Power to Overcome

Darkest Day

A beautiful day which had started with prayer, meditation and love on May 9, 1987 had ended in gloom on May 21, 1987. The man I loved, the man who loved me and treated me like his queen, was gone. My husband, my lover, my best friend, the father of all my children, my covering, my provider, my pastor and my superintendent was gone.

People had come from all over North Carolina and other states to see him: family, friends, church members, pastors, preachers, missionaries… so many people. The information desk said they had never seen so many visitors for one person before. Everybody could not come to his room, so per the doctor’s advice I visited with them for a while in the waiting room. Now it was over, and it was time to go home.

I dreaded leaving the hospital without my husband. My heart felt like it would burst wide open at the thought of facing life alone. I had been there with him ten days, and I knew I needed to get to the children. I took courage and left the hospital. That week Elder Wooden was in revival at the Upper Room. He was staying at Vernon’s, and I called him there and asked him to go down to the house with Aunt Betty and tell the children. I didn’t want anyone to call and say something before they were told.

It seemed as though I was in a fog. I don’t remember much about the days that immediately followed. Somehow God helped me function. The children were pitiful. It was a dark day for all of us. Thank God for Aunt Betty and the saints who were at the house to help us.

Oh, how could it be? This was no ordinary man, but a man whom God Himself had chosen and called and used in the furtherance of His gospel. This man was indeed a special person who was saved, sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost. The anointing of the Lord rested upon him because God was always first in every way in Elder Turner’s life. He was a great gospel preacher and soul winner. He prayed under the power and anointing of the Holy Ghost until he prayed out of himself. It seemed as though you could envision God granting his request. A man who loved people and treated everybody right despite color or nationality, whether rich or poor, sick or well, young or old, whether smart or needing help or whatever stage of life in which they found themselves.

I was talking to him once about someone I couldn’t seem to understand. He said to me, “That young man has a grown man’s body but has a 15 year-old mentality, and he is not going to get any better. The Bible said comfort the feeble minded.” Ever since that conversation, I have had a soft place in my heart for those who are not as mature in mind as they are in body for we all belong to God. When he went to the hospital, my husband was still training that young man. He and Bro. Powell were also counseling other young men whom the Lord had sent from others ministries, some of the many my husband ministered to so that they could be delivered from homosexuality.

He became a father to fatherless children, bringing them into his home many times. He took young people with him as he ministered from church to church, making sure the young people were fed spiritual food as well as natural food and had the things that they needed. The needs of widows were not forgotten by him either. He had a degree in electronics, and he could fix about any appliance, televisions, radios, washers and dryers. Many times he went into the homes of our church mothers and fixed things.

Prisoners came to church with him, and he saw to it that they had spiritual and natural food. Our van was not too good for them. Sometimes people asked me if I was afraid for my children and myself to be in the van with prisoners. I told them that as long as we were with my husband, I was not afraid. He also went to the prisons and preached the gospel of hope and prisoners received salvation.

College students held a special interest for him. He helped them from his own pocket and saw to it through the church that they were fed a good, home-cooked meal. He started the Food for the Needy Program at the Upper Room Church, and it fed the hungry whether they were members or not. A room was set aside at the church to hold food. He turned an old gas station on Washington Street in Rockingham into an outreach center, and through the donations of many people, he was able to pass out food, shoes and clothing to those who were in need.

Groceries for people who had no food, house notes and light bills for people when they couldn’t do for themselves were paid for from his own funds. Every time we built up a good savings account, he would give it away to people who couldn’t get loans at the banks and to other preachers who needed help at their churches. Elder Turner had a reserve in his home where people could come and get funds for a short period of time. All they had to do was promise to put the money back into the fund so that when someone else came in need, it would be there to help them. He did not touch this fund for any personal use. Not only would his family miss this great man of compassion, but I was sure many other people would miss him.