Joseph’s Alabaster Box

Joseph Kennedy was born in 1927 in Bristol, Virginia. He loved Sunday school and taught Sunday school at age 11. While active in the Boy Scouts, in which he rose to Life Scout, he volunteered for the Army Air Corps, and served in Germany during W. W. II. In 1954 he and Opal Pearl Begley married. They had three sons. He took his family to Chattanooga, Tennessee where he earned a B.A. in Bible and history at Tennessee Temple University. Over the next years he was principal/teacher at four Christian schools and a state school before being fired in 1980 for teaching Bible in his classroom.

While teaching school he earned a Master’s at the University of Alabama, and a D.C. Ed. from Freedom Seminary. He was principal of four Christian schools, two of which he set up. The two schools he organized are now very successful, while two are defunct. Trinity Christian in Chattanooga had more than a thousand students while he was there. Coosa Christian and Forrest Park Christian schools are large and thriving.

During his school teaching years he developed a ministry to Sunday school bus children. He dressed as a clown and went on roller skates, carrying a crutch, and ringing a bell, helping bus workers enroll boy and girls for Sunday school. During Sunday school he did "magic" tricks, and then preached, using large wooden figures on a platform to illustrate the stories he was telling. He was "Dr. K., the story preacher." Two of these events were attended by more than six hundred middle school kids, and more than half of them made professions of faith.

After his termination he took a job driving over-the-road trucks until his retirement. Then he made two trips: one to Latvia where he taught Bible in high school, and the second to Siberia where he taught Bible and creation in Russian universities. Upon returning home he wrote and published several books. He also developed a creation ministry which reached many people with the creation story. He used slides to illustrate the difference in creation and evolution. During this time he maintained a daily radio broadcast on FBN, reaching all over the world.

He now gives full time to writing and publishing his books under the name The Alabaster Box. Today he and Pearl are enjoying their work, and their three sons, six grandchildren, and their families, including great granddaughter Hannah Kate. All are sound in mind and character, and love the Lord.

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