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Biography

Melvin and Sandra Walton have been married for over thirty two years. Mrs. Walton has attended Pentecostal Church of God in Christ most of her life. Both of them have been instrumental in the growth of their church. In fact, the church has grown so much that a new building was required. They serve in the roles of minister and evangelist. Together they have matured from watching, listening to and following the examples of others to being examples themselves.

Transcript

Jeff Jackson: My name is Jeff Jackson and I am interviewing Brother and Sister Walton. Brother Walton may I have your first name?

Melvin Walton: Melvin.

Jeff: Sister Walton yours..?

Sandra Walton: Sandra.

Jeff: Thank you, thank you. How long have you been a member of Pentecostal Church of God?

Melvin Walton: It will be June 8th of this year, twenty-eight years.

Sandra Walton: March the second this month was twenty-eight years.

Jeff: Did or do you hold any positions in the church Brother Walton?

Melvin Walton: Yes. I’m one of the bus drivers for Sunday School. And I own the vans. I’m a minister. And I’m also the Altar Workers committee.

Jeff: Sister Walton?

Sandra Walton: God has blessed me to be a minister, a Sunday School teacher, a pastor’s aide, choir member, well whatever my hands find to do in the house of God.

Jeff: As you mentioned, you’ve been going the church for twenty-eight years. You’ve been saved for twenty-eight years?

Sandra Walton: Yes. I’ve been saved for twenty-eight years. But I started attending Pentecostal Church of God as a young girl down on Warren, under Bishop Boyd.

Jeff: Do either of you remember the date you were saved?

Melvin Walton: Yes. March 8th 1980. I’m sorry. I got March on my mind. It was June 8, 1980.

Sandra Walton: I was saved March 2, 1980.

Jeff: Did you attend the church when the late Bishop Boyd was pastor?

Melvin Walton: Yes. Briefly. He married my wife and I before we got saved. My wife attended his church she hadn’t gotten saved yet, but she had been a long time member, coming to Pentecostal Church of God. Sister Mays at that time her husband were here and we asked Bishop Boyd if he would marry us. And he married us. And at the time that we started attending was, at the time when Bishop Boyd was just beginning to get sick were he couldn’t preach. And at that time Elder Gilmore did a round of preaching.

Jeff: Sister Walton, do you have anything to add to that?

Sandra Walton: No, but I, just to say that, I really might as well say, grew up under Bishop Boyd and the Saints, Sister Perkins and Sister McKinney and the Woods.

Jeff: You said he married you. How long have you been married?

Melvin Walton: Thirty-two years.

Jeff: Thirty-two beautiful years

Melvin Walton: Thirty-two beautiful years.

Sandra Walton: And counting!

Melvin Walton and Jeff: And counting!

Jeff: How did you adjust to the move to a new pastor and a new church?

Melvin Walton: Well I really got saved under Bishop Anderson in June of ’80. I was attending here; I got saved at Messiah’s Temple which was pastored by Henry Thomas. They had Pastor Henry Thomas. At the time they had an evangelist who was here running the meeting. I can’t think of his name. You remember his name?

Sandra Walton: Pastor Tate.

Melvin: Yeah, Pastor Tate. He was out of Indiana. I got saved under him, but this was my home church.

Jeff: Sister Walton?

Sandra Walton: I received the Holy Ghost at 537 West 15th on the front row. One night after service, Bishop Anderson had preached the message, and called for any of those want to be saved come down front. And I sit there and I knew I had to get up from there. I got up and went down to that front row. And he said, “We just going to stand up and Praise the Lord” So when I stood up to praise the Lord, I said, ”Hallelujah, Hallelujah” before I could say that third Hallelujah God just came in, filled me with His precious gift of the Holy Ghost. Praise be to God!

Jeff: I understand you were called to minister, Brother Walton. When did you get called?

Melvin Walton: I got called in the early ’90s because we went out to pastor in ’95 in Muscatine. I co-pastured with a former pastor, Pastor LeeOla Harrington. She passed away during that time. I was installed into the ministry, Faith, Victory Faith in Muscatine. So that was in 1995. We pastored, we were there for about eight months. We came back to our home church.

Jeff: And I understand you are an evangelist, Sister Walton.

Sandra Walton: Yes, called of God.

Jeff: How long have you been ministering?

Sandra Walton: I have been preaching I will say, I believe, four or five years. But I was called shortly after my husband was, but I was disobedient, didn’t do what I was supposed to do. And so over the years God kept dealing with me and dealing with me. And I tell you, God just whipped my head! I went to my pastor and told him I had been called to preach. And he said I know. I’ve been doing the work of God ever since.

Jeff: My last question is, is there anything in the church that has affected you in your life?

Melvin Walton: Let my wife speak first.

Sandra Walton: Yes. I remember, faithfully, even as a young person, Sister Ivy McKinney and my Aunt Sister Dora Revers and Mother Perkins and Deacon Boyd and the Woods family. I remember all those older saints. When I was a young girl, I can remember my aunt, well let me go back. As a young girl, they would have the street meetings there in Rock Island. I remember I lived at 800 6th Ave. And I would go up in the window and look out at all these beautiful saints, holding the street meeting not ashamed of God. And I looked out to them and I laughed at them and made fun of them. In my ignorance. I did that. But these people had a love for God. I can remember hearing my Aunt Sister McKinney pray. She would go in that room and close that door. I could hear her just praying and praying. She prayed for such a long time. She would come out and her eyes would be just red and tears just be still running down her face. She was in there praying. I thank God today for prayer, because I know that she prayed for me. But I thank God for prayer and how he dealt with me even then. And these wonderful saints! They had faith. And they lived a life you could just see their faith in their walk. I’m so glad to day to be baptized in Jesus name, filled with the Holy Ghost, and living that life. Praise be to God!

Melvin Walton: And you are saying it was mainly the faith of the old saints, because I was blessed to witness, Deacon Woods during his sickness, Deacon Teagues, during his sickness, Mother Boyd because after she lived maybe about seven, eight years after her husband died, the wife of the former Bishop Al Boyd. Seeing their faith, it really encouraged me. Because I knew there were times when Deacon Woods came to church, that he was in such pain, but he came anyway. There were no excuses. I think today that’s why I feel so strongly about church the way that I do, because of the example I saw of these older saints, from my earlier days when I first got saved. It was beautiful. Seeing their faith and how they loved God and how they persevered through their sickness and through their pain, to be here and be in the service of the Lord. And I thought that was a great example.

Jeff: Brother and Sister Walton. I want to thank you for donating your time. And God Bless.

Melvin Walton: Thank you.

Sandra Walton: You’re more than welcome and God bless you.