Welcome everyone to Faith and Purpose podcast. Each episode of this podcast contains the personal testimony of an ordinary person transformed by an extraordinary God. My name is Kaylin and I'm here to introduce this podcast for my friend Jesse Duke. Jesse is a husband, father, author, life recovery guide, lay counselor, and small group leader, but his most important role is disciple. As a disciple of Jesus. Jesse created this podcast to help other believers tell their faith stories.
We'll be hearing the personal testimonies of all sorts of people who have one thing in common, Jesus has transformed their lives. Jesus used parables because he created us to learn best through story. And as we listen to how God has worked in others lives, we find encouragement and inspiration for our own faith walk. Whether you are already a believer or just a curious seeker, we believe that as you listen to these stories, you will be encouraged on your own faith journey.
We are sure that God can speak to you through one of these episodes and that you will see that our Heavenly Father truly works all things together for our good. When we simply love and trust him. If you are currently going through a trial, we believe that you will come to see that your troubles, heartbreaks, and failures are not gravestones, but stepping stones into new life in Christ. Here's Jesse with today's guest.
Welcome everybody to Faith and Purpose podcast. My name is Jesse Duke. And today I have my longtime friend, Jim Renfrow, to tell his story. How you doing today, Jim?
I'm doing fine,
Well, I already know parts of your story, but I just wanted to get it down in audio for other people to hear. So, I'm looking forward to it. So, tell us, when and where you were born.
I was born in 1936 in, down between Lakeview and Nichols. I was born at home, 1936.
You were born in a house? Born in a house. And how about, brothers and sisters?
I had one brother and one sister. My sister was 10 years older than me, and my brother was 12 years older than me. I was sort of like an only
child. So you were the baby of the family? I
was the baby of the family.
And what was your childhood like?
Well, I guess, looking back on it, I think I maybe was like the only child. I might have been a little spoiled, but, I didn't think I was at the time.
So you were born in Dillon County, South Carolina. Right. And, when I say what was your childhood like, I mean, did you run the streets? Did you live in the woods? Did you grow up hunting and fishing? What was your life?
I grew up, we had a, I lived on a tobacco farm and I worked in tobacco when I got big enough. About six years old, I started dragging tobacco with a mule on a flat drag. And I stayed in the woods fishing. I did a lot of fishing and, didn't do much hunting until I got up about 11 years old. I got my first gun. But, I stayed outside most all the time. So what
was
your first gun? It was a 410 Singleboro.
Me too. Well, what about school? How did that go?
I started off in the first grade in Nichols, South Carolina. I got along pretty good. Made fairly decent grades. I didn't like school that well, but I did pretty good. with my grades and all, through the 7th grade, and, I loved baseball. We had a baseball team in Mecklenburg, and, I played on the high school baseball team when I was in the 7th grade, and, wait, you
were in the 7th grade but you played on the high school team? Yeah. So they recruited you, huh?
Well, we all practiced together and all of it. We didn't have but one thing, that was the high school. We didn't have anything to do with varsity. You didn't
have enough people to have more than
that. Right. But I moved to the Lakeview School in the 8th grade. And, I didn't get along good with, under other, with the management. I had a, Major problem with the baseball coach. When I first went there, I was practicing with the team, but we had a falling out. I never played baseball in high school, on the high school team, or football. I'd never even seen a football game until I went to Lakeview.
Wow. so did you have any other interests in life besides, baseball and, Fishing?
Well, I got a car when I was in 8th grade. in order for me to go to school in Lakeview, I either had to walk about a little over a mile to make the bus, and my dad brought me a 1950 Willys Jeepster, and I drove it to school when I was in Lakeview I enjoyed taking on cars, Before then, I had a 32 Chevrolet stripped down, and I used to work on it a lot, and I learned to rebuild the engines back when I was in the 8th and 9th grade in school.
But, I enjoyed, I did I began the quill hunt when I was in about the 8th grade and 9th grade, and I bought me a dog and, Me and this friend of mine, we hunted together in all our spare time, and of course we fished in the spring and summer, but when I got to Lakeview and started, I didn't care much about school. I cut school a lot, and I didn't make real good grades, and but, I've had a lot of fun. I wasn't that bad of a dude at that
time. So you know this is called Faith and Purpose Podcast, so my question is what, what were your childhood memories like? Were you exposed to, faith or religion Well,
from the time I was big enough to go, went to church with my mom. My mom was a Baptist and my dad was a Methodist. I went to church with my mom. But, I never, I didn't learn much. Probably. Did more talking than I did listening, but but I did go to church, maybe not ever, but we were fairly faithful I'd say. Maybe three out of four Sundays we went to church.
huh.
But I didn't really care much about, didn't really know much about the Bible and, and, didn't really care much about no one at the time. I guess living out in the country and. And working with farmhands, and that's all I had to play with. I lived six miles from Nichols and six miles from Lakeview, so I was right in the middle of it. I had a lot of fun when I joined. It wasn't all bad.
So your life was pretty much working on the farm. Right. Hunting, fishing, baseball, cars, you, I get, you enjoyed cars and I understand you raced them for a while. Yeah, but
that was later on.
Okay.
But, anyway, I met my wife when I was in the eighth grade and, we started dating, in the eighth grade, a little, just maybe. I had to, I had, the only time I could go off was one time a week, and, with her, and, she, and then on Sunday, I either go to WBTU on Sunday night, Bible, whatever they want to call it, but anyway, I either had to go to the church with her, or I either had to stay at home and talk with her at her house.
huh.
But, We, I think the fact that I didn't get that I didn't play ball much in high school I look back on it now I've regretted it most of my life and felt like I had, been mistreated for not playing but, I look back on it now as a blessing because probably if I'd have been playing ball, I might not have fell in love and got married when I was 16.
okay. let's see, y'all met in the 8th grade. What grade was she
in? She was in the, no, I guess I was in the 9th grade. She was in the 8th grade.
Okay, so you were 16, she was 12. 15
When we got married, she was in the 11th grade and I had missed, I had dropped a bunch of sub, I was in the 11th grade too when we got married.
Okay.
it was kind of a trend. In my school at that time, there was five couples that got married within a two year period and, and while in high school and Nette myself was the first two that got married. And then, there was four other couples that got married. Long back in that time. And you couldn't go to school if you were married. So we got kicked out of school when we found out we were married. suited me too.
How did you get married? Did you elope?
Yeah, we, Florence was the judge of probate in Dillon, so naturally we couldn't go there to get married, because he wouldn't work, so we went to Florence and, we went to the judge of probate's office in Florence on a Friday afternoon, before basketball. I played basketball in high school and, we got our marriage license and we talked to this lady and It worked in judge's office, and uh, she told us she would marry us on Sunday if we'd come to her house.
She was a New Republic, but anyway, on the way home, I was in the biggest hurry, trying to get back in time to play basketball, and the highway patrolman got after me, and Florence Lee, he stopped me about 15 miles off of that down near the river, He asked me why, what I was in search of her for, and I told him My dad was in the hospital in Mullins and I was in a hurry to get there. And he said, who's that with you? And I said, my sister. Anyway, he let me go. He said, you slow down.
He didn't charge me anything, just didn't let me take it, let me go. We made it back in time for the basketball game.
So you went to Florence to get the marriage certificate and then you
went back? We went back on Sunday afternoon. And, got married and then we come home and I had to take her home that night cause we didn't have permission to go in the evening and the night. but anyway, I believe it was the following Monday we went to school. Both of us went to school and this man in Lakeview had, seen in the Florence Morning News. They used to publish the marriage license on the paper and, he saw it and he went to Florence Mom and told us that. It's on that gymkit Merritt said.
I saw the Merritt glasses and she didn't know it up to that time, I don't think. But anyway, we went to school that morning and the principal has come talking to her, told me I couldn't go to school because Merritt had to leave. we let Merritt go. We left together and went back to my granny's house and got her some clothes and then we went to my house and started fixing us a bedroom. boy. That was a good time, a good point in my life. that's
wonderful. how old were both of you at that time? Florinette
was 15 and I was 16. We got married on February the 8th, 1953. My first child was born, On December the 19th, 1953. And, Florida was still 15. But I had a birthday on July the 4th. she had a birthday on, October 13th. That was before Frankie was born. She was 16, when Frankie was born. And I had already had one on the 4th of July, so we were 15, we were 16 and 17.
Now, did y'all attend the church at that time?
Lord, that went over Sunday. I didn't go. I didn't go to church. We, I didn't, she went by herself, because I didn't go anywhere. There's a lot that happened between. 53 in 1970, and, I, I had never drank a beer or anything until I was 21 years old. I started sipping a little on beer, and I never smoked a cigarette.
I'd smoked, rabbit tobacco, and I'd roll, I had rolled me some old tobacco that was cured in the barns, and just, it burnt, it was awful, and I didn't want to smoke, but anyway, I started smoking when I was 21, too. And I started drinking a little, and I got, actually got a little worse. And, back in, and into the sixties, I started drinking a lot. And, I, I started racing in the sixties. And I started racing for four, five, six, seven years. And, just kept drinking a little more and more.
And I got pretty bad long in the late sixties. And, right before, before they had never even threatened to leave me at no point, you know, she put up with me that, that might have been part of my problem, she put up with me too much. But, anyway, I come home, it was right, about a week, two weeks before Thanksgiving.
I was pretty drunk and I got cutting up and got violent and started throwing things around and well, it kind of first time in her life she broke down and went and crying and I slapped her. So the only time I'd ever touched her, because I wasn't a, I wasn't a wife beater, I was a whole lot worse than a wife beater because I probably did hurt more harm with my mouth But anyway.
I left, and when I come back in that night, lay down, the police locked me up, put me in jail, and I stayed in jail all the way through Thanksgiving. And, when I got out of jail on Thanksgiving for that, file for divorce, we stayed separated through Christmas and through, Up until April the 7th. I had this friend at work, that I worked with, that had been witnessing me for years, for 10, 15 years. He used to go to ballgames with me and he'd come, all the races were a race.
Anyway, He kept wanting me to go to church. And, of course I didn't care nothing about church. and, while I, while we were separated, I got thinking, I guess the Holy Spirit started dealing with me and I told him one day at work, I said, next time you see your preacher, make me a appoint with him, all that, I'm, go talk with him. One night when I got home work that evening, him and his pastor was sitting in the yard. Well, I, I was stopped. Thorn it, bought her a trailer and.
They were living in a mom's yard. She had too many children to stay in the house. She had put copper in her mom and dad's yard. And, I would stop by the old, the house we lived in before, before we got separated was right across the road. And I'd stop over there and the kids would come over there and we'd talk. And I'd talk with the kids, play with them a while. And then I'd go on down to my mom's.
Spend the night, but the preacher had pulled up and admitted that the boy that was witness to them, and we sit in the car and talk for a long time, an hour or two, I reckon, and I told him, I kept telling him, I said, I know I need to clean up and start going to church. And he said, Jim, you don't have to go to church. You don't have to clean up. You need to accept Jesus Christ as your son. He said, I said, I know, but I got to keep drinking. And he said, you don't have to quit.
I said, man, you must be crazy. They think that I don't have to do nothing. He read the scripture to me. It's, Jesus died for us while we were yet sinners. And he said, you don't, you turn your life over to Jesus. If you mean business. He'll take the strong, direct taste away from you, and then you clean up after that. But you don't have to do it before you get saved. So
you just assumed that you had to get cleaned up before Jesus would accept you. I felt
like I definitely needed to do different from what I was doing before I got in and out. I said, if that's what I got to do, I want to do it right now. I don't want to wait till Sunday. I want to do it right now. So, uh, we went, me and him and my friend went into the camper with Floor Net. And I got on my knees in there.
In the kitchen in that cafeteria, I asked Jesus Christ to come into my life and I promised him, I said, Lord, if you'll save me, I promise I'll serve you the rest of my life, mother. And anyway, I meant business with him and the girl didn't know enough about me to know that I didn't make that kind of promises. So she told me after the preacher left. And I could, we could get back together, so I spent my first night I'd spent with her since Full Thanksgiving.
And I was happy, and I remember, she had devotion every night. I used to lay in the bed sometime in the next room drunk, half drunk, and hearing them have devotion. I think all that stuff like that came back to me and people that had witnessed to me for 20 years before then and all that. So a lot kept coming back when I got hurt as the Holy Spirit was dealing with me. But anyway, I got saved on April the 7th, 1970. And my marriage started working its way back together. We got back together.
Been a lot of, good things happen since then.
how many children did you have at that time in 1970?
we had eight, eight children, and when I got, after I got saved, we had three more born. Wow. But, I've lived, I've had, I haven't been good by no means, but I've lived, I've been a happy person since the day I got back with my wife, and I haven't had a drink since 1970.
So after you got saved, did you start going to church? Yeah,
I went. I forgot what day of the week that was, but it was maybe Wednesday or Thursday, but I went to church Sunday and made a proclamation of faith. Went up, went to the altar and the church welcomed me. I want, I, my throne had been a member of the First Baptist Elected for years. But she was willing, and we talked about it, she was willing to go to church with me where I wanted to go. So we joined, I joined the church, and then later on, we could say later she joined the church.
All the children that were members of the First Baptist joined the Pioneer and Baptist. what was the name of the church? Pioneer and Baptist Church in Floyddale. And that's up near Dillon.
Oh, okay.
But, anyway, a lot of other things I could have told, but That's the boring part.
what has your life been like since, 1970? How did it change?
Oh, it changed, I just, I really don't believe I ever cared, I look back on my life and I don't think I cared about anybody but myself. I love my children. I've, I took up a lot of time with my boys and my girls too, but not like I should have. But since then it's been, It's just been a wonderful, I've had, me and my wife have had some wonderful time together. Me and the children have had some wonderful time together. it's just been a wonderful life since 1970.
So I know, that your whole family would get together every holiday, 4th of July week at Oceanau, and then Thanksgiving and Christmas and, So you have, all of your children are very close to you and Florinette. Of course, tell us about Florinette. What, how did, How did she influence your life?
She probably had more influence, I think she had more influence on my life than any other one person. Because she, when I was drinking, I tried my best to get her to ride around with me and drink. She would never take a drop, drink a drop of anything. And when I was drinking, she wouldn't ride with me. And, she was just a, she spent most of her life, Doing things for other people. And, she did a lot for me too. But she, She loved the Lord. And she, She taught a Sunday school class for years.
But she worked in the Christ Church. Three different churches. But she just, she enjoyed doing things for other people. And she did a lot for other people. Not to have a lot of income and a lot of money, but she made do.
tell us about your children. Start with the oldest. My oldest
daughter was Frankie. She was born on December the 1953 and, she's my next oldest son was Jamie, he was born two years later. He was born on April Fool's Day. And, But, when they were in school and all, they went on mission trips in the summer. They spent two summers on an island called San Andres Island in South America. Columbia, South America. And, but, Frankie Went to college, graduated there, and then she went to seminary in Dallas, Dallas, Texas.
That's where she met her husband, in the seminary in Dallas, Texas. And, Jamie my oldest boy, he went to West Point. in 73. they graduated in 77, and my next oldest was a boy Steve. And he went to West Point in, 77, I believe. No, that would be right. He was, maybe he graduated in 79, so he went four, seven. He went from 55,
Uhhuh,
But then he married a, he met a girl in, When he was at West Portland, and he got married right after he got out of, graduated from college. And then my next oldest boy was, William. he went to Clemson then. And, he got married right after he got out of college. And, the next lady was, I guess Lisa. My daughter Lisa. And she graduated from Winthrop and went to medical, went to, medical school and she's a registered nurse. She got married, I don't remember what year it was.
She lived with her husband. They had three children, three wonderful children. And they got a divorce. Next child was Timmy. And, he went to Watford College on a football scholarship. And Beth was Dex, and and then Claire, she, she got married, and she got a bunch of children, anyway. the three children that were born after I got saved was Samantha, and Benji, and Kyle, all three of them got married after I got saved. We just had a wonderful time with children.
I got 11 wonderful children and every one of them were Christians. And, and, they, they just, they've never disappointed me. They've been, they're wonderful children. My, my girls look after me now. I'm too old to look after myself. Beth, my daughter Beth cooks for me every day. Every evening, and Sam comes by every day to sit, and she does a lot for me, too. But they all the girls, Frankie visits me about every week. And Lisa does, too. They all, they just all look up. I get attended to well.
My, my wife, Thornette, died two years ago, in June. And, I've really, I've, I've missed her. I don't, I just can't get, I don't want to get over it, but. I can't wait to see her one day in heaven.
Well, We have that hope in Christ that we will see our loved ones again. Right. Right I just want to ask you, I'm looking from the outside and I'm seeing you got married when you were 16. Flornette was 15. Right. So y'all never graduated from high school.
Right. Flornette went to, we both went to, School in Florida. Got her GED and went on to went to college. Francis Mary.
Oh,
okay. The night I was supposed to take my test to graduate from the GED, I was drinking and I didn't go. Okay. I said, forget it.
but now you got 11, all of those children have college educations. How do you think that happened?
They were just smarter than me. They weren't wild like I was. Thank the Lord. Praise the Lord for that.
I just, I think it's remarkable, all 11 of your children are believers and they graduated from college. They have successful careers and families. Wonderful families, and so how many grandchildren do you have? We got
48 grandchildren, and Counting the grandchildren and the great grandchildren, we got 107 right now.
as we're recording this is Christmas Eve 2024. So you, you're just blessed to have this big family and, I can, I just want to say, looking from the outside, I can see how it wasn't you that did all this, you attributed it all to, to God, to Jesus. The floor net that, you have all these children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, they're all doing well. it's just like your whole life has been, led by God, by the Holy Spirit.
Well, if there's any credit to be given to my children, my family, you can give it all to Floor Net because She raised them up there. Yeah. All to go. We, I never, my, none of my children, all of them never got up on Sunday morning to see 'em. We were going go to church. they just got up and started dressed. They knew ever wanted to church. Yeah. And they wanted to go to church. They learned to love to go to church. It wasn't like they were forced to go.
Yeah. But she just lived a life around them and 10 treated them. she's a wonderful lady. Ain't many people that raise children over there, and she could do it. She raised them up in the Lord's house, and she read scripture to them every day, and every night, on a devotion, and she'd look. If there's any credit to be given, Give it all to her because she deserves it. I don't deserve any of
it.
Well, you probably did a lot more than than you'll admit to after you got saved. But let me ask you, now in 2024, You're still living between Lakeview and Dillon, South Carolina. What do you, what kind of advice would you have for young people today? Anybody who, might be off track like you were?
it's, if, I think if a person could just realize that you don't have to. Clean up your life. You can't clean up your life. You got to turn it over to Jesus Christ and he'll clean it up. And Jesus Christ made this ultimate sacrifice for us. And he died for our sins and you don't have to, all you gotta do is it is, turn your life over to him and ask him to come into your life and save you. And things things will begin to change and it'll be different.
And, and there's nobody done enough bad that they can't be saved. Yes, it is. Sometimes it's, if you got an addiction, it is hard to, you have to fight it yourself some, but the Lord will take it away from you.
So he took it away from you. that reminds me of 2 Corinthians 5. 17 where it says that when we receive Christ, we become new creatures. He makes us new. It's not like we have to get. We
don't
do a
thing for ourselves. It's all Jesus.
Yeah. So it starts with just trusting Him. Right. Yeah. that's the best advice I think anybody could hear. Well, is there anything else you want to add before we wrap things
up? That's just a kind of overview of my life. I, I just thank the Lord for saving me. I can't wait to get home. Go to heaven and see my wife.
Yeah. that's going to be great. That's
what I think about in the morning. Yeah.
So you've been without her for two years and, you're just looking forward to seeing her again. Well, you're not, you're not just sitting around waiting. You're doing things. You still go on to your, to church and, fellowshipping and being with your family.
Yeah. I'm involved in a good church. First Baptist in Dillon. I'm still enjoying going to church, getting a good Sunday school class. I've been on the Deacon Board several times but I haven't I'm not on that anymore. I'm too old to be anything that, but a nuisance.
But you still get out and hunt and you still do things around the house. You still keep yourself pretty busy.
That's, I can eat as good as I ever could.
Still eating good.
That's about the whole thing.
Well, would you mind praying for our listeners before we wrap things
up? Father, thank you so much for this day, Lord. Just thank you for all you've done for us, Lord. Thank you for it. This time of the year we thank you for Jesus Christ and what he did for us. We thank you that he had to come as a babe before he could come as a savior. Lord, we just for this. My prayer for everybody, for people that unloaded and up saved and Turn your life over to Jesus. Just ask Him to come into your heart.
And He'll, if you mean business, and ask Him to come into your life and save you, He'll do it. If you'll promise to live for Him the rest of your life. Thank you so much, Lord, for saving me. Thank you for the wonderful life I've lived, that you've given me. I didn't do anything. The life you've given me, and thank you for the wonderful wife I had, and thank you for giving me the shorts, and I know I'm gonna see her again one day. In Jesus name, amen. Amen.
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