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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Gary Horton, an Army Ranger and motivational speaker, holds a handful of challenge coins with a verse that reads “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved...” as he sits in a community room at the Trussville Civic Center on Dec. 30.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Gary Horton, an Army Ranger and motivational speaker, holds a challenge coin in a community room at the Trussville Civic Center.
The Vietnam War was taking so long, but instead of criticizing from the stands, Gary Horton opted to get in the game.
Horton joined the United States Army at 31 years old. He had ROTC experience from his high school years in Indiana, and that was that.
“They gave me a stripe,” Horton said.
Horton joined in 1972 and served through 1977. He went through Airborne School — he has 26 jumps to his name, including near the Panama Canal — and later Ranger School, one of the most challenging military schools in the U.S. He was part of a Ranger company then a Ranger battalion.
When Horton left the Army, he moved back to Houston, where he took a job with Chrysler selling cars. Four Army recruiters came by one day to ask him to help them recruit. Specifically, they wanted him at their booth to see if people could “take on” an Army Ranger. At the event, Horton noticed a poster depicting Uncle Sam holding a wad of cash. He took offense. He told the recruiters they were on the defense instead of offense, and needed to get into schools to tell a truer story, to motivate the youth to consider the challenge of giving back to their country. The recruiters then, essentially, recruited Horton to speak in schools.
He left from Houston one Friday morning and spoke at three schools near Waco. By the following Monday, more school principals were booking him to speak. When the dealership he was working at shut down, Horton decided to speak and recruit full time. It was 1978. Horton, who has called Trussville home for the last 30 years, has been traveling to schools ever since.
“I saw the country up close,” said Horton, who estimated he has traveled to about 8,000 schools in 46 states. “I was everywhere. I never thought I’d get out of Texas, personally.”
He never asked for money. He believed God would take care of his needs. The American Freedom Assembly is what he called the people who helped him along the way.
“If you’ll pray that God will open doors, and if I get enough people praying, then I’ll find enough people who start to give because they see the potential and they see that the needs are there,” Horton said. “That’s how I’ve survived all this time.”
After about 40 years of traveling to schools, Horton, now 79, started to see a decrease in bookings. He said it started to close in on him when schools began to limit Christian speakers.
“I was never going to speak without giving credit to my Lord,” he said. “There was no way I was going to ignore the one thing we need more than anything else, and that is our faith.”
Like a true military man, however, Horton didn’t abort mission. He adapted and found new ways to see his mission through. At a youth camp in Arizona many years ago, a man gave Horton some aluminum coins with “America is the land of the free as long as it remains the home of the brave” printed on one side and “John 3:16” stamped on the other. That man supplies Horton with coins to this day. Horton’s coins state, on one side, “Thousands died for our freedom but only one died for our soul” and on the flip side, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.”
Horton keeps his trunk loaded with the coins to hand out at every opportunity, to veterans sitting down to a meat and three at the Cracker Barrel, to men on motorcycles in the parking lot. He has handed out 50 or so at the Trussville Civic Center in only a few months of being a member. There, some call him “the coin guy.” He approaches all these strangers the same way: “Can I ask you a question? If thousands died for our freedom, who died for our soul?”
“I’m always looking for targets of opportunity because I want to make sure that everywhere I go I run into people who are either prepared for eternity or not prepared,” Horton said. “I tell them that eternity is along time to be wrong. It’s a wonderful way to connect with people spiritually.”
Horton estimated that he has given out between 200,000 and 300,000 of the coins over the years. The back of his business card includes his version of John 3:16,which he believes rings in people’s souls when he quotes it to them.
“I’m always looking for a chance,” he said. “The opportunities are unbelievable if you’re willing to be available. I’m eager to be a voice for the Lord.”
That eagerness continues, even at 79, even though this COVID-19 pandemic that has slowed his travel to schools, churches and other locations. Again, he’s adapting. Friends are helping him connect to groups via social media and in other ways.
“I’m just looking to the Lord for open doors,” Horton said. “‘Lord, where will you have me go? What will you have me do?’ I’m not ready to quit. I’m never going to quit. I’m not going to retire. As long as I’ve got a message, I want to give it.”
