Bro. Bud Preaching

Bro. Bud in Jerusalem

Back: Sis. Bonnie, Sis. Joy, Bro. Troy, Bro. Maurice
Front: Sis. Fay, Bro. Bud

Troy, Maurice, Bro. Bud, Bonnie, Joy, and Sis. Fay

All graphics, unless otherwise stated, 
copyrighted by Sabrina Smith.

Brother Bud Self was a Holiness Preacher in Sweetwater, Texas. He was not affiliated with any denomination, and fellowshipped many churches, including Holiness churches from other states.

Born in 1910 to James Jefferson Self and Annie Ellen Heron Self "Bud" as they called him had no permanent name until he was six months old. They could not decide on what to call him until two of his Aunts, who were ever reading books, found the names Delancie and Manuel in a couple of books they were reading. Thereafter he was named Delancie Manuel Self, but by that time "Bud" had stuck.

Bud met Fay Marie Self when he was just fifteen, and she stole his heart. She was older than him, but they both waited until she finished school (including college), and until he was 21, then they were married in 1931. Fay was a teacher, and finished the school term after they married. After the term was over they moved from Newman to Winters, Texas, and ran a cafe. On March 6, 1933 their first child, Darvin Maurice, was born. About a year later they moved to Pie Town, New Mexico. 

Bud became a barber, shoe cobbler, and played his fiddle for dances. The song he played the most was "She'l be coming round the mountain." Once when coming back from playing the fiddle a snowstorm came up. Five miles out of Pie Town the snow drifts began to be so deep that they could not see the road. So they began to walk home. Fay carried Maurice, and Bud and Bishop Garden (a friend) carried the music instruments. As they were walking they barely touched the corner of the store. If they had missed the store it was fifty-five miles to any other building. They continued to live at Pie Town until Fay began to expect their next child, and could not find a Doctor or Midwife.

They loaded a trailer and headed for Texas, pulling the trailer with their car. As they came through the mountains they started talking about how well the car was pulling the trailer up the mountain, and then realized that the trailer was going down the hill behind them. So, they turned around and went after it. When they finally arrived at Newman, Texas, they noticed that Maurice had put a toy car on the bumper, and it rode the long way home.

On October 6, 1935 Bonnie Ruth Self was born. Bud started raising turkeys and trapped for hides on their rented farm. He also continued to barber. Bud bought a farm in the Newman Community. In 1938 Bud attended a revival at Longsworth, Texas. He was seeking the Holy Ghost so he thought, and went to the water tank to pray every day. The preacher told him he needed to quit his tobacco. Bud said, "Not me, I will get it chewing, dipping, and smoking." One day he got so hungry for the Holy Ghost he threw his tobacco away while going to pray. The Lord sanctified him. He was praising God so by the time he got to the tank he received the Holy Ghost. He came back to the house jumping, and speaking in the sweet Holy Ghost.

The revival at Longsworth ended, and the preacher Bro. Dewey Jackson came once a month to have church at Longsworth in the schoolhouse. Bud and Fay would try to go to Midland, Texas at least once a month to a church that was being built. They had a pickup that had side boards and a trap over the back that they would use to take other people with them to Midland. They would always stop before they got to Big Spring, Texas and pray on a hill top. One time when they got to church Bud and Marion Rowan church was going on, and they could not wait to get it, and jumped through the window. (which had no glass in it yet)

The Sunday afternoon after Fay got the Holy Ghost about twenty people where over at Brother Jackson's house praying. Bud was setting in a cane bottom chair. The Lord leaned the chair back on two legs, and pulled Bud's legs out in front of him and his arms up in praise. The Lord kept him that way, balancing, while he talked to him. Bud said, "Lord I have to spell every word I read before I can say it, and I cannot even testify without falling down." The Lord told him, "I have been holding your breath for this long. If I can do this and you still live, I can help you read and preach." So finally Bud said, "If you help me Lord I will give my all to you." The Lord said, "Whom the Lord calls he qualifies." Then the Lord let Bud's legs, arms, and the chair come back down.  

In 1939 Bud sold the farm at Newman and bought a farm on the Cottonwood Creek southwest of Roby. Bud started barbering in Sweetwater, Texas. He would often empty his pockets to help other Christians. Afterward, he would pray that the Lord would send him customers to pay for his laundry bill. About that time his brother JP was in the Army, and wanted out. Bud decided to pray in a plum thicket for his brother's release from the Army. He prayed three times a day for this, at 6 a.m. and twice more after he came home from work. One day Bud was plowing the field when JP and Jonah came walking up. JP had been discharged from the Army on a medical discharge. However, a Doctor told him that he would live to be an old man if a truck or something didn't kill him.

While Bud's family lived on the creek several floods happened. One time Bud heard that a big rain had came up west of Roscoe, and that a flood was headed for his farm. He hurried home to tell Fay, and when he got to the farm Fay and the children were across the creek in a cotton field. They had to cross the rising creek to get home. They could hear the rushing water coming, and really had to hurry home. When they reached the house everyone but Maurice went inside. Bonnie went out to see about him and he was in the flood water trying to get the chickens to higher ground. Bud and Fay made him stop before he was hurt.

One day Bud's old tractor was giving him trouble, and he worked on it, getting gas all over himself. The ground was covered in gas as well. Suddenly the ground caught on fire. Gas was running out of the tractor, but Bud prayed, "Lord I owe Montgomery Ward for those tires, let me reach through this fire and turn off the gas!" He reached through the fire and turned off the gas, without burning his hands, or catching on fire! He then put the fire out on the ground.

Bud and Fay had cows that got into wet Johnson grass, and the cows became bloated. They were laying around like they were dead. Bud and Fay started praying for the cows. Suddenly Janie (a cow) jumped up and ran off. Then the other cows started jumping up and running off. The Lord had healed the cows!

In 1943 Bud's family moved to Sweetwater. They bought a house at 403 Hightower Street, and the first thing they did was to build a bathroom. At that time there was a housing shortage, and someone was always living in the house with them at one time or another. On November 11, 1943 Fay had a set of twins, Joy Jean and Troy Dean. Fay was a twin to her sister Floy, therefore she was very excited to have a set of twins herself. 

In 1945 Bud sold that house, and built a stone church and a rock house. The church had a dirt floor. One night a family drove up to the church with a broken down car. Bud let them stay the night, and helped them fix the car. On Thanksgiving and Christmas Bud invited people who were homeless, or did not have anywhere to go, to eat with his family. Once a little old man lived at Bud's barber shop, and slept on a cot in the back. 

There was a Cotton Warehouses across from the church and rock house that made Bud have bad asthma. He prayed that the Lord would help him. That spring a storm came up and blew the Warehouses away. As the winds blew the two by fours off of the Warehouses they blew in one side of the church and out the other. Bud was in the church with the twins at that time. He covered the twins and prayed, "Lord, save the roof!" The Lord saved the roof. One of the two by fours hit a window of the rock house and cut Maurice's finger. They prayed for him, and the blood began to clot. The injured finger didn't stop him from playing the guitar.

The church roof started leaking some time later, and Bud wanted to put a hip roof on. The church members did not have time to help him with the roof. He told Maurice, who was 14 or 15, he could help him after school and on Saturday. The next Monday they planned to take to old roof off. However, the Lord sent a strong wind that blew the front half of the roof off. It landed in the back yard, and only one board was broken. Maurice then worked on the roof that was on the ground. Bud prayed about Church service without a roof. A trucker friend drove up with big tarps, he helped Bud tie the tarps over the roof. They stayed on there until the roof was replaced.

In 1954 Bud bought a house on a hill (he lived in this house until he was not able to take care of himself). About that time Maurice had to go to Korea. He had already moved to Eunice, New Mexico to work for National Supply Company, and he married Frieda Lee Gavitt. Then on September 4, 1954 Bonnie married George Ocie Polnack.

In January 1959 Bud took pneumonia, and nearly died. The Lord prolonged his life. The infection was between the lining of his lung, and he had to have surgery. Bud continued to barber until about a year before he died on December 4, 1996. He lived to see four children grown and married, all born again into God's family. He also lived to see all fourteen of his grandchildren, and fifteen of his currently seventeen great-grandchildren. Almost all of the family are Christians, and several are Holiness preachers. (including Maurice and Troy)