A Methodist Woman Stopped Me From Drinking

Ephesians 5:18 - Don't be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead be filled with the Holy Spirit. (New Living Testament)



We all hear today of 'random acts of kindness' and 'paying it forward. It doesn't cost a dime just to talk to someone and we never know what a profound change we can make in the life of someone with only a few kind words. This is a story of one such simple statement and the difference it made in my grandfather's life years later.



(As told by Happy Tom Brooks in his own words)

When I was a little boy playing along the side of the road one Sunday morning the people was coming from church. I was a little bare foot, fatherless boy. I thought if I had my head down so I couldn't see them, they wouldn't see me. A good old Methodist woman walked over to where I was playing and laid her hand on my shoulder and said, "Tom, if you will be a good boy someday you will go to a land where you will have a father." While I was in Indianapolis, Indiana the boys I run with at home, and growed up with, they went to the shows and to the fair and had a big time. They would come in nights talking and laughing and telling what a big time they had. I was trying to save my money to send mother, to help feed and clothe the other children. I didn't have any money to spend to have a big time. Them boys kept coming in at night, talking and laughing about what a big time they was having. That got me all tore up. I became so troubled I decided to drink my life away; to stay drunk the rest of my life. I went to the saloon to start drinking. When I stepped up to go into the saloon, I heard the voice of that good old Methodist woman that spoke to me when I was a little boy, "Someday you can go to a land where you can have a father." I turned back out of the saloon door crying. I cried all day and might nigh all night and that kept me from starting to drink. I never drank anything intoxicated since that.

My First Experience With Credit

Matthew 5:42 (KJV) Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow from thee turn not thou away.

"Mother was sick. We didn't have any bread. Mother told Nannie we didn't have anymore bread and she was sick and not able to wash and get any money. I cried and worried might nigh all night studying and worrying about where we could get something to eat. The next morning I went to town early to a small store. I told the merchant of the store that I wanted to buy a barrel of flour on a credit and charge it to me and when I get to work I would pay him. The old merchant looked over his glasses and said, "Tom, I'll sell you this barrel of flour and if you pay me for this, come back and get anything else in the store on credit but if you don't pay me for this don't ever ask for anything else on credit. I went to the old man who had raised this merchant's wife and told him what I had done and wanted to know if he had anything on the farm I could do to earn some money. He put me to cutting corn stalks while he was plowing the ground, 12 hours a day for 50 cents a day. I cut stalks a week. He let me off a little early on Saturday evening. I took my $3.00 he paid me, in my pocket and went down to the store. When I went in to the store the merchant said, "Can I do something for you?" I told him I wanted to pay some on my account. I give him the $3.00. I shore felt good about that.

My First Restitution

Psalm 69: 4-12 (NIV)
  4 Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head: many are my   enemies  without cause, those who seek to destroy me. I am forced to restore what I did not steal.
  5 You, God, know my folly: my guilt is not hidden from you.
  6 Lord, the Lord Almighty, may those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me;  God of  Israel, may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me.
  7 For I endure scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face.
  8 I am a foreigner to my own family, a stranger to my own mother's children;
  9 for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.
10 When I weep and fast, I must endure scorn;
11 When I put on sackcloth, people make sport of me,
12 Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of the drunkards.

Yeah, even back in the Old Testament days people were scorned, picked on, bullied for being different or not "fitting in." A belief in God would get you ridiculed and belittled just as it does today.

We hear so much of this today, especially with our children being bullied or picked on for not fitting in. Maybe it's the clothes they wear, the way they talk or maybe just for not "going along" with the crowd. Teach them this is not the way to be treated or to treat others.

My Grandfather tried to fit in as he was ridiculed by his friends for his belief in God and it caused him tremendous pain as his story continues:

"A neighbor woman come to our house and said, "Mrs. Brooks, I heard about your little boy getting saved. When he grows up he might kill somebody or get drunk or do something mean. He had better go join the church and be baptized and then he will still be in grace." But that didn't work. The boys that I run with got to calling me preacher. I got out of grace and backslid. Then I went on for about a year. I stold a rock drill, about 14 inches long, from a man. I lost it and I couldn't take it back. I had been praying diligently for three months and six days for God to take me back. He wouldn't forgive me until I made restitution. I was a little ragged, fatherless boy and had stold the drill from the wealthiest man in our town. I couldn't face that wealthy man and make restitution till a boy that I run with went to the alter trying to get saved. Early the next morning I went to town, a little over a half a mile from where we lived. When the man opened the door and let me in his store early the next morning, I told the man what I had done. I only had 23 cents in money and tried to pay him the 23 cents and told him I would pay him the rest as soon as I could get it. I told him I didn't want to live in hell here on earth and then die and go to hell. He said, "Tom, I forgive you." He wouldn't take my 23 cents. Then I went back home. He closed the store and went back home and called his wife and children in the room and told them what had happened. he said, "It is time that we was making a change." They went down on their knees and five of them got saved, him, his wife, two girls and a boy. He told the Doctor out of town; the Doctor got saved and went to preaching. A great revival broke out in that little town. When I was 12 years old I went to West Virginia and worked at the coal mines. Then I came back home and cleared new ground."

Samantha Was Baptized

Matthew 3:11  I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:



"We would get firewood and rails to build fences. I had a rope that went around my neck and down under my arm and tied it to the wood and snaked it to the house. I also tied the rope to a sled, when there was snow on, and pulled the sled up the hill, loaded it with wood, push it over the hill and it would run down the hill to the house by itself. Mother was sick and Samantha was doing the cooking. The wood we was getting to cook with didn't satisfy Smanth. She wanted to go with us to get some good wood to cook with. I pulled the sled to the top of the hill. We got a big load on top of the sled, pulled the sled to the edge of the hill to push it over the hill. Smanth had on a old, big sweater, the sleeves was rolled up and she was pushing the sled. We told her to turn loose of the sled when it started down the hill but she wouldn't. She wanted it to get a big start. She got her sweater sleeve hung over the standard on the sled and it jerked her down. We thought the sled was going to run a straddle a sharp rock down the hill and bust her brains out. Charley went to praying. The sled missed the rock and run through the wash pond at the foot of the hill and "baptized" her. Charley went to shouting when she got "baptized". She never did bother us no more about getting wood."

Born to Preach

I believe that in each of us, from an early age, there is something we want to do with our lives and something we truly believe in. Most of the time these dreams change for various reasons. From the time I was very young I wanted to be a Police Officer and wouldn't even play cops and robbers as a child unless I could be the cop. I was scared that one day the police would find out I was a robber and I couldn't be a real officer. I was one of the lucky ones able to follow through on that passion and live it. My Grandfather had wanted me to follow him and preach. I knew this wasn't what I was called to do and a few years before he passed away I was finally able to tell him this. He only told me to, "Go where the Lord leads you."

I believe, and he knew, that he was born to preach and would not let anything stand in the way. His stories told of this passion and knowing what he was called to do from as early as he could remember. The following couple of stories are from his early memories.

Each story is as told by Happy Tom Brooks in his own words.

I Cried All Day

In the year 1904, I was four years old and I was crying. My oldest brother told me if I would go all day without crying, he would give me a half a days work, that's what he made in a half a day. I didn't get the money because I had rather have a congregation to preach to than to have the offering. I was crying for my brothers and sisters to sit down and listen to me preach.

My First Revival-I Got Saved

My Mother and Mag was off washing. They washed clothes for a living. I was eleven years old and I was setting down on the chopping block at the wood pile. I was thinking if there was anything I could do about getting a job to help Mother to feed and clothe us kids. I couldn't think of anything I could do to make any money to help and I began to cry. Then I cried and said, "Lord is there any good thing I can do?" and something told me to go down behind the fodder stack and preach. I got down behind the fodder stack and went to preaching and I got saved. I went back to the house and told Nannie and the other children there at the house that I was going to have church down behind the fodder stack. They said, "Who is going to preach?" I said, "I am." They began to get ready and I went down and fixed some seats and a altar. My subject was, "If you want to see your good old mother in heaven, you've got to get right with God." Nannie got to crying so loud I couldn't preach for her. I said, "Come on to the alter and pray." Nannie came on and knelt down at the altar and we began to pray. Nannie lifted her little bony hands and said, "I love everybody." Nannie said, "This is too good to keep a secret, let's tell Mother and Mag about it." That evening we done up all the night work. When Mother and Mag come in from washing they set down and rested. Mother said, "Nannie, have you got supper ready?" Nannie said, "Yes." "Have you fed the hogs? Have you got in the fire wood and the kindling?" We said, "Yes, all the night work is done." Then I said, "Mother, let's pray." We all knelt down on our knees to pray. While we were praying Mother got saved. While we were praying she got to shouting and running over the chairs in the house. That was my first successful revival.

My Friend, My Hero, My Grandfather

Rev. Thomas "Happy Tom" and Entha Brooks

When I was growing up I had very few people I could look up to as a role model. My Dad was never home and by the time he did show up he was at least drinking, if not drunk. He would get mean when he was drinking, not so much to us children, but to my mom, going so far as putting a pistol in her mouth and threatening her. More than one time I had to sneak out of the house and have a neighbor call police. He never was arrested over these incidents because he was friends with most of the officers. They would either just calm him down and threaten to take him to jail if they came back or take him somewhere for the night. There was constant arguing and fighting in our house and that seemed to be the norm around our entire  neighborhood. I knew I couldn't live like that. I didn't want to follow in those footsteps. I never knew my father as a "Dad." My mother and father finally divorced when I was ten and after that I very seldom saw him. After being discharged from the Navy I went to work as a Police Officer in Greenwood, SC where he was living. He still drank heavily but his attitude had mellowed. We never had a "Father/Son" relationship but did, in later years, become friends.

I did have two people in my life I really looked up to and they inspired me in different ways. First there was my older, half-brother, Eddie who pushed me in everything I did. He taught me to always push myself and never give up. To go after what I wanted and not let anyone tell me I couldn't do whatever I wanted in life. The second was my Grandfather. He is the subject of this blog.

He was my real hero and role model. He was the point of stability I needed in my life. As a child I would go to see my mother's family frequently. Occasionally I would stay with my Grandmother and Grandfather for a couple of days to a week at a time on their farm in Hodges, just north of Greenwood, SC. It was a totally different world there. I would see the way they treated each other, the respect and real love. My Grandfather would reach over and pat my Grandmother on the back as we were riding down the road and tell her, "You know I love you Mommy." She would look back at him and just smile. He would then laugh out loud. They were deeply in love and didn't mind the world seeing it. I never heard a cross word between them. If they did ever argue they kept it from us kids. He worked hard on the farm and preached hard at church and revivals around the country. He believed in the Lord with all his heart and I know with all my heart the Lord believed in him.

I know he was only a man and made mistakes in his life as we all do but, in my eyes he walked on water.

About this time of year, seventeen years ago, I met my future in-laws for the first time. I was nervous and hoping to fit in. They were good, God fearing people and as we talked before dinner they mentioned their Church and it was a Church of God in Saluda. I casually mentioned that my Grandfather was a Church of God Minister and they asked who he was. They knew him and loved him. They had been to revivals he had preached. I learned that Diane's Uncle, who was also a Church of God Minister, knew him and had gone to hear him preach. I knew that he was well known, liked and respected in and around Greenwood but I didn't know just how far his legacy went. I was really surprised that a backwoods farmer and preacher had touched so many people and made such a positive influence in their lives.

Only us "older folks" remember him now as he died in 1975. I don't want his memory to fade or disappear completely, if nothing more than in the hearts and minds of his descendants. At the very least I want my children and their children to know who he was and the miracles he lived through his total commitment to our Lord. If others find this blog and it helps them to know him that will be wonderful.

The "Experiences" of Happy Tom Brooks

"These Experiences were written as told to us by Happy Tom Brooks. They are written in the same words as he himself would have related them to you. We have neither changed nor added to his life story. We felt that it needed to be written so that others could share the wonderful things God did for him. We hope that as you read it, you will feel the need to draw closer to God and that you will be truly blessed as we have been thru writing it. Happy Tom Brooks was truly one of the greatest men in the Church of God and we, his children, feel he is one of the greatest men we have ever known. We hope that our children and the generations to come will be able to tell the experiences of their Grandfather and Great Grandfather through this book. We love him, and deeply respected and appreciated the life that he lived."

Darleen Brooks Davis

I don't know how often I will get to update as I do have very little time to write but I will keep it coming as often as possible. I do hope that everyone who finds and enjoys this will sign on as a follower of this blog. Please feel free to make comments and I would appreciate anyone with any information on Reverend Thomas "Happy Tom" Brooks to contact me, either through this blog or email me direct at: tdtaylor83@aol.com. Please put Happy Tom Brooks in the subject line so I know that it is not spam.

Thank You for reading.