Newsline
Historic Gravesite Decorated in Florida
LIVE OAK, Fla.—R. M. Evans
was a 63-year-old retired Meth- odist minister, living on a pension from the Methodist Church, when he attended a camp meet- ing at the Pleasant Grove Camp Ground in May 1909. There he was filled with the Holy Spirit, resigned from the Methodist Church, and took ordination with the Church of God.
On January 4, 1910, he and his family and evangelist Carl Padgett landed in Nassau, Baha- mas, and joined in ministry with Edmund and Rebecca Barr, who had returned to their homeland the previous November.
As a part of the celebration of the World Missions centennial, the Church of God in Florida, under Administrative Bishop J. Martin Taylor, sponsored a wreath-laying service at Evans’ gravesite in the Memorial Cemetery in Live Oak. The service, planned by Pastor Fred Watson of the Live Oak Church of God, was held Sunday, January 3, 2010—one day short of 100 years since Evans landed in the Bahamas. Christopher Moree, speaker for the occasion, related events from the life of Evans and his family and spoke of the dra-
By the
30 EVANGEL • APR 2010
matic growth of the Church of God around the world during the past 100 years.
Until 1979, Evans’s gravesite was unknown to the Church of God. In that year, James E. Cossey, then serving as editor of World Missions publications, and now the editor in chief for the Church of God, located the grave after difficult and extensive research. A monument was then erected to Evans’ memory and was dedicated by Church of God officials and members in a memo- rial service on January 4, 1980.
Numbers
Source: The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life
How often do Americans attend religious services?
• Weekly or more 38% • Monthly/yearly 34% • Seldom/never 27%
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