Joel Thurman Braughton

Joel Thurman Braughton of Hot Springs, Arkansas, passed away to begin new life in eternity on March 9, 2020, at the age of 60. Joel was born September 5, 1959, in Hot Springs. The oldest son of Southern Baptist Missionaries Thurman and Kathie Braughton, Joel grew up alongside siblings Dan, Carol Ruth, and Sam. The family moved to Penang, Malaysia, when he was nine, where he attended school at Minden Barracks, a school for British Military Dependents in Penang, and later began High School at Singapore International School. He graduated High School from Gurdon High School in Arkansas, and made Hot Springs his home shortly thereafter. Music was a lifelong love for Joel. He had a beautiful tenor voice and loved playing guitar. He first learned to play at fourteen while living with his family in Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia, on the island of Borneo, and loved sitting outside on the stairwell with local boys who taught him to play. Through this early learning experience, Joel learned a unique style of guitar picking that he never encountered anywhere else. In the early 1980s, Joel played rhythm guitar with Sweetwater, a Christian Rock band in Hot Springs, and often played guitar in the background at family gatherings. He passed his love of music and guitar along to his sons, with whom he enjoyed many jam sessions. Growing up in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Joel was sometimes fondly referred to as The Hippie of the family, often sporting a full beard and long hair. He loved to tell how while in High School and living overseas, he hired a tailor in Singapore to custom make bell bottom pants that, being 42" wide at the bottom, were the biggest bell bottom jeans in school. Joel was a genuine lover of people, which he reflected at all places of employment, including The Arlington Hotel, Pak Plaza Pawn Shop, and Quality Pawn. He cultivated an expertise in pricing and valuation of both guitars and guns, and was known for assessing values accurately. Over the years, he was involved in ministry to people in dire circumstances at The Oasis Christian Coffee Shop in downtown Hot Springs, and also acted in various roles and support positions with The Witness. A congenial conversationalist, compelling story teller, and purveyor of many bad jokes, Joel never met a stranger. He taught his sons to be discerning about people - not to rely on a predetermined definition, but to see where God was working in someones life, and to consider others as children of God regardless of external guise. An avid reader, Joel brought the book series The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis, to his family before it became popular in the United States. Even as a youngster, Joel readily identified the Lion Aslan as Jesus Christ and was happy to introduce Aslan to his family and later to his sons as they read the books together. In the ups and downs of life, Gods great forgiveness was a bedrock of Joels life. His vivid personal illustration of Gods forgiveness was as seeing his sin in a bundle being hurled by Christ into a sea of forgetfulness. The bundle, great as it might be, never made a splash or a ripple, the result of being made free by the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Joel is preceded in death and joyfully welcomed home by his father, Charles Thurman Braughton, and his brother, Dan Braughton. Those left to honor his memory are his sons, Bryn and Micah, both of Hot Springs; his mother, Kathie Braughton, of Hot Springs; sister, Carol Ruth Duncan and husband Royce of Benton, Arkansas; brother, Sam Braughton and wife Paula of Lewisville, Texas; sister-in-law, Melissa Braughton of Blue Ridge, Texas; and the mother of his sons, Tanni Braughton, of Waco, Texas. Remembering Joel as a fine uncle are Jacob, Caleb, Benjamin, Nathan, Abbie, and Aaron. Services to be held at 10:00 am, Saturday, March 14, 2020, at Park Place Baptist Church, Hot Springs, Arkansas, Pastor Coy Sample, officiating. The family requests that in lieu of flowers Joel be remembered through memorials in his memory to the International Mission Board, 3806 Monument Avenue, Richmond, VA 23230. Arrangements are under the direction of Davis-Smith Funeral Home, Hot Springs. Guest registry is at www.davis-smith.com.