How could I ever forget those first hours of meeting Wendell Kempton? It was in August of 1954 when he arrived from the Midwest in his old, 1934 Plymouth. He drove onto campus in Johnson City, New York, with Stan Ballard and all of their luggage they brought from Iowa and Michigan. Over the years that we spent together at Baptist Bible Seminary, I came to appreciate some key characteristics about Wendell that I will fondly remember.
His passion in life
My first impression of Wendell was that he soaked up life. This was evident from the very first weeks when we would leapfrog over parking meters along Baldwin Street as we left the cafeteria. Then, we would dash off to play basketball on a balmy afternoon. I remember Wendell loved to share sections of letters he received from his beloved Karolyn before they were married. He lovingly called her his “little yellow rose of Texas.” Wendell was also an incredible moral spark plug and the enthusiast of all enthusiasts who led us in our basketball practices from 8:00–10:00 p.m. at the Johnson City high school gym. He served as our captain as we learned true teamwork playing together.
He carried this same enthusiasm into his witness and preaching of the Word of God. There was no mistaking in those early days that Wendell passionately believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and preached with his whole heart and body. When we traveled for two and a half years together as part of a group called the Crusader’s Quartet, Wendell was known as the “color man,” with his vibrant personality and powerful preaching. He always preached with a full heart and perspiration dripping from his body.
His life of faith
As I look back now, I can recall the many ways in which God enabled Dr. Kempton to trust Him for money, and his ability to take risks for God was evident when he was just a young man. I think back to some of those earlier days when several of us students would ride in his old “Nash Bathtub” (it looked like an inverted bathtub) on the way to his apartment. He would say, “Uh-oh, we’re going to run out of gas!” He would quickly pull into the gas station, and then with a chagrined look on his face admit that he didn’t have enough money. One time, we took an offering among four of us and were able to collect fifteen cents to buy one gallon of gas.
Wendell was a man of faith and optimism. There was no keeping or slowing him down. I remember teaming up with Larry Armstrong and Wendell to launch a student expansion fund. They enthusiastically raised funds from businesses and Christian office owners to help the seminary raise money to purchase an offset printing press. Even during his student days, Wendell was trusting God explicitly to provide money for his own family as he worked a job and carried on ministry in his student life.
His priority of prayer
Over and over I can remember Wendell would say to us, “Let’s pray about it, fellows.” We would stop doing whatever we were doing, and we would pray. I recall that as a fellow student, he was very much interested in prayer bands. When I became the Student Mission’s Fellowship president, Wendell kept in touch with me from Dallas Seminary to encourage others to pray for missions efforts all over the world. Later, when he was on the faculty of Baptist Bible College, I was personally touched when he encouraged the students, faculty, and administration to pray for my dear wife, Joyce, as she went through a health crisis in our first year as missionaries in Bangladesh.
His heart for missions and missionaries
There was no doubt in my mind that, as a student, Wendell was keenly interested in world evangelism. He often reminded me of my personal commitment to missions. He’d say, “Brother Jess, I was there when God called you into missions,” referring to the time we sat together at a mission’s conference in 1955 at Grace Baptist Church in Binghamton, New York. Wendell would remind me to keep my eyes focused on my foreign missionary call.
It was always evident that he cared for his missionary friends. When he was working at Baptist Bible College, he learned of the hepatitis epidemic that we missionaries were dealing with in Bangladesh. He thoughtfully made tapes of the whole seven-game World Series of 1968 and sent them to us. As he was leading the school in its relocation to a beautiful new campus in Clarks Summit, he sent colored slides to Bangladesh to show us what was taking place, because there were twelve Baptist Bible College alumni serving in Bangladesh at that time.
I thank the Lord for the many special memories that all blend together now, starting back with the student days and then through the days God gave him the privilege of being our ABWE president. It was a joy to serve under his presidency from 1971–2001 and to know him as a personal and intimate friend even on into his retirement years.
I thank God upon every remembrance of my brother in Christ, Wendell.
“We are on the winning team. Let’s act as if we belong eternally to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.” —Dr. Wendell Kempton
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