"In 1870-71 I was teaching school in Walla Walla. The Methodist Church held its quarterly conference. Rev. H. K. Hines was presiding elder, and Rev. H. C. Jenkins, preacher in charge. They called me into the council and said: 'Brother Kennedy, we think you ought to preach the gospel. Will you accept license and go to work?' Of course I had done the thinking about it before. I replied immediately: 'Yes, if you will bear the responsibility, and stand for the damages that may follow.'
PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDING, HUNTSVILLE
"Soon after that a protracted meeting began in the old mission church at that place. The pastor told me, one evening, at the close of the meeting, that I must preach the next night. 'No, you must excuse me, Brother Jenkins, I have never preached a sermon in my life, your meeting is growing, and now needs the best preaching.' 'I am older in the work than you are,' he replied, 'and know the meeting better, and I know the expectations of the church in you; you must preach.' That settled the matter. I went home to think and pray and study.
FIRST SERMON
"Before breakfast next morning, the Lord had given the text, Rom. 1-16. 'For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God, unto salvation, to every one that believeth.' Into the grove I went, with my Bible, formed my outlines, and went at the preparation in dead earnest. On my knees with the Bible, before God, I had the struggle of my life. Every temptation came before me. 'What if this was not God's plan?' 'What if I should miserably fail?' 'What if the meeting should fail on my hands?' No one but the young preacher approaching the pulpit for the first time can feel such a burden.
"Father and mother were with me, and we had to walk a mile to church that night. I had told them what was on my mind. We got in late. The church was crowded. Scarce standing room in the aisles. I crowded through, walked onto the platform and went down on my knees behind the pulpit. I had promised the Lord all day that if he would give me liberty and help me to preach that sermon, I would always after preach his word. In a moment, kneeling there, that cloud of burden was lifted, and I had the victory. O, how the Holy Spirit did take that poor sermon of mine, and put His inspiration into it, and His power under it, and make it a power of God, to souls that night! The little that I had put into it was so augmented by the divine. I seemed like a Gideon, shorn of his army, yet working out a great victory. There was victory in my soul and my purpose, and victory in all that meeting that night.
CAMP MEETING
"Our camp meeting that summer (1871) came in June, and was held at the old grounds on Mill Creek, five miles above Walla Walla. There was a very large attendance of people. The old veterans of the pulpit were there, and we 'raw recruits' joined them, making the pulpit force very large. Quite a number of the young men had been put into the work that year. There I heard Dr. L. A. Banks preach his first sermon. There wasn't in him then the prophecy of his remarkable career.