By Allan Barr
MONROEVILLE, Alabama—This is a tribute to a good man, a man of God. On Dec. 3, I received a telephone call that Melvin Hall, 52, the bivocational pastor of the Monroeville congregation, was killed in a farm tractor accident.
While attempting to pull a stump out of the ground in his backyard, Melvin’s tractor flipped over, landed on top of him and caught fire. When his wife, Linda, went to the back of the house looking for Melvin, she saw the smoke from the burning tractor and then discovered his body under the tractor.
Melvin and Lynda were planning to leave for Florida the next day to attend the conference in Orlando. Melvin is survived by his wife, three sons, Michael, Sedrick and Carlos, and his 93-year-old grandmother.
Melvin was born in Brewton, Alabama. He played football for three years in high school. After graduating, Melvin enlisted in the U.S. Army and served two tours in Vietnam as a combat medic. He and Linda were married on July 2, 1982.
In 1986, he joined the Worldwide Church of God in Monroeville. He was ordained an elder in 1998, and later he became pastor of the Monroeville congregation. Whatever responsibilities he was given in the ministry he carried out with joy, gladness and thanksgiving with a servant’s heart.
Before he retired, Melvin was employed with the Alabama State Department of Corrections for 23 years. He was affectionately known as “Driveshaft.” His ministry went far beyond the walls of the church as he ministered and counseled his employees, the inmates and everyone he met. The call of Jesus on his life was exemplified in his everyday Christian walk.
Please keep the Hall family and the Monroeville church in your prayers. Melvin was a humble servant of God and we will miss him very much.
Copyright © Grace Communion International, 2004