Lloyd F. Jackson Jr. has been on a long journey since his boyhood days in Jacksonville, N.C. Pathways led to two North Carolina Baptist schools, Mars Hill and Wake Forest, as well as to Southeastern Seminary. In 1959 he married Barbara Dunn of Bladenboro, N. C.; and the couple experienced two pastorates before the call to Virginia in 1968 where the journey continues.
Fred Anderson
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In the fall of ’68 Lloyd and Barbara Jackson and their three small children took the journey to Virginia’s capital city. Lloyd was called as an associate, working under Gene Williams in the Baptist Men’s Department of the Virginia Baptist General (now Mission) Board. His initial responsibility was in the area of camp development and boys’ activities. It was the beginning of the Richard Stephenson era at the Virginia Board and it was a time of expansion and boundless possibilities. The annual gatherings for the boys — the Royal Ambassadors (of whom Lloyd had once been one) — were held at “the Baptist school,” the University of Richmond, and attendance often exceeded that of the General Association’s annual meeting.
In 1972, Lloyd became department director for the area of Baptist Men’s ministry. It was a heyday for laymen’s missions involvement. In the ’70s — before the word “partnership” was popularized — there were construction teams which went to Guatemala and Honduras. Even earlier there had been groups of Virginia Baptist men who went on mission trips to Mexico and South Dakota. The early experiences were proof that Virginia Baptists could and should respond wherever needs were presented.
Lloyd Jackson
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Lloyd Jackson never abandoned his affinity for Baptist camps and his belief that camping experiences were an effective means of helping shape young lives. He reveled in the work at Camp Piankatank and his whole family got in the act. He boldly included blacks in a time of entrenched racial segregation. He envisioned a day when camps could be year-round instead of just summertime.
Nature brought strong winds and weatherfolks gave these hurricanes names. They changed lives and landscapes but they also produced large-scale opportunities for ministry. The various Brotherhood or Baptist Men’s departments in the SBC began responding to disasters. Jackson became a quick learner about disaster response as he was thrust into a new role as coordinator. Because of the interest of Virginia WMU, the State Missions Offering included a provision for a mobile kitchen. It was the beginning of a disaster feeding ministry which was in place for future service on epic proportions including the aftermath of “9/11” and Hurricane Katrina.
The journey from camp director to coordinator of disaster relief took twists and turns and included some bumps, a few roadblocks and many fascinating encounters. Lloyd Jackson was commissioned by the Center for Baptist Heritage & Studies to share the journey for today’s Virginia Baptists and their posterity. The result is a new publication entitled appropriately Reflections on a Journey. It reads as if its author is sitting beside you and in his magnificent deep voice is sharing, telling and even confiding.
There are many anecdotes and stories sprinkled through the book. Remembering an RA Congress trip to St. Louis, Jackson tells of two boys who were still at the hotel’s swimming pool when the sessions were about to begin. In that voice of his which surely is similar to God’s, Jackson reminded the boys of their obligation. “Both young men were at the session on time, perhaps wearing wet swimming trunks under their pants.”
There was a touchy situation when a Virginia construction crew stayed at a missionary’s residence in another country. “Two of the team had to stay in a camper shell outside the house. The doors to the house were locked at eleven o’clock and there was no access to toilet facilities. The missionary’s wife announced to those staying in the house that she slept with a pistol under her pillow. No one was prone to move around at night!”
And then there was the time on the Eastern Shore during a World Changers project to improve housing. One house became known as “the rat house.”
“The house was occupied by a man who had lost both legs and used a wheelchair. The first day, the crew removed the carcasses of 42 rats from inside the house. Interior walls — and the owner’s wheelchair — were covered with grease, grime and dirt. End of the week: entire interior cleaned and painted, wheelchair ramp built, rats removed, wheelchair polished and shining. A challenge met by committed youth and adults.”
At Camp Peaks of Otter in Bedford County, there were challenging physical activities including rappelling at a cliff site. “One of the campers, a thirteen-year-old considerably overweight, was not participating because he was afraid. He was not forced to rappel. I took him,” remembers Jackson, “to the training ramp where we sat down and talked. I assured him that he was okay and that no one would laugh at him. In a few minutes, I hooked myself up and backed down the training ramp, using the same techniques I would use in an actual rappel. He saw that the rope did not break and that he might be safe. He agreed to try. I hooked him up and then walked with him down the ramp. He succeeded. After the last trip, he broke into a big smile, pleased at his accomplishment. He still did not want to try the cliff but he now knew he was not a failure. Virginia Baptists — helping boys grow.”
In Reflections on a Journey Lloyd Jackson tells stories of Baptist Men and disaster relief from his rare perspective as an insider at the Mission Board and as the point man for the work; but he freely admits that he was one of many who participated and made the ministries possible. He has written an important history of one phase of Virginia Baptist life as well as an engaging personal memoir. He invites the reader want to join him on the journey.
Copies of Reflections on a Journey can be ordered for $17 plus $3 shipping and handling from Center for Baptist Heritage & Studies, P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.
Fred Anderson is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies, located on the campus of the University of Richmond. He may be contacted at [email protected] or at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.