CityView Magazine

14 | July/August 2019 W F A I T H The Great Adventure BY DR. J. RICHARD MCDUFFIE JR. W e're just two days from Father's Day as I write this and I'm thinking of my Dad. He was a man of contrasts; someone who knew him well told me recently: "I always thought of him as a cross between Billy Graham and Daniel Boone." Dad, Richard McDuffie Sr., was a pastor and had served small, mostly rural, eastern North Carolina churches since he was 20 years old. Dad was an excellent preacher, scholar, writer and teacher; but he was also a woodsman, hunter, renowned dog breeder and horseman. He grew up in a small house in northern Bladen County that was occupied by his parents, his grandparents, a bachelor uncle and several siblings. ere was so little room in the house that he spent most of his young years outdoors, roaming the fields and woods and learning the ways of nature. He didn't care much for buildings and even when he was shut up in the house, he spent most of his time planning what he would do outdoors on the following day. When Dad was still in high school, he ordered a "correspondence course" on taxidermy. One of the things he learned to do was to make belts and wallets out of rattlesnake hide, which he did for himself. As soon as the other boys in the community saw his rattlesnake wallet, they wanted one too and he was hard-pressed to fill all the orders. You may know that there is no shortage of diamondback rattlers in Bladen County and Dad turned into a rattlesnake hunter. My early childhood was filled with his stories of hunting bobcat, bear, wild hogs, raccoon and fox squirrels. I clearly remember Dad carrying me on his back while walking a log across the creek. Once I was old enough to walk and take care of myself in the woods, I joined in these adventures. We shrimped and fished in the Intracoastal Waterway, rode horses up and down the gullies, ravines and slides along the Cape Fear River, and hunted raccoon in Ontario and wild boar on the King Ranch near Alice, Texas. (I'll stop – I think you have the picture!) is manly man also loved Jesus Christ supremely and served Him with devotion. He was devout in his faith and understood that faith manifests itself in deeds of service and kindness. His circle of friends included doctors, university and seminary professors and the wealthy; but also cowboys, farmers, bootleggers and ne'er-do-wells of all shapes and sizes. He took the call of God seriously, proclaimed the Word boldly and never shrank from an obligation or responsibility. He was an evangelistic preacher and I will never forget the bold stand he took for civil rights in the turbulent 1960s. Dad died from complications relating to leukemia in 2006. I still think of him daily and thank God daily that I had such a role model. George Jones once sang, "Who's gonna fill their shoes?" And I wonder the same thing with regard to the Church and family. Today we need men who will accept the baton of Christian leadership as it's being passed along the line. It's difficult for me to understand those husbands who rely upon their wives to take the children to worship their Maker,

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