Joe Watson: Mercy and grace

LCC is the church home for many people who grew up far from central New Hampshire, but Joe Watson is definitely a quintessential Yankee. He was born in Laconia, and still lives there today, in the same house where he grew up. Joe is a commercial truck driver, husband, and father of seven children. He is a member of the church leadership, serving as a deacon. Intercessory prayer is one of Joe’s gifts, and if you visit LCC, you will notice that it is Joe who leads the congregation in corporate prayer during every Sunday worship service. If you happen to come during the holidays, the Christmas tree will be from Joe’s family Christmas tree farm, Watson Farm in Belmont.

The call of God on Joe’s life was something he remembers perceiving as a boy. “I loved listening to Billy Graham preach,” he says of the evangelist’s many television crusades. “When Billy Graham quoted the scriptures, I felt like it was God talking.” Joe would listen to the messages, but would always shut the TV off when Graham would give the altar call at the end, saying the appeal to respond to the gospel message would always leave him a little “uncomfortable.”

By the time Joe was 18, he had gotten hold of a copy of David Wilkerson’s book The Cross and the Switchblade, and felt further drawn to God as a result of reading it. The year was 1970, and David Wilkerson was coming to Laconia to speak at the Colonial Theater. Joe went. He says that looking back now, he can’t recall the specifics of Wilkerson’s talk, but at the end of the evening, an appeal was made for any who wished to begin following Jesus Christ to leave their seats and come forward. Joe says he had no intention of going forward, but God was drawing him. The only way he is able to describe his experience is that he felt like Someone grabbed him, picked him up, and brought him forward with about 50 other people. “All I can say is that Someone with a lot of authority was bringing me into His camp.”

From that moment, his life began to take a God-ward direction. He started attending a local weekly Bible study and began exploring what God wanted him to do with his life. At the suggestion of a friend, he packed up his car and drove to Tulsa, Oklahoma to begin attending Trinity Bible College. He was there for two years, where he learned and grew, but says it was primarily a time of faith-building. “More than anything else,” says Joe, “ I saw the Lord move.”

In the years since he came home from Bible college, Joe has participated in local mission work (where he got his truck-driving experience for his CDL) and church work. He has a desire to use his experiences of God’s mercy and grace in His life to lift up others. His faithful presence as a valued brother at LCC, his manner of quiet encouragement, and his willingness to minister to his brothers and sisters testify of the power of the Lord to keep those who follow Him. “God’s grace has allowed me to go through some really tough circumstances-- and yet He has never let me go.”