When I think of Brother Bruce Stivers I think of him in a business suit, shirt and tie at Orville Baptist Church, ready to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. I think about all the sick people he visited and how he loved all the little children everywhere he went.

He was an outstanding man who cared about all people. He was friendly and never met a man that he didn't care about. Brother Stivers was our pastor from 1934 to 1951 when he retired. He and his family lived in Cropper, Kentucky, where he was a farmer. I remember how he always had something to say to children. I know he loved children because he had 13 of them, the youngest of which, a daughter, passed away at 18 months of age. Eloise was the last child to be born to the family. She came to the church sometimes with her mother and father. She was saved at age 11 years and was baptized in the Kentucky River at Gest by her father. After the death of Naomi and the birth of Eloise, the couple had twelve children.

Brother Stivers received his high school diploma after he became our pastor. He also took two audio courses at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Our Brother Stivers loved to preach and tell others about the Lord Jesus Christ, share his testimony and sing. One cold Sunday Morning when the thermometer registered close to zero, he stepped into the pulpit and began to preach. The pot-bellied coal stove in the middle of the sanctuary was not performing well, but Brother Stivers began to preach. There were only two persons there, William 'Pete' Jones and his daughter, Becky. They were getting colder and colder but he continued to preach. He was trying to give them a message to remember or one that would set them 'on fire for the Lord.' He loved children and he loved to sing. On Sunday afternoons he would load his car with children, take them to Clements Bottom School House to hear him preach there, then sing all the way home in the car. He said he knew he couldn't sing but he loved to make a joyful noise to the Lord.