04/13/2023
Thank you Elder Joseph Weyel for the tribute.
When We See Christ
Oft times the day seems long, our trials hard to bear,
We’re tempted to complain, to murmur and despair;
But Christ will soon appear to catch His Bride away,
All tears forever over in God’s eternal day.
Refrain:
It will be worth it all when we see Jesus,
Life’s trials will seem so small when we see Christ;
One glimpse of His dear face all sorrow will erase,
So bravely run the race till we see Christ.
Sometimes the sky looks dark with not a ray of light,
We’re tossed and driven on, no human help in sight;
But there is one in heav’n who knows our deepest care,
Let Jesus solve your problem – just go to Him in pray’r.
Life’s day will soon be o’er, all storms forever past,
We’ll cross the great divide, to glory, safe at last;
We’ll share the joys of heav’n – a harp, a home, a crown,
The tempter will be banished, we’ll lay our burden down.
- Ms. Esther Kerr Rusthoi
Elder Jerry Macon Hunt, Sr (May 7, 1932 - April 13, 2023)
Elder Jerry Hunt, Sr. closed his autobiographical work, THE BASTARD NEVER HAD A CHANCE: The Life and Times of Jerry M. Hunt, Sr., with a reference to this hymn, saying, “I hope you will get joy out of reading how the Lord has blessed me with this rare history. Remember the words of the beautiful song, “It will be worth it all, when we see Jesus.”
Brother Jerry lived a truly extraordinary life, filled with adventure, romance, family, friends, automobiles, and an abiding love for the Lord’s people wherever they may be found. He met and married Sister June Brand Hunt in 1948 at the age of 16, and lived an example of love with her for 67 years from their marriage October 24, 1948 until her death, November 25, 2015.
Brother Jerry pastored churches in Georgia and Alabama, and traveled extensively throughout the United States including regular annual appointments preaching in churches throughout the Sandusky Association of Ohio, the churches of North Carolina and Virginia, as well as Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. He began preaching the gospel at the age of 18, and was ordained to the gospel ministry August 31, 1958. In addition to pastoring churches, Elder Hunt entered into business managing and owning an electrical supply business in the Greater Atlanta area. The Lord blessed him, through his business to provide employment to support a number of Primitive Baptist ministers and pastors as well as a generation of young men who would grow up to be leaders in the churches.
Elder Hunt was blessed to be a part of at least three significant spiritual revivals in the course of his ministry including those at Utoy, Ozias, and Fellowship Primitive Baptist Churches. In recounting these experiences, Brother Jerry always pointed to the moving of the Holy Spirit as the cause and motivation of these works. Never did he credit his preaching, pastoral ministry, or efforts for the resulting repentance, conversion, and church growth.
Brother and Sister Hunt were blessed to bring up three children, Elder Jerry Hunt, Jr.; June Pitney; and Jenny Corley. Their example of patience, constancy, and devotion to their children has been a blessing to many. Elder Hunt has lived to see a number of great-great-grand-children born and growing, and the vast majority of his progeny remain active in the Primitive Baptist church.
In addition to their natural children, Brother and Sister Hunt were blessed with a number of children in the New Testament church who have risen up and called them blessed. The number of gospel ministers who would consider Elder Hunt to be a “father in the ministry” is staggering. As much as Brother Jerry valued precision in doctrinal expression, he was charitable and patient with his preaching brethren, allowing for difference of opinion and expression,“if God peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.” He also allowed that even as he sought to instruct others in the Word, he might himself need to be taught more perfectly.
Elder Hunt suffered from severe disease of the heart resulting in a major heart attack in his mid-40’s. With a second significant heart attack in the early 1990’s, Elder Hunt was warned that he should not expect to live past 70 years of age. Rather than allowing such a daunting prognosis to drag him down, Brother Jerry, in many ways, simply approached his life and ministry with a greater sense of urgency. His work included the pastoral ministry of Fellowship Primitive Baptist Church, McDonough, GA in partnership with his son, Jerry Hunt, Jr., and evangelistic journeys to Africa, and various parts of the United States. In the event, as Brother Jerry liked to point out, he survived longer than many of the medical professionals who warned him of his impending demise.
In losing Brother Jerry, we as Primitive Baptists have lost one more of the final connections to the ministry and churches of the early 20th century. Brother Jerry knew, and loved such luminaries as Elder J. A. Monsees, Elder Elsie D. Speir, Sr, Elder Walter Cash, Elder P. T. Byrd, Elder W. Otto Hunt, and many more. He was a close friend and fellow-laborer with men such as Elders E. D. Speir, Jr.; Cecil Darity; H. D. Fulmer; and Joe Hildreth. The loss of any such a man ought to be mourned as one more lost tie to a generation past that is worthy of investigation and esteem.
Ninety-one years is but a short span when contrasted with eternity, however, the blessings of a life lived in service to the people of God and with a hope and view of eternity are immense. The moment that Elder Jerry Hunt’s great heart beat its last, his soul entered into the present reality of eternal joy. He found that every hope, every joy, and every expectation which he cherished and which motivated his endurance in this life was but a taste of the reality that he now experiences. What a blessing to realize the final state of all saints in the person of one known and loved.
