A bomb explosion that nearly took the life of the Rev. Donald Humphrey in Vietnam damaged part of his physical hearing.
But he has no trouble hearing God’s voice within. For some time, he felt a nudging, especially from those who knew him, that perhaps he should share his experiences of 24 years as a U.S. Army chaplain and 60 total years of ministry.
“But I didn’t think I had anything to say,” he said.
This is to report that the 89-year-old Humphrey, pastor of Columbus’ Memorial Baptist Church from 1982 to 1992, changed his mind. The evidence comes in his just-released book “Say Yes to God,” available at Viewpoint Books in Columbus, Amazon and other online sites.
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He sat in the study of his home on Fairlawn Drive and dictated the fast-paced, 122-page work onto the recorder of his smartphone. His daughter, attorney Connie Humphrey, helped edit, organize and format it.
“I think the Vietnam parts are probably the most interesting, because it took him a while to ever even talk much about that,” his daughter said. “So, a lot of those stories he included from there, I had never even heard.”
The day he nearly died at age 35, a 200-pound bomb that his jeep ran over killed the two 19-year-old soldiers who were transporting him to lead a church service four miles away. The blast that tore a hole 8 feet deep in the road threw him out of the vehicle into a nearby rice paddy overflowing with water.
Had he not landed feet first, rescuers told him he would have drowned before he was found. He awoke days later aboard a hospital ship en route to the Philippines.
But, many days, his thoughts are understandably right back in that jeep.
“I never really got over that,” he said quietly, rocking slowly in a small chair, seemingly deep in somber thought. “It’s amazing that I still have all my limbs.”
He faced his fear of death a month after he arrived in Vietnam with a job of ministering to some 1,900 soldiers in seven companies in a 100-mile radius of the country.
“Yes, I was nervous at first because of the (land) mines,” he said. “Finally, I told God, ‘I trust you to somehow take care of me.’ Otherwise, I figured I eventually would be going home in a box.”
He remembers his life before he said yes to God — to commit his life at age 22 to following him. Before that, he had no direction and no passion and no academic record to show that he ever could make it through seminary.
“I had just enough of the world to be uncomfortable in church,” he said. “And I had just enough of church to be uncomfortable in the world.”
When he began preaching in the 1950s, he satisfied people’s call of God with a bit of the call of the wild, baptizing people in creeks.
As he spoke, he sat near two floor-to-ceiling book shelves filled with a variety of works. They ranged from “The Holy Spirit” by Billy Graham to The Book of Mormon.
He worked actively as an interim pastor for more than 20 years until just five years ago. Even today, he occasionally still preaches a funeral. His daughter said many people know him for his jokes and sense of humor. Toward that end, the funniest part of the book unfolds when he tells the story of a a group of suit-clad men coming in to a Sears where he worked while attending seminary.
They asked him to tell one of his coworkers that a church pulpit committee was there to talk to the young man. Humphrey had to tell them his coworker already had accepted another pastorate. So the visitors asked Humphrey point-blank if he were a minister. He confirmed he was a minister to be — and they hired him to lead their congregation for the next four years.
The committee leader later explained their visit simply.
“He said he had been a farmer for years and knew that Sears had everything you wanted, and if they didn’t, you could order it,” Humphrey wrote.
He laughed about such stories — and one other about the local popularity of his wife, Pat, who died last year.
“I once said I was surprised they (Memorial Baptist) let me stay for 10 years,” he wrote near the book’s end. “One lady told me that they kept me because they wanted Pat to stay and knew if I left, she would go, too. I hope she was joking … .”
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Hometown: Hodgenville, Kentucky.
Age: 89.
Past roles: U.S. Army chaplain for 24 years and also a pastor of multiple churches, including Memorial Baptist Church in Columbus. He has served eight military congregations and 18 civilian congregations.
Just-released book: "Say Yes to God," available at Viewpoint Books and Amazon and other online sites.
Family: Wife Pat, to whom the book is dedicated, died last year. Grown children Connie and Donald.
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