Local fishing star has a ‘big string’ of blessings
Story by Paul South Submitted photos
For most, in fishing terms, 2020 was an empty net, a snapped rod or a snarled line. But the past 12 months witnessed a string of blessings for Zeke Gossett.
As a member of the Jacksonville State University Fishing Team, Gossett was one of the nation’s top collegiate anglers. Teamed with fellow Gamecock Lucas Smith, he was part of the Carhartt Bassmaster College Team of the Year. In December, he received his degree in Recreational Leadership with a minor in Coaching. He joined the B.A.S.S. Pro Tour. And best tidings of all, his parents, Curtis and Laura, are recovering from the coronavirus.
“It was terrible,” Zeke told bassmaster.com about his parents’ illness. Curtis Gossett, who suffers from asthma, wound up on a ventilator. “One day, they tried to take the tube out, and it didn’t work. The next day, by the grace of God, his numbers went up to where he was strong enough to get the tube out. I just want to thank everyone for the prayers. Him and Mom are on the uptrend and doing a lot better.”
‘Gone fishing’ a way of life
On a windless day in early December, Zeke was in a boat on Logan Martin, working his craft. Fishing was slow, perfect for a phone interview. He recounted his unusual, but magical year.
Zeke and Lucas, Bassmaster College Team of the Year
Like many youngsters, his fishing journey began with his father, who also competed on the tournament trail. He was his coach at Pell City High School and now coaches at Briarwood.
“He was always real patient with me,” Zeke said. “I loved spending time with him, of course. But fishing has always been a part of my life and our family’s life for sure.”
He added, “Just having a dad that spent the time with me – junior fishing and high school fishing were just starting to become popular. I grew up in it. Doing it from a young age, I love the competition. No drug can get you as high as winning a tournament, big or small.”
His parents have been with him on this journey to the professional ranks, particularly Curtis, who has spent “countless hours” and at every tournament, every weigh-in on the journey.
“They’ve always supported me in my dream to become a professional angler,” Zeke said. “They’ve always wanted me to do this ever since I said I wanted to. They are definitely my biggest supporters, bar none, to this day.”
He didn’t disappoint. Zeke captured 12 state titles between ages 11 and 18 on the way to becoming a high school All-American. In fact, he won the first two tournaments he ever fished as a junior angler (B.A.S.S. And FLW). As you can guess, he was hooked.
At the collegiate level, Jacksonville State competed against SEC schools. There are no divisions, so schools compete against each other, regardless of size.
“We fished against everybody. Auburn, Alabama, people like that,” he said.
Competing first at Jefferson State, then for Jacksonville, his teams were nationally ranked four times in five years. Jacksonville’s best finish was 16th nationally.
Zeke fished his first tournament as a pro in December 2020, finishing in the middle of the pack among some 170 anglers in the B.A.S.S. Open Series on Lay Lake. But he won’t officially join the tour until the 2021 season. He’s come up through the B.A.S.S. ranks, from juniors, to college and now to the pros, fishing lakes from Upstate New York to Florida.
He will compete on the B.A.S.S. Pro Tour, and he laid out his reasons for joining B.A.S.S. “The people that work there, I love them to death. B.A.S.S. offers steppingstones from juniors to high school – then the college experience. Taking part in all they offer really taught me a lot – especially the college experience – I believe this is best way for an angler to learn. If you want to do this as a profession one day, that is the way to go.”
He added, “I really feel like B.A.S.S. prepares you the best of any of the organizations, and I feel like sticking with them is the right choice. Their grassroots are here in Alabama.”
After only one tournament, Zeke sees a difference between college and the pros. There’s a similarity between pro fishing and pro football.
A quiet fishing spot along
the shore
“It’s pretty much the same deal,” he explained. “Everybody’s bigger and faster. You can be pretty dominant in high school. In college, you’re fishing against your buddies. You get to kick around and stuff, and it’s a great time, and you don’t feel much pressure. When I sat down in the boat at the Open and I looked over, and Jason Christie is to my left, and he’s won about everything in the sport, and I look to my right, and there’s Scott Martin, who’s won about everything in the sport. The intensity level in a pro tournament is a lot higher than I expected it to be … The competitiveness of those tournaments is through the roof compared to where I’ve ever fished.”
Even as a rookie on tour, Zeke has landed endorsement deals from Xpress Boats®, Woods Surfside Marina, Daiwa rods and reels, Vicious Fishing®, Elite Tungsten and LakeLife 24/7®, the creators of Discover magazine.
Through it all, the Gossetts have been there. Professional fishing is a precision sport that in part requires competitors to consistently cast a lure in a spot the size of a paper cup and do it quietly without much splash. Zeke learned those techniques from his dad.
Experience on the water and not losing heart when that big bass gets away are critical. As a high school senior, he fished 43 of 52 weekends.
And as for the mental side, “When you lose a big fish in a tournament, don’t get down on yourself, that’s one of the biggest things you have to do when it comes to tournament fishing,” Zeke said. “That’s all between the ears.”
That’s a lesson Zeke learned well. He knows vision and goals are critical to long-term success on the tour.
What’s his vision for life on tour after five years on the water? “I’d love to see myself fishing the Bassmaster Elite Series. You can’t go any higher. I’d like to have won a tournament by then.”
Even at 24, he knows how tough the waters of pro fishing can be. “They did a study and determined the odds of winning a B.A.S.S. tournament is .05 percent, once you hit the water,” Gossett said. “So, it’s really hard. But maybe I’ll have a couple of wins and maybe an Angler of the Year title. You got to shoot high for sure.”
Today’s destination is the corner of 19th Street South and 7th Avenue, the location of First Baptist Church South, hereafter FBC South. Organized by ex-slaves and their families, this church has served Pell City for 119 years.
During antebellum days, slaves worshiped together with whites, but in separate areas. When freedom came, Blacks continued worshiping interracially for a while. In Uplifting the People: Three Centuries of Black Baptists in Alabama, Wilson Fallin Jr. writes, “After emancipation, many Blacks began to leave white churches and form their own congregations. … By 1874, the year in which reconstruction ended in Alabama, the process of separation was complete….
“A desire for independence and …the opportunity to worship as they desired motivated Blacks to establish their own churches. …Blacks wanted a setting in which they could listen to and react to their own preachers, singing, dancing, and shouting in their own church.” This gave the freedmen “some measure of freedom over their lives and the opportunity to develop pride and self-respect. … These churches provided former slaves with a caring community.”
This freedom resulted in Blooming Light Baptist Church in Seddon. The former slaves who organized this church probably first met in homes, but by 1881, they officially organized as Blooming Light.
They soon joined Rushing Springs Association which served churches in Coosa, St. Clair and Calhoun counties. According to The Cyclopedia of the Colored Baptists in Alabama, Their Leaders and Their Work by Charles Octavius Boothe, by 1895, there were 6,500 Black Baptist in this Association.
Now, picture Pell City in 1901. The booklet, Hon. Sumter Cogswell and His Service as Founder of Pell City, Alabama, records that the town had one grocery store, the Cornett House Hotel and a train station for three railways traveling through. No highways – instead, “the principal artery of travel being the road from Eden to Cropwell to Talladega and Anniston.” The town progressed, and by 1902, a second St. Clair County Courthouse stood in Pell City.
By 1900, Blacks had formed a community south of today’s Cogswell Avenue and the railroad, establishing homes from today’s 19th Street South to U.S. 231. Many of these families belonged to Blooming Light Baptist, the nearest Black church.
Many ministers had a circuit of four churches, preaching once a month to each congregation. Pell City members of Blooming Light walked to church, and bad weather on Sundays hindered attendance.
By 1902, Pell City’s Black community had enough Baptists to form a church. Therefore, several Blooming Light members requested dismissal from that church so they could organize their own.
A typescript history of FBC South names some who met to organize: “Bro. C.J. Collins and wife, Coline; Rev. A.Z. Beavers and wife, Mary; Bro. Sam Collins and wife, Mary; Bro. Joe Collins; Bro. Joe Lawson and others.” The group chose the name Union Baptist Church with Rev. J.T. Chatman as pastor. This meeting took place “… at the old House of Knowledge School. …on U.S. Highway 231 North of the Alacare Center location where the home of Bro. Dibb (and Millie) Curry…was located.”
The Currys
The Currys’ granddaughter, Josephine Curry Watson, grew up in their home and called them “Mama and Papa.” “They were plain people who stayed home and took care of the household,” she recalled. “They didn’t have problems with anyone.”
She remembered their home as a welcoming one where visitors sought advice from Dibb. “I got my values from them,” she reflected. “I learned the Bible from them, and today, I’m a teacher and a missionary. They were good people.” This describes a stable, “salt-of-the-earth” family and probably describes other families who formed Union Baptist/FBC South.
Union Baptist soon joined the Colored Baptist Association, which served churches in Shelby and St. Clair counties. Today, the Association’s name is Mt. Zion Coosa Valley Association.
Sometime after 1902, Union Baptist purchased a lot on 19th Street South and constructed the building where New Beginnings Baptist Church holds services now. The church history records that, in 1934, “…the church was rebuilt on the site and was named the First Baptist Church of Pell City.” Rev. M.H. Sims was pastor.
Community news in TheSt. Clair News-Aegis regularly reported church activities, as shown in this of Jan. 31, 1952, “Rev. M.H. Sims, pastor of the First Baptist Church, Pell City, preached his farewell sermon last Sunday. He has pastored here for 23 years and is the oldest minister in the district.”
After Rev. Sims, Rev. R.E. Avery pastored for a few years. The St. Clair News-Aegis of Oct. 13, 1955, reported, “Sunday October 9th was a grand day at the First Baptist Church in Pell City. Rev. R.E. Avery, pastor, preached a wonderful sermon. His text was ‘Stay on the ship or you will be lost.’ Sunday afternoon the church held Appreciation Day for R.E. Avery.” Remembered as a dynamic speaker, Rev. Avery pastored until 1955.
About two years later, Rev. W.F. Poole began his 19-year ministry and worked for racial unity in Pell City during that time. On Oct. 19, 1962, The St. Clair News-Aegis published this letter from Rev. Poole:
“To the Citizens of Pell City: Please allow me this space to express my gratitude to all our white and colored friends for the fine support we have received during my five years of pastoring in the city of Pell City.
“I have worked in other places, but at no other place I’ve worked have I received any better cooperation. …
“Let us continue with peace between the races and the cooperation we have enjoyed in the past. Rev. W.F. Poole (Colored), Pastor First Baptist Church Pell City.”
Rev. Ronnie C. Beavers accepted the pastorate of the church Feb. 2, 1976. Under his leadership, the church expanded its ministries, updated the sanctuary and purchased property for future expansion.
Marion Frazier remembers well many of these pastors. Rev. Avery baptized her in the outside baptistry the deacons had recently dug and lined. “I was baptized in August of 1952, and he stayed, I believe, until 1955. He was a dynamic preacher. … He would end his sermons by singing a hymn, and the congregation would sing with him.”
Of Rev. W.F. Poole, Mrs. Frazier said, “I remember him and his wife and children very well. He was instrumental in our church because he loved singing hymns. He often closed his sermons with a hymn. His favorite hymn was In a Time Like This, I Need the Lord to Help Me.
“Rev. Poole came in ’56 or ’57 and stayed for 19 years. He worked for unity among the races, and we had a good relationship. We had associations with First Baptist here in Pell City on the north side. That’s where the distinction of FBC South came in; they were First Baptist North.”
“Rev. Beavers came in 1976 and stayed until 2000,” she recalled. During his ministry, he organized The R.C. Beavers’ Singers. Rev. Beavers loved to sing.” Under his leadership, the church choirs recorded an album.
Mrs. Frazier loves her church and enjoys recalling its history and events. Known in Pell City as an exceptional singer herself, she spoke fondly of their Choir Anniversaries. Observed every September, FBC South invited choirs from throughout the district to participate. Choir member Billy Joe Robinson, Dibb and Minnie Curry’s grandson, sang with the Star Lights of Pell City and often invited choirs from outside the district. These concerts filled the church to capacity.
District churches observe yearly homecomings, and they have arranged for each church to hold celebrations on different Sunday so congregations can celebrate together. Celebrating together results in unity and cooperation. FBC South has Homecoming the second Sunday in August.
On Oct. 18, 1981, FBC South celebrated its 79th anniversary. The memorial booklet for that event contains observations by pastor Rev. Ronnie C. Beavers, who gives praise and thanksgiving to God for the church. It also records historical events and a rich pictorial history with names under the photos. Rev. Beavers conducted the regular worship hour after which the congregation enjoyed a meal together. The afternoon service included Deacon Charles Jones singing the chosen anniversary hymn, Guide Me Oh Thou Great Jehovah, and Rev. Samuel Turner of Union Springs Baptist Church, Talladega, preaching the sermon.
In the memorial booklet, Rev. Beavers wrote, “We are truly grateful to God our Heavenly Father for those who toiled and labored so hard before us in breaking the ground to establish the foundation of this church which is dedicated to the up-building of God’s kingdom. Surely, He has smiled on us down through the years as even the old patriots continued to worship Him after having walked to the church in the rain, sunshine, sleet, and snow. Now, we, the present generation, must continue to move forward with that same spirit of determination to meet the need of a sinful world by spreading the message of Jesus Christ. This is the task of the church, and we dedicate and rededicate ourselves to accepting the challenge that the Lord has put before us ….”
Prayer at the groundbreaking in 2002
Rev. Beavers concluded his remarks by thanking the church for working untiringly during his six years of his ministry and concluded, “I ask you to join me in looking to the Hills from whence cometh our help to seek the future directions through the grace of God that has brought us safe thus far and that His same grace will lead us on.”
Rev. Beavers’ comments for that 79th anniversary spoke of the past, present and future. Under his ministry, the church purchased the property on the corner of 7th Avenue and 19th Street South for constructing a larger sanctuary. In 2000, at the end of his 24 years as pastor, the church stood ready, through God’s grace, to plan for a new sanctuary.
In a special service on Jan.12, 2002, under Rev. Elliot T. Ivey’s ministry, the church broke ground for their new building. Goodgame Co. of Pell City did the work, and construction progressed steadily month by month. Goodgame completed their work in October 2002 in time for First Baptist’s 100th anniversary.
And what a celebration that was for church members and their friends! The Goodgame family, construction workers, Pell City mayor and city officials attended and joined the congregation’s afternoon walk from the old building to the new one for a dedication worship service.
Mrs. Frazier recalls, “We got congratulation letters from the State of Alabama, the governor and local officials. We framed those, and they hang on the church walls today.”
Among the papers about First Baptist on file at the Pell City Library is a page titled, A Prayer for Our New Sanctuary, which reads in part:
“Thou gracious and giving God…,We thank Thee for having given to our predecessors the vision and will to provide the church which has served us so far. Because of their devotion and Thy blessings our church family has outgrown the work of their hands. …
“We would build wisely and so well that long years hence our sons and daughters may gratefully say, ‘See! This our forefathers builded for us.’
“In HIS NAME, who loves us and gave Himself for us, we pray. Amen.”
George Forman grew up in this church and said of Rev. Elliot T. Ivey, “He was the most electrifying preacher I ever heard.” Forman also told how FBC South deacons mentored him as a boy. “My father died when I was one year old. Mr. Tobe Williams, Mr. William Matthews and Mr. Virgil Oden took me under their wings and taught me about life – what’s right and what’s wrong, how to respect and be respected, how to love your fellow man, how to go through life treating people. If people mistreat you, don’t go back and try to do the same thing to them; just believe in the Lord, cause, ‘Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.’ They went out of their way to spend time with me. And Mr. M.C. McCoy was a businessman who taught me that education was essential.
“All those men were a blessing to me. They didn’t have a high school education, but they had more than a high school education. And they shared it.” That’s high praise for any man, but especially so for the deacon body of a church.
Twenty-four-year-old Christopher Evans II joined Forman in the interview, and both spoke of taking part in Christmas and Easter programs at church. Forman said that participating in these music and drama programs “… was like living what you’d been taught. You act it out and it’s gonna stick with you.” Christopher agreed, saying that for young people, the dramas “… helped us understand what was going on.” He added that sometimes “young people don’t like to read,” and the programs helped them understand the Bible. Mrs. Frazier directed the drama, and the late Ronnie White the music for these programs.
One of Christopher’s favorite times as a youth was yearly Vacation Bible School at FBC South. “That was the best thing,” he recalled. “We always went to Boys’ and Girls’ Club, and we just went from there to Vacation Bible School where you learned different things.” Other churches took part, so there was fellowship among the congregations at these events.
The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic curtailed in-person worship services, which precluded the joy and comfort in corporate fellowship. At FBC South, beginning in March, worship was streamed online, but by autumn 2020, the deacons and choir members were meeting each Sunday with Dr. Wilson to stream the service. The pandemic prevented these yearly events in 2020.
Dr. Wilson, pastor since 2007, recently reflected upon this unprecedented situation:
“In the midst of this COVID-19 pandemic, it is no secret that many people are suffering or experiencing loss in some way. The same holds true for the believer. Fear, stress and hopelessness have gripped many homes, even the households of Christians.
“As we endure this season in which social and spiritual interactions have been greatly thwarted, not by choice but rather by circumstances that are beyond our human control, we have been forced to make many adjustments in our daily lives.
“Consequently, the church, in these times of uncertainty, has also had to make adjustments. We understand that congregants have an affinity for joining hearts and hands and worshipping God together. Yet, this pandemic has placed a great strain on the church. No longer is it deemed ‘safe’ for large groups to congregate. This definite lack of socialization has caused some to suffer more than others.
“As a pastor, it has always been my job to guide and uplift the people of God through whatever season of life they are experiencing. There are more seeking this pastoral direction than ever before, and I must admit, facing so many obstacles has become a daunting challenge. It is sometimes hard ‘reaching’ to your congregants when the physical doors of the church are closed because we understand that the spiritual doors of the church are always open, along with other measures in place due to this pandemic.
“However, we understand that the spiritual doors of the church are always open, making way for the obstacles to become opportunities through continual prayer. As I strive to continue to render an effective pastoral ministry and to provide social support for those members who have become slightly anxious, to say the least, I try to remind my congregants that although we may be going through a brief period of separation as a body of believers, God is still in the business of protecting His own, and we are to stay strong until the Lord’s deliverance is fully exerted over this coronavirus outbreak.”
For long-time member Peggie Bothwell Frazier, Dr. Wilson has been a blessing to her and her family, for under his ministry her son, Charles Ryan Frazier, was ordained as a deacon, and her grandson, Griffin Ryan Frazier, was baptized. Griffin, at an early age, began talking about wanting to be a preacher. He spoke of it so often that Dr. Wilson and deacons met with Griffin and his parents to talk about his desire to serve Christ by preaching. Satisfied about his desire, Dr. Wilson baptized him. Griffin’s dad, Charles, stood in the baptismal pool with him.
Dr. Wilson was a special comfort to the Fraziers when Peggie’s husband, Charles, battled cancer. The Wilsons met with the Fraziers the night before Charles’ surgery, then visited him faithfully during his cancer journey. Peggie recalled that, Charles, knowing that Dr. Wilson especially enjoyed banana pudding, said to him, “Any time you want a banana pudding, you just tell her, and she will make you one.” She continued, “I do make him banana puddings. Dr. Wilson and his family will always have a special place in my heart.”
Chairman of the Deacons, Donald Allen, spoke of the blessing of working with Dr. Wilson. “We deacons work out of his office, and whatever he asks us to do we try to do it. If he calls us, we try to do what he asks us to do.” He also spoke of the disruption of COVID-19. “We’re used to coming in there, shaking each other’s hands, acting as a deacon body, you know, deacons and the pastor together. We miss that so much now – meeting with the pastor before he goes out to give the message. … I love working out of Dr. Wilson’s office because of his ability and gift to preach the unmitigated truth of God’s word. I pray every day that God keeps him and his family in his loving hands.”
Wilson Fallin, Jr. notes in his Black Baptists in Alabama that some owners allowed slaves to worship with singing and preaching, whereas irreligious owners didn’t, and their slaves worshiped secretly. One of the old hymns from that era speaks as much of the church today as it did then.
“We will travel on together, Hallelujah, Gwine to pull down Satan’s kingdom, Hallelujah, Gwine build up the walls of Zion, Hallelujah! I don’t feel noways tired, Glory Hallelujah!”
One hopes that those former slave families who founded today’s FBC South are aware that this church continues “to build up the walls of Zion” as they “travel on together, Hallelujah!”
Former Pell City Schools Superintendent Michael Barber pens uplifting book
Story by Scottie Vickery Submitted photos
Michael Barber was 10 years old the day he took his daddy’s prized Pontiac Catalina for a joyride. After returning it safely to its covered parking spot, he thought he’d gotten away with his grave sin. But a twist of fate and a dog named Whiskers caused things to take a terrible turn. Let’s just say a dog mistakenly left overnight in a car is capable of causing a whole lot of damage.
That’s not the only lesson young Michael learned that day. He realized his father loved him far more than his most prized possession. “My father never stood behind a pulpit and preached a sermon, but he taught me the most important spiritual lesson I carry in my heart to this day,” Barber recalled. “Total forgiveness is just that, it is total.”
A former teacher and retired superintendent of Pell City Schools, Barber has spent his adult life educating children, but the “eternal lessons” of his childhood were learned outside of a classroom. They often took place on front porches and came in the form of joyrides, dogs, shotguns and a cheap necklace.
Barber shares seven stories from his childhood – including the story of his father’s Catalina – in his new book, Vegetables for Sale: A Child’s Discovery of Redemption in the American South, published in November. “It’s a simple book for a complicated time,” Barber said. “These are stories of redemption, unconditional love, forgiveness and mercy.”
The title comes from a sign 5-year-old Michael helped his grandmother make, a testament of his grandmother’s wisdom. She was tired of him asking for candy money, so she set up a vegetable stand on the side of the highway and put young Michael in charge. “My grandfather had a third-grade education, and my grandmother only finished sixth grade, but they knew we needed to know the value of certain things, and one was the value of money,” he said.
“I didn’t make much money, but the lesson I learned was worth millions,” he wrote in the book’s introduction. “It is better to earn than to be given, with the exception of God’s love.” As a reminder, Barber framed the sign he made with his grandmother (“She wrote the letters and I painted it”) and hung it alongside his diplomas in every office he has ever had.
A preacher, public speaker, and bluegrass musician, Barber didn’t set out to write a great work of literature or theology. He intended the book to be a ministry tool, one he could leave behind when he spoke at prisons, jails, nursing homes or revivals. “These are stories I’ve used from the pulpit,” said Barber, the pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church. “I knew some had the ability to move people because I’d seen how God had used them during sermons.”
The book is a small one, measuring 5 inches by 7 inches with fewer than 100 pages, and that was Barber’s intention. “It’s designed to be a book you could put in a purse, in a glove box, in a tacklebox,” he said, adding that his hope was to make the book more inviting by writing something that could be read in one sitting. “It’s written by a preacher, but it’s not preaching. Whatever God wants to do with it, it’s out there. He’ll put it in the right hands.”
A special place
Barber, 55, grew up in Pell City with his brother and sister in a time when life was simpler. “The American South has changed in the past half century of my life, much for the good, but I admit sometimes I find myself missing a place I never left,” he wrote.
His days were filled with bike rides, fishing, baseball, watermelon, peach cobbler and lessons he didn’t realize he was learning. “I’ve always had people invest in the right things in my life – my parents, my grandparents, church folks,” Barber said. “They made sure we learned the right things. We were held accountable if we did something wrong, and they didn’t always come to our aid bailing us out.”
They also served as wonderful role models. His father, who was the first in his family to go to college, was a certified registered nurse anesthetist and owned an anesthesia corporation. “I think he put everyone in the county to sleep at some time,” Barber said. His mother was a registered nurse, and Barber thought he would follow in his parents’ footsteps and enter the medical field. His plans changed, though, when he got a feeling he just couldn’t shake. “The Lord kept leading me to education,” Barber said.
Mother Pearl, Cobbler Cook Extraordinaire
His Sunday school teacher, Andrew Wright, was the principal of Iola Roberts Elementary School at the time, and his pastors were teachers, as well. “To have three men in your life who were elementary school teachers and in ministry showed me how God could use you in education,” Barber said. “God has always put the right people around me.”
Although he retired from the school system in 2019, Barber performs contract work for the Alabama Association of School Boards. “I’ve had a great experience in public education,” he said. “To me, education is ministry,” he said.
Barber was an assistant principal in 1995 when God called him to preach, as well. He had a guitar and his Bible, and he traveled around ministering at nursing homes and “wherever God placed me.” He landed at Mt. Zion as a deacon and has been preaching for about 25 years.
One ministry he particularly enjoys is Cake Walk, the bluegrass band he helped form that earned its name from the early days of playing at cake walks and fall festivals. “Mt. Zion is a musically blessed haven,” he said. “Anyone you pick out of a pew can pick something, play something or sing something.”
Barber, who plays mandolin, guitar, banjo and bass, said the size of the group fluctuates and the members range from 8-year-olds to 90-year-olds. “We’re not the best musicians in the world, but for some reason when you put us all together, it sounds pretty good,” he said. “It’s a joyful noise, I know that.”
The group plays live every Sunday morning on WFHK 94.1 The River, and before the coronavirus pandemic, the members regularly shared their music at nursing homes and other places. “I’ve seen people who were really sick wiggle a toe under the cover when they hear the banjo,” Barber said. “It’s a wonderful ministry, and members of the band have said they had no idea that service could be so much fun. For me, that’s when you really hit the mark.”
A tool for ministry
Barber’s outreach ministry was the impetus for Vegetables for Sale, and the idea had been in the back of his mind for a while. “I had a bunch of stories I wrote years ago, and I’d always planned on doing something with them, but I didn’t know what that would look like,” he said. Once the pandemic hit last March, Barber finally had time, so “I went to the attic and started gathering stories I’d written in old spiral notebooks.”
Although he’d planned to leave them behind at speaking engagements, COVID-19 changed those plans, so Barber started to give them away. “My idea of promoting it is leaving a copy on the table at Starbucks,” he said with a laugh.
After his wife, Legay, posted about the book on social media, it started taking off. “We accidentally, I guess, launched it,” Barber said. “The potential to reach people through the internet is mind boggling.” The book, which features a childhood photo of his father on the cover, is available through Amazon, Walmart.com, Barnes & Noble and Kindle. It will soon be available on Audible, an audiobook book service from Amazon.
Barber said he read the book for the Audible recording because the subject was so close to his heart. “This is a book about my mom, my daddy, my sister and brother and my grandparents,” he said. “I sure didn’t want someone reading it and having it be just a book to them. Besides, I hate when people try to fake a Southern accent.”
Although he never expected to sell a single copy, Barber said he’s heard from people from all over the country who have shared how the book has touched them. A hospice nurse shared how a family read it together during the last hours of their mother’s life, and it gave them a chance to laugh and cry together. Another woman wrote to say the book helped her after receiving a cancer diagnosis.
“If God doesn’t use it for anything other than that, it was worth writing it and putting it out there,” Barber said. “I’m definitely not a writer, and I’ll never be a best-selling author, but this was a labor of love. Whatever voice we have, whether it’s a guitar or an ink pen, as long as we’re giving God the glory, He’ll use it.”
A Greek bearing delicious gifts, a star-studded past
Story by Scottie Vickery Submitted photos
When it comes to cooking, Polly Warren has trained with the best. As a young girl growing up in Greece, she learned the intricacies of meals and pastries from her mother and grandmother. After marrying an American and moving to Georgia as a young bride, she mastered Southern dishes in her mother-in-law’s kitchen.
The result is something she calls American Greek cooking – a delicious blend of both countries born from two families full of tradition and love. “I love the cooking,” she said, her Greek accent still heavy. “I love to learn and do new things. If I see something I like, I make it, add to it, and make the recipe my own.”
As a result, she’s bridged the divide between two cultures by introducing her favorite Greek dishes to her American family and friends and taking some Southern favorites home to her family. “I made them chili,” she said, laughing at the memory of the first American dish she shared with her loved ones in Greece. “They loved it. They thought it was great.”
A popular caterer in St. Clair County, Polly works out of the kitchen of the Pell City KFC, which her family has owned for nearly five decades. In addition to weekly meetings of the Rotary Club of Pell City, she caters everything from tailgate parties and luncheons to teas, rehearsal dinners and weddings. “Whatever anybody wants, I can cook it,” she said.
Growing up Greek
Born Polyltime Stavridis, the daughter of Dimitri and Kostantina, Polly grew up in Athens, Greece, with her brother, Costas, and her sister, Vaso. Whenever she thinks of her childhood, the first thing that comes to mind is the family kitchen. “I can still close my eyes and see myself there,” said Polly, now 72. “We’d always be in the kitchen. Always the girls served the men.” The main meal was served at 2 p.m., and after an afternoon siesta, the men would return to work. “Then they would come back, and we would eat leftovers,” she said.
Even as young girls, Polly and Vaso worked alongside their mother and grandmother, who lived with them. “We started when we were young, 5 or 6,” she said. ‘“They always gave us a little dough so we could participate. We would clean the potatoes, help with the dough, make cookies. When we were 10, 11 or 12, we would start participating completely.”
Family favorites included stifado, a Greek beef stew; spanakopita, a spinach pie; bifteki, which Polly describes as a stuffed hamburger; and keftedes, or Greek meatballs. “My mother used to make a big pan and leave it on the stove, and we’d eat it like popcorn,” she said.
There were plenty of pastries, too. Melomakarona, or honey cookies, were a staple, as well as tea cakes and baklava. Polly remembers her grandmother rolling out big sheets of homemade phyllo dough that was used for pastries and pie crusts. “Back in those days we made it homemade,” she said. “It took two people.”
Cooking for a crowd proved to be a challenge. “Back then, we had a little bitty oven, and our oven couldn’t bake all those cookies and big dishes like stuffed peppers and tomatoes,” Warren said. They took their dishes and pastries to a nearby baker, who cooked it for them in his industrial oven. “You tell him you want it ready for the family at 2, you give him $1 or $2, you pick your food up and carry it home,” she said.
A good student, Warren skipped the sixth-grade and graduated from high school at 16. “I started modeling and playing parts in movies,” she said, adding that her uncle was a producer. “Somebody didn’t show up one day, and he calls me and said, ‘Polly, do you want to do this?’ It was a commercial for shoes.”
After that, she had a “little part in a movie here, a little part there,” including a role as a party guest in the 1965 Italian movie, The Three Faces of a Woman. The movie starred Princess Soraya Esfandiary Bakhtiari, the ex-wife of an Iranian shah, and Richard Harris, who later played Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
Young Polly’s acting and modeling career didn’t last long because she soon met her future husband – Wayne Warren, an American serviceman from Georgia who was stationed in Greece. “I have good memories of it, and I did it until I met Mr. Warren,” she said. “Mr. Warren, he says ‘no.’ He didn’t like all those guys hanging around.”
The two met when Polly’s friend, who was engaged to an American buddy of Wayne’s, invited her to a party. She was hesitant to go because she didn’t know what to tell her family. “Back in those days, you didn’t go off to a party,” she said. “I did a little white lying and said we were going to the movies.”
The two really did go to the movies a few weeks later, after Wayne had gotten permission from Polly’s father. “A commercial came on the big screen, and there I am big as life,” she said with a laugh. “I’m hiding under the seat, and he couldn’t believe it. It was a commercial for glassware for a wedding.”
After the two married, Polly left her beloved Greece in 1967 to move to the U.S. with Wayne. After a quick stint in Texas, they headed to Columbus, Ga., Wayne’s hometown. He was still in the Air Force, so Polly lived with his mother, Irene Warren, in her beautiful old house with a big wraparound porch. “It was very, very nice,” Polly said. “My mother-in-law, she loved me to death.”
Southern influences
Although she missed her family, cooking with Irene helped cure some of the homesickness. “We cooked together in this big kitchen, and you felt like it was home,” Polly said. “I learned how to do squash casserole, make creamed corn and snap peas.”
The dishes were different from anything she’d had before, but Polly appreciated good food when she tasted it. “Mac and cheese, I never ate it in my life, but once I tasted it, it was good. I learned to eat pork chops, and I learned to eat ribs and turnip greens. I loved it.”
As a new bride, she learned to fix some of her husband’s favorites, which quickly became hers as well. “I love a good steak and baked potato,” she said. “And vegetables with cornbread. I could sit and eat the whole skillet.”
Another Southern staple, fried chicken, soon became a big part of her life. After Wayne retired from the Air Force in 1970, they moved to Selma, where he worked with a dear friend who owned KFC franchises. He decided he wanted to open one himself. Although “we only had baked chicken in Greece, we never fried it,” Polly was on board.
Wayne started scouting locations, and while driving through central Alabama one day, he happened to stop at a gas station in St. Clair County. “An 18-wheeler driver told him to look at Pell City,” she said. “That’s what he did, and that’s where we are.”
Polly Warren plating her famous baklava.
While raising their three sons – Michael, Jimmy and David – the Warrens spent lots of time at various ballfields and soon became fixtures in the community. Polly got her catering start while working in the concession stands, where she cooked plenty of hot dogs and hamburgers. That led to dishes for athletic banquets and other events, and things took off from there.
“Before you know it, they asked, ‘Do you mind doing a tea,’ so you do a tea. Then they said do, ‘Do you mind doing a wedding,’ so you do a wedding. I started with 100 people, and I have been up to 600. That’s how it all got started,” she said.
Although Wayne passed away 10 years ago, Polly still loves cooking for her family and especially enjoys time in the kitchen with her four grandchildren. She’s happy to share recipes, although at times that proves a little difficult. “I never measure anything,” she said. “I put a little bit of this, a little bit of that. So, when they ask, I have to figure it out and write it.”
Alabama has been home for most of Polly’s life, but she still gets homesick for Greece on occasion. Yearly trips to Athens help, and she loves to get back in the kitchen with her mother, now 90, and her sister while she’s there. She makes sure to bring back her favorite fresh spices. “It grows wild over there,” she said. “You see rosemary, you see basil. I bring all that back. The American spices, they do not taste the same.”
Whether it’s the spices or the love she puts in each dish, Polly’s cooking is always a hit. “It’s good therapy,” she said. “I get in the kitchen and get busy cooking, and I never leave. I make a lot, and I give it away to neighbors and family and friends. I love it when people eat it and say how good it is. No one has complained yet.”
Stores here have everything you need this holiday season
Story by Jackie Walburn Submitted photos
When it comes to unique gifts and personal service, holiday shoppers win every time by shopping locally, say St. Clair merchants who offer suggestions for most-wanted gifts for 2020.
From clothes and statement jewelry to pets and guitars to gift cards and locally made candles and soaps, around-the-corner and down-the-street merchants recommend distinctive gifts and exceptional service available at local shops.
At Mum & Me Mercantile on Parkway Drive in downtown Leeds, owner Neva Reardon recommends shopping locally and buying locally and points to products made by local artists, including pottery, candles and jewelry.
A store specializing in handmade items and artworks from Alabama and across the South, Mum & Me carries pottery from local potter Susan Moore, handmade candles from Red Beard Redolence of Leeds, soaps and candles from Community Natural in Shelby County, candles and melts from Cahaba Handmade in Leeds.
Other regionally made items at Mum & Me include Zkano organic cotton socks from Little River Sock Company in Fort Payne; Bronnie’s Brittle, a peanut brittle made in Birmingham; lotions, bath and body items from K and C Bath Co. in Birmingham; and hand-stenciled kitchen towels made by Becky Denny of Digs Design in Homewood.
Gift ideas abound at Monkey Bizness in downtown Pell City, but owner Michelle Tumlin recommends that shoppers look at the shop’s new reading glasses with blue-light filters, perfect for all ages and less than $25, plus the store’s exclusive hand-poured candles. With fragrances, flavors and names developed in partnership with a candle maker in Franklin, Tenn., the handmade candles are popular and unique to the store. Monkey Bizness candles’ best-selling fragrances are Pell City Christmas and Panther Pride, named for the Pell City Panthers.
Specializing in women’s and children’s clothing, Monkey Bizness has added newborn clothes to its line of clothes for children, with boy sizes from newborn to 5, and, for girls, from newborn to toddler to children, tweens, misses and plus sizes, Tumlin says. “If you’re a girl, I can dress you.”
At Ron Partain’s World of Music in downtown Pell City, long-time owner and musician Ron Partain sees music as a holiday gift that keeps giving. Open for 42 years, Ron Partain’s World of Music specializes in musical instruments, including guitars, mandolins, banjos, violins and pianos and all essentials to go with them.
“Our featured items would be guitars for all ages, acoustic and electric, and gift certificates for lessons to go with a guitar,” Partain says, noting his favorite part of his job is “watching people’s eyes dance because they made music.”
Pointing to the popularity of online buying, even for musical instruments, Partain says folks looking for music instruments or accessories should check this local store first. “Truth is, we sell at internet prices, but our joy is helping people to love music.” And if you can find it online, they can get it for you in the store.
Jewelry is always a go-to gift at Griffins Jewelers, and Stephanie Smith, manager at the Pell City shop, points to Le Vian jewelry as tops for 2020 holidays. Known for original designs using their trademarked Chocolate Diamonds and colored gem stones, Le Vian’s styles in earrings, necklaces and rings are trendy and stylish with a high-quality standard. “These are truly statement pieces,” Smith says. Griffins is a local distributor of Le Vian, an internationally renowned family-owned jeweler with a history dating back centuries. They offer a wide variety of Le Vian pieces priced from about $800 up.
Another Griffins gift recommendation revolves around solar-powered globes that rotate inside a clear sphere, a gift that’s calming and scientific at the same time, priced at $170 and up. Gift wrapping is free with purchase at Griffins Jewelers, which is celebrating its 70th year in business in 2020.
Known for its residential and commercial mailboxes marketed statewide and nationally, Alabama Mailbox Company in Ashville is also growing as St. Clair County’s headquarters for exotic animals and pets, says Kaitlyn Martin of Alabama Mailbox.
They have bearded dragons, hedgehogs, geckos, skinks and tortoises and all the items needed to care for and feed the unusual pets. “These are very unique gifts, and we have all the supplies, food, cages and bedding,” Martin says. The company’s pet offerings are expanding to include house pets, dogs and cats, organic pet food and treats. They also carry top line food and water dishes, leashes and diet supplements.
Visiting the store on Turkey Hollow Lane in Ashville, shoppers can see the pets and buy in-stock mailboxes, or they can custom order the best in mailboxes, light posts, signs and garden accessories, which come with experienced customer service.
Warren Family Garden Center and Nursery on Old Cedar Grove Road in Leeds gets ready for Christmas season early with fresh poinsettias and other Christmas plants, including lemon cypress, Christmas cactus and bulbs, says manager Michelle Warren, one of the family owners of the full-service garden center.
Gift items she recommends include wind chimes, pottery, house plants, floral decorations and garden art. Distinctive Christmas decorations are available too, along with fresh evergreen wreaths and garland and Christmas trees which begin arriving before Thanksgiving.
At Merle Norman in downtown Pell City, expect skin-care products and splashes of color as top gifts, says Joanna Darden, salesperson at the shop on Cogswell Avenue.
All the skin care lines at the nationally-known cosmetics shop are great gifts, she says, recommending a holiday makeup item called Starry Eyes Liquid Foil, one of Merle Norman’s holiday gift items. “It’s eye shadow and mascara in copper and silvery colors that are glittery but not too much. The look is eye-popping and perfect for the holidays,” Darden says. Merle Norman originally introduced the Liquid Foil set for spring, and it was such a hit that it’s been modified for winter and Christmas and New Year’s season.
At Hattie Lee’s Boutique on Martin Street in Pell City, owner Jo Ann Bain recommends casual clothing and loungewear as top gift choices. “Anything casual is great. Folks are staying home, working from home and doing virtual everything,” she says.
“Loungewear is really big,” she says, noting they are not basic sweatsuits, but comfortable, cute clothing, with fashion themes that include animal prints and creative camo prints. Shoppers and gift buyers are looking for “something they can get up and put on to work at home and still look good when you need to get out.”
Hattie Lee’s is also selling fashion-forward masks – in colors and designs to match outfits or mood. “Everyone has to have them,” Bain says about mask face coverings needed during the ongoing pandemic, “so they might as well be cute.”
At Uptown Girl, also known as UG Clothing, in downtown Pell City, the variety is such that owner Virginia Seales says a UG Gift Card makes the perfect gift.
“It’s loadable and reloadable,” and with new items coming in daily, a gift card takes the guessing out of gift buying. UG’s Facebook Live Shows, held on Mondays and Thursdays via the store’s Facebook page, are another way the shop reaches customers and makes shopping easier, Seales says. Held at 7 p.m. two nights a week, the live shows feature the latest fashions and gift ideas.
Begun during the initial pandemic shutdown in the Spring of 2020 as outreach to customers, the Live Show videos continue as holiday purchasing begins. Participants can purchase via the Live Shows and pick up the items or have them shipped. The first five Facebook users who respond to the Live Show announcement with a “Shop UG” comment win $10 gift cards.
One of St. Clair’s oldest churches is still home to many
Story by Joe Whitten Submitted photos
On Aug. 16, 2020, Macedonia Baptist Church, No. 2, Ragland, celebrated 180 years of faithful spiritual service in St. Clair County. The anniversary celebration occurred on a modest scale because of the current COVID-19 pandemic. The congregation went for regular worship and afterward enjoyed a lunch in the fellowship hall.
The county is home to several churches organized in the early years of both St. Clair County and Alabama.Some churches have surviving records documenting the church’s beginnings, while others have scant information. Over the years, many original minute books met destruction through a house fire where the minutes were stored.
Researchers come face to face with this in researching Macedonia Baptist, No. 2. The official organization date of 1840 is recorded in St. Clair County Baptist Associational meetings, but the year that families began to meet to worship together in the area of Macedonia Mountain lies in the long shadows of two centuries. Furthermore, undocumented published accounts deepen the shadows of the past rather than giving light to them.
In the Daughters of the American Revolution book, Some Early Alabama Churches (Established before 1870) Commemorating the Bicentennial of the United States of America, published in 1973, authors wrote this about Macedonia Baptist: “This church is said to be the oldest church in St. Clair County, and it is thought that it was organized in 1812. It is located in the mountains near Ragland. Records go back to 1840.” However, the authors, Mable Ponder Wilson, Dorothy Youngblood Woodyerd and Rosa Lee Busby, give no documentation for stating this. This is a great frustration to the church and any historian, for someone gave them that information. One can hope that in some old trunk or chest, a forgotten diary or family Bible will come to light to prove the 1812 date.
The Minutes of the St. Clair County Baptist Association for 1932, 1936 and 1942 record 1840 as the official organizational date. The fact is that, as settlers formed communities, families met in homes to worship together. At some point, a circuit-riding minister would come to preach once a month. A desire for a church name and building would burn in the hearts of the group who would petition ministers in the county to help them organize a church. Probably believers worshipped together long before organizing and naming the church Macedonia. The Grizzell and Johnson families are known early members of the church.
The person who gave the 1812 date to DAR also gave a description of the first Macedonia church building. The log structure had no widows. “On the interior of the structure was cube of rocks about three feet long, three feet high, and three feet wide, with a rock shaft going out the side of the building. This was for light when it was necessary to meet a night. Pine knots were burned, giving light, and the smoke went out the shaft. A lean-to that joined onto the building accommodated the slaves.” According to oral history, the first church sat where today stands the pavilion protecting the long “dinner on the ground” tables.
Lela Alverson Grizzell told great-granddaughter Sheila McKinney that a storm destroyed the log structure, but she didn’t give a date for the storm. In a St. Clair News-Aegis article of Oct. 15, 1992, Elise Argo wrote, “The log building was replaced in the early 1900s.” The article indicates Ms. Argo got that date from Brother Archie Maddox, pastor at that time. An up-to-date, wood-frame church replaced the log building, which served the congregation until the present brick structure replaced it in 1948.
In 1956, the church started a building fund to add classrooms. This came to fulfillment in 1965 when the men of the church added two restrooms, a pastor’s study and eight classrooms. In 1985, the men added the fellowship hall with kitchen and dining areas.
The lovely painting gracing the baptistry was done in 1998 by Ken Maddox in loving memory of his mother, Mary Maddox, wife of Brother Archie Maddox.
Baptistry painting by Ken Maddox in memory of Mary Maddox, his mother
The original log building served as both church and school according to local family accounts. Shelia McKinney recounted what her great-grandmother, Lela Alverson Grizzell, told of attending the log school.
“The Alverson family settled these hills and valleys, and Lela’s brothers and sisters attended school here,” Shelia recalled. “Lela and her older brothers and sisters walked to school from Macedonia Mountain where they lived. A pond ran over the road, and she told of ice skating on the pond.
“The school had a potbelly stove, and when it rained, they took off their boots and lined them around the stove to dry. They’d wrap their feet in their coats until their feet got warm. Lela said the log church-school blew away in a storm.”
Surviving church minutes of Aug. 20, 1922, show Macedonia as a member of the Coosa Valley Baptist Association, and Rev. Joe Mitchell, pastor, appointing Russell Arnold, Calvin Wood, Henry Johnson, William G. Wilder and J. H. Trammell as messengers to the 1922 meeting. Baptist churches’ messengers represent local congregations and have voting privileges in associational business meetings.
The St. Clair County Baptist Association minutes of the 1929 annual meeting at Broken Arrow Baptist Church, Sept. 14-15, records that “Macedonia No. 2 was received, and the Moderator gave the messengers the right hand of fellowship.” The messengers were M.C. Sagers, H. Johnson, J.S. Bunt and Rosa Jane Bice. Brother Clifford Streety of Pell City was Macedonia’s pastor in 1929.
Macedonia, Ragland, was designated No. 2, and Macedonia, Margaret, No. 1, because the Margaret church had been a member of the association since 1915.
Shelia McKinney, church clerk, has collected church memorabilia and history, some of which is tattered fragments of minutes from the 19th and early 20th centuries. As with many old records on paper, deterioration has taken its toll, but those tattered remains are treasures.
Fragments of old minutes record the Church Covenant and Order of Decorum. As with most early Baptist churches, Macedonia practiced church discipline. The purpose was to help members and restore them to fellowship. Common infractions found in most old church minutes show that drinking, swearing and dancing were causes of “being brought before the church” for discipline and restoration.
The cemetery adjacent to the church is one of the older ones in St. Clair County, and as with all old graveyards, some of the oldest graves are marked by large rocks or crosses. The oldest known grave is that of John Chambliss, May 23, 1826 – Jan. 23, 1881. The oldest person buried there is Chesley Phillips, 117 years old, Aug 7, 1810 – Oct. 25, 1927. According to 1890 church minutes, Macedonia began observing Memorial Day at the cemetery “… on Saturday before the 3rd Sunday in May.” This continues today.
Macedonia’s records show that the Singing Convention often met at the church. Open doors and windows of the church allowed those outside to enjoy the singing going on inside. Newspapers usually announced these events, as shown in this Aug. 12, 1954, St. Clair News-Aegis invitation.
“All-Day Singing, Food Galore, To Be At Macedonia Aug. 15. The Annual all-day singing with dinner on the grounds at noon will be held at Macedonia Baptist Church No. 2 Sunday, August 15. Special singers for the annual event will be Mack Wright and the Victory Quartet, in addition to several others. You are cordially invited to this great day of fellowship,” it reads.
Vacation Bible School week has been another annual event for the church. During the week, children are taught Bible stories and work on crafts or art that correspond with the theme of the week. Several years ago, one of the teachers started the Bible School Quilt, with good results, as shown in the photographs.
Rev. Edwin Talley, pastor of Ragland First Baptist and a former member of Macedonia, said, “I was a member of Macedonia in the early 1980s. It was there that I accepted my calling into the ministry, and there I preached my first sermon. I remained an active member there until I was called to pastor Oak Grove No. 2 in 1986. Macedonia ordained me at the request of Oak Grove. I will always consider Macedonia my home.”
McKinney echoes Talley’s sentiments. When asked for a comment and memory, she replied, “All I can say is, ‘It’s home.’ This was the first church I ever attended. I accepted Jesus in the alter to the right of the pulpit, and I was baptized here. My daughters were saved and baptized here.
“My great-great-grandfather helped organize this church and pastored it. My great-grandparents met and married here. My aunt, Louise Grizzell Sterling, was the song leader for many years, my uncle was a deacon, and my granny taught Sunday school. Following in her footsteps, I also teach Sunday school. Seven generations of my family have attended this church and worked for God here.
“This church – not just the building – the people are my family, and I wouldn’t want to be in any other church – unless God told me to go. I pray that as long as God tarries Jesus’ coming again that my family and I will be here serving God and community to the best of our ability.
“My favorite childhood memory of Macedonia Baptist is learning to recite all 66 books of the Bible in order as they are in the Bible. I was 12 years old, and my granny, Marcene Grizzell, was my Sunday school teacher. Our class had to recite the 66 books in front of the church on a Sunday morning. When we accomplished this, the church gave us our own Bible. I still have mine. My most cherished memory now is that I saw my grandbaby, Katelyn Serenity Byers, dedicated in this church. She is the seventh generation Grizzell descendant attending here.
“I will be buried in the graveyard beside the church with my beloved family members that have gone on before me.”
Brother Bryan Robinson has pastored Macedonia Baptist since 2016. He said, “Macedonia, Ragland, is truly a church that God has ordained to be the church today where we see people saved and baptized even during a COVID-19. This church has seen many wars, the Great Depression and many United States presidents. Over the years, Macedonia’s members have endured many trials and have been victorious through it all. It makes me humble, thankful and truly blessed that God would allow me to help His church go a little further till He comes again. Macedonia members are the salt of the earth. They are a loving, caring and praying people who still use the altar every time the church doors open. I thank God for this church, my church. My wife Sandy and I call it home.”
Each of these referred to Macedonia as Home. What they express connects perfectly with modern Christian author Philip Yancey’s words, “I go to church as an expression of my need for God and for God’s family.” Such is Macedonia Baptist Church, Ragland, a family of believers who feel at Home in church.
