Evangelical Daughter Speaks for Truth
Tombstone of John Wesley Hughes
The cemetery in Wilmore, Kentucky is a gathering of family – my paternal family of Dr. W.W. Shepherd, who started out as a circuit rider with 9 churches on the Barbourville Circuit in 1902. In 1908, he built a house on Lexington Avenue and Wilmore became home base to the Shepherd family for nearly a century. My Aunt Mildred, Dr. Mildred Shepherd, distinguished missionary to India is also buried…along with Aunt Esther. In addition to the Shepherds, there are scores of faith family – people I knew all my life as part of the Asbury family. Not “blood kin” – but lifelong faith. Asbury is more than a school.Asbury is a family which raised us in evangelical faith to reach the world for Christ. Walking through these tombstones is like a walking back through my entire life and recalling the gift of the evangelical faith.
The Wilmore cemetery is also home to the tombstones of the great founders and builders of this Asbury family…including Rev. John Wesley Hughes, founder of Asbury College, my alma mater. Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, we attended chapel in Hughes Auditorium (mandatory attendance, not voluntary J) where, at the front of that huge worship space was the phrase: “Holiness Unto the Lord”. John Wesley Hughes died nearly twenty years before I was born. But his legacy was a big part of my spiritual formation. And his last request, etched on his tombstone, speaks straight to my heart:
“Tell the Asbury preachers to preach the whole truth and be true to the Bible.”
I took a picture of that tombstone over 25 years ago—a picture which is displayed on my desk every day since, continuing to shape and form me. As our world has disintegrated almost completely in regard to the core foundation of truth, I am rising to honor my legacy: “Tell the Asbury preachers to preach the whole truth….and be true to the Bible. “ Time is calling for this evangelical daughter to speak on behalf of the whole truth – which has guided all my life and nearly 50 years of preaching. Truth that is getting trampled in the dynamics of divisions. Time to speak on behalf of the whole truth….”
