Childhood
Charles Hadley Stevens was born on January 10, 1892, to David Samuel and Mary Holt Stevens. Wilson’s Mill, North Carolina, was their home until his family moved to Durham, North Carolina, when he was three and two years later to Greensboro, North Carolina. Before his eighth birthday, Charles found himself hard at work in a textile mill to help supplement his family’s income. It was during this time that Mary Stevens, Charles’ mother, died. His mother was spiritually instrumental in those early years of his life. She read Foster’s Story of the Bible to her children. Charles later said that he “believed God called him into the ministry when he was three years old,” in part, due to these readings. However, he did not have a “definite conversion experience” until several years later.
A year after his mother’s death David Stevens once again moved his family. This time it was back to Wilson’s Mill, North Carolina. Buies Creek Academy is where, during this time, Charles Stevens began his first schooling. After only a year and half, Charles was prepared for college. He then enrolled at Wake Forest University. Here he was honored in his studies, ran track, and became “convinced of the Lord’s call to Christian service," according to professor William Thompson.
Read more about this topic: Charles Stevens (pastor)
Famous quotes containing the word childhood:
“When we suffer anguish we return to early childhood because that is the period in which we first learnt to suffer the experience of total loss. It was more than that. It was the period in which we suffered more total losses than in all the rest of our life put together.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)
“Most childhood problems don’t result from “bad” parenting, but are the inevitable result of the growing that parents and children do together. The point isn’t to head off these problems or find ways around them, but rather to work through them together and in doing so to develop a relationship of mutual trust to rely on when the next problem comes along.”
—Fred Rogers (20th century)
“Adolescence is a tough time for parent and child alike. It is a time between: between childhood and maturity, between parental protection and personal responsibility, between life stage- managed by grown-ups and life privately held.”
—Anna Quindlen (20th century)