Serpent Handlers: Three Families and Their Faith
356Serpent Handlers: Three Families and Their Faith
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Overview
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780895873521 |
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Publisher: | John F Blair, Publisher |
Publication date: | 09/28/2007 |
Pages: | 356 |
Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Barbara Elkins always fretted about her son Dewey Chafin, child of her first marriage, one of the best-known handlers among the Signs Followers. Dewey, who is in his sixties, has a penchant for fearlessly handling exotic snakes, and he has been bitten 132 times. A couple of years ago at the Kingston, Georgia, homecoming, before Barbara took to a wheelchair, Dewey picked up four large rattlers, two in each hand, which is his signature move. The atmosphere in the church was already thick with tension. Earlier that day, a young woman had been bitten when she was handed a snake by her husband. Barbara Elkins felt ill at ease. Somehow, the air seemed different. By late afternoon, the sky outside was black with an approaching storm. The barometer was falling, the church lights ocasionally blinked off and then on again. Suddenly, a vicious thunderstorm flashed across the Georgia Piedmont, and the lights flickered and went out, leaving the tiny church in near darkness. The congregation, which had been singing, fell silent. After each crash of thunder, the buzzing of rattlesnakes could be heard above the rain.
Dewey Chafin was a victim of the elements. He could not see to put the snakes into the boxes, and putting them down would have placed the congregation at risk. He stood in the dark holding four venomous snakes, and when the lightning flashed again, Barbara Elkins could be seen at his side, her hand on his shoulder. It was a ghostlike negative image. For fifteen minutes Dewey held the writhing snakes in the darkened church, and for fifteen minutes Barbara Elkins remained by his side, keeping her hand on his arm. When the lightning and thunder receded into the distance and the lights of the church came on, Dewey stood before the pulpit with glassy eyes. He seemed disoriented, but there was no mistaking the emotion of Barbara Elkins. She was angry. She was angry at Dewey for having held the snakes throughout the storm and angry at the other men for not coming forward to help him. Most of all, she feared that Dewey had not been fully anointed when he took up those serpents, that he was handling on faith. Barbara always warned her children not to handle unless they were anointed, because that is the time when God gives his permission for the Sign Followers to handle serpents.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Dr. Ralph W. Hood, Jr | ix |
Preface | xiii |
The Brown Family | |
Brown Family Tree | 1 |
Cocke County, Tennessee | 3 |
Manner of Death, Accident: John Wayne "Punkin" Brown | 8 |
A Tongues-Talking, Serpent-Handling Holiness Woman: | |
Melinda Duvall Brown | 23 |
To Speak in Tongues: Peggy Moore Brown | 36 |
Avoiding the Lake of Fire: John Brown | 54 |
The Lord Just Shouted Me: Rachelle "Shell" Martinez Brown | 72 |
My Heart's Desire: Mark Brown | 83 |
From Violence to Victory: Richard Cameron Short | 104 |
The House of Prayer in the Name of Jesus Christ | 120 |
The Coots Family | |
Coots Family Tree | 127 |
Middlesboro, Kentucky | 129 |
The Serpent Died: Louvernia Christine Owens Coots | 133 |
God-Given Songs Sung by Tommy Coots | 144 |
A Little Yeller Rattler: Gregory James "Jamie" Coots | 147 |
Getting God's Attention: Linda Smith Coots | 171 |
Living by Faith: Gregory Coots | 200 |
Streets of Gold, Gates of Pearl, Walls of Jasper: Linda | |
TurnerCoots | 210 |
The Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name | 222 |
The Elkins Family | |
Elkins Family Tree | 231 |
Jolo, West Virginia | 233 |
A Soldier of God: Barbara Robinson Elkins | 237 |
Pray without Ceasing: Joe Robert Elkins | 253 |
Nobody Can Stop Me Now: Barbara Jeanean Church Coleman | 266 |
Straight from the Bible: Dewey Chafin | 282 |
Getting Your Heart Repented: Lydia Elkins Hollins | 295 |
Waiting to See the Lord: Melissa "Missy" Gay Hamilton | |
Evans | 306 |
Living the Hard Life: Charles "Junior" Church | 315 |
The Right Time, the Right Place: Lucille Chafin Church | 323 |
Coming Home to God: Cynthia Church | 335 |
The Church of the Lord Jesus | 341 |
Acknowledgments | 351 |
Index | 353 |