the summer months he would pitch a big tent, cover the ground with sawdust, setup his pulpit, construct benches and an altar area and buy paperback hymnals. Then he would go out and invite in the common folk who would otherwise not dart in a church door!

I can still see him standing there in front of the altar area with his hands extended, tears streaming down his face as he begged people to ask Jesus into their heart(s). Many came forward to publicly confess Christ as Savior and Lord. Those last summers he preached he led many to Christ and many received Believer's Baptism in a local stream...I was among those who were baptized in the cool waters of Deer Creek! Some people baptized by him are still here serving Christ some 50 years later! One elderly lady I can recall now goes to church with us (in fact, my hubby is now her Pastor) in the Harford Senior Housing Center. She speaks highly of Granddad's early ministry days and my Grandmom Esther's devotion and sacrifice for the sake of furthering the gospel.

Grandad gave a lot of credit to his mother for praying for him when he was living far from God as a young man. He said that he would come home from "a night of drinking and playing pool". He could hear here praying out loud for him; she was a shoutin' and prayin' mama who desired to see "her boy get straightened out" and follow Christ. In time, her prayers were answered and his life was changed for evermore. He often used the example of the Prodigal son in his sermons and had a tender heart toward those caught in the web of sin.

I have fond memories of him. He loved scrambled eggs and ate shelled peanuts by the bagful! He had a beautiful steel blue eyes and a trademark way he held his hands as he sat straddled on a kitchen chair turned backwards. I recall some weekends when I was a young one, we would visit my grandparents, sometimes especially on Sunday evenings (after an evening church) service we would have a family time of prayer before parting. We would all bow on our knees in the living room and take turns praying out loud. My sister, Greta told me the account more than one time, and most recently just weeks before her death. She was so funny...she would crawl up on Granddad's back while he was kneeling in prayer and sit on him like he was a pony. She appreciated it so much that he endured her foolishness and never "told on her" because surely our Daddy would have "corrected her right then and there" for being so disrespectful to God and Granddad during prayer! WOW...don't you know that the saints are all sharing some stories in Glory right now. Just knowing how much they loved each other and that they are together now gives me great peace.

When Granddaddy passed on we laid his body to rest in the cementery of the church where he first felt called to minister and was ordained, Oak Grove Baptist Church in Bel Air, Maryland. Here is the online pic of his headstone...which bears his given name, birth and death years at this link...



One life completely surrendered to Christ can have an amazing impact on eternity. I am the oldest grandchild and yet I am too young to number the many who came to a saving knowledge of God's only Son through this man's ministry. However, I am still in complete awe of the man and how he fervertly prayed, read his Bible, sacrificed and preached to the Glory of God Almighty!