Melvin Klaudt performed with his family, the Klaudt Indian Family, for decades. They caught listeners’ attention by dressing in their traditional Arikara Indian outfits, but they kept their audience coming back with their talent and heart for ministry. Chief Melvin Klaudt is a 2020 inductee to the Southern Gospel Hall of Fame. His story is well worth hearing – and I say hearing in this case because he was most comfortable joining by telephone.
Show Notes
Klaudt Indian Family appearance at the 1996 Grand Ole Gospel Reunion
Transcript
Daniel Mount
Welcome to Southern Gospel Journal. My name is Daniel Mount, and this evening I have the distinct privilege of speaking with Chief Melvin Klaudt of the Klaudt Indian Family. How are you doing this evening, sir?
Melvin Klaudt
I am doing marvelous. You know, at my age, in a few weeks, I’ll be 93 years old. So, Daniel, I’m just happy to wake up every morning.
Daniel Mount
Congratulations, that’s a milestone that very few people reach.
Melvin Klaudt
I’ve been blessed.
Daniel Mount
Amen. So I would like to start to tell the story of the Klaudt Indian Family with how the gospel first reached your family. I understand your grandmother was the member of that side of your family, the first to hear the gospel. And if you don’t mind, I would love to start with who she is, her name, where she grew up, and then how she came to know Jesus.
Melvin Klaudt
Well, Willena “Little Soldier” was probably the beginning of the Klaudt ministry. And we were raised on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. And that reservation was, I guess, probably one of the first Indian nations to accept the message of Christ.
And a Dr. Hall came from the state of New York, and he was a missionary on our reservation. And through his mission work, my grandmother, Willena “Little Soldier,” accepted Christ as her personal savior. And she lived to be 104 years old.
Daniel Mount
And the missionary learned the language of your family?
Melvin Klaudt
Right. He was bilingual. And of course, his responsibility with learning the Arikara, Hidatsa, Mandan language, his responsibility also was to teach the Indian kids English.
Daniel Mount
Okay. And so then your mother, Lillian Little Soldier, she was raised in a Christian home then and was able to learn the gospel from her mother, then. Is that so?
Melvin Klaudt
Yes. And then of course, Mom, when Mom got to the age of probably 12, 13 years old, after she accepted Christ, then her ministry on the reservation was to minister to the kids on the Indian reservation. So it was the lineage of Willena and Dr. Hall coming down to Mom.
Then Mom established her own ministry on the Indian reservation. And she was taught by Dr. Hall’s daughter, she was taught to play the guitar and also the accordion. So when she ministered, she sang and played the guitar and the accordion.
Daniel Mount
Very neat. How did she meet your father?
Melvin Klaudt
My father’s branch was right on the edge of the Indian reservation. We traded coal. There was a coal mine there, and we traded coal for beef. And most of the kids on the edge of the Indian reservation, their playmates were the Indian kids.
So it was one of those responsibilities. And then my dad, my dad was raised on that ranch, the Klaudt Ranch. And at about age 13 and 14, he was called into the ministry. And his father finally said, they called him Reiny.
They said, “Reiny, what do you want to do? Do you want a farm or do you want to preach?” And my dad said, “Well, I want to preach.” So he said, “Well, you’re going to have to leave the farm.” So Dad left the farm, and they called him the white squaw man. That was his terminology on the Indian reservation.
And after he married Mom, their ministries kind of went back and forth on the Indian reservation. And my dad was bilingual. He could read, he could speak Russian, he could speak German, and of course English. And then he also learned the Arikara language. So he was able to communicate with the Indians. But the ministry of Mom and Dad crossed paths for several years and at some point, of course, they got married.
Daniel Mount
Yes. So what sorts of ministry activities did they do? Because you mentioned your mom worked with children and that she also did some musical with the guitar and the accordion. Were they working in a local church or helping a variety of locations? Like, what was the nature of their ministry together in those early days?
Melvin Klaudt
Well, the Church of God had a great mission program to Indian reservations. This is the Church of God in Cleveland, Tennessee. Yes. And they sent missionaries out there. And one of the ministers, Paul H. Walker, was one of the first ones to accept Christ as personal savior, a farm boy. And he started the first church on the Indian reservation, which was in Arreem. They called it the Reed Church.
So Dr. Hall was not Pentecostal, but Paul H. Walker was. Of course, the Church of God, he was a Pentecostal minister.
Daniel Mount
Okay, so then you were born on that reservation in North Dakota, is that correct?
Melvin Klaudt
Right. Mom and Dad had five children. The older brother Vernon, and then my sister and myself, and then we had a younger brother Raymond and a kid brother Kenneth. So there was five of us. And as we got older, they just included us into their ministry. And we learned how to play instruments.
I played the trombone and the guitar, and my older brother played the upright bass and the Hawaiian guitar. And then our sister played the trumpet, and then our two younger brothers played the saxophone.
And one of the interesting things about the civilization process on the Indian reservation, the missionaries would bring the truck by the kids. And as the Indian kids walked by, they would say, “Oh, you look like a trumpet player.” So they had handed me a trumpet. Next one, “You look like a trombone player,” and they’d hand him a trombone.
So the talent was not there. We had to learn the music. But it was the responsibility of the missionaries to do that. Okay. And I was born in, when I was born, the doctors told my mother that I would not live to see year one. And it’s an interesting thing that the Indian elders, all of our hospitalization on our Indian reservation was run by the Catholic Church, the hospital. And it was interesting that the Indians or the hospital people, the Catholic sisters, they were part of the responsibility of laying hands on me along with the Indian elders and, of course, Mom and Dad. But here I am almost 93 years later, and I’m still ticking.
Daniel Mount
Wow.
Melvin Klaudt
But it’s an interesting thing. The Catholics, there are a group of Catholics that they call the Pentecostal Catholics. The hospital people, they were very close in teaching the Indians, along with the Pentecostal Church of God, the message of Christ. So it was kind of an interesting thing. We kind of look down on different denominations, but our responsibility is not to judge them, but to pray for them.
Daniel Mount
Definitely. I’m curious, as you grew up, were there just a very few Christians on that reservation, did it become majority Christian? What was the climate like of whether you were surrounded by Christians or one of a very few?
Melvin Klaudt
Well, I think our Indian reservation at that time was probably one of the first reservations to almost 100% accept Christ. And of course, this was back in the late 1800s, middle to late 1800s.
But our Indian reservation has always been very strong. Of course, here recently, they’ve kind of strayed. Our reservation now is probably, I would say, probably 70 to 80% alcohol and drug related. It’s one of the sad parts of our young people on our reservation.
Daniel Mount
Yes, I am sorry to hear that. I’m also curious, did you grow up speaking the Arikara language in addition to English, or did they only teach you English?
Melvin Klaudt
When we started school, they would penalize us if we spoke our Indian language. So my generation never learned how to speak the Indian language. When our grandmother Willena Little Soldier and my mother would get together, they would speak the Indian language with each other, but none of us could understand it. Of course, Dad had a speaking knowledge of it. He could do that, but the rest of us, we never learned how to speak Indian.
Daniel Mount
Okay. So did your family start to sing together as a family while you were still in North Dakota, or did that really more start to arise once you had moved down to Cleveland, Tennessee?
Melvin Klaudt
No, Dad played the banjo and Mom played the guitar and the accordion. And when they got together, they had to do it. And one of the first gospel programs in the Dakotas was Mom and Dad’s ministry on KFYR, Mandan, North Dakota. And they probably had one of the most successful radio programs at that time in Mandan, North Dakota, which was a suburb to Bismarck.
From the time they were married, they started singing and playing their instruments together. And of course, as we grew up, they brought us in. I played the guitar and the trombone. Our sister played the trumpet, and then our two younger brothers played the saxophone. So when we came south, Eva Mae introduced us into the Southern Gospel music industry.
And when we started in the Southern Gospel circuit, they called us the Gospel Salvation Army Band!
Daniel Mount
Yes. One more question before we focus on that era of the ’50s and following. When your father and mother were singing and then when you were younger children and singing with them as children or playing instruments before you moved to Tennessee, were you largely singing hymns at the time or what would now be known as Gospel Music or Southern Gospel or some other combination of music?
Melvin Klaudt
We probably did more hymns than anything. But Mom and Dad, their ministry was planting churches for the Church of God. They would go into an area. They planted churches in Montana, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado. They planted churches on the West Coast. They planted one church in the state of Oregon.
So Mom and Dad, their early ministry was just planting churches for the Church of God. Dad would go into a farm town and he would get on the street corner and tell people that after the dance on Saturday night, when all the farmers brought their goods into the city, he would say, “On Sunday, we’re going to hold revival services.” So on Saturday night, the hall was a dance hall.
And then Sunday and Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday, however long they ran until the next Saturday night, they planted churches. And then of course, after they got one established, the Church of God would send a minister in there to pastor it.
Daniel Mount
Neat! What were some of your family’s favorite songs, favorite hymns in your childhood? Like, I don’t have a good sense of which songs reached that era, area, and were popular. What were some of the best known and loved hymns that you would sing together as a family in church or if you were performing on stage?
Melvin Klaudt
Well, some of the great songs, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” “His Name Is Wonderful,” “I Surrender All,” “I Need Thee Every Hour,” “Win the Lost at Every Cost,” “Hope for the Hopeless,” “He Hideth My Soul,” “The King and I,” “Not My Will.” And then of course, they added some of the newer ones like “Goodbye, World, Goodbye.”
One of the interesting things, when we moved south and started school back then in what they called BTS, Bible Training School, in Sevierville, Tennessee: One of the things that happened was that Cleavant Derricks, who wrote some of the greatest Southern gospel songs there is. Then an interesting thing, when we were in, he invited us with Aretha Franklin and a black choir, and he invited us to be part of that, his ministry, for a while in Nashville, Tennessee.
And so he taught us a lot of these newer songs. In fact, we did one CD of just his songs. But most of your old rip-snortin’ Southern Gospel songs were written by Cleavant Derricks, a black minister in Nashville.
Daniel Mount
Including “Just a Little Talk with Jesus,” which is one of the best known ever.
Melvin Klaudt
That’s one of them, right.
Daniel Mount
Very neat. So I think from there, it would be after that, that you met Eva Mae LeFevre. Is that correct on the timing?
Melvin Klaudt
Well, we held a revival when all of us kids were in, back then it was Lee College in Cleveland, Tennessee. And it was a junior college. And we held a revival in Hemphill Avenue Church of God in Atlanta, and the LeFevre Trio were members of that.
So at the end of our school year, we’d get out at 2:30, 3:00. Us kids would jump in the car and drive to Atlanta, to Hemphill Avenue Church of God. And we’d sing, and then we’d jump in the car and head back to Cleveland, Tennessee. And even the last Saturday night of our revival at Mount Paran Church of God, back then it was Hemphill, it is now called Mount Paran, but Hemphill, Eva Mae invited us to sing after our church service.
She helped us load everything up and head to the Atlanta Civic Auditorium. And on the second go-round, we sang. And an interesting thing, we had our suits tailored by a company in China, and we took all of our measurements. They were all the same color look. The ladies’ dresses were the same color as our suits. We had the string bow ties. And when we sang, Wally Fowler thought we were Italian.
And so they said he was back on the phone calling spaghetti companies and pizza companies, saying, “I’ve got some gospel singers singing in Italian here.” And so when he found out that we were Indians from Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, none of us had ever dressed, all we ever dressed in was jeans and cowboy boots, so none of us knew how to make Indian costumes.
And the interesting thing was he flew us, the whole family, back to the Indian reservation. And these old Indian ladies, they didn’t even know how to make Indian costumes. So they had to do history and come up with some costumes that would fit us. But it was kind of an interesting thing. That’s how we were called the Klaudt Family. And then from that day on, they referred to us as the Klaudt Indian Family because we started wearing Indian costumes.
Daniel Mount
So how did you feel about that at the time? And I can phrase this a different way. Would you have rather, would you have been perfectly happy to dress like everybody else and kind of fit in and look like everybody else? Or was it cool? Was it exciting for you to be able to show your cultural heritage?
Melvin Klaudt
Well, I think it was exciting because what we did at that time, we would do the first round in our Indian costumes. Okay. And then the second go-round, we’d come out with our regular attire that we used before we started as the Klaudt Indian Family. So it was one of the interesting things.
And of course, back then it was very, we had some gospel groups that wouldn’t even appear on the stage with us because they thought it was a gimmick. Well, I guess you could call it a gimmick. And of course, back in those days, singing was very competitive.
Daniel Mount
Yes.
Melvin Klaudt
Back in the early ’50s.
Daniel Mount
Yes. Well, looking at that from a different perspective, definitely there was a lot of competition in that era. But at the same time, we have Eva Mae, who notices you and really helps you get started, and Wally Fowler, who really notices you and helps put you on some significant stages. Is there anybody else that you remember from those days from other groups or promoters who really showed your family kindness and helped move you forward?
Melvin Klaudt
Right. The Orrells, I think the Orrells were in Michigan. They booked us. Then in Pennsylvania, you had the Couriers Quartet and the Eastman Quartet. And they booked us. They probably booked us two or three times a year in Pennsylvania.
And then of course we did some tours with the Harper Booking Agency. I’m trying to think, the other booking agency, some tours we would have them book us so we weren’t responsible. But one of the things that was interesting with us, Dad was a firm believer: if you don’t work, you don’t eat.
And some years we did over 400 dates a year. You have 365 days in a year. And we would probably do three different dates on Sunday. Sunday morning, we’d drive maybe 40, 50 miles and have an afternoon concert, and then drive another maybe 100 miles to a Sunday night.
So two or three years there, we did over 400 dates in a year.
Daniel Mount
Wow.
Melvin Klaudt
My dad was a great businessman. He was also a mechanic. Our vehicles never went into a shop. They were always maintained by Dad. He was a diesel mechanic, and he could tear down an engine in a day and rework it. He had all of his tools.
And at that time, he was also on call to other groups. If their bus broke down somewhere, they would call him and he’d jump in the car and go over and do a temporary maintenance until they could get it to a shop. So Dad was kind of a different individual, great businessman, third-grade education.
Daniel Mount
I would love at this point in the conversation to know more about the personalities of the different members of your family. And I think, if you don’t mind, since we’re already talking about him, let’s start with your dad. So he was a great businessman. He worked hard, made sure the family had a full schedule, great with the mechanical side of things also. What else stands out to you when you remember him, what his personality was like, what he was like?
Melvin Klaudt
Well, Dad, when we moved to Atlanta, Georgia, there were three or four Churches of God that never went to the bank to borrow money. They’d call Dad, and Dad would loan them the money. So he was a financier, businessman, mechanic, and he did a lot of our bookings.
It’s, he was a multi-talented individual with a third-grade education that just wanted, at 14, 15 years old, all he wanted to do was preach. But he spun off that preaching and self-taught himself in many areas of business.
Daniel Mount
Wow. What was your mother’s personality like? What was she passionate about and good at and things she loved doing, hobbies, that sort of thing?
Melvin Klaudt
Mom was a great cook. She loved to cook, and she was also a disciplinarian. I mean, if things were going wrong, and there were three kids that were acting up and one kid that wasn’t acting up, if the one that wasn’t acting up was closer, she’d smack him to scare, I guess, the hell out of the rest of us.
She was a disciplinarian. And that is Indian history. Indian women always ruled and ran the household. Mom was great at doing that.
Daniel Mount
Then I guess we would love to hear about each of your siblings. I’d love to hear what their personalities were like and what they loved to do and that sort of thing.
Melvin Klaudt
Well, the older brother Vernon was probably one of the most, they referred to him in that era of Southern Gospel music, and I even get calls now from old-timers that tell me that one of the greatest emcees ever to hit the stage was Vernon. He was very talented, not only in his personality and his ability to speak, but also to sing.
He was part of the BTS Bible Training School in Sevierville, Tennessee. He was part of the quartet, which had Calvin Newton and Jamie Hall in it. They got an offer from the New York Metropolitan, or the group who had become part of the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
And of course, to my parents, that was like one of the most sinful things that could happen, to send these 13, 14, 15-year-old kids to New York. But they just absolutely said no. But Vernon had probably one of the greatest voices.
Our sis, which was second in age, she’s 94 now. She played the trumpet. And of course, she had to live with four brothers. And so I have a hump on my nose, which she placed there with a broomstick. But she had to put up with four brothers, and of course we kidded her. So she had a real laid-back personality.
Ray, the brother just younger than myself that lives in California, he was very stoic. You hardly ever got anything out of him. And then the youngest brother, Kenneth, of course, he was an accident waiting to happen. So it was five completely different personalities that we had.
Daniel Mount
What were some of the highlights of your career? Some of the places that you were most excited perhaps to appear? Or perhaps a small service in a church that’s just memorable for a ministry or other reason? What are some of the most memorable moments from your years on stage?
Melvin Klaudt
Well, I think probably we did several tours with Wally Fowler. And we’d leave Metro Atlanta area with probably four or five other groups. And we had a period, and back then there was no such thing – well, there were motels, but mostly they were downtown city hotels. And all of our groups, we would all stay at the hotel, downtown hotel.
And during, we’d always end up in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. I’m trying to think, the Will Auditorium, I’m trying to think of the name of the auditorium, and we’d always end up there. And then of course, it was our responsibility to book our dates on the way back to Atlanta or from wherever the other groups were.
But back then it was really interesting. Your closest friends were Southern Gospel singers. Although there was competition there, there was a lot of competition there.
Daniel Mount
Yes.
Melvin Klaudt
And I hear from a lot of old Southern Gospel singers that used to sing. There’s still a few bouncing around out there.
Daniel Mount
You mentioned these were some of your best friends in part because you’re on the road around the year and these are some of the few people that you see consistently. Who were some of your best friends in music in those days?
Melvin Klaudt
Of course, the LeFevres, the Speer family, we were very close to the Speer family. Of course, the Blackwoods and the Statesmen. Hovie Lister was a great friend of ours, and Hovie pastored a church in west Georgia. And when he’d come in, he would always invite me to come in and participate in some of his services when he got back into west Georgia.
I guess, you know, Eastman Quartet, the Couriers, probably. And I’m trying to think of some of the other groups that were out there. A lot of the groups back in those days aren’t even in existence anymore.
Daniel Mount
Do you have any favorite stories you’d like to tell from your time on the road? Whether those are funny stories or whether they’re ministry-oriented stories of how God might have used your music in an unexpected way?
Melvin Klaudt
We did a tour with the Travelers Quartet out of Greer, South Carolina. And we sang at an auditorium, and the next morning we had two dates there. And the next morning we got up and we went down, and it was a horseshoe eating area, and you kind of had chairs all around you.
And the Bunch twins, they sang tenor for the Travelers. And we were down there telling stories. And of course those girls behind the counter there was frying our eggs and pancakes and so on. We had them in stitches, just telling stories.
Of course, one of the Bunch brothers was down there, and they talked real high. So the one Bunch brother was down there eating, and about 15 minutes later his brother came down and sat down, and the one girl behind said, “Good Lord Almighty, there’s two of them!”
There’s two of them. But I mean, one of the interesting things that we laugh about all the time, we had Don Light Booking Agency book us one summer. And I don’t know if they did this on purpose, but we laugh. Every time I’d get around that agency and some of the people, we’d laugh about it.
But they booked us in Paradise, Michigan, which was way up in the northern part of Michigan. Then they booked us in Hell, southern Michigan. So we sang in Paradise in the morning and sang in Hell at night. We’d get together and laugh about that. He would say, “Tell us about the Don Light booking.”
There’s so many interesting stories out there. Some of the funniest people in the world weren’t purposely comedians, but you had a lot of these old gospel singers that were just hilarious.
Daniel Mount
Yes, yes, definitely. Your group continued to sing into the ’70s, or really was it closer to the ’80s when you started winding down touring?
Melvin Klaudt
We started winding down in the late seventies, and then we retired completely in 1982. All of us went into different areas. Two of our brothers went into teaching. One taught at Duluth, Georgia Middle School, and the other brother taught at Tritt Elementary in Georgia. Vernon was a principal at one or two schools in Gwinnett County.
But then I hated education, so I went into construction. My younger brother was in insurance, and he retired. He had his own insurance agency. And then I did construction until, let’s see, the early 2000s.
My brother was on the board of directors at the gospel TV station, WATC TV in Atlanta, Georgia, actually Norcross, Georgia, when they first started. Then when he retired, they asked me to be on the board. And of course, I have my weekly television program that is going into its seventeenth year.
Most of us, although we weren’t directly involved in ministry, we always kept indirectly involved in ministry. Sometimes we’d all get together in the summer, especially when the two teachers didn’t have to teach. We’d still get together and maybe do a remembrance tour around. Mostly we were not directly involved in ministry, but indirectly.
Daniel Mount
Yes, you mentioned your TV show. That was one of the things I wanted to make sure I mentioned before wrapping up. What is the name of the show and where can people watch that show?
Melvin Klaudt
They can Google WATC 57 live stream, WATC TV 57 live stream. And the program is viewed on WATC TV Saturdays at 12:30 and Sundays at 3:00.
They can watch it either Saturday or Sunday. And it’s called “Just Keep Singing.” We’re closing in on a fast-approaching 600 programs. It’s going into a 17th year of continuous running. Wikipedia says it’s probably one of the longest-running Southern Gospel programs in history. So it’s an interesting program.
We use all of the old gospel singers, Blackwood, Statesmen, LeFevres, Speer Family, all of the old-timers, and then of course a lot of your newer groups. And with 600 programs, we’ve probably used over 100 different groups during that period of time.
But it’s strictly Southern Gospel. I hosted it for about 12 years, and then I brought on a co-host, a young lady, and she’s our co-host. We spend probably three to five minutes on the front just talking about, she’s kind of a walking Bible, and she puts a spiritual emphasis on one of the songs. Then probably 80% of the program is just Southern Gospel singing.
Daniel Mount
Neat! All right, there are two or three more things I’d like to mention before we wrap up. One is that your family did a reunion performance, and I believe it was 1996 at the Grand Old Gospel Reunion. That’s still available on YouTube. I plan to link to that in the show notes so people can watch that. Was that the only reunion-type concert you did in that era, or were you doing other reunion small tours even into the ’90s?
Melvin Klaudt
Charlie Waller was an interesting individual. We did a lot of programs with Charlie, and he was a great friend of ours. Probably the last thing, and this was after all of us had retired, he just called us and said, “I want you to be a part of our program.” So we put some songs together and helped him out on one of his programs.
Daniel Mount
Neat! Another thing I wanted to mention was the work your family did for a number of years with the Klaudt Indian Foundation, which I was familiar with because I actually helped you with some edits for that like 20 years ago, I guess it’s been. But could you describe your work and the goals that you had with the Klaudt Indian Foundation?
Melvin Klaudt
Well, through the foundation, we presented scholarships to the Lee Singers. We probably sponsored seven or eight of the Lee Singers at Cleveland, Tennessee. We sponsored a scholarship at the University of Georgia. I’m trying to think of the school in Texas that we, and then of course we always did singing schools.
So we sponsored scholarships to a bunch of kids in the Texas School of Music, Ben Speer School of Music in Tennessee, North Georgia School of Music, the Alabama School of Music. And we sponsored kids, and the school would call us and say, “We’ve got three or four kids that want to attend, and we need a sponsor for them.”
So through our foundation, we became sponsors to three or four kids that would want to go but couldn’t afford it.
Daniel Mount
Yes. Okay, that’s great. And then the last specific thing I wanted to make sure I mentioned was that your mother was elected to the Southern Gospel Hall of Fame in 2004, which sadly was a couple of years after she passed away, I believe. And then you were elected in 2020. And I’d just love to hear your reactions to hearing that your mother was elected and then upon hearing of your own election as well.
Melvin Klaudt
Well, it’s, you know, the Lord has really blessed me. I probably, and you know, if you gear in on what people think of you and all of these Hall of Fames, I’m in the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame, the Tri-State Hall of Fame in Port O’Go Fork, Georgia, the SGMA Hall of Fame, I’m in the Who’s Who of America.
You know, there’s just so many things that for some reason God has blessed me with, all of these. But if you look at that, that is what man thinks of you. If you eye in on what man thinks of you, you lose sight of what God thinks of you.
And so all of these Hall of Fame things are important in a person’s life, but it’s only because of God’s blessings on you that you’ve been able to afford that. There’s so many gospel singers now, and I hate to say this, but there’s so many gospel singers that I get calls and text messages, “Can you help me be the number one tenor?” Or “Can you help me be the number one bass?” Or “Can you help us be the number one singing group?”
So it’s one of those things that is important because it indirectly and probably directly helps you to minister, because people say, “I know them because they’re in this hall of fame. They were number one,” et cetera. So it’s one of those things that is very important in your life. But it’s not the most important thing. The most important thing is planting seed, just always knowing that you plant the seed, but the harvest belongs to Him.
Daniel Mount
Amen. That is so well said!
All right. As we wrap up, is there anything else that you’d like to share with the listeners? Whether it be about the history of the Klaudt Indian Family, what you’re doing today, and anything else I didn’t ask you about that maybe I should have, or maybe you’d like to mention?
Melvin Klaudt
One of the things I do now, I help other ministries raise funds for their ministry. And I’m on call this weekend. I’ll be presenting some information to the Church of God Historical Society in Cleveland, Tennessee. But we still, I’m involved in the Southern Baptist denomination, and of course anywhere people need me.
You know, at age 93, I have to be careful that I don’t drive four, five, six hundred miles one way to speak and then drive back for 500 miles just for one speaking engagement. So I have to kind of pick and choose where I go. But I don’t mind driving 100, 200 miles to help a ministry of some kind.
Daniel Mount
Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for coming on this evening, for your time and sharing the story of your family. I’ve been somewhat familiar with your family’s story for years, but there was a lot in here that I had never heard before. And it was just a real delight to learn more about it. Thank you.
Melvin Klaudt
Well, I appreciate it so much. And you take care, and I really appreciate our conversation.
Daniel Mount
Thank you so much.
And I’ll just conclude the podcast recording by saying to the listener, thank you for listening to Southern Gospel Journal. You can keep up with the latest episodes on YouTube, Facebook, your favorite podcast platform, or on southerngospeljournal.com. Thank you for listening.