By Jamie Stephens, Regional Reporter
BASTROP – Pastor Andy Myrick said his church was excited to be disrupted by a determined cancer patient’s third attempt to be baptized after two previous failed efforts due to his illness last month.
“This was the best disruption in our church we have ever had,” Myrick tearfully said, “I was on cloud nine! When Lee Barnett walked out of our church after his baptism, there was not one dry eye. Satan tried to stop him from accomplishing what he wanted to do the previous two times, which was getting baptized at Oak Hill Baptist Church.”
Oak Hill’s pastor shared his beliefs about how prayer, determination, and faith in Christ can defeat Satan’s attempts to destroy the accomplishments of God’s children.
Lee accomplished his goal for baptism Jan. 24, then joined the Lord through the gates of Heaven Jan. 27 following a coma from his lengthy battle with cancer.
Lee’s funeral was on Feb.1, but he left an important message and testimony for those he loved. “I want my wife and grandkids to know the Lord,” he told Myrick before he went home.
Myrick described Lee to be distant from everyone and that he never attended church since he was a kid. He said Lee’s wife, Mary, did not attend church since her husband never attended.
According to Myrick, Martha Ann Yates, a member of Oak Hill Baptist Church and Mary’s best friend, asked the preacher to speak to Lee while he was at home battling cancer. “Lee did not want to hear anything I had to say at first, but he allowed me to come back,” said Myrick, “I didn’t push him to listen at all.”
After he was released from the hospital, Oak Hill Baptist received a visit from Lee. Myrick explained that Lee attended a Sunday school class but left abruptly. “You hit me three times,” Lee told Myrick when Lee met with him to discuss the sermon later that week, “your sermon hit me three times.”
“I don’t believe I am going to go to heaven because I’ve brought people a lot of misery,” Lee confessed to Myrick before asking Jesus into his heart. Myrick also gave him Eternal Life booklets to read. “If I died right now, I believe I would go to heaven,” Lee stated to the pastor in faith after he accepted Christ into his heart.
According to Myrick, Lee wanted to be baptized with his granddaughter, Danni Bridges, at Oak Hill Baptist Church that following Sunday.
Lee and Danni’s baptisms were scheduled that Sunday, but Lee had a seizure the morning before the service. He was unable to arrive at the church, but he insisted for Danni to continue with her baptism. Lee was determined to be baptized the next Sunday, Myrick stated, and he scheduled it again.
The following Saturday, Lee became ill a second time. According to Myrick, Lee’s wife, Mary, shared that if her husband passed away before his baptism, she would feel guilty. “I’m determined to get baptized at Oak Hill Baptist Church,” Lee stated to Myrick, “We will do this even if I have to go down that aisle in a wheelchair.”
Lee’s health was well until Saturday, Jan. 23. He became unable to attend the church service a third time. “Lee asked me to come and pray Satan out of him that day,” Myrick explained in tears. “We knew that Satan was trying to defeat what God wanted to accomplish in Lee.”
Myrick prayed for Lee that Saturday.
“At 10:30 that Sunday morning, our church was excited to see Lee arriving in his wheelchair to be baptized,” Myrick said. “We stopped our church service just to celebrate his baptism. His family had got him ready for the baptism that morning, and there were several of his family and friends there.
“It took four of us to lower him into the water, and the scene reminded me so much of the story of the four men in Mark 2 when they lowered the paralytic through the roof,” Myrick described. The pastor and three other members of the church, Bill Price, Hugh Herrington, and Robert Crowe, helped Lee into the water.
Myrick said Lee reminded him of one of the members of the Duck Commanders, who are hunters.
According to Myrick, Lee told the four men as he was lowered into the water, “I didn’t know we were going duck hunting,” and he smiled after they lifted him from the water.
Myrick said Lee was so excited about his accomplishment that instead of returning to his wheelchair, he walked out of the church. “His family and friends who normally do not attend church came to witness his baptism that day,” Myrick said, “I believe Lee had a big impact on them. His wife, Mary, said she witnessed many changes in him before he passed away.”
Myrick has been preaching at Oak Hill Baptist Church for two years. Lee was the third person baptized in January 2016, with seven baptized from July – December 2015.
