As evangelist Wayne Hamrick nears the completion of his second term as president of the Georgia Baptist Convention, it is important for Georgia Baptists to know that he has had significant and substantive help from the lady in his life, Joan King Hamrick.

Joan grew up in Waco, a small town in West Georgia’s Haralson County. She and her older brother, Marion, attended Waco Baptist Church with their parents, Olin and Doris King. Olin taught Sunday School and helped lead the music; Doris was the church pianist.

“The Lord began tugging at my heart in junior high school,” Joan reported, “and on April 29, 1954 during a revival I made a personal commitment of my life to Christ. I was baptized the following Sunday, exactly a week before my 13th birthday. Shortly after that, my brother was also saved and baptized.”

Joan reminisced, “My father, who is now deceased, answered the call to preach when I was in the eighth grade and pastored churches in Tallapoosa for many years.

“When I was growing up I wanted to be a nurse,” Joan recalled, “but during my sophomore year in high school the Lord impressed upon my heart that I would be a preacher’s wife, not a nurse.”

At the end of that same year the students at the Waco school Joan attended were informed that there were not enough students to justify having a high school in that small community and that it would only have eight grades. Joan transferred to nearby Buchanan High where she met a student named Wayne Hamrick the first week she was there.

Wayne admitted that he had seen Joan playing basketball for Waco High when they competed against Buchanan in previous years. Joan remarked, “I never remembered seeing Wayne during those games. My mind was on basketball and winning.”

However, Wayne and Joan began dating soon after she enrolled at Buchanan. They continued their courtship for almost two years before getting married. Joan stated, “When we first started dating, I asked Wayne if he had ever been saved. The only answer he would give me was that he was a member of the church.”

Joan’s high school career was marked by many successes. She served as senior class president, worked on the staff of the school yearbook, was elected “Miss Buchanan High,” and named valedictorian of her class.

Wayne proposed to the smartest student in his school one night as they were sitting on a swing on the front porch of the King home. Joan reminded him of what the Lord had told her in the tenth grade. The future GBC president responded, “You’re fixing to marry the wrong fellow if you think I’ll ever preach!”

In reflecting on their wedding, Joan commented, “We had a small wedding at my parent’s home with only the immediate family present. I never mentioned anything to him about being a preacher again, but I knew that in God’s timing, he would get the call to preach.”

 

Power of prayer

Joan, along with her father and sister, started singing together even before Joan had become a high school student. Their singing ensemble – known as the Waco Trio – sang for more than 340 worship services and radio programs her senior year. Wayne followed the trio everywhere they went, but once he and Joan married he seldom accompanied them to their singing engagements and infrequently attended church.

Joan commented, “The more Wayne’s indifference toward the Lord grew, the more I prayed for him. It was not long until he made a profession of faith in Christ. We wanted to start a family and prayed for God to give us a child, but God didn’t seem to hear our cry.

“During that same period of time God’s Spirit was dealing with Wayne and he finally surrendered his will to the will of God and answered the call to preach the gospel. The same God who had told me that I would marry a preacher suddenly impressed upon my heart that Wayne’s response to the divine call would also open the door for God to provide an answer to my fervent prayer to have a child. Nine months after Wayne surrendered to preach our son, Micah, was born.”

One Saturday night, when Micah was almost eight years old, Joan was compelled to go to her son’s bedroom at about eleven o’clock. She found Micah crying and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Micah responded, “Get me some paper and a pencil and I’ll tell you.”

When Joan placed before him the pencil and paper, Micah wrote, “I want to get saved.”

Joan explained, “Wayne soon came into the bedroom to check on Micah and found both of us crying. He asked us what had happened and I just held up the paper so he could read what Micah had written. He got his Bible and explained God’s plan of salvation to Micah. The three of us knelt beside the bed and prayed. Micah was saved that night. What a privilege and joy to lead your own child to Christ.”

Micah is now working for the Office of Homeland Security. He and his wife, Jody, have one daughter, Lindsay, sometimes called “little Joan,” who recently married Chris Rainey, a staff member at First Baptist Church in Glennville.

Joan has been an integral part of Wayne’s ministry through the years. She either played the organ or piano in every church he has pastored. She led the adult choir in the last three churches he served. The Buchanan High School valedictorian has taught Sunday School, helped with church training, served as a bus worker, and been his secretary for 39 years.

The quiet, demure wife of our Convention president stated, “I have done everything from helping clean the church buildings to driving a van or bus. I just serve wherever the Lord needs me or do whatever it takes to get the job done.

“One Easter Sunday at about ten o’clock Wayne got a call from our minister of music saying that he would not be able to come that morning. Shortly after receiving the call Wayne came to the Sunday School office and informed me that I would have to direct the choir. Tears filled my eyes as I looked at him and said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding. This is Easter. We are doing our Easter music today.’

“All I knew to do was commit myself to the Lord and put the matter in His hands and do the best I could. God’s presence was so real that morning. The choir did a great job and very few people even knew what had happened.”

 

Loving it

“Through the years people have asked me how we have worked together so closely throughout our ministry. That always amazes me, because I don’t understand why a husband and wife can’t work together and still have a good relationship.”

The wife of our Convention president recalled some challenging times in the 41 years of serving churches, but mentioned some thrilling times as well. “One such time,” Joan disclosed, “was when Wayne was serving in Tallapoosa. We had 28 people accept Christ in one service. And in our last church, Atco Baptist in Cartersville, we had 57 saved in a revival when Dr. J. Robert White was the guest evangelist. We also had a high attendance of 962 one Sunday at Atco.”

Wayne and Joan Hamrick had always thought that upon retirement they would seek to help smaller churches if health permitted, and never dreamed that God would put them in a full-time itinerant ministry before retirement. Joan emphasized, “I used to tell Wayne I was glad God called him to be a pastor and not an evangelist – having to live out of a suitcase.

“Being in evangelism is something we have had to get used to, but we enjoy it. We are in a different church every week and being on the road is sometimes challenging, but we enjoy it, because that is where God has put us.

“When we started traveling to churches to help them build their Sunday Schools and reach people for Christ we decided to join Pray’s Mill Baptist Church in Douglasville. Though we are not able to attend often, we have a wonderful church family and love our pastor, Mike Everson. What a blessing brother Mike and the people at Pray’s Mill have been to us.”

Having been such an integral part of Wayne’s ministry for so many years, Joan shared some sage advice for the wives of those in ministry. She pointed out, “Encourage and support your husband. Don’t be critical of his preaching and leadership, because those things are between him and God. Don’t be selfish, thinking only of what you want.

“We tried to make Friday nights our ‘date night,’ and we always looked forward to it, but sometimes the needs of church members pre-empted our special night. If things like that happen or if a vacation has to be canceled because of the death of a church member, don’t be upset or pout. Your husband is just as disappointed as you are that plans have to change. I’m a true believer in Romans 8:28 and when things happen to those who love God, I know that there is a reason for them.”

Joan Hamrick has always given one hundred percent of herself to whatever she has endeavored to do. Perhaps she is inspired by a plaque she has with the familiar statement, “Only one life, ‘twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.”