This is the interior of Rodney Baptist Church in historic Rodney, Mississippi. This is the first time I have found the church doors open and was thrilled to venture inside with my good friends Robert Walker and Jerry Rushing. It is such a blessing for us to walk into abandoned churches and think about the many people who have graced the doors of the church and the lives that were changed within those walls.
I cannot tell you how these dusty-but-not-really-deserted houses raised to the Lord's Glory have affected me.
ReplyDeleteI always think of the women of the church, those upstanding mighty forces with impressive hats and their purses firmly on their arms could move mountains, defeat armies, and rule nations, with enough time left to go home and fry up some chicken for Sunday Dinner.
And the Sisters of the Church, in their white uniforms, manning those Funeral Parlor fans and lacy hankies against the faces of those overtaken with the Spirit or the heat of the moment (or of the church itself---the temperature in those little places can rise WAY high with the fervor of the sermon or the singing, or both).
I DO hate to see these small places falling to dust, stripped to the echoes save for pews and a few discarded songbooks.
Your chronicle of these so-important tabernacles of the South is a priceless record that will stand, longer than the structures and steeples.
I have no words, Marty, except to add an "Amen" to Rachel's.
ReplyDeleteI have always wanted to visit Rodney and have made several attempts to find it but with no success. Could you give me any suggestions? Thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteEnter these coordinates at maps.google.com:
ReplyDelete31° 51′ 41″ N
91° 11′ 59″ W
Less fun than the old way of finding something on the obscure backroads, but way more productive.