Return to Stories Index Mississippi Hobo by Alice E. Jones L.E. Hart during his hobo days in 1938. "He that ploweth should plow in hope," the apostle Paul encouraged the church in I Corinthians 9:11. Forging ahead is not easy, but the men and women of our Fellowship did just that as they pushed through new ground, steadily and laboriously, proclaiming the Pentecostal message and seeing people transformed by the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. This kind of dedication to the cause of Christ is clearly demonstrated in the life of Lucine Edmond Hart of Moss Point, Mississippi, who during his 61 years of ministry pioneered nine churches and witnessed five men become Assemblies of God preachers through his guidance and direction. To this day he has never lost the vision. "The world didn’t like it," Reverend Hart stated in a recent interview. "They called us holy rollers, but that didn’t stop us from preaching the truth." Reverend Hart knows what it’s like to preach under the old "brush arbor, to make a pulpit out of an apple box and 2-by-4’s, to build an altar out of 2-by-4’s, to see people weep their way to God, and later build a church on the same spot." Just shy of his 85th birthday, Brother Hart spoke of how in his younger years he enjoyed going to the woods and sawing pine trees, getting the logs to the mill, and helping cut them up into lumber to be able to build a church and a parsonage. At one pastorate in particular, Brother Hart recalls having to travel by mule and wagon with his family to an old country church. When they arrived they would see men and women seeking God in prayer, the men on one side of the building, the women on the other side. L.E. Hart in 1948 at age 33. "Those people were sincere; they wanted to see something happen and they’d get ahold of God. We’d go into the church and start singing. The power of God would fall, people would get happy, and under the power of the Holy Ghost they would shout. And I’d have a landslide of souls come to the altar. The church was full and there wasn’t room for them to sit down. They’d stand at the windows and look in and come in and go to the altar and give their hearts to the Lord. "That’s the thing we have to bear with today," Brother Hart said. "People don’t stay at the altar and seek the Lord. They stay but a few minutes. I stay at the altar and pray with them and try to help them in my way to stay ‘til they hear from God. The things of the world have come in and Satan has gotten so strong in the world today that people, especially young people, see something that attracts them more than going to church. But we still have a lot of young people serving God." Recalling the days in his own young life before he knew the Lord, no doubt Brother Hart understands the spiritual struggle that takes place among today’s youth. He married young and was happy in the marriage, but confessed he had a wild streak in him. "I wouldn’t stay at home. My daddy worked with the railroad and ever since I was 3 years old, all I remember is living inside the railroad station. I liked trains so much I’d tell my wife, ‘I’ll be back in a few days.’ I’d ride those trains, at night, in the day time, in Montgomery, Alabama, down to Pensacola, Florida ... I’ve been run out of railroad yards with a big pistol. I’d come in there as a hobo and they’d run me off their property. Once I beat up a man pretty bad with a ball peen hammer ‘cause he spoke against my daddy." But all of that changed when two men from a holiness church in the north came and held a tent revival in Samson, Alabama. During the last night of the 2-week revival, Brother Hart left the tent and walked to the railroad track a short distance away. "I laid down in the middle of the track by the old north whistle board and cried out to God. ‘Lord’, I prayed, ‘I’m going to stay here ‘til You save me.’ I never thought about a train. I had to have the Lord. I lay there 30, maybe 40 minutes and wept my way through. When God saved me, He did a good job. I have never backslid on God." That was the evening of October 16, 1938. Then on January 29, 1939, in an old schoolhouse at Baten Cross Road in Alabama, God filled Reverend Hart with the Holy Ghost and called him to preach. "There was a message given in tongues and an interpretation and I’d never heard anything like that before. They were calling sinners and people to come forward to receive the Comforter. ‘Lord,’ I prayed, ‘I want this power,’ and when I said that I fell over on my left side and began to speak in other tongues. I got a good dose of the old-time power and I still live my life in the presence of God like that today." The very spot where L.E. Hart got saved in 1938. Photo taken in 1988 on the 50th anniversary of his conversion. There were times when Brother Hart didn’t have a church to pastor, so he would take his wife and family with him to "evangelize," receiving little money and trying hard to make ends meet. "It hurts when you can’t give to your children; when you see other people’s children playing with toys, knowing that your children don’t have any, that’s hard," Reverend Hart expressed sadly. "I had a 2-week revival in 1941 and received $2.34. I bought gas for the pastor and he drove me and my family to our next revival." Reverend Hart recalled walking 3 miles to pay his "little bit of tithe" because he knew his pastor needed it for his wife and 5 children. Working in the shipyards at Pascagoula, Mississippi, to provide for his family, he preached revivals there and traveled to other parts of Mississippi, Alabama and Florida where he planted seeds. Brother Hart preached in places like Pensacola, Florida where revival is going on today. His last full-time pastorate in Moss Point, Mississippi, where he now lives, is a strong fellowship today. "They call me the Hart of Moss Point," Brother Hart stated. "Everybody’s got confidence in Brother Hart. They know I live the life and I’ve lived it for 61 years. I lay down to sleep at night with peace in my heart and peace in my mind because I’m right with God." Although he misses not having a church to pastor, "because those days are gone now," Reverend Hart does what he can for the Lord. Having known tremendous loss and much suffering, Brother Hart expressed his appreciation for the help he and his family have received from Aged Ministers Assistance. "You will never know what this help has meant to us. We feel so unworthy," Brother Hart stated. Although Reverend Hart and other pioneers of our Fellowship humbly receive the gifts that come their way and hesitate to ask for assistance, they still experience tremendous financial needs. In the early church Paul admonished the Corinthian believers with the words: "If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest" (1 Corinthians 9:11, NIV)? Shall we meet the challenge to assist those who have laid down their lives to proclaim the good news of the power of God to change lives? Without the willingness of our pioneer preachers to be obedient to the call of God, some of us may have never heard the Pentecostal message.