| Links
KMBI
Asbury College |
Before I
begin to write about my experiences at Mount Carmel from my eighth grade through high
school graduation, 1945-1950, I want to give my profound thanks for the dedication of the
entire organization for making me a better person and for a free education. Without
them, I do not know where I would have been today.
The Kentucky Mountain Bible Institute was
founded by Lela G. McConnell and Martha Archer in 1931. It was a two-year college designed
to train missionaries for the Kentucky Mountains and foreign service. It later expanded to
a three-year college. Children from all over the world as well as Kentucky were admitted.
Mt. Carmel High School was founded two years later. They taught students from the eighth
grade through the twelfth grades. The two schools and the missions were known as the
Kentucky Mountain Holiness Association. Rev. Archer was in charge of the college and Rev.
McConnell was in charge of the high school. She was also in charge of the association.
They were both graduates of Asbury College, a theological college at Wilmore, Ky. By the
time that I had arrived there in 1945, the Kentucky Mountain Holiness Association had
expanded to where each school had two well-developed campuses. There were missionaries
through out the mountains and the world. Students from the high school were attending the
bible school and proceeding into the missions.
The association became world renoun and
had benefactors from all walks of life. When I arrived in 1945, Mt. Carmel had grown to
where it now included farms with buildings to house cattle and chickens. There was a large
farm at the college where corn was raised to feed the stock. Each building had natural gas
for heating and lighting from the gas wells that were drilled on its property. All of this
in fourteen years! How could it happen? Two women who had faith and the p;eople who
came afterwards did it. Some of them were fellow graduates of Asbury College and others
who had heard of the work that was being done and wanted to help. They were Raymond
Swauger, the master planner and physics teacher, Mrs. Swauger the second in charge uinder
Miss McConnell; Miss Gennelle Day, Latin and Bible teacher; Ms. Elma Reed, English
Teacher, Ms. Mary Swartwout mathmatics teacher, and Ms. Spaatz the master chef, and could
she cook. Others came later to help. They were Mr. Forrest and family, Mr. Paulo and
family, and also Mr. Cox and Family. I am sure that I have left out a few due to my lack
of memory. They were the finest and most dedicated people in the world doing their very
best to give us the best education that one could get. None of the workers at either
school received any pay whatsoever. They lived on faith that God would take care of them.
There were many faiths among them, including Methodists, Quakers, Lutherns, Baptists, and
Presbyterians. It was a non-demoniational school. All of these people were kind and gentle
people who served as advisers.
Sunday school would be from 10-11 am.
There would be several classes with a faculty member as a teacher. Each member had to
memorize a verse from the Bible to recite. The teacher then would take a passage from the
Bible that was appropriate for that week and explain it to us. The regular church service
would start with a prayer and a couple of hymns. Then the Minister would ask if any member
wanted to pray. After the prayer, there would be testimonials from whoever wanted to give
one. The Minister would give his sermon. The last part would be the call to the altar for
anyone who wanted to confess his sins and be saved or to be sanctified. During this call
to the altar, the members would be singing a hymn. There would be several members urging
some of us who had not confessed our sins to take this opportunity to do so. It was your
decision to go or not. No one was coerced.
As stated before, there were several different
denominations of churches represented by our faculty, but they all believed in two stages
of becoming a Christian. The first stage was confessing your sins and asking forgiveness
for them. The second stage was asking for God to rid you of the original sin that all
people were born with. My first two years, I never went to the altar. When I was a
sophomore, I did go to the altar and I practiced religion for about a month and then I did
what was called backsliding. I never went back again. My friends and classmates who
continued practicing their faith became missionaries all over the globe and some of them
became the backbone of the KMHA.
Religion was in every phase of schooling, but no one was
ever forced to accept it. It was up to each student. A typical school day started
breakfast. After breakfast we had a short time before going to school. Before classes,
there was a forty-five minute service conducted by the students with a faculty member as a
host. There would be a student leading the congregation in singing with another student
playing the piano. There would be a few prayers from among the students and if anyone
wanted to testify, he could. The leader for the day would give small talk from the Bible
and the service would close with a prayer. From there, we would proceed with our classes.
Classes would end around 3:30. We did our chores until five. At six, we would go back to
our classrooms and have study hall for two hours. At nine we went to bed.
We had three meals a day. Every student was assigned his
seat at one of the tables for the entire school year. There would be a faculty member at
the head of the table. It would be like a well behaved family dinner. We were taught
proper table manners. Ms. Spaatz was an excellent chef. She was assisted by older girl
students. When I was a junior in high school, I was assigned to be the potato masher. This
was a high honor because I was able to leave study hall fifteen minutes to mash the
potatoes for lunch. One of the meals that I will never forget is one Sunday. Students from
Asbury College were visiting us for the day. There would be two or three seated at each
table. That day we had mashed turnips and I hate turnips. I thought they were mashed
potatoes so I took a big helping. One rule was you ate what you put on your plate. I took
one bite and I knew that by being greedy, I had made a big mistake. Ms. Swartwout was at
the head of the table. I looked at her and she looked at me as if to say "Eat every
bite." It took a lot of doing, but I did. I hated turnips then and I still hate them
today. One year, Mr. Swauger was the head of my table. He loved to tell jokes and he
always told this one to the new students. He would ask us what was the difference between
a watermelon and a sweet pea. When no one answered, he would say fifteen minutes. When we
didn't catch on, he would say that when a person eats a piece of watermelon, he would have
a sweet pee in fifteen minutes.
|