Chilhowie Christian Church Stories
Keep Praying and Believing
Have you often asked yourself; does God really hear my prayers? Does He love me enough or am I good enough to receive an answered prayer? How soon will I receive my answered prayers? These are all questions I have asked myself many times since I became a Christian.
I have gone to this church since my child was about 12. He is now 32. For years it was just him and me coming to church and taking part in the activities. And for years it was my prayer that my husband, Howard would attend church. He was reluctant and strong willed and he would come on occasion but would always leave church with a chip on his shoulder and I was always reluctant to ask again because of his animosity.
When we were in the planning stages for our current building, Charlie Doane and Doug Pote came to our house to talk to us about giving and sacrificing for the church. Howard was too busy and would not come to the house to listen to them. He said it would never be built, that people just did not have the money or would be willing to give the money to build a church. Doug asked what I would like to see come out of the new building. The only thing my heart wanted was to get Howard to church. I knew that if God could give us the money for the church to be built he certainly could get Howard into church. Both seemed impossible to many but I knew what I wanted and God wanted the very same thing.
Eventually Jimmy left home and it was Howard and me alone to find a way to be together without a child around and to take care of. Our life was not that good together at that time. I had prayed all through the years for God to get Howard into church, the harder I prayed the more troubled our marriage become. One night in desperation I prayed and slept fitfully knowing that God was going to work a miracle for me. One I did not deserve but one I had asked for so many times. He gave me the book of Job chapter 33 verses 14-30. It was on my mind the minute I woke up and I immediately grabbed my Bible to read it. I've never told anyone about this. I kept reading it and trying to understand what it meant. It seemed to tell me that if even one person was praying for the salvation of another God would hear that prayer. I kept reading and praying, being faithful to God.
As I read it over and over each day Howard began to mellow and come to church. He gave his life to the Lord and was baptized. He started serving at the communion table, became a greeter and really wanted to live his life for Jesus. Today he is serving on the finance committee for the family life center. How God has turned this life around and not only gotten him into church but to become a leader for a new facility is nothing but a miracle.
God does answers prayers. He always answers them in His own time and according to His will. I never thought or dreamed that my husband who is still strong willed and stubborn would be leading us to build the dream of our God. What a truly awesome and loving God we serve.
Jackie Chapman
What CCC has meant to my family
Family is so important and God in His infinite wisdom has instructed us, that we, as a body of believers, are a family. That is the way I feel about the people at CCC, they are my extended family. Over the years, the relationships and friendships I have formed here, have greatly influenced my life, as well as the lives of my husband and son.
I first began attending CCC when Matthew was 3 years old. I really wanted him to be involved in the children's programs, so we started out in Sunday school. Jean Ratliff was his teacher and she made both of us feel welcome and loved. I ended up staying in Matthew's class until he was promoted (3 years later!) He has been taught by many dedicated people over the years and has come to know the depth of God's love.
The day he was baptized, I was filled with joy just like I felt the day he was born. Since Matthew has been brought up in the Christian church, he didn't fully understand that not all church denominations share the same beliefs that our church does, so it was hard for him to understand why his dad had not been baptized.
My husband, Alvin, attended a Lutheran church while growing up and though he attended CCC with us and enjoyed the people here, he was never as committed as I wanted him to be. I didn't want to debate theology with my husband, so I would just say, "...it would mean so much to our family if you were more involved in church."
Time marched on and God continued in His time to work on Alvin's heart. He was touched and influenced by Frank's messages and also by the lives of our friends at CCC. In December 2006, Alvin and I were signed up to chaperone the teen convention, so on Sunday before we were to leave, I wrote this prayer request.
Please pray that God will touch Alvin's heart, and he will see his need for a Savior.
I gave this request to Aaron Peery. Aaron had become friends with Matthew but he had never met Alvin, still I felt he was the right person to give my prayer request to. I was so hopeful that something at the conference would be just what Alvin needed. When we got to Gatlinburg on Friday evening, Alvin was sick with a stomach virus, so he missed the conference on Friday night. Then on Saturday, he was feeling better, but he still missed the conference because he chose to stay in his room and watch the Virginia Tech football game!
I was so upset with him and so discouraged! How could God touch his heart if he was not being exposed to the worship and teaching at the convention? I told Shelia Dennison and Kim Shelton how frustrated and disappointed I was. Kim said, "Just wait and see, you don't know what will happen."
I did not realize, and what Kim knew, was that Aaron had shared my prayer request with some of the other people in our SS class and they were all praying for Alvin! Looking back on these events, I realize how small my faith was.
When we arrived back at the church on Sunday evening, it was New Year's Eve and Paul had arranged for all of us to take communion together and he wanted to give the teens a chance to talk about their experiences at the convention. We all gathered around for a prayer circle. The teens knelt down in the middle of the circle and each adult prayed for them, it was very moving and powerful!
Throughout this time Matthew was very quiet. I didn't think much of it because he is not a big talker. Some people began leaving. Alvin and I were sitting there, talking to the other chaperones and Matthew came over. I thought he was coming to tell us he was leaving so I said, "Tell your dad you love him and give him a hug."
Alvin stood up to hug him and Matthew just fell into his dad's arms and buried his face in Alvin's chest, he was crying so hard and I could hear him saying, "I'm so worried about you, that if you die, you won't go to heaven." Well, Alvin was stunned and so was I. We had no idea that this had been weighing on Matthew's hears and that he was so burdened by it.
I told Alvin to take him to talk to Paul so they went into the Sr. high room and I sat waiting in a state of shock and nervousness. To prepare myself against disappointment, I told the others, "Well, Alvin may not make a decision right now, but this will plant the seed and it will grow."
It felt like we sat there for a long time and Paul came back into the sanctuary and said, "We are going to have a baptism!" Well, we all started cheering!!! Alvin and Matthew came up front and Paul led Alvin through his good faith confession and then he asked Matthew if he wanted to baptize his dad. And he did!
It was AMAZING!!!! I asked someone to call Aaron Peery because I wanted him to be there. I wanted him to meet the man he had been praying for. Everyone started calling people: Amy Atwood, Aaron and Tracy Peery, Kris and Susan Chapman, Mary Lynne and Shelia Dennison all came to the church. Everyone was crying, but not me. I felt so PEACEFUL. I could feel God's presence; His Spirit was here that night. We experienced a true revival. One thing Paul said to Alvin, when he was talking to him was, "Alvin, you don't know what God will do if you make this decision." No one could have imagined what followed!
After Alvin was baptized, there were 12 other people who were baptized or rededicated their lives to God that night! What a way to begin a New Year: I never wanted to leave this room; His Presence was here in this sanctuary, as real as anything I have ever experienced. I felt God's hand upon my family that night and I was so in awe of His love for us and seeing how He cares and is involved in every detail of our lives, how He uses other people to do good work in His name and for His glory.
I don't want to mislead and make you think it's all been smooth sailing for my family since that night because it has not. Life is a series of problems and challenges but we are comforted by the support and love of this church family.
You see, I believe that God has specific plans for our lives and He places other people in our lives to help bring about His purposes. He knew exactly what would happen 15 years ago when my family first came to CCC! His timing is perfect. I am so thankful to be a part of this body of believers.
I also believe that God wants to use all of us to continue reaching out to others around us. There are so many hurting people who need the HOPE that we have in God's unfailing love and I pray that through our building campaign and the addition of a Family Life Center we will touch many lives.
Tammy Jones
Searching For a Home...
Searching for a home to worship in is a lot like searching for a home to live in.
They both require that warm feeling that say I am who you need to grow old with. It invites a change in your life and new ideas and also opens up areas in your mind that you never knew were there.
In 2004, my wife and I were faced with a life changing event that made me reevaluate my life and what was really important in it. We went to Annette's doctor on Friday morning and she was having severe chest pains, a problem we had been looking into all week long with silly answers like intestinal infection from ER Doctors. Finally on Friday we went to her primary physician and he said take her to Johnston Memorial Hospital immediately. Within two hours of admitting her to JMH she was on full pulmonary ventilation and I was being told she will probably not make it through the night; she has pneumonia throughout both lungs and needs severe aggressive treatment. A new medicine was suggested but it has side effects such as internal bleeding leading to death. I decided they should try the medicine as a last ditch chance, she was dying anyway.
We were attending a good church in Marion but small signs of problems were starting to seep into the edges of view. Nothing you could put a finger on, but people were grumbling under their breaths about other people and it worried me. We were "outsiders" since most of the members were related in some way or another.
As I was given the news by the doctor and feeling all alone, even feeling abandoned by God, I walked down the hall wondering who to call first and I collapsed. The next thing I realized was that I was on a couch in the private waiting room crying. The first person I did call was the preacher's wife. I needed reinforcement that God still loved us and she was a wonderful person. She called her husband and he was at JMH in 20 minutes.
Annette's daughter, Janis, had been with us all week and had left earlier that morning to return home to her family, she was the second person I called. She had arrived home only two hours before receiving my call. She called her younger sister and they were on their way within the hour. Before that day would end there would be over 30 people in the ICU waiting room. Friends came from NC, from the state park office in Richmond and friends from Williamsburg, many park managers and friends from all over the state of Virginia and of course, many church members from our church.
It took 45 days of hospital treatment and rehabilitation for a full recovery. This included learning to talk, walk, write and feed herself. Dressing required muscles that had not been used in 45 days. The day I brought her home was a great day of enjoyment. We were met by our closest neighbor, Elizabeth Smyth. Annette and Elizabeth hugged and cried for 30 minutes. As time went by Annette gained her strength back and was on the road to a full recovery. We continued to go to our church but were getting increasingly more uncomfortable with the air that really seemed to be developing into an Ungodly feeling.
One day we got an invitation to a wedding! Forrest Atwood and Amy Henderson were getting married and of course we had to go! The day of the wedding came and into this nice church up on a hill we went. You should have seen that wild wooly little preacher who was doing the ceremony. I thought to myself may not be good or maybe it would be just the opposite and be a really great time.
I'm sure everyone has felt that feeling of WOW before when you go someplace new and it was just that WOW feeling. Chilhowie Christian Church had that feeling. I cannot explain it but God's presence was in that building that night. Annette and I had a great time that night and talked about it on our way home and decided to return the next day for Sunday services. The feeling of God was even more awesome on Sunday. I believe that is because nobody let us walk anywhere without greeting us.
We both felt it was a place for us, but we didn't want to reserve judgment on our first impression. We returned several more times and we knew we had found our church home. God's lessons never stop being taught, God's love never stops being preached. His wonders are always being shown to us. His Son's love is always being shown to us through His teaching and His word. And all our prayers are being lifted up to God through all who hear and attend Chilhowie Christian Church.
Ed Saunders
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