August 21 Today in OPC History

On this day Lacy Andrews married Debbie "Bam Bam" Allen. The nickname was given to Debbie by college friends when she dated a fellow by the name of Pebbles, and it stuck (if the reference isn't clear, ask your parents). So, at the bank where she is a loan officer and at church, she is Debbie, but always to Lacy she is Bam Bam. They began to date and then married while at East Texas Baptist College in Marshall. You might still be able to catch a bit of the East Texas drawl! After college they went to Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, and formed a lifelong attachment to the theology of the great reformers. After receiving his M. Div. in 1979, Lacy was ordained into the old southern church (PCUS) to serve at First Presbyterian Church, Lenoir City, Tennessee. In 1983 he went to Gate City, Virginia, moving to Glade Spring in 1990. All the while, Debbie ran bank branches, and they raised Josh and Christine. Then Lacy and much of the Glade Spring church withdrew to join the OPC in 1994. A member who didn't join the departure was heard to say at the grocery store shortly thereafter: "Well, he may have gotten the elders and the Sunday school teachers, but we got the money." The new church soon became Providence Presbyterian Church in Meadowview, then it moved to its present building in nearby Chilhowie. In 2002 Lacy was called as RHM for the Presbytery of the Southeast. And so, when he is not with Bam Bam or fishing or hunting or talking to the children or teaching the Truth to students at Graham Bible College in Bristol, he is -- ever the Gospel preacher-- crisscrossing Virginia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina planting churches for the OPC.

Editor's note: Today's entry was written by OPC pastor Bill Hobbs.

Picture: Lacy, Debbie and Josh Andrews