MONTGOMERY, Ala (BNc) — Jewell Jones, age 12, is a homeschooled sixth grade student. Recently at the Faulkner Lecture program she was found waiting for her mother’s ladies class lecture to begin. Jewell was seated quietly at a round table with an open Bible before her. Suddenly she looked across at her mother, and said, “I’ve learned the genealogy of David. Now I’m going to start on Jesus.”
Jewell is quite an impressive young lady. She is the daughter of Gerald and Missy Hilyer Jones, and the granddaughter of outgoing Faulkner University President Billy Hilyer and wife, Kay, all of Tallassee, Alabama.
As a teenage girl, I prayed to marry a preacher. I knew no one who was desiring to be a preacher but each night I knelt by my bed and prayed, “Lord, if I am capable of being a preacher’s wife I would like to marry a preacher. If not, just let me marry a Christian.” God answered that prayer for me. Our local preacher, Jerry Humphries, preached in two gospel meetings that summer and invited a young man from Alabama Christian College (now Faulkner University) to preach in his absence. He brought his girlfriend with him so that took him out of the running. But when I learned they were coming back in a week or so, I asked if they didn’t have some fine young man they could bring down and let me meet. The girl thought for a minute, snapped her fingers and said, “Old Doug.” Old Doug and I have been married 53 years and have two children and two grandchildren. All our children are faithful members of the church. God is so good. I love Him so.