CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN

  As told by Elder, Leonard Gordon, Sr.

 

I was born to John and Lilly Love Gordon in the Brake Community in Limestone County, AL. There were fourteen of us children, but two died very young. We were three and four years apart. Except for the last set, Shirley and Curtis they were closer in age. Today, the oldest would have been in his 90s. We lived in a small house that did not have a bathroom for a while, and, eventually, we built another house with six bedrooms and a bathroom. My family owned a farm, and part of the land was rented, and the other was used for crops and livestock to feed the family. There was very little money to buy things, but we were always warm, well-fed, and had a place to live. 

 

I was baptized at the age of eleven in Beaver Dam in Limestone County, Alabama. I joined New Hope CPCA in Limestone County, Alabama. I remember two of the pastors, Reverend Pearl Dancy, and Reverend Fred Toney. There were many others who pastored at New Hope CPCA. At that time we walked four-and a -half miles to church.

 

On our farm, we raised corn, cotton, and wheat. We also had a garden and raised peanuts, potatoes, turnip greens, and all kinds of vegetables. We raised hogs and chicken for meat. The only things we would go to the store and buy was a little salt, and several other things. Breakfast was one of the big meals, we had rice, chicken, and fish. It had to carry us until dinner, working in the field. Dinner was also a good meal. It had to carry us through the rest of the day. Supper was light. We had cornbread and milk. Sunday dinner was special because sometimes we had beef steak and biscuits. My mama cooked a cafeteria-sized pan of biscuits.

 

I went to the field almost as soon as I got out of the diaper. (jokingly) I recall being six or seven years old. After a big rain, the night before we children thought we would get to lay in the bed. My daddy would come to the door and say, “Get up, it didn’t rain that much.” It took me a while, but I got up to picking 150 pounds of cotton a day. When it was time for the Fair to come to town, I “really” picked cotton. I was told that if I wanted to go to the fair, I had to make some extra money.

 

***At Macedonia CPCA, Elder Leonard Gordon is known as “Bruh Gordon.” A man of understanding and dedication to the house of the Lord. He does not mind telling you whose side he is on. In his fiery prayers, he can often be heard saying, “One day, my feet got light, and I runned away.” We all know he is talking about The Holy Ghost fire shut up in his bones that just won’t let him hold his peace. A part of Elder Gordon’s testimony is two familiar Bible verses, “A City That is Set on a Hill Cannot be Hid” Matthew 5:14. He also says, “Under the Mosaic Law there had to be an animal sacrifice for sins, but the one I am talking about made a sacrifice once and for all, He went down in the grave, and the grave couldn’t hold Him.” Hebrews 10:14.