Good Times At Good Hope

Good Hope Church holds many happy memories. Our family arrived early in the chilly months to build a fire in the wood stove. In the spring we’d pick flowers for the church from an old house site just past the outhouses and graveyard. Mr. Moses had hand painted Bible verses on the walls; over the door was “God be with you ‘til we meet again”.

Daddy was the song leader. On “Heaven’s Jubilee” and “When We All Get to Heaven” he’d say “Hit the high note, mom!” Mom wasn’t the best singer but she could hit the high notes. Hume and Edith Skaggs went there and sometimes my sister Wanda and Hume would sing a duet of “In The Garden”.

Elvis and Maurice Thompson attended, too. Elvis’ mother Belle was a tiny woman who longed to go to France, but when she got to shoutin’, she scared the kids.

When there were five Sundays in a month there’d be a Fifth Sunday Meeting. It lasted Friday night to Sunday, with preaching, singing, foot washing, communion, and dinner on the grounds. The pews were turned facing, with men washing men’s feet and women washing women’s feet. Mom and daddy made the communion wine from grapes they grew.

Clarence Crook, Ervon Tillman, Everett Coleman and Brother Condray preached on alternating Sundays.

During revivals the place was packed. The smokers volunteered to listen outside by the open windows as the preacher talked about the sins of smoking, drinking and cussing. If you made Brother Condray mad during the week, he would preach about you on Sunday. One time he preached about mom and daddy having Brother Coleman over for fried chicken on Sunday dinner and not inviting him.

One night, there was an eerie scream heard above the singing voices. After more screams, daddy, Hume and Elvis went outside and determined that it was a panther. One Sunday, a couple and their children, who were moving and had run out of money, came in. An offering was taken and daddy gave them our last $10. Mom was worried about what we were going to do, but daddy told her the Lord would provide. That week a man paid him $100 that he owed for a hound dog.

Clarence Crook eventually became the full-time pastor and baptized my sister and me in Greenville Ford.