Rev. J. T. Pugh

When J. T. Pugh was sixteen years old, he had begun to feel his call to the ministry and, at age seventeen, he enrolled in Southern Bible and Vocational College located in a rural community ten miles from Cisco, Texas. During three of the four years that he attended college, he was pastor of the church in Gorman, Texas.

In the winter of 1943, Brother Pugh was ordained as a minister of The Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ. Upon his ordination, his license was signed by W. T. Witherspoon and S. R. Hanby.

On August 20, 1944, Brother Pugh was married to Bessie Beryl Halbrooks. She was the first and only girl he ever dated. She bore three wonderful children; Datha Jo, Terry, and Nathanael.

While the Pughs were still in college and Sister Pugh taught school, they pastored briefly in Hillsboro, Texas. During their short pastorate, the attendance tripled. After graduating from Bible school, Brother and Sister Pugh traveled as evangelists for a short time.

In 1945 the Pughs were called to pastor in Wichita Falls, Texas. They recalled how on Sunday nights, they would count the money the people had handed them that weekend. If it was more than two dollars and fifty cents, they would walk to a drug store and drink a lime aid. They only bought one drink but asked for two straws.

From 1946 to 1948, Brother and Sister Pugh evangelized. They later traveled to West Lake, Louisiana, to reopen a work that had been closed. There, their first child, Datha Jo was born. They only stayed in West Lake one and one half years, but God greatly blessed. Brother and Sister Pugh were able to leave eighty wonderful saints behind, a finished parsonage, and a self-supporting work.

In 1949, at age twenty-seven, Brother and Sister Pugh moved to Port Arthur, Texas, to pastor The First Pentecostal Church. They lived and ministered there for seventeen years. The Lord raised up a strong congregation, and the Pughs built a new parsonage and a new church building.

In January 1967 the General Board of the UPCI appointed Brother Pugh to fill the unexpired term of Haskell Yadon, as general Home Missions director. After filling that office for six years, Brother Pugh withdrew from it feeling this to be the will of God.

Brother and Sister Pugh felt it God’s will to go to Odessa, Texas, in 1974, to pastor the First United Pentecostal Church. For nineteen years, they enjoyed revival and growth. During those years, God gave the church a new building with a 1,000-seat auditorium. Also Brother Pugh served the Texico District as their district superintendent.

He passed from this life on March 23, 2010.