Marjorie M. Armstrong
At the Outset
How well I recall the day Koinonia Farm was born!
Having been born myself in Athens, Georgia and earned a Master's
in Religious Education in Louisville, Kentucky, I had resigned
my job in Nashville, Tennessee, and was headed for another in
Richmond, Virginia. I routed myself through MacDill Air Base
in Florida (my brother was on duty there) and southwest Georgia
where the Jordans were ready to launch Koinonia.
From Nashville, I had returned to Louisville for a weekend
with Clarence, Florence and Eleanor. "The race problem
will never be solved in the big cities," I once heard him
say. "You have to go back to the rural South and deal with
it there."
Seven miles from Americus, Dr. Jordan introduced me to his
partners, the Martin Englands, missionaries to Burma, American
Baptist farmers. I was disappointed that I missed Florence and
her daughter. Maternity leave detained them at Talbotton, the
Jordan's home town in Georgia. A baby boy (Jim) had been born.
Since that weekend another daughter (J an Jordan Zehr) and another
son (Lenny) have been born.
Even yet, I remember the big old farm house where the Jordans
and the Englands lived. It was square, with a large central
hall and a pair of large rooms on either side. One of the four
rooms was the kitchen and dining area. A cot was provided for
me there. Before daybreak the next day, Sunday, I dressed quickly
and joined my host, who had a speech to make at a big church
after I boarded my train for Richmond.
That glimpse of Koinonia helped me design a brochure for the
new enterprise in south Georgia, as economically as possible.
I continued to correspond with Koinonia, invested $100 in a
non-interest loan for it, and enjoyed hearing Clarence at Ridgecrest,
Lynchburg and Washington-- wherever he spoke.
A hand-crafted aluminum tray came from the J ordans when I
was married in Richmond in late 1949.
Having become the wife of a fellow journalist and acquired
five motherless children in a big Victorian house (built in
1871), I was surprised when my husband announced himself a candidate
for Congress. We found ourselves returning to the East coast,
when O.K. Armstrong won the election.
Clarence's doctorate at Southern Seminary in Greek New Testament
and his devotion to poor blacks and white in his home area induced
him to prepare The Cotton Patch Version of the New Testament.
One by one, I acquired the epistles and the Gospels, with an
incomplete version of John. I have all of them. The Koinonia
fruit cakes are on my Christmas list.
Was the translator in the process of translating John, there
in his pecan grove at the time the children came home from school,
when he collapsed one afternoon? Association Press of New York
has given the world a valuable study tool. It was Clarence L.
Jordan who made it priceless.
I'm gratified that Millard Fuller became Clarence's partner.
I have delight in Habitat for Humanity and in Jubilee, and I
am pleased I helped to bring them to birth. I miss Clarence
and Florence and Eleanor, too birth. I miss Clarence and Florence
and Eleanor, too.
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The Jordan Family in 1946: Eleanor,
Jim, Florence and Clarence
(photo by Harry and Allene Atkinson)
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