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The Secrets of Hickory Hollow
By FA Shepherd
AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2011 FA Shepherd
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4678-7393-2
Chapter One
Victor McNabb had been the preacher at Clouds Creek Christian Church for almost twenty years when WW II started. He was one of those rare individuals who was both a preacher and a pastor and was one of the most respected residents in the valley. Victor's great great Grandpa Charles McNabb had been one of the early settlers in the valley. Charles had come across the mountain from North Carolina and built a blacksmith shop and grist mill on one of the tributary streams of Clouds Creek. The McNabb family had been a part of the Clouds Creek Church almost since its beginning. Victor's great grandpa had been one of its early preachers. Victor had no intentions in following in his great grandpa's footsteps. After serving in France with the US Expeditionary Force during WW I Victor returned to Hickory Hollow with plans to repair the blacksmith shop and grist mill and turn them into a tourist attraction. His Dad had encouraged him to go to school first and Victor had enrolled in the nearby bible college. He was in his junior year when one of his professors noticed something special about Victor and persuaded him to consider becoming a preacher. To his surprise Victor decided that maybe the Lord was giving him a call and Hickory Hollow lost a tourist attraction but gained a great preacher. After Victor had shepherded the church through the war years it was time to start thinking about a new building. Clouds Creek Christian Church was already beginning to be overcrowded when the war started and now it was literally bursting at the seams. Getting the church members to agree on a building style and pledge the necessary funds to pay for it might be Victor's major achievement.
George McCloud, Gerry Isaacs, Cole Arnold, Frank Stevens and Johnny Slaughter along with the preacher were appointed by the church board to act as a building committee. All of these men except Frank had at one time or the other served on the church board. In fact everyone wondered why Frank had even been picked to serve on the committee since he had been in the church for less than a year and had only recently become a member. George was a descendent of the original settler in the valley. He was a farmer and his house was within spitting distance of where his great great grandfather had built his cabin. Gerry Isaacs was a PhD research chemist at Horse Creek Chemical Company. He had grown up in eastern Kentucky and after receiving his doctors degree from Eastern State University had gone to work for Horse Creek Chemical. He had been considered one of the leaders in Clouds Creek church ever since he had started attending there. Cole Arnold was the local post master. Both Cole and Johnny Slaughter had lived in Hickory Hollow all their lives. Johnny was manager of the local Oakwood Super Market. Very little was known about Frank other than he had shown up in Hickory Hollow after the war. He was the only one of the six men that wasn't married and he lived in an apartment over one of the garages. Gerry was selected to be the chairman of the committee and this caused the first difference of opinion since George had assumed that since he was chairman of the church board he would head up the building committee also. Victor's peacemaking skills were called into use at the very first committee meeting.
It took the committee three weeks just to agree on how they were going to operate. Gerry had put together a plan and considered the sequence of steps in the plan necessary in order to get the job done. Gerry was approaching this project just like he would any research project he worked on. Put together a plan of action, and follow the plan to its final conclusion. George and Cole didn't think they needed a plan and that they should just get on with hiring an architect. About all the committee accomplished during those first three weeks was to argue over whether they needed a plan or not. They finally realized that Gerry was not going to give in so they agreed to follow his plan. It wasn't until after their fifth meeting and five weeks had gone by before anyone realized that Frank had not taken part in any of these discussions. Victor and George decided it was time to get some answers. After listening to Frank for a while they were embarrassed to have asked him for an explanation and were apologizing to him for bothering him like this. Frank had been an officer in the war. He had been a company commander in the 1st Infantry Division and had taken part in the Normandy landings. He had led his company in a bloody crossing of the Rhine River where he lost over half of his command and had been wounded only a week before the end of the war. He had spent four months being treated and in rehab at Walter Reed Hospital because of his wounds. Most of the treatment had involved rebuilding his hip and the rehab had been about teaching him to walk again. In addition to a purple heart and the combat infantrymans badge he had been awarded a silver star, a bronze star with two clusters, and the French Order of Merit. His company had also been awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for their action at the Rhine River. He had planned to stay in the army but because of his wounds he was not allowed to, and after being discharged from the hospital he had gone to work for the government. He hadn't contributed anything to any of their discussions so far because he didn't feel qualified to do so. The only reason he had agreed to serve on the committee in the first place was because he was trying his best to fit in with the community and church and felt like serving on the committee would help him with that. He too didn't understand why they had picked him to serve. He had not been a Christian when he came to Hickory Hollow but after listening to Victor's sermons for a few weeks had realized what was missing in his life and his need for a savior. He had gone forward to accept Christ at the end of one of the Sunday evening services and was baptized in Clouds Creek the following afternoon. Now if you don't want me on your committee any longer I'll understand he said. Before Victor could say anything George said that was one of the best testimonies I have ever heard. I will be proud to serve on this committee with you. Victor said the reason he had been picked for the committee was because he and some others in the congregation felt like there should be at least one of the new members on the committee. Frank was glad they hadn't asked what kind of government work.
After that the plans for the new building moved along quickly. It only took two more meetings before they were ready to choose an architect. During those two meetings they had decided the new structure would be an entirely new building next door to the existing building. It would be an A frame structure housing just a sanctuary and would connect to the present building through a breeze way. The present building would be renovated to become a fellowship hall complete with a modern commercial quality kitchen and some new classrooms. There would be one other new feature in the A frame building. It would have an indoor baptistery. Up until then all baptisms at Clouds Creek Church had been in Clouds Creek. Frank had entered into these discussions with a zeal that had seldom been seen at Clouds Creek Church. He had been the deciding vote on both the location and style of the new building. The others hadn't noticed, but Victor had noticed the leadership qualities in Frank that he must have used to lead his infantry company during the war. Selecting an architect might be the next sticking point since there were two of them in the congregation. After making all the decisions about the building Gerry suggested that they spend some time thinking and praying about the architect and put off the selection until their next meeting. Frank attacked the problem much the same way he had in the attacks he had successfully led during the war. He did some scouting around to get the information he needed. He not only talked to the two architects but several others who had done business with them. In the end he had come to the conclusion that neither of them was qualified for the task at hand. He knew this was not going to go down easy with the rest of the committee.
While all this was going on Ivan McGregor who had been the music and choir director at Clouds Creek Christian Church since before Victor had become their preacher decided to retire. He had been in the church all his life and had been its music director for over forty years. He was a graduate of the nearby bible college and a descendent of one of the first settlers in the valley. He told the church board he had made his decision only after a lot of prayer and thinking. It was not a spur of the moment or painless decision he said. But it was time for him to move on and let someone much younger and better acquainted with the new music styles that were becoming popular at other churches take over the music duties at Clouds Creek Church. He agreed to serve on a committee to select his replacement. One of the young undergraduate student preachers from the nearby college found out the church was looking for a choir director and told them his sister was a choir director and was looking for a job. He told them everything about her except how young she was and that she had been the first runner up in the Miss Virginia beauty pageant two years ago. After discussions, sometimes heated, about the kind of person they wanted for their director two couples from the choir agreed to visit her at the church she was now serving. One of the most heated discussions had been about whether to consider a woman for their director.
When they got to Races Creek Baptist Church that morning and asked which one was Melissa Green they couldn't believe what they were seeing. They hadn't expected someone so young or so beautiful. Melissa was a graduate of Liberty University with a degree in church music and had a voice that was as beautiful as she was. For the past two years since graduation she had been the interim choir director at three different churches. She had not applied for the permanent job at any of them because they just didn't seem right for her. In fact she knew at the first two the only reason she was there was because of her looks not because of her talent. She hadn't formed an opinion yet about the Races Creek Church, but knew the chairman of the board thought she was much too young to be their director. Just last week she had a rather heated discussion with him and some of the choir members about how old one needed to be in order to be a choir director and if no one ever gave the young people a chance how were they supposed to get the experience they thought she should have. They hadn't been able to give her an answer and she knew her days were numbered at that church. When she found out these folks had come to interview her about a possible job at the Clouds Creek Church the first question she asked them was about her age. They told her that as far as they were concerned age didn't matter as long as she could do the job. They would reserve opinions until after they heard the choir perform and her sing. After listening to Melissa and the choir that morning they knew their trip had not been wasted. They had been blown away by the music that morning. Never had they heard a voice as beautiful as Melissa's or the old church hymns sung like they heard them that morning. Melissa was invited to come to Hickory Hollow and meet the congregation. They knew her age wouldn't be the problem. The fact that she was a woman would be the problem. At least two of the men in the Clouds Creek choir didn't believe women should be choir directors. In fact they didn't believe a woman should be leading the singing in a church at all and had protested loud and long a couple years before this when those two sisters had been brought in to lead the music during a revival.
Ivan's first assessment of Melisa had been much the same as the feelings at the Baptist Church about her age. However, after spending most of one morning with her and listening to her sing he had been completely won over. As far as he was concerned the choir didn't need to spend any more time interviewing and listening to other potential choir directors. Ivan and Victor couldn't understand why Melisa hadn't already been offered a job. In addition to her good looks she had such a personality that one couldn't be around her for any length of time without falling in love with her. She loved life and was not ashamed to tell the world she was a Christian. Although that was evident to anyone around her for more than a few minutes. By the time she had finished entertaining the church that Wednesday evening she could have been elected president of the church. The evening was supposed to be a question and answer session so the congregation could get to know Melisa, but after her answers to the third or fourth question she had them eating out of her hand. She hadn't meant to be funny or entertaining, but it was just her personality to be like she was. When she ended the evening by singing a medley of the old church hymns beginning with The Old Rugged Cross and ending with How Great Thou Art there wasn't a dry eye in the place nor anyone who doubted her talent or ability. Frank had been especially caught up in her charisma that evening. However, Fred Slagle and Guy Lynch hadn't been won over by her charms. They didn't think women should be church music directors and had made their feelings known on several occasions. They let it be known they would quit the choir if Melissa was brought in. However, after Ivan told them bass singers were a dime a dozen, but a talent like Melissa only came along once in a life time they agreed to give her a chance. Six months later Fred and Guy would have fought you if you said anything bad about Melissa.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Secrets of Hickory Hollow by FA Shepherd Copyright © 2011 by FA Shepherd. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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