Well, I’m proud to be...‘True’ or ‘transplanted,’ Okies celebrate Muskogee

September 15, 2008 12:47 am

— Even though he preaches and leads Sunday morning worship at Bethel Christian Center, Delbert Hawpe’s most noticeable messages can be found outside the church at 2710 S. Cherokee Road.
There, passers-by can find pithy sayings and paraphrased Bible verses on the church sign.
Hawpe, 61, said he changes the sign’s two messages — one on each side — each week.
“If you don’t change them, people don’t notice them,” he said. “A lot more people read that sign than come to our church. That’s what I want, to reach the unchurched. The messages are not for people in our church.”
Hawpe said he’s been putting up the interchangeable messages since becoming the nondenominational Full Gospel church’s pastor 15 years ago.
But he hasn’t always been one to pass on such messages.
“If I had any aspirations as a kid, it certainly wasn’t ministry,” I just wanted to be in construction work. I was in construction in Lawton and when I got out of the Army.

Growing up in a different era
Delbert Hawpe grew up not far from Lawton, near Elgin.
“It was great at the time; that was all I knew,” he said. “Dad was a farmer/rancher and he was also foreman for Comanche County.”
He recalled what he said was a great childhood.
“We knew everyone in town, out in the country as well,” he said. “We never had to lock the door or ask permission to hunt and fish on someone’s land. I thought the whole world was like that until I got grown.”
The youngest of five children, Hawpe recalled raising cotton on the 160-acre farm.
“We raised cotton and head feed,” he said. “Dad would pull us all out of school in late October to pull bolls of cotton.”
The boll is the roundish seed pod of the cotton plant. Hawpe said picking cotton involved reaching into the boll and pulling out the white fiber. Picking the boll involved reaching under the seed pod to pluck from the plant. The cotton gin then separated the boll and seed from the fiber.
“Sometimes they would let out school for a week during boll pulling season,” he said. “Now they call that fall break.”
Hawpe recalled growing up learning about the value of hard work and showing honor and respect.
“You respected people in authority,” he said. “If you were in trouble at school, you were in trouble at home.”

Finding his way to lead a flock
Even with such strong moral and ethical lessons, Hawpe said he doesn’t recall learning spiritual lessons until he grew up.
Those came later in his life, long after he came to Muskogee in 1974.
“I was going to come to Muskogee to do construction,” he said, recalling that he ended up doing maintenance for seven years at what is now the Jack C. Montgomery VA Medical Center.
“A lot of people knew me as a Realtor,” he said.
“I got saved in 1985 and was called into the ministry at the same time,” he said, recalling that his decision to become a Christian was “kind of a long story.”
“I found the Lord through reading Proverbs in the Bible,” he said.
Hawpe said that after deciding to go into the ministry, “doors opened in my life.”
“I began teaching at the Gospel Rescue Mission and teaching at local churches while I was in real estate,” he said. “Then, this church called me full-time in 1993.”

Messages come from different places
Soon thereafter, Hawpe began putting up his messages by the side of the road. He said he had helped another church put messages on its sign.
“The first time we put up a sign, someone took a shotgun to it the first two weeks we had it,” he said. “We have a new sign now. The other one fell apart with time.”
Hawpe said he draws a lot of his inspiration from the Bible book of Proverbs. That’s where he said he got the message on one side of a recent sign: “Better to be Poor than a Liar.”
Other ideas he gets elsewhere, like the billboard for Cherokee Casino that says “play like you mean it.”
“I wanted to capitalize on it but say Pray Like You mean it.”
He said he comes up with most of the sayings he puts on the sign.
“I try to be relevant to the times,” he said. “Most are sayings from the Bible. That way they’re never wrong.”

Q&A

HOW DID YOU GET TO BE AN OKIE FROM MUSKOGEE?
“I came here seeking a job with Zachary Construction, which was building the OG&E plant. That was my plan. But then I answered an ad to become maintenance man at the VA hospital. I worked there seven years.”

WHAT IS THE MOST MEMORABLE THING TO HAPPEN SINCE COMING TO MUSKOGEE?
“It would have to be my call to the ministry. I remember seeing a vision of God separating the sheep from the goats ... and I was a goat. I was converted at that moment and the Lord called me to follow him.”

WHAT OKIE FROM MUSKOGEE HAS HAD THE MOST INFLUENCE ON YOUR LIFE?
“The Rev. Dean Moore. He recognized the call on my life. He was my first pastor, and he took time with me to teach me. He was my mentor and he still is. He constantly challenged me to keep pressing on, to never give up.”

WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST ABOUT MUSKOGEE?
“I like the geographical area. That’s what drew me to Muskogee to begin with — the lakes, the outdoors, the amenities. I like the people here. We have a good blend of people. Its different from western Oklahoma. The Indians here are different. Here we have Indians from the Civilized Tribes. I was raised in western Oklahoma where they had Comanches, Apaches and Kiowas. And I like the weather here better than in the west, where it was hot, dry and windy. It’s greener here. I’ll never miss Lawton, never regret coming here.”

WHAT WOULD MAKE MUSKOGEE A BETTER PLACE?
“I heard one man say the one thing bad about Muskogee is that there is no place for a vacation. We need to clean up the city. We need to work on race relations, not only in the community but also in Muskogee’s churches. It’s bad when people talk about black churches or white churches when its supposed to be one church. Churches need to step up and be a leader in the community.”

HOW WOULD YOU SUM UP MUSKOGEE TO A VISITOR?
“It’s a great place to visit. There’s a lot to see. I’d tell him ‘don’t judge the city by just one neighborhood. I’d tell him it’s a great place to call home.”

Meet Delbert Hawpe
AGE: 61.
HOMETOWN: Elgin.
EDUCATION: Elgin High School, Associate in arts degree from Connors State College.
JOB: Real estate until becoming pastor of Bethel Christian Center 15 years ago.
FAMILY: Wife Jeanie, two children, Tonia and Jason.
CHURCH: Bethel Christian Center.
HOBBIES: Gardening, horseback riding, fishing.