0. P..iorehcad City: Cart~ret Co. :\~ws-timcs ount Airy News

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1 The Rev. Wade Ruff, pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Rutherfordton for more than 20 years, will conduct revival services at the Smyrna Baptist Church Oct Services will begin at 7 :30 each night. The church will observe homecoming following the 11 a.m, service on Sunday, Oct. 25. A picnic dinner is planned. Former pastors, members and friends are invited. The offering on Sunday, Oct. 25, will go to the building fund. 0. P..iorehcad City: Cart~ret Co. :\~ws-timcs ount Airy News Mount A1q. Times Mount Ho llv News Mount Olive T'ribun...' Murfr ccsbcro: Roanoke=Chowan News Murphy: Chcr ok ee Scout Ne shv ;1... ~ pru c :~12wl.cl:1.2: Aver-y jcurna. New tor- Observer & Ncw s -Ent crp r is-c North Wilksb... arc: journal Pat-roi t Oxford Ledger Pilot Mounte in Xews Pl t t sbor o: Chatham Rt: c rd Plymouth: Roan...-ke Beacon Raef o'rd: News-Journal Rale igh: Carol.inian

2 KEYS TO THE new Chevrolet Monte Carlo were presented to Rev. and Mrs. Ruff by J. L. Vickers, irmau Qi. t~ of Deacons at Second Baptist

3 ? - CLIPPING SERVICE ll 15 HILLSBORO RALEIGH, NC TEL. (919) COURIER FOREST CITY, N. c. MAR-12-8 O THE DAILY COURIER, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 1980 l lj Veteran Rutherfordton' minister 'baptized them,.. then I married them, then I baptized their children' 'The Lord sure didbless us all the way throuah' by Joy Hoagland Daily Courier Feature Editor '.'I guess I get the most satisfaction out of realizing that I watched so many grow up in the church. I baptized them, then I married them, then I baptized their children. I was able to watch them grow up and develop into good strong Christian people and good citizens in the community." When Rev. Wade Ruff looks back over his 37 years as pastor of the Second Baptist Church in Rutherfordton, a post from which he retired last month, his face has the satisfied, yet humble, look of a man who has "fought the good fight". "In the time I was there I baptized over 600 people. The Sunday before I left I baptized 11. The Lord sure did bless us all the way through. They are wonderful people to work with out there," he said of the congregation he served almost from the time he became ordained, first on a part-time basis and later full-time. The story of Wade Ruff's ministry is also the history of a church, from its struggling infancy with a membership of 72, an annual budget of $500, and a borrowed "welfare" building for a meeting place, to its current membership of 660, annual budget of well over $100,000, and sanctuary, educational building, recreational facilities, and parsonage worth over half a million dollars. But it is also the story of a dedicated man, who struggled against difficult odds to get an education, raise a family and build a church. About the time Wade Ruff was born on what was then called Branch Line in Rutherfordton during the latter part of World War I, mill towns were constructing "welfare houses" to be used in case of emergencies. The Cleghorn Mill company owned such a house on Cleghorn Street. In 1923 one of the superintendents in the mill started a mission Sunday School, sponsored by the First Baptist Church, which met in the welfare house. That Missiori Sunday School organized into a church in March of 1925, and called itself the Green Street Baptist Church because. the congregation hoped to build on Green Street. As a youngster Ruff attended the church, and it was there he met the woman he later married and credits churches wherever we were. We didn't solicit funds that would go to the local church. We just wanted to preach. We had it in our system and just wanted to get it out, I guess.'' with being responsible for his conversion to Christianity. "I went to church one day and I saw her in the choir. I thought she was the prettiest little girl I'd ever seen. She looked like an angel to me. I fell in love with her right then. We were just 14," he smiled remembering. "I had a hard time getting on her goodside, but I finally did. "She made me toe the line. Back then boys had. a habit of.hanging around outside the church and waiting to walk the girls home. She wouldn't let me walk her home unless I came in for preaching." During the next few years Ruff pastored as many as four churches at a time, all on a part-time basis, because none could afford to pay a pastor fulltime. He preached three sermons every Sunday, one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one at night. In February of 1943 he added East Side Baptist Church which Green Street had become to the two other churches he was already pastoring. "The church was struggling. It had 72 names on the roll, but half of them didn't come or had moved away. But they really wanted a church," Ruff said. When they were 17 Wade and Carrie Ruff were married. Two years later Ruff joined the Green Street Baptist Church. "It's-the only church I've ever been a member of. My first job in that church was as janitor. They elected me janitor in about 1937 the year after I joined. I got paid 75 cents a week. Back then the total church budget was only about $500 a year. Those were hard times. It was still the depression period." The next year, Ruff was chosen as a Sunday School teacher and named to the Board of Deacons. In 1939 he was named Sunday SchoolSuperintendent. "They tried me out in a lot of different places," he grinned." The young minister continued to work at a public job until 1944 when he went to school. He entered Gardner-Webb College. "I was going to school, working Friday afternoons and Saturday in the Home Store (later the Winn-Dixie) and at that time I had four churches, so I was pretty busy. But I was young then and I had a lot of energy." lt was in October 1939 that Ruff began to feel that he was called to the ministry. " :Y call to the ministry happened in an unusual place. The church used to go once a month to the County Home on Sunday afternoon. They'd usually have a minister to speak. One Sunday the man in charge of organizing it called me and said the minister he had lined up wouldn't be able to come and asked me if I'd read some scripture and say a few words. Well, just before the time came for me to get up the minister came. I don't know that I remember a lot of what that minister said that day, but it was a very special experience for me. I just felt so strongly that God wanted me to preach." Ruff went home and asked his wife what she would do if she thought God wanted her to preach. "She said, 'I'd preach.' So I decided that was what I woulddo." At the time Ruff was supporting his wife and three children by working in the mill. Ruff was in school fro~ the fall of 1944 through the spring of After graduating from Gardner-Webb he enrolled at the new Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute which opened in 1947 in Boone, and later moved to Fruitland. Ruff was a member of the school's first graduating class. By 1945 Ruff was pastoring only two churches, East Side and another church near Morganton. Both churches had undertaken building programs, and both completed new buildings in In that same year East Side changed its name to SecondBaptist Church. Rev. and Mrs. Wade Ruff He got together with Rev. Frank Earley who had a Model A Ford and they mounted a loud speaker on the top of the car. On Saturdays they wouldget' permission from the local officials, then preach on street corners, courthouse lawns, trade lots, making a circuit that included Chesnee, Gaffney, Marion, Spruce Pine, Bakersville, Morganton, Shelby and Hawk. ~Jd I ' 'I remember Hawk, because there was a Barber Shop there next to a big oak' tree and that is where we would preach. We'd play records of quartets on a record player to get their attention and we took turns preaching. Sometimes we'd preach six, seven times a day. "We always promoted the local In 1948 Second Baptist called Ruff full-time and he accepted. "I think the church really began to make progress when they did go to a full-time pastor. That made it possible to do a lot of things we had not been able to do before. "We had so many needs. The most important thing of all is to reach people for Christ and for church membership and develop them in the Christian graces, but so many things 'are necessary to do that. "We started a building fund in 1943 when I first went there. We started construction on our first building in We did a lot of the work ourselves. We cleaned the lot, dug and poured the foundations, and learned how to carpenter, lay brick and block. We constructed a 37' by 67' two-story building for less than $25,000.'' When the building was nearly completed the church needed an additional $2,500 to put a heating system in. They had borrowed their limit. "That was the time the people of the church impressed me the most, when we were building that first building. The people had given until they just didn't have any more to give. It was the next to my last year at Fruitland. I took a few days off from school and went to talk to Morris Goforth who was head of Union Trust Co. at the time. I told him what our situation was and asked him if I could get the people to borrow the money individually and I would co-sign the notes, could we do that. He just gave me a stack of notes. "These were not people who had money. I went to the different individuals and told them what I wanted. Some people would say they'd borrow $25, some more, some less, whatever they thought they could do. In three days I had $2,500. "That made it possible for us to have our first service in the new church the Sunday before Christmas in And not one single person defaulted on those notes. I know, because my name was on all of them.'' "From the time I went there until just before I left we were in a building program." In 1952 the church built a parsonage. In 1963 the educational building was completed, and the churches' present sanctuary was completed in "I never could have done it if it hadn't been for my wife," Ruff said of his ministry. "She took care of our six children and took a job and worked so we could put all six through college. We couldn't have done that on my salary alone." Now that he is retired, Rev. Ruff said he plans to do some fishing and play a little golf. He also plans to work on his coin collection. But he doesn't intend to give up preaching. "I plan to do some supply work with churches that are out of a pastor, and just fill in wherever I might be needed.''

4 ER, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 1980!B through' n't cal We d to uff at a se fullery the ast eet hes d 72 em But uff ork ent ebb en of fter he tist 7 in nd. irst to o a ble ble ost ple hip ian re construction on our first building in We did a lot of the work ourselves. We cleaned the lot, dug and poured the foundations, and learned how to carpenter, lay brick and block. We constructed a 37' by 67' two-story building for less than $25,000.'' When the building was riearly completed the church needed an additional $2,500 to put a heating system in. They had borrowed their limit. "That was the time the people of the church impressed me the most, when we were building that first building. The people had given until they just didn't have any more to give. It was the next to my last year at Fruitland. I took a few days off from school and went to talk to Morris Goforth who was head of Union Trust Co. at the time. I told him what our situation was and asked him if I could get the people to borrow the money individually and I would co-sign the notes, could we do that. He just gave me a stack of notes. "These were not people who had money. I went to the different individuals and told them what I wanted. Some people would say they'd borrow $25, some more, some less, whatever they thought they could do. In three days I had $2,500. "That made it possible for us to have our first service in the new church the Sunday before Christmas in And not one single person defaulted on those notes. I know, because my name was on all of them.'' "From the time I went there until just before I left we were in a building program." In 1952 the church built a parsonage. In 1963 the educational building was completed, and the churches' present sanctuary was completed in "I never could have done it if it hadn't been for my wife," Ruff said of his ministry. "She took care of our six children and took a job and worked so we could put all six through college. We couldn't have done that on my salary alone." Now that he is retired, Rev. Ruff said he plans to do some fishing and play a little golf. He also plans to work on his coin collection. But he doesn't intend to give up preaching. "I plan to do some supply work with churches that are out of a pastor, and just fill in wherever I might be needed."

5 GREEN RIVER BAPTIST ASSOCIATION, 1976 rhe t.r. u a I ::-'. \t,'i ~: 2.!"2 -.i:;) as \"" c e :-.ergetic c. mcv.i r.g force You t n Sh e Lt e r-, r.e as s cc Lat a cn.?irst Saptist aeon and D:'..rector Rev. Wade Ru~f, Pastor 5. ': ;'-v t

6 GREEN RIVER BAPTIST ASSOCIATION The 1996 Annual Minutes are Dedicated in memory of REV. w ADE RUFF Wade Ruff was born on December 21, 1917 in Rutherford County. He was the son of the late W. Belvin and Maggie Moore Ruff. He married Carrie Peeler and they had six children; Steve, Jerry, Jennifer, Tim, Brenda and Phil. He graduated from Gardner-Webb University and was a member of the first graduating class of Fruitland Bible Institute. He pastored for over 56 years in Rutherford and McDowell Counties, the majority of that time at Second Baptist in Rutherfordton. The following was recorded by his grandson, Doug Ruff, on Father's Day 1995: "I'm never very comfortable talking about myself. There's nothing to boast or brag about but I'm simply relating some of my experiences and some of the lessons they have taught me that have lasted through the years and are valuable to me. "I was converted on October 18, 1936 in the Old Green Street Baptist Church, Rev. H.L. Phillips was the preacher, I remember my mother saying 'Son go up there and give your heart to Jesus', and I did that and I've never regretted it. 8 "Early in my ministry I was having a difficult time financially, trying to go to school five days a week, raise four small children and work in a grocery store on Saturday, as well as preach at small churches on Sunday. The income was not enough to meet my obligations, making it very difficult. I remember one particular Monday morning I was supposed to leave for school at noon and come back the next Friday. I didn't have the money to pay my tuition and board, and there was barely enough food in the house for Carrie and the children for that week. I had been thinking for some time how I had let my family down. I was not providing for them as I wanted to. I thought seriously about the situation and decided the best thing for me to do was to quit school and get a job, maybe two jobs so I could support my family and take care of them, at the same time I could still serve the Lord by working in my local church. So [ decided that Monday morning I would go 'pull' a field of corn. It was fall of the year and I had a job gathering a field of corn for a man. So that morning [ went down to pull corn. As I did I tried to explain to God why I was doing what I was doing. I w_anted to serve Him but at the same time I had to take care of my family. The scnpture kept coming to me where Jesus taught us to love Him and put Him before wife, children, brother, sister, so I kept trying to explain to God my position. The more I tried to explain the faster I pulled corn. I was crying and trying to explain to God and lost all track of time. Finally at last I found myself down in a corn pile, there on my knees crying and praying and telling God what I was doing but God wouldn't agree with me. I resented that. This went on until lunch time. I went back to the house and told Carrie ofmy decision - even though God didn't agree - I was not going back to school. I'm going to get me a job and take care _of my family and serve God in my local church. I think God put Carrie up to th1~ when she said, 'God called you to preach and He called you to prepare, so the thing for you to do is to go back to school.' God wasn't going to let me off so I went back to school. The word of God says to put God before even our family and to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. So I went back to school that afternoon. I rode with four of my classmates without telling them about my situation. When we were in line to pay our tuition and board, I didn't have any money, so when it was my turn to pay, I was going to try and explain that I would pay it later. I don't know how he knew but while we were in line a classmate of mine turned around and said, 'Yours is taken care of, you can pay me later.' Now, how he knew I needed that I don't know. This experience sticks in my mind and I'm glad with Carrie's and God's help that I made the decision because it changed my life. Another lesson I learned before I became a preacher, was on tithing. I was a tither and had been since I professed faith in Christ. The mill I worked at, Cleghorn Mill, was not running well, in fact, they told us ifwe could find another job to take it because they may never open again. We had two small children at the time, so I got a job cutting wood for a man who also owned a grocery store. I owed the man a grocery bill and also cut wood for him, times got so hard he had to stop all credit. As I worked for this man, he would not pay me in money but credit for the grocery bill I owed him, The first week I worked cutting wood I also received a check from the Mill for the past week. This was not a full weeks pay ($12.00), this was just for part of a week. I lived in a company house, so by the time they took out rent and taxes I didn't have much left. When 9

7 [ iigured my tithe from the money earned from the wood I cut (even though I didn't get any money) and the gross amount of my check, I only had 26 cents left for the week. Here was my family, I'm responsible for, they need food, they need things. I was confronted again. Should [ take this tithe and apply it to my family needs or should I do as the Bible says and take it to God's storehouse. I came to the decision to tithe, God called me to tithe and He comes first. I put aside the money for the tithe and with the 26 cents left I bought ten pounds of com meal for a quarter and bought two suckers for a penny, one for Steve and one for Jerry. That night Carrie cooked a cake of cornbread and we sat down at the little table and ate cornbread and drank water. That cornbread tasted better than a lot of fine foods I've eaten. It was not a self righteous feeling but it was the realization that I was doing what God taught me in His word. The next Sunday, as I brought the tithe to church, the Lord gave me a special blessing. Its not that I was doing anything special, I was just doing what He said to do instead of what I really wanted to do. I wasn't being selfish in that respect. I learned to trust in the Lord, to put God first and do my best. "I remember when Ginger was a baby, we were living in a company house. It was fall of the year and the weather was getting cold. We only had one bed and Carrie, Jerry and Ginger slept in the bed, and Steve and I slept on a pallet on the floor. We. didn't think much about it, it was an adventure for Steve, he liked camping out. But it began to get cold and that floor began to get pretty hard and cold. So one night we had our family altar, we gathered the family around and we prayed together. That night I realized 'ol' Steve was getting pretty cold. So I just told the Lord in my prayer, 'Lord I believe we need another bed, and if we do I'm going to trust in You to provide it.' The next day when I came home from work there on the front porch was a bed and a mattress. Carrie said to me, 'The neighbor across the street (he was a loom fixer and made good money) had brought the bed down and asked if we could store it.' The neighbor had bought a new bedroom suite and didn't have room for it, he said we could use it if we wanted to, so that night Steve and I slept on a real bed. God will do exceeding abundantly above what we ask of Hirn when we realize all of God's tithes are in the storehouse and are trying to put God first in our lives. Sometimes those times get rough, sometimes you doubt, or at least I did, sometimes I had a terrible struggle - but in spite of it all I just trusted in the Lord in these things and God fulfilled the expectations of mine in a marvelous way. I didn't try to tell Him how to do it, I just asked Him to do it if He thought it was the thing to do. "Something I looked forward to was our State Evangelistic Conference which was held every February and ran from Monday through Wednesday. The leading evangelists from across the state and from other states would come and preach. One year I just didn't have the money to rent a _room, I didn't have the money to go, but I really wanted to go, I had just enough money for gasoline with a little left over. It was February and there was snow on the ground and it was cold. We met at the First Baptist Church in Greensboro, so I went to the Conference and lived on hamburgers that week. I took an old army blanket with me and every night I'd park the car as close to the church as I could. After everyone else was gone I'd crawl in the back seat of the car and wrap up in the blanket and sleep there. Next morning, early, when the janitor got there I'd go in 10 the church and warm up and shave and clean up the best I could. I'd stay in the church all day and for the services that night then go sleep in the car that night. That to me was not a sacrifice. [ was pri vi\eged to go and hear these great men of God preach the word. God had called me to preach the word and I had a hunger to know what it taught and a desire to preach it for His glory. I feel like this was a good experience for me. [didn't feel like sleeping in a car with snow on the ground and the temperature about fifteen degrees was a sacrifice, I felt it was a privilege for me. "We all get nervous when we get up to speak, I always have to a certain degree. The most nerve racking experience I ever had - and there again it was good for me and that's why I'm telling these things, yet when they happen they're not so pleasant but as time goes on we see they were a blessing to us. It was the spring revival at Gardner Webb College. They held the services at the First Baptist Church of Boiling Springs each night. A professor of religion, Mr. Lawson Allen came to see me and said 'We are only going to have one morning service, it's going to be in the Chapel at school. We're going to have the whole student body, the President, all the professors, everyone connected with the college will be there in addition to the leaders of the church and community.' I was just in my twenty's and just getting started, I was really shaken; I'd never experienced anything like that. So I concentrated and spent much time praying and studying and thinking over that sermon. I remember that sometimes we feel like we can't do a thing, we're scared to death, but once we get in it's different. I remember that morning we sang, the president of the college and others had done their thing then I got up there. I knew there were PHD's out there, all those professors, and all the outstanding people, and those honor students. I got up there and didn't exactly close my eyes but I just tried to blank out everything except that God had given me this opportunity and I must make the best of it. I got up and started, I didn't run out of anything to say, in fact, I had more to say than time to say it. I remember the Lord just somehow took over and when the invitation was given what a blessing to see all those students coming down that isle weeping, accepting Christ as their Savior. That was an experience I'll always treasure. I could have said no to that opportunity and I was tempted to say no but I thank the Lord many times that I didn't say no and that I took advantage of that opportunity and it paid off. "Three years after my conversion, God called me to preach. One Sunday afternoon in the Rutherford County Horne, a prayer group from our church went for a service. Once a month on Sunday afternoon we had a service for the people, people who some said couldn't care for themselves. This particular Sunday afternoon the man in charge of the service came to me and said 'Preacher Brown hasn't shown up yet and I don't believe he's corning. How about you looking up some scripture.' But then at the last minute Preacher Brown did show up, so [ didn't have to preach. While I sat there and listened to Preacher Brown, you know how the Bible tells us about the Shechinah glory, that golden haze that filled the tabernacle, the presence of God. God seemed to overshadow me there, that afternoon at the County Home and God told me - I've never doubted for one minute - God called me to preach. This experience will stay with me the rest of my life, it's as real now as it was in God overshadowed me and let me know He wanted me to preach His word. I went home and told Carrie, and ask 1 l

8 her if God called her to preach what would she do? She said 'I'd preach.' I told her about my experience and went to church that night and told the people. Thereafter I had the opportunity to preach on Wednesday nights. After a while it gets old not having your own place to preach so Frank Early and I started to preach on street comers, trade lots, 'bone yards'. We preached in Marion, I'd preach as many as ft ve times a day. On Saturday we would get off our jobs at the mill. Frank had a Model A Ford and I bought a loud speaker on the installment plan. We would put that loud speaker on that A Model and preach in Marion, Greasey Comer, Spruce Pine, Bakersville, and a place over in the mountains called Hawk. At Hawk they had a barber shop, except they didn't have a building. The barber shop was under a big tree. People would gather under that tree and we would preach, we had some marvelous services that way. "So the Lord has been good to us. He's blessed us in so many ways. He's given us strength, He's given us health, He's taken care ofus - I've seen the time when it looked real shaky about something to eat, something to wear, but God has always provided. That reminds me God is true to His word when He says 'Seek ye first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.' " Gone to be with Jesus whom he loved on October 22,