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FROM THE BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF PRIMITIVE OR OLD SCHOOL BAPTIST MINISTERS BY DAVID MONTGOMERY AND MARK GREEN:
ELDER J. ANDREW HUFFMAN
(From left, Associate Pastor James Hindman and Andrew Huffman)
Andrew was born on August 20, 1970, in Atlanta, Georgia, the eldest of three sons born to David Lester Huffman and Rebecca Guess Huffman. David was born on August 3, 1947 to Lester Langdon Huffman and Ruth Mann Huffman of Atlanta, and Rebecca on November 25, 1947 to E.A.M. Guess and Eunice Rushing Guess of Memphis, Tennessee.
Andrew remained the first year of his life in Georgia, until his parents embarked on extended overseas travel. During this period they sojourned throughout Europe, Asia, and Australia, finally returning to America after Andrew’s sixth birthday. His subsequent childhood years unfolded in several areas of Georgia and, after age ten, in his mother’s hometown in Tennessee. He grew up in blessed contentment alongside his brothers Justin and David Markham (“Mark”).
In Memphis, Andrew enjoyed not only the benefit of his parents’ loving, diligent care and instruction, but also the Spirit-blest ministries of Elders Zack M. Guess (his mother’s eldest brother) and Jimmy K. Barber in the Grace Chapel Church. At eleven years of age, he found a sensitivity to his own sin that led him, in genuine ignorance, to question whether it was creature sin or the grace of God through Christ that extended the further. Finally being brought to a moving, personal apprehension of the immeasurable efficacy of the Saviour’s covenant mercies, he discussed with the elders of the church “what must I do?” Through their tender but firm influence the Holy Spirit impressed on him something of the gravity of taking up his cross to follow Christ in baptism and discipleship, particularly through the Lord’s words “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” At last he laid his case before the church and was received into communion with them, upon a public profession of faith.
Andrew was baptized by Elder Guess. In the very moment of rising from the waters, he felt that he could never bear to sin again, and that he would surely follow after the Lord with his whole heart from that day forward. He soonlearned the shortcoming of his convictions, saw again the ugliness of pride and rebellion welling up from within, and found himself even questioning at times whether it had not been better for him never to have sought to take up his crossthan to take it up so badly and inconsistently.
Yet the Lord still dealt graciously with Andrew, so that even his sins and adversities were overruled for good, as the force of his own inescapable wickedness continued persistently to erode a measure of his pride. Andrew graduated from high school in 1987, attended college in Memphis from 1987 through 1991 to study electrical engineering, worked briefly as a computer software engineer, and then enrolled in law school in Lexington, Virginia from 1991 through 1994. These years were marked by pits of rebellion and despair, tempered by moments of victory and blessed seasons of peace. Thanks be that, despite Andrew’s neglect in searching out a sound church home in Virginia before beginning his schooling there, God led his feet to the haven of Mt. Olive Church in Roanoke, Virginia, and the Spirit-enlivened pastoral care of Elder Thomas B. Mann. God used these influences to further cultivate spiritual graces in Andrew’s life, to forge strong bonds of kinship with the saints, to make him feel accountable for the sin he brought forth, and to help restrain him from the remainder of sin.
Second only to the Lord’s direct, inward, spiritual dealings with him was the blessing of Andrew’s providential union with Rhonda Faye Stewart (b. May 17, 1971), of Jackson, Mississippi, the youngest child of Charles and VirginiaStrewart. Though they had lived only three hours apart for many years (he in Memphis and she in Jackson), they had no idea of one another’s existence until the Lord graciously brought their paths to cross while Andrew was studying law in Virginia. It “happened,” as they say, that Andrew and Rhonda both were visiting the Mt. Carmel Church in Bel Air, Maryland, and Andrew was immediately drawn to her beauty, character, and demeanor. He pursued her with purpose, ultimately winning her devotion and the consent of her parents. Wed just three months after first meeting, they continued in Virginia until he completed his study of law and then moved to New Jersey. As of this writing, the Lord has blessed them with five children: Seth Aquila, Annabelle Joy , Priscilla Lynn, Adelaide, and Joel Lester.
The Huffmans lived in Secaucus, New Jersey, for one year (1994-1995) while Andrew practiced law in New York City. During this period Andrew and Rhonda were gladly numbered with the Mt. Carmel congregation in Bel Air, Maryland. They then moved to Maryland and Andrew practiced patent law in Wilmington, Delaware (1995-____).
Elder Steven W. Bloyd, their pastor at Mt. Carmel, encouraged Andrew in the study and application of God’s word and occasionally had him speak before the congregation. Elder Bloyd inquired whether Andrew had any thought that Godhad called him to publicly preach the word, and for a season Andrew’s very definite thought was that God had not so called him – preferring rather to limit his exercises to what he considered a possible gift of exhortation.
But about this time, in September 1996, the Wilmington Church in Wilmington, Delaware, began asking Andrew to fill their pulpit regularly, in the absence of their pastor Elder W. Dwayne Fletcher, who was recuperating from certainstruggles of health. From the first moment that Andrew visited the Wilmington congregation, he felt his heart knit closely with theirs and desired to help them however he could. For their part, the church graciously received the Huffmans and warmly encouraged Andrew in his efforts to speak the truth in love. He rejoiced greatly during seasons of felt liberty, but also doubted the validity of his effort at times. Elder Guess encouraged him to consider as marks of a true calling whether he had received spiritual teaching gifts from God and whether he had a real desire to use such gifts for the good of God’s people.
Finally, as Andrew listened very late one night to a recorded message brought by ElderMann from the tenth chapter of Romans, his direction became clearer. He was overwhelmed with a sense that Paul’s heartfelt burden for his countrymen was his very own burden as well, in particular for the saints at Wilmington. Thechurch there already had called for his ordination to the office of a bishop, and in due time Mt. Carmel assembled a presbytery to that end.
Thus it came to pass that on August 16, 1997, following a powerful morning of public worship with the Mt. Carmel church, Andrew received the laying on of hands of a presbytery comprising Elders Stephen R. Aquino, Jimmy K. Barber,Steven W. Bloyd, James L. Compton, Zack M. Guess, Thomas B. Mann, and Chuck Smith. On the following day he accepted the Wilmington congregation’s call to serve them as pastor, and he and Rhonda presented themselves and werewarmly received as members of that church. He has enjoyed the blessed privilege of cooperating with several fellow laborers in the region, including Elders Bloyd, Aquino, Smith, Michael A. Stewart, and Barnabas Brammer, in efforts to declare the gospel again in several northeastern communities where once-faithful churches had died away over the course of time – including Berwick, Maine; Hopewell, New Jersey; New York, New York; London Tract, Pennsylvania; and Southampton, Pennsylvania. Elder Huffman is now serving the church in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Andrew is deeply grateful for the benevolent influences and sound examples of the many saints and ministers of the gospel whose lives and labors have directly affected his, including the persons mentioned above, and Elders Lasserre Bradley Jr., Timothy Cannon, H.D. Fulmer, Joe Hildreth, Langdon Huffman, Jerry Hunt Sr., David Montgomery, Wayne Peters, Bobby Poe, David Pyles, Dwayne Shafer, Mike Strevel, and others too numerous to name here. He also is very thankful for the uplifting influence of his brothers Justin and Mark, and for evidences that God may be preparing them for the work of publicly ministering the word. |
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