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Church of
the Lord Jesus – A new Beginning?
It was Saturday, August 11, 2007. It had been eight
months since my last visit to Jolo, by far the longest span of time in
seven years.
Since my visit in December of 2006 I had traveled
to India and Nepal to continue our work on the service projects in the
rural mountainous areas.
 
Nepalese
Elder Zion National Park
I also had the pleasure of hiking the Grand, Zion
and Bryce canyons of the southwest with my daughter Kara and a small
group.
Bob Elkins had passed away on March 14th
of this year, just three days before I left the country. It was
difficult not being able to attend his funeral to say a last goodbye but
of course he lives on in those he left behind and the legacy he left as
one of the most preeminent pastors of the “Serpent Handlers”.
I had been meaning to get back down to Jolo but
sometimes our own lives need tending to and the opportunities seem to
slip away. Several months ago my friends Laura and Pierre from Brooklyn,
NY contacted me about meeting up in Jolo. They are both currently
finishing up their masters degrees and were as pressed for time as me,
but we were determined to make this happen. Laura had been able to
attend Bob’s service and video and photograph the event. They wanted to
return and distribute the video and of course to see all of our friends
there.
I left my home just before 10 am and got to Don and
Connie’s at 1 pm. There was a note on the door that they would be back
by 1:30. The previous night had been long and I was tired so tried to
take a nap on the short deck furniture but kept getting my toes, arms
and face licked by the dogs. It was about 85+ degrees. We have been in
the thick of a very hot spell as has much of the country and it is
difficult in itself to find relief from its intensity and adding hot,
moist dog saliva doesn’t help much.
Don and Connie arrived back around 3 pm. They had
run into Laura and Pierre at the Wal-Mart in Welch. They told me that
Laura and Pierre were going to take Dewey Chafin to see Betty Johnson at
the personal care home near Welch. They had also relayed that there was
to be a service at the church that evening. I was surprised at this
news. During my last visit the church had been ransacked and was near
bare except for the pews, only a few photos remained, of the instruments
only the drums remained, and it was beginning to smell of mold. Dewey
had replaced some of the guitars but they too were stolen in the early
spring. Don, Connie and I discussed whether the service was actually
going to happen.
Unknown to us was the fact that there have been
intermittent services there under the leadership of a new pastor. I left
for Jolo around 5 pm to see Aileen, Bob’s widow and return some personal
photo albums to Melissa Evans. They were of the church services dating
back to the early 1970’s. I had intended to copy them but that
opportunity slipped by. Don and Connie were going to meet me at the
church, with services beginning at 7:30.
When I stopped by Aileen’s, only her daughter Hope
and her husband Dale were there. I visited a few minutes and Hope told
me where to touch base with Aileen. She was up the road about a mile or
so caring for a woman on Turkey Branch. When I got there Aileen was
waiting for me outside. We spoke briefly outside, with her eyes filling
with tears as I asked how she was holding up. It has been rough for her.
She had lost her brother very shortly before Bob passed and has
essentially had to face the grieving process alone. We went inside for a
little while and I met the woman she does chores for. She was very nice
and explained that she had been disabled by a stroke. She had been
married for 60+ years, her husband passed a few years ago and they had
lived in that house which she and her husband had built in 1955. I said
goodbye to Aileen and promised to come and visit again. She is a good
woman but was not embraced by the family when she and Bob got married.
That was a rough time for her also.
My next stop was at the Evans home. I had been told
that Melissa was going to Richlands, Va. for a church service but I
still needed to try and return the albums. I didn’t see anyone there and
left a note on the door but almost got bit by the family dog, a fairly
large, black mixed breed whose teeth looked menacing when bared. As I
was leaving, Richard, Melissa’s husband came out on the upper deck. He
had heard the dog. I went in to drop of the albums and again offer my
apology for having them so long. I couldn’t stay as the church service
was to begin soon. The Evans family has been good to me. Their sons
Nathan and Tyler always want me to stay and do things with them and
Richard has taken me into the mountains and taught me how to catch
rattlesnakes and copperheads for the services. I told him hat I would
stop in next time I’m down.
The church is just a five minute drive from the
Evan’s home which used to be home to Bob and Barbara Elkins before she
passed away in 1999 and then later Bob and Dewey’s home.
There were three cars there when I arrived. I
parked in my usual spot next to the well-house, kinda like coming home.
When I went in, Laura, Pierre and Dewey were not around. There were four
people sitting in the very back and it was obvious that they were her to
watch. All those passing through tend to hold to the rear of the church.
There were new faces up front tuning guitars, two women and children
near the middle, there being no one there that I had seen before.
I sat my camera gear down and went up to introduce
myself. The young man dressed in black introduced himself as Jason
Stone, the new pastor of the congregation. His friend and fellow
guitarist was Jason Hutchinson. Jason stone is 27 years old, his wife
Jessica and son Phillip were also introduced to me. They were all very
welcoming. Jason said he was familiar with my work from the website and
when I asked he said that taking photos was not a problem. I reiterated
what I had told Bob Elkins seven years ago, that none of my photos would
be used to demean the church, congregation or faith. They also had
three serpent boxes with a snake in each one. There was a copperhead,
cottonmouth and a rattler.
When I went outside to the car, Laura, Pierre and
Dewey pulled up. I had not seen Laura and Pierre for almost three years.
They had spent a year in Chin teaching English and then had traveled in
South Asia for three months before returning home. It was wonderful to
see them again, they are great people, kind and compassionate.
A few more folks came in as did Don and Connie
just as the service started. The service began as before with individual
prayers and then a call for prayers for others. I offered a remembrance
of Bob who had pastured the congregation for 55+ years. Several others
wanted family and friends to be remembered.
Jason explained his approach to leading the church
which was to have services open to everyone, He also spoke about the
difference between church goes and Christians and that Christians
embraced love and kindness. He stated that there were no circumstances
in which anyone should be un-kind to another human. Throughout his
sermons there was an element of compassion, something that is not always
present in the fundamentalist movement in Christianity.
He spoke of his coming into the faith, an
experience he had with his father. He had been terrified of snakes all
of his life but one day he felt the spirit move within him and brought a
serpent into his hands. He also spoke of his own abuses of drugs and
other human challenges he had faced until he came to accept Jesus.
His oratory style is quite charismatic for such a
young man. He has a very good singing voice and sang a number of songs
that were melodic and soulful. He could be fiery in his own way but
didn’t demean anyone or point them out as has happened with other
preachers who have visited here.
 
Jason
Stone His son Phillip and wife
Jessica
Several others sang throughout the service. The
music was rough at best, there not being enough musicians to really fill
out the sound. I would image that in time we will see a wider range of
instruments and song.
The thought crossed my mind as he preached that if
Jason continues to exhibit the openness he did tonight, that he has the
potential to rebuild this congregation. In the time that I have been
coming there have been several young men who bordered on potential but
none as accomplished so young as Jason.
Jason was the only one who handled during the
service, picking up the rattler. As he did so he spoke about the nature
of the serpent and about the five signs. I wish that I would have taped
the sermons. There was much he said that was un-like what has been
expressed there before. Each has their own way of expressing the same
message. It will be interesting to see the evolvement of Jason as a
pastor here and to be witness to a new birth of the spirit we have seen
in past services.
It was also great to see my friend Dewey. He is so
charming in his way and so rooted in his faith but of course as human as
the rest of us. He tends to have small lapses of memory (he forgot my
name at one point) and Laura and Pierre also remarked on this. Dewey
always amazes me in his resilience. He has bounced back from some pretty
bad diabetic issues and probably doesn’t eat as well as he should. One
of the photographers that visited here years ago and left one of his
photos with the inscription of Mark 16 Verses 17-18, lives in NY and had
met Laura and Pierre recently. He sent Dewey a care package. People
remember Dewey. In his day he was and possibly still is the most
preeminent serpent handler known.
 
A blessing for
Dewey Dewey with Don
and Connie
After the service we visited with some of the
folks before heading back to Don and Connie’s. Laura and Pierre came up
for about an hour and we all had the chance to catch up a little. Don
gave them a lecture on getting a motel room when they could have stayed
there as we all have in the past. They agreed to not do that again.
Before I went to bed I started the process of cleaning up Don’s
computer, removing un-needed programs, icons, and starting the
de-fragmentation process to work during the night. In the morning we
went on-line and purchased the Norton anti-virus program as he didn’t
have any protection. Even in the depths of McDowell County, Don has DSL
where as down my road in Roane County we still have dial-up!
Laura and Pierre came back for breakfast Sunday
morning. Connie, as usual is a wonderful host, always making sure that
people are fed, have something to drink and are comfortable. Don is the
same way, very accommodating. They gave me a key to the house (I lost
the last one) so that if they are not there I can make myself at home.
Laura and
Pierre Sunday
morning breakfast
We said our goodbyes and hopefully will all meet
again at the homecoming over Labor Day weekend. I will probably only
make the Saturday service then as my son and his two boys will be
visiting from Seattle. Kane has not had the chance to attend a service
and is interested in accompanying me.
I will leave you with a thought from Cantwell
Smith: “It is an important step to recognize the faith of other people.
The next step is to realize there are no other
people”.
Peace
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