Kie Hebert's Legacy

I just finished reading this book my parents gave me about a man who had a huge impact on my mom's life even though she never met him. I remember much admirable talk about him as I grew up, so I wanted to share a little bit about him here.

The Cajuns (Acadians) were kicked out of Canada in the 1700's, and some of them were dropped off on the shores of Louisiana. Many of my grandparent's generation were still Cajun-French only speaking peoples. They kept their culture and language and their Catholic religion well preserved. Brother Kie Hebert (pronounced A-Bear) is the first Cajun, to his knowledge, who gave up his Catholic faith and was immersed into Christ.

He was preparing to become a Catholic priest when he had to give that up to help support his family. But he had the preaching bug and asked his Bishop for permission to be a lay missionary, which they allowed. In his first week of teaching, a Methodist in the crowd stood up and demanded that he prove from the Bible his propositions about Communion. There was a bit of a back and forth. As the Methodist man was leaving, he said, "I will pray for you." Brother Hebert shot back, "I don't want your prayers."

But Kie was troubled by the fact that he could not prove his teachings from the Bible. He had never read a Bible. He went to his priest who told him that only the Pope could understand the Bible. His priest finally sold his Bible to Kie for $4 even though he kept telling him he would not be able to understand it.

Kie studied the Bible and prayed and asked questions of his Catholic leaders for 6 months. He then made his way around the 13 Protestant preachers in Crowley and asked them what they believed. He had been told that the Protestants all had different and contradictory Bibles, so he asked to buy Bibles from them. All of them gave him a Bible and he went home and compared them. He found they did not contradict one another at all. But he was confused by all the different ways the denominations did things and their differing beliefs. 

He finally fell on his knees before God and prayed, 

"God, I have found out that I was a deceived man for twenty-eight years. If you will have mercy and help me see through all this confusion and save my soul, I will never let anyone deceive me again. If I am deceived again it will be by your own Word."

He wanted to be immersed into Christ. The Baptist preacher would not baptize him unless he was joining the Baptist church. The Methodist guy would only sprinkle. By God's Providence, a Church of Christ preacher was holding a revival nearby and heard about Kie Hebert's search. He came over and they spent several hours going over Scripture together. The man finally said he must be leaving to go preach the revival that night, but Brother Hebert asked if he would baptize him first. They drove to water and Brother W.J. Johnson baptized Kie Hebert.

Being used to asking permission, Kie told Johnson that he wanted to tell all his friends about the way to God.  Brother Johnson said he was free in Christ to do so. On Friday night, July 16th, 1915 Kie preached his first sermon after being baptized.  Forty-eight people came forward to be baptized. More followed as he continued preaching that weekend. Among those baptized is the lovely lady in the blue chair below: 

Momo Mouton.

Everyone at our church called her Momo Mouton even though she was only grandma to some of them. Right next to Momo is her daughter Mrs. Fae. Mrs. Fae was good friends with my mother in high school.

From left to right: Lanaya Clouse, Carrie Pemberton, Redessa LeBlanc, Tonya Clouse, Lillie Pemberton. I believe we were at a Singspiration.

Above is a picture of myself (purple sweater, extreme left) and Lillie (brown dress, extreme right). Lillie is Mrs. Fae's daughter and she and I were very close as children.

So Momo Mouton raised her kids up in the Lord after being baptized by Kie Hebert. And Mrs. Fae invited my mom to church. My mother was raised Catholic and in high school was going to Catholic services on her own. She remembers attending mass in the morning and then going to the Church of Christ with Mrs. Fae in the evenings and on Wednesday nights. 

It was mini-skirt times and my mother's mom would order my mom dresses and then hem them up higher. My mom always had a lot of books in high school, and she would ask Mrs. Fae to pick them up for her so she wouldn't have to bend down. Mrs. Fae (very blunt, but endearingly so) would say, "Nuh, uh! You wanna wear those short skirts, you pick up your own books!" 

My mom enjoyed going to the Church of Christ, but she was not a quick convert. They showed her the Jules Miller film strips. She did not know her Bible, so she learned a lot from them, but it was also overwhelming. She had by then started at a college in Lake Charles to get a teaching degree. But she hated dorm life. It was loud and she couldn't study. One night when they guys had a 'panty raid,' she freaked out and decided to quit. She had only been there a few months. 

That week there was a revival going on at Robert's Cove Church of Christ and she was attending. Many people were trying to persuade her to get baptized, but she did not want to be pushed into it. The last night of the revival someone came up to her and asked if she wanted to attend the Bible College in Ottumwa, IA (Midwestern School of Evangelism). Mrs. Fae was attending and so were a few others my mom knew. If she wanted to go, the Praters were going to start heading there that evening and would let her ride with them. She went home and packed. Her mother asked if she would be taking any of her short dresses with her. She said, "No, Momma, I can't wear those at Bible college." Her mother had spent a lot of hard earned money on them. It was a little bit of sore spot between them that was mended in time. 

Her mother was crying and begging her not to leave as they walked out to the car. Iowa seemed like a million miles away. My mom would not look back. If she did, she would have stayed home. She loved her mom.

As they drove to Iowa, the Praters asked Mom if she knew her books of the Bible. She did not. They said it might be a good idea to memorize those. So she learned the New Testament names by the time she got there. 

She was not a baptized believer. She did not know her Bible. She was several months behind everyone else when she arrived at Ottumwa. She did have longer dresses though. Mom remembers Mrs. Vicky Mouton staying up all night with her to sew dresses that she would not be embarrassed to wear. 

Mom is in the long pink dress in the middle.  

We think this picture was taken near the dorms at MSE in Ottumwa. The girls with Mom are from the college, at any rate.

Mom eventually came around to making a decision to follow Christ. She was baptized shortly before she turned 19.

Kie Hebert ended up preaching and starting churches all over Acadiana. He and his team baptized close to 10,000 people over the years. I spent my childhood in the very first church he started - Robert's Cove Church of Christ. One year our preacher (Brother Bob Miller, pictured below at camp) had the idea of doing a Kie Hebert day to commemorate the work he had done. I barely remember this day, but it is there in my memory. A crowded building. The women cooking in the tin building next door. Brother Bob preaching. 

Kie Hebert studied his Bible and baptized Momo Mouton. 

Momo raised Mrs. Fae in the Lord. 

Mrs. Fae invited my mom to church. 

And my mom met Dad at MSE in Ottumwa. 

They raised us kids in the Lord. 

I have children now brought up in the same way. 

And so I was reminded of a wonderful legacy that began with Kie Hebert.

Mom with some of her grandkids in Florida.