08/26/08 12:12 PM
Brother Jed, I do not know if you will remember me or not but I was thinking about you the other day and decided to see if you had a website and I could get your email address.
My name is Kent Grimes and I was a friend of Ron Allee's from Greencastle, Indiana. I called on the Lord for salvation in your meeting in Terre Haute at the Church that Max Lynch was pastoring at the at time. Shortly thereafter I was filled with the Holy Ghost at a meeting your were doing north of Rockville Indiana in an Assembly of God meeting. Also, subsequently I traveled with you, Ron, Max, to several campuses around the Midwest before a short while before being called to Pastor.
Anyway, Brother Jed, I have often heard of your preaching around IU and ISU and Purdue and elsewhere, and I do admire your boldness for the Lord and praise God for the amazing testimony of how the Lord saved you. Even though I would often hear it night after night and day after day when I was with you I never tired of hearing what the Lord did in your life. It still rings with me through the power of the Holy Ghost.
I loved reading your eulogy to Brother Max and say a hearty Amen to the amazing man of God he was indeed. I was so young in the Lord at that time I don't think I fully appreciated either of you the way I should have and I regret that. However, I do give the Lord praise for your influence in my life...as well as Brother Ron Allee and Brother Max. Brother Jed, if I count all the nieces and nephews and my children and grandchildren I believe it would number over 40 or 50 who have come to the Lord since I got saved! Wow. So when you reach one for the Lord you really never know the kind of ripple effect it can have!
I know that you must have a beautiful family. I have 5 children as well...3 girls and two boys, and my youngest is 20 and oldest is 30 now. I have 4 tremendous grandchildren! My wife of 24 years passed away 8 years ago to breast cancer. We miss her dearly but know that she is with the Lord. My determination is to spend the latter years win more, reaching more then I ever have before in my life for the Lord Jesus Christ. I have asked the Lord that "the latter is greater than the former," and I am trusting Him to do it.
Brother, I thought I would write and let you know that you are in my prayers.
Love in Christ,
Brother Kent Grimes
10/7/2008 2:52:18 P.M
Dear Brother Jed,
My name is Chat Hanson. I was once a student at USC in the school year of 1979-80. I saw a man who came to preach next to Tommy Trojan. He was later arrested, and then he was released. There was an article about it the next day in the USC campus newspaper.
Was that man who preached at USC you?
I want to know because I decided to become a Christian that day after seeing the preacher preach there at USC, but I never actually met that man.
Now I did not actually get saved that day. But, after seeing that man, I decided that he had more to say that those pagans at USC, and so it was only a matter of time before I trusted Jesus and was saved.
I am now an ordained Baptist preacher.
Chat Hanson
Brother Jed's Response
Greetings Bro Hanson,
It must have been me. I was preaching at USC during that time. I always spoke next to Tommy Trojan. I wear a tie when I preach. There were a few other preachers in Southern California at the time who also preached on campuses. However, they wear message T-shirts and carry large banners. So unless it was someone in a T-shirt and carrying a banner in all likely hood it would have been me you heard.
Thank you so much for writing. To hear of fruit from my ministry is encouraging. I am now on my 34th year on campus, five hours a day, five days a week, hundreds of campuses in every state as well as campuses abroad.
I am going to be in Southern California preaching on campuses Oct 18-Nov 1. Perhaps we could have some fellowship, or maybe I could serve your congregation. In introductory messages I usually give my testimony and encourage believers to be bold in their witness. I illustrate with stories from my campus warfare. Also you are welcome to join me on campus. I am still working on my schedule. The President of the Conservative Student Union at Long Beach State had asked me to address his group. So at LB State I will be speaking both inside and in the open air.
Jed Smock
Chat Again
Dear Brother Smock,
Thank you so much for getting back to me on this matter. Yes, I also saw those in tee shirts and large signs while at USC. I saw them between the Coliseum and USC after the football games. I would guess that they were those associated with Bobby Bible and his "Christian Brothers" group. The preacher at Tommy Trojan was definitely wearing a tie. Some of the fornicators were so mad at him, (as my guess), that they started selling "fornicating alligator" tee shirts right there next to Tommy Trojan shortly thereafter, which appeared to me to be in direct rejection of his preaching. (They sold a lot of those tee shirts, by the way.)
I would therefore conclude that that preacher was you. Yes, I am aware of WIley Drake's ministry, although I have never actually met him.
I would very much like to meet you. I think that it is a shame that there are not more men preaching on the campuses, (and men wearing ties like you, rather than just printed tee shirts). I was given your book "Who Will Rise Up?" by Ruben Israel this week. (I live only a few miles from his house.) I had told him about that incident near Tommy Trojan, and he said that he thought that you were that man who was preaching.
I want to evangelize on the campuses of Orange County, such as Orange Coast College, and Santa Ana College. I want to do street preaching as a part of my ministry as well. (Few in OC have probably even seen a real Street Preacher before, which of course is sad.) I would love to see you, pray for you, and learn from you how to street preach. Obviously 34 years is a lot of experience, and you have had a lot of impact for one man on this Christ-rejecting world.
My schedule is as follows: both my wife and I work during the day. I work as a High School teacher at a Baptist school in Norwalk. My school work day ends at 3 p.m. each day. I would love to join you at Long Beach or some other school, but obviously it would be after 3:00, since that is when I would get off. (My daughter gets off at 3, since she is at the same school.)
Would to God that there were hundreds of preachers like you on the campuses, but as you know probably better than anyone, most people who name the name of Christ are spiritually asleep in these Laodician days of apostasy.
Chat Hanson
