The Journey - Summer 2015 Edition

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The Journey / 2015 Summer

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THE JOURNEY 13 22 9 Ben Cox

Way Cool or Really Hot?

13 Ray Russell

Ray Russell’s Spiritual Forecast

19 Larry & Doris Francis A Marriage Built on Christ and Prayer

22 Melinda Elledge A Different Type of Fairy Tale

26 Derek & Meredith Boggs For Nothing Will Be Impossible with God

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28 Fawn Roark Fixing My Eyes on Jesus

32 Mike & Shauna Powers A Journey of Hope

36 Peter VandenbErg We’re All Broken and We’re All in Need of Christ

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The Journey Magazine c Copyright 2015 O

38 Jimmy Mahan Where I’m Going: The Story of Jimmy Mahan &

The Crossnore School

Online version available MainStreetMarketingBoone.com This magazine is intended to present people’s stories about their personal relationships with God. Though we endeavor to have a diversity of view-points represented in our stories, sometimes we don’t achieve that. However, we always endeavor to let people tell their stories, uncut, as is. Because of this, it stands to reason that we are not always able to personally endorse all that is said, nor can we be held responsible for the total veracity of every story.

The common denominator is that the people who share have experienced God’s love in real ways. The encouragement that we want for you is that you, too can experience His love in whatever challenge you face.

Any type of reproduction of this magazine is prohibited without permission from Main Street Marketing.

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Way Cool or Really Hot? Wow!! Time flies when you’re having fun doesn’t it?

I say this because I turned 60 years old this past February and it seems like only yesterday that I got married and moved to Boone. It was actually 1977 when I moved here as a newlywed. Now 6 kids, 8 grandkids and 38 years later, I’m wondering where the time went.

All this thinking about where the time went certainly applies to my 14 years with this company, 9 years as the unintentional owner and our 8th year of publishing The Journey.

My, my, my, what a Journey it has been and I’m pleased to say I think I’ve finally gotten the hang of being a business owner.

If I say so myself, this edition is way cool, or maybe I should say it’s really hot. Whatever the case, I’m phrasing things this way because our cover story is about a weather man who many of us turn to when we want to know if it’s going to be cool or hot or partly cloudy.

Ray Russell of Ray’s Weather is our feature story and what you’re going to discover when you read his story is that he’s so much more than just a weather man. You’re also going to discover a total of 8 intriguing testimonials that I think you are going to enjoy.

If you’re familiar with our magazine you already know that we endeavor to have a diversity in the stories we present from people in Watauga, Ashe, Avery and Wilkes counties. We want to present stories from all perspectives: Red, yellow, black, white, old, young, rich, poor, Baptist, Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopal, Pentecostal, conservative, liberal, etc, etc, etc. We do this because we believe that it’s important for those who claim to be believers in Christ, those who don’t claim to be believers and those who don’t know what to believe make an effort to communicate about matters of faith. In a society that has become increasingly polarized in regards to religion, politics, race and morality, it is my desire to publish this magazine with a heart to build bridges of understanding among all of us who are still willing to carry on a civil discourse about things that matter.

Furthermore, as I’ve been pondering how fast time has passed in my 60 short years, it is my determination to be a force for good in my remaining years. Who knows? I may only have 40 to 50 good years left on Planet Earth so I’m processing all my priorities through that “be a force for good” mindset This magazine is one small facet of that “big picture purpose” for my life.

Recently my sister told me about a saying she heard that encapsulates the type of philosophy that I’m trying to embrace. She thinks it is attributable to the Quakers and it goes something like this: “Purpose to live fully in the moment and try to make the next right choice.” It is my hope that one of your next “right choices” will be to take time out of your busy schedules to ponder the stories written in these pages and to think about choices you need to make to make your life’s journey a little more meaningful and filled with purpose.

Ben Cox, Owner of Main Street Marketing & High Country 365

In a society that has become increasingly polarized in regards to religion, politics, race and morality, it is my desire to publish this magazine with a heart to build bridges of understanding among all of us who are still willing to carry on a civil discourse about things that matter.

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meet the crew. . .

Ben Cox - Owner Publisher/Editor

Deck Moser Business Development

Sarah Lynn Mills Office Manager

Becky Zaragoza Graphic Designer

Charles Bateman Business Development

HC365 Brand Manager

Kristin Moore

Logan Hall Graphic Designer

Kim Furches Freelance Writer

Pangshua Riley Freelance Writer

Chelsea Charping Freelance Writer

Freelance Writer

Laine Isaacs

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Ray, his Wife Rhonda & Granddaughter Amelia

Ben interviewing Ray

RaysWeather.com’s Office Staff: Ashley, David, Ray and Cynthia

Ray Russell’s

Spiritual Forecast Ray Russell

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any people across the mountains and foothills of Northwest North Carolina are familiar with Ray’sWeather.com because it’s where hundreds of thousands of us turn to get our weather forecasts with the most “local” flavor. And, if you’re one of those who goes to Ray’s Weather site to get your weather information, you probably know that what began as a hobby for Ray Russell, a computer science professor at Appalachian State University since 1991, has morphed into a very successful business that covers the weather across our region with 60 weather stations in all and 10 employees.

But, what you don’t know is that Ray’s 35 year career as a computer science professor was almost set aside when he came home from college in his freshman year and announced to his parents that he was switching his major from computer science to Bible.

It was 1975 when Ray made the decision to attend Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tennessee, with the idea of majoring in computer science. Several things influenced him to choose this path.

The school, at that time, was affiliated with the Church of Christ, which had played a significant and meaningful role in Ray’s family.

His dad was an educator in Middle Tennessee as a school teacher and principal, but he also was the minister at the local Church of Christ where Ray was raised. When Ray was considering where he would attend college, he had an interest in computer science because he was good at math and he knew his employment prospects would be good with a degree in an up and coming field like that. Since Freed-Hardeman was one of the few schools that offered a degree in computer science, that’s where Ray landed.

Every student at Ray’s new school was required to take a class in Bible and also attend daily chapel services.

The class that influenced Ray to want to change his major was entitled: “Life of Christ: A Study of the Gospels,” and it was taught by a renowned Church of Christ leader

named Rubel Shelly. After being so impressed and so convinced by the things he was learning there, Ray came home from college one weekend and made this announcement: “Mom, Dad, I’m not going to major in computer science anymore, I’m going to major in Bible!” Rather than disagree about this, his parents made this wise suggestion: “Son, since we’re paying for your education we’d like for you to stay with your major, but maybe you could do both.” “That’s when I became the only person in history to have a double major in Bible and Computer Science,” Ray said.

Majoring in Bible and then being very involved in leadership roles in the Church over the last 35 years is a major part of Ray’s life that only those closest to him know about. However, it’s one he’s happy to reveal, because it’s foundational to everything else he does, including Ray’sWeather.com. As we continue with this story, most of it will be told exactly as he told it to this writer. However, I must admit that I have embellished it a bit, but I’ve done so with Ray’s complete approval and collaboration.

“I’ve never wanted to be overt about my faith through the weather site that I started, because that’s not what it’s about. It’s about getting a professional, accurate, local forecast of the weather. But, I have wanted the site to be a wholesome, positive experience for people to start their day with, and I think we’ve succeeded in doing that. And now I’m happy to be able to share about the importance of my faith through this publication. I say this because I want people to know things about me beyond the website, and beyond my career as a computer science professor.” So, now we get to hear the rest of Ray’s story about his life as an elder, deacon, minister, song director, wedding singer and guest Sunday School teacher here in the High Country. As this story unfolds and as the reader considers his insightful comments about the state of Christianity in our nation, I believe you’ll pick up on some spiritual forecasting that’s important to heed.

I am having a crisis, but it’s not a crisis of my personal faith in Christ, it’s a crisis of faith in current practices of many churches.

“There was a church in Luray, Tennessee called Luray Church of

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Ray Russell with his wife Rhonda, daughters Laura & Leah, sons-in-law Jeff & Denny, and granddaughter Amelia

Christ. It was about 30 minutes from Freed-Hardeman, and they had a tradition of reaching out to the University for Student Interns to speak at their Sunday meetings. During my sophomore year, another student and I were recruited to do that, and it was a wonderful experience for me.

They were a sweet, forgiving, forbearing group of folks who lovingly tolerated these greenhorns learning how to teach the Bible.

One of the most wonderfully influential parts of that experience was a simple piece of paper that was taped to the pulpit with this short verse taken straight from the gospels. It said, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” That was a great reminder for us young buckaroos to remember when we stood to teach, because it’s not supposed to be about us, but about Jesus. Little did I know what that stint as a student intern would lead to in regard to future opportuni-

ties to speak at many churches, and even minister at a few.

As a result of being well received as a student intern speaker at the Luray Church of Christ, other speaking opportunities opened up for me. Before long I was speaking at churches all over the Southeast as an ambassador for Christ and my school. This led to an unusual call to be the minister of a Church in Mississippi right after I graduated from college in 1979. With great enthusiasm and anticipation I accepted this position because I was excited about the opportunity to get paid to preach and to be entrusted with the opportunity lead a church. Now, before I continue with this story, let me tell you about how I met and married my wonderful wife Rhonda, because she is my much better half and she figures prominently into this story of my first ministry.

Rhonda and I met in college as a part of a choral group that would sing in Churches of Christ across the country. Well, it just so happens that Rhonda’s dad was a minister just like mine was, and he invited our choral group to sing in Galax, Virginia. It was common for us to stay in the homes of church members when we traveled to do events like this and guess where I got to stay… You guessed it. I was one of the people who Rhonda picked to stay at her parent’s house, and that’s where the romance that would lead to our marriage began.

We were married in 1978 between my junior and senior year, so when I got this call to move to Mississippi to minister, Rhonda moved with me and got a job teaching second grade in the public school. That’s where we both experienced major culture shock, because some white people in this little town were racist, and a few people in the church I was

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called to were racist, when people who We have fought the wrong battles consider themselves too. On top of this, the poverty level and need to (over church “trivia” and symbols in- Christians the gap between the be willing to change rich and poor of the stead of justice, mercy, and righteous- their beliefs or their town was something attitudes as the Holy my wife and I had not ness). We have turned inward, building Spirit moves to give encountered before. higher and thicker walls between “us” us a deeper underThough there weren’t standing of the truth any signs that des- and “them”. We have become known of the Scriptures. ignated a separation This is particularly for where white peo- for being angry and judgmental instead true when we’ve held ple were allowed, and of caring, understanding, and loving. In presuppositions that where black people make us come off as were allowed, it was some circles, we have become “anti-in- judgmental know it certainly implied. For alls instead of loving, example when we tellectual,” forcing people to choose be- humble, faithful servfirst went to the doc- tween science and a poorly informed ants of Christ.”” tor’s office in town, there was a clear view of God’s work in this world.

This is the point in established underRay’s story where his standing of where the Computer Science madifferent races were to sit. Then, we were more asjor comes back into play. This is important to the overtounded to discover that this same doctor had spearall story because it will help us understand how he’s headed an effort to establish a white private school to evolved to be the Ray we know through his website counteract public school integration. As a result, my and as a university professor. However, we are going wife’s second grade class of 34 children only had two to come back to his parallel life as a minister. white children.

Right on the heels of Ray’s culture shock experiBeing thrown into a culture with this kind of ence in Mississippi, he was offered a position at his poverty and racism was one thing, but when we enalma mater as a computer science professor. This ofcountered racism among church people, who I nafer also came with an agreement that he could pursue ively assumed should know better, it was hard for his master’s degree while he was on staff there. That us. Our parents and the churches we were raised in opportunity led to Ray being a master’s degree stuhad raised us to understand from the Scriptures that dent at the University of Memphis, which led to him prejudice of any kind was wrong. Yet, here in the pursuing his PhD at Georgia Tech. What astounds Deep South, the culture had obviously influenced the me about this part of Ray’s story is that while he was Church more than the Church had influenced the still in his early twenties, he had already had two caculture. reers, and he was about to become Dr. Ray Russell and launch a long successful career in the academic world, This is where I became grateful for what I while still maintaining a strong leadership role in the had learned from some of my Bible professors at Church of Christ. With that in mind, let’s pick up Freed-Hardeman University. They had taught me to Ray’s story in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was getting teach through different books of the Bible instead of his PhD, and where he had also been asked to do some only teaching topically. The logic was that when you supply preaching at the Druid Hills Church of Christ come to the truth in the Bible that might confront right in the heart of downtown Atlanta. things in people’s lives that need to be confronted, the minister can’t be accused of picking on anybody. So, “Little did I know that this six month supply job when I decided to preach through the book of James, I did so knowing that people would be challenged to confront their prejudicial attitudes if they had them. I say that because this book of the Bible confronts prejudice in a powerful way. The good news is that there were many wonderful people in that church who already knew that the kind of racism that existed in our town was wrong. Also, there were many who were willing to accept the truth and change their views.

The bad news is that not all of the church was receptive to what the Scriptures have to say about unconditional love of our fellow man.

Though this was a hard experience for us, it was a good one. Because we had both been raised in solid homes and churches, we had an idealistic, rose-colored perception of things. This time in Mississippi gave us a dose of reality that has served us well from then until now. We have both remained deeply committed to our faith, yet understanding that there are times

Ray working on a weather station about 15 feet above ground, atop a building in Valle Crucis.

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would turn into two and a half years as the interim minister there.

The whole time I was in grad school, I was also at this church in a part of Atlanta that’s been revitalized now, but was pretty rough then. Right next door to our church building there was a halfway house for patients who had been released from mental institutions, and we often had visitors to our services from the residents there. This made for some interesting services, and seemed to highlight to me the difference our church could make right where we were. Yet, in spite of efforts from the church eldership to encourage outreach to our community, it didn’t happen. They were trying to inspire our fellow church members to realize the opportunity we had to begin the type of urban ministry that could have a positive impact on the community. The idea was to help our members understand that church was meant to be so much more than just coming together to sing a few hymns and hear a nice Bible teaching. We were trying to emphasize that Christianity was never meant to be only about being a part of a religious club and receiving God’s blessings. Yes, God wants to bless us, but He blesses us to be a

blessing. Well, long story short, the church resisted that message. The church doors closed and the property was sold.”

As Ray continued to talk about his own experiences in his church, and as he made observations about all churches of the Christian faith, he candidly shared some concerns that all believers from all denominations would be wise to hear. He talked about some bright spots and some good things that he sees happening within Churches of Christ and in the church at large, but he also said this: “I am having a crisis, but it’s not a crisis of my personal faith in Christ, it’s a crisis of faith in current practices of many churches.”

Recently, a widely read Pew Research study highlighted the sharp decline in church membership for people between the ages of 20 and 40, and a significant drop in membership among most churches. I am totally unsatisfied with the explanation offered by most church leaders, that millennials are disinterested in spiritual matters, or that our culture has lost its desire for God, etc. Instead

I believe that it is church leadership that has lost its way. We have fought the wrong battles (over church “trivia” and symbols instead of justice, mercy, and righteousness). We have turned inward, building higher and thicker walls between “us” and “them”. We have become known for being angry and judgmental instead of caring, understanding, and loving. In some circles, we have become “anti-intellectual,” forcing people to choose between science and a poorly informed view of God’s work in this world. And we have put too much emphasis on “being in church” rather than God’s mission in the world. It is past time for us to rekindle the spirit of Israel’s prophets…

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

-Micah 6:8 As I end this story about Ray Russell’s spiritual journey, it’s clear that he’s so much more than just a professor and a weather forecaster; he’s doing some spiritual forecasting that we need to tune into as well.

~

Written with Ben Cox

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A Marriage Built on Christ and

Prayer Larry & Doris Francis

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arry and Doris Francis, residents of Land Harbor, chuckled as they reminisced over their many years of dating and courtship, of how they met during high school, fell in love and married. Doris would begin a sentence and Larry would finish. Then Larry would share meaningful, treasured details of their story as Doris soaked it in, as if experiencing their love story for the first time.

It was evident how very much in love they were. Had you been eavesdropping, you would have thought they were teenagers without a care in the world but for each other. It is through their journey of endurance, hardship, loss and faith, that they have discovered the strength of their marriage. This is their inspiring story of how God made them one, to help carry each other’s burdens, learn to pray together through the storms, and to always trust God. “December 28, 1955. That was our first date. We were both ninth graders,” Larry proudly shared.

She came into my homeroom class every morning to deliver the lunch order. I remember thinking, “Who is this cute gal?” Eager to find out her name, I turned to the boy sitting next to me, Paul Matheny, and asked if he happened to know her.

To my shock, he did! She was Paul’s first cousin. A couple months later, we went on our first little date and

I knew she was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

Since that first date, Larry and Doris have been inseparable.

Doris confessed, “A date was considered one time a week, on Saturdays.

We could only sit at my house, so he had to love me!” And she knew he must have loved her because Larry would often walk the distance from his house to hers on Saturday just to spend time with her.

They spent every Saturday getting to know each other and became best friends. They were each other’s biggest fans. Larry played football and Doris cheered. They even participated in their school plays together. You would think this story was stolen from the script of a Nicholas Sparks novel, but they’re as authentic and real as they come.

At the end of their senior year, having dated for almost four years, Larry and Doris decided they were both going to attend Appalachian State.

Doris knew she had to tell her mother, and it wouldn’t be an easy thing to do. Despite the fact that Larry and Doris both grew up in Christian, loving, and healthy homes, Doris knew her mother was a little overprotective because she had lost her mother at a young age. When she shared this with Larry, he proposed they get married! The summer after they graduated from high school, Larry

and Doris married, on July 19, 1959.

“We were taking a leap of faith because we didn’t have any money,” Doris recounted. “My granddaddy gave me $20 as a graduation gift and my mother gave me $100.”

Larry jokingly injected, “Oh, I had about 37 cents!” So they took some of their $120.37 and planned on a small honeymoon trip to Asheville.

A couple weeks after their honeymoon, Larry landed a short-term job painting schools in Winston Salem.

It was the only source of income they had. So for the first two months in marriage, Larry and Doris went days without seeing each other because Larry could only get away on the weekends. Despite the challenge of making the distance work, they were finally ready to move to Boone that September. Thankfully, they both earned teaching scholarships that would financially assist them through their first year in college.

“Then in November, I got pregnant,” Doris shared. “I was terrified to tell my mother because I told her if she allowed me to marry Larry, we would finish school before having children. I felt like I had lied to my mother, but God allowed us to get through that winter. Mother shared her support and was one of our biggest cheerleaders.”

When I gave birth to our little girl,

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Tami, I was convinced I would stay home so that Larry could finish school. My mother was not going to have it that way! She knew it would be challenging for the both of us to go through school while raising a child so offered to take care of Tami for us. We both finished school in three and a half years.

Those were difficult years, being away from Tami. She was living with my mother in Rutherford County so that we could focus on finishing our degrees. I would go to school during the week, and then on the weekends, I would rush to spend time with my sweet baby girl.

God helped us through that time. It was a challenging time being so far from Tami. There were weekends we were unsure we were going to be able to see her. God continued to pour his blessings on us so that we could get to see Tami as often as we could.

I am so thankful for my mother through those years. She and Tami have such a special bond because of it. As Tami grew during those years, my mother would always hold a picture out of Larry and me and share with Tami that we were her parents. My life has always been patterned after love. It was an environment I grew up in and that I wanted for my own family. I have built my life’s motto around 1 John 4:7, “Beloved, love one another because God loves us.” Pushing through those years, as Larry worked through school, and I paid friends a dollar here and a dollar there to take me up and down the mountain.

When we graduated, God continued to provide for us. Larry was given multiple opportunities to work in carpentry. He developed his construction skills through contract jobs over the years, and after we retired, Larry built homes for our kids.

From the very beginning of marriage, and especially when we first had Tami, prayer has been an important part of our lives. We labored in prayer daily for our children and family. We still do to this day. We have seen God at work in our lives from the beginning. We always believed He was working in our lives, whether we could see it or not.

We just knew it. We just believed it. It didn’t take much to make us happy. If we had cole slaw and beans, we were happy.

For many years, after we graduated from college, we continued to pursue higher degrees. While I was working on my masters, the kids were at home with Larry. Tami was 14 years older than our youngest, Chris, at the time. She and her sister Pam were able to help take care of Chris and work in the garden. Along with Larry, we made that season work. God provided the opportunities for us to continue in school. Every bit of success in our lives is because of God. Larry and Doris were educators. Larry was the principal at Chase High School for 19 years and Doris, an assistant principal. As they reflected on their joyful experience as educators, Larry looked to his wife and said, “She inspires me. She inspired me everyday.”

He shared about her love for the Bible. “She is the kind of person who doesn’t need to hear that someone is hurting. She just sees people’s pain and isn’t afraid to approach them. She meets people everywhere we go with open arms and will pray for them wherever we are.”

Doris continued to share, “We have been members of the First Baptist Church of Newland for over 20 years now. We love the faith community we have found in our church and our community. These are the people who we have leaned on and in return, poured back. We pray together. We celebrate together. Just as we have done for many years in our marriage, it is something we can do with our church and family too. We just believe in the power of prayer.”

~

Written with Pangshua Riley

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A Different Type of Fairy Tale Melinda Elledge Melinda Elledge was searching for her knight in shining armor. Instead, she found the Prince of Peace.

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ife hadn’t exactly turned out how Melinda Elledge pictured it would. She described herself as the type of woman “who lived in a fantasy world.” She expected to have a fairytale wedding with her knight in shining armor, a man whom her parents adored. She expected her father to walk her down the aisle to meet that man. She expected to have a big family. At 38 years old, she had yet to experience the “fairytale”.

Elledge grew up in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. She was raised in a Christian home, and most Sunday mornings, she could be found sitting on a pew at Fairplains Baptist Church. She doesn’t remember the day, the month, or even the year that she walked to the altar to accept Christ, but she remembers it being the natural thing to do.

“It’s almost like it was just the way you were supposed to do it,” she said. “I don’t remember a difference in my life, and I think I struggled with that.”

Throughout middle and high school, Elledge was close with her youth group and the pastor at Fairplains. The pastor, especially, was instrumental in showing her what a Christian should be.

“It definitely served as an important piece of who I became today based on the fact that I had that foundation,” she said.

But Elledge “was just a kid.” When she moved to Charlotte to begin attending The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, her life began to change. Her friends from youth group all went to different areas, and they no longer shared a weekly Bible study meeting. She made new friends who didn’t share her values and didn’t have her church background.

“Once I graduated high school, … I really, truly became the definition of living for this world,” she said. “You hear people say a lot of times about being unequally yoked with a partner, but I think the same thing applies to friendships ... Instead of taking the high road and being the witness to [my new friends] that I could have been, I got sucked in the other way with not seeing the impact they were having on my life.”

Soon after starting school, Elledge decided to stop attending

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class. She had a job, and making money to support having a fancy-free lifestyle became more important to her than her education.

She said she made many poor decisions during that time that led to not only unequally yoked friendships (friendships with people who weren’t Christians) but also unequally yoked relationships.

Her lifestyle lasted for only one semester. With nothing left of her GPA, she dropped out of school and decided to move to Wilmington, North Carolina, to begin school at The University of North Carolina at Wilmington. She speculated that her parents thought it would be good for her because she was living with one of her old youth group friends.

After such poor decisions previously and a year of community college credits from the past, Elledge decided to attend Cape Fear Community College before transferring to UNC-W. Her roommate from her old youth group had her own new group of friends and struggles of her own. Elledge’s lifestyle mostly remained the same, although her grades did improve. She worked two jobs, one as a veterinary technician and a second as a waitress.

“I felt like I was running away from that God presence in my life [because] being a Christian wasn’t as fun as the life that I was leading,” she said.

After a year, she successfully graduated from Cape Fear Community College with an associate’s degree. She was able to transfer into UNC-W and graduate within a year and a half. During her senior year, she started working at Target. She said that she never asked off for Sundays, so no one knew that church was important to her. At that point in her life, it wasn’t.

Soon after her graduation, she was offered an interview at Ogilvy & Ogilvy in New York City. It was her dream job. But nine days before her interview, 9/11 happened, and she decided New York was not where she wanted to be. Only two days later, she interviewed for an executive position within Target and took it. She moved around the East Coast for her job for the better part of a decade, leaving in 2008.

Hitting Rock Bottom Elledge decided to use her nest egg from her time at Target to live a carefree life in Mexico. She spent months living a dream life, until the man she had grown close to conned her out of all her money. Broken and at the lowest point of her life, she decided to move back to North Carolina. God was drawing her home.

Seeking a Fulfilling Life After Elledge decided to truly accept Christ, she made some other changes in her life. She began tithing. For the first time since she began working, money no longer ruled her life. Although she makes less money now than she did when she worked at Target, she said she no longer worries about anything related to finances. She’s gotten out of debt and now gives her money to God. She also started teaching Sunday school. At first, she was reluctant to accept. But she did, and now she teaches a classroom of 3 and 4 year olds on Sunday mornings. Through the experience, Melinda made a realization. Although her life hadn’t turned out the way she planned, she had found a purpose.

“It’s other people’s kids,” she said. “I was created to be something for them.”

And it’s not just the children at Sunday school. Elledge also enjoys giving advice to her nieces and nephews. As she sees them struggling with potentially making bad decisions, she tries to steer them in the right direction with advice from her past.

She has also toyed with the idea of providing a counseling service to a business plan she has considered. The counseling would focus on complete life fitness, including spiritual and physical wellness. Elledge said that she hates to see others who struggle with weight because she has experienced that and knows the difficulties.

“A lot of it has to do with emotional issues and obviously having that void of God in your life and not having that relationship,” she said.

Perhaps most importantly, Elledge now realizes how important it is to share her faith with others. Before she accepted Christ, and especially during her college years, she said she knows she led others astray with the lifestyle she led. She realizes that she can’t take those actions back, but now that she’s found the Prince of Peace, she hopes to influence people’s lives in a different way.

“A lot of people in my generation feel like when you want to talk about Christianity, or, as most people would say, religion, that you’re wanting to shove it down someone’s throat and that you’re wanting to impose your beliefs on them or judge them for what they do or do not believe, but now I see that that’s not my concern,” she said. “My concern is to be able to share what I feel. And if I can share with the one person that could experience the change that I know that I experienced, the joy from that can’t be put into words.”

“I didn’t start looking up until I was rock bottom,” she said.

She moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, where she worked for her brother growing his customer base for his printing company.

Her experience at Target helped her build a market for the business.

She worked with him for a year until she decided to move back to Wilkes County to pursue a relationship she was in. She moved in with her parents and began working in Boone, North Carolina.

“Even though that relationship didn’t work out and I felt like I gave 5 years of my life to it, I know that was God’s way of working His way back into my life and bringing me back to where that foundation was,” she said. “He brought me back to Fairplains for one, to the family that I grew up with, all of those people I talked about previously who were so instrumental in my life.”

The relationship ended last year when Elledge’s life changed.

On April 13, 2014, she met her pastor at the front of the church she grew up in during an altar call. She told him that she didn’t feel assured she was saved, and she wanted a change in her life.

Elledge’s fairytale ending finally came to light when she stopped seeking the love she so desperately wanted in a relationship and relied on God to lead the way. She met a man who she was first attracted to because of his faith in God. “Little did I know from that initial date, where he took the time to say the blessing before dinner, the happiness God had in store for me,” she said. “What I’ve learned about the ‘fantasy world’ is that it is possible to have everything you have ever dreamed of. The difference is how what you dream of changes when you are living for God and not yourself. In the end finding the Prince of Peace also gave me my Knight. The story continues…”

~

Written with Chelsea Charping

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For Nothing Will Be Impossible

With God Derek & Meredith Boggs

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t’s the phone call every parent dreads. At 4 am my phone rang and on other the other end was a surgeon from North Dakota who said, “Your son has been in an accident. He has fallen from a roof and we’re doing everything we can to save him.

You need to get here as soon as possible.”

My wife and I threw some clothes in a bag and headed down 321 for Charlotte. On the way, my wife called the airline and booked our tickets for the first flight out. When we arrived at the counter, the clerk said we had just purchased a one-way ticket to Fargo. We explained what had happened and that we have no idea when we’d be able to return to NC. While I was telling her our story, I would suddenly break down in tears. Saying out loud that you’re trying to go somewhere to see your son before he dies is extremely emotional and gut-wrenching. So this very nice lady told us she would change our ticket to one in which we could return whenever we are able.

We then headed to security. As I was coming out of the scanning machine, a large and burly TSA official met me on the other side. I’m sure I looked like a mess. I had been crying since early that morning. My face was puffy, red, and my eyes were bloodshot. He looked at me and said, “Sir, are you OK?” I paused for a moment and then said, “No, I’m not OK. My son in North Dakota has been in an accident and we’re hoping we can get there before

it’s too late.” With that, this very large man walked up to me and said, “Sir, hold out your arms.” He then walked closer to me with his scanning baton in hand. But then he stretched out his arms, gave me a huge hug, and said, “Go, we’ll be praying for you.”

When we arrived at the hospital we found our son in a coma with a severe traumatic brain injury. My son just laid there with no movement. The doctors told us they had done all they could; now it was wait and see. For the first three nights, my wife and I took turns sitting with our son while the other tried to sleep. For me, it was strange that as I tried to sleep, I woke up at the same time each night – always at 1:37. It was kind of weird, but I didn’t think too much of it at the time.

After days and days of sitting with our son, the reality of never talking with him again became more and more possible. It was such a blessing to have First Lutheran of Fargo right next door.

They brought us prayer shawls and the pastors came and prayed with us. Our home congregation, Grace Lutheran in Boone, was very supportive and sent us countless cards of encouragement.

Friends from across the country sent us words of hope.

We even received cards from congregations we had never heard of before in places like Illinois, Kentucky, and Iowa. Complete strangers were compassionate. One I remember in particular

The Journey / 2015 Summer

was from a 7-year-old saying he was praying for healing for my son and strength for this mom and dad. We were overwhelmed with the outpouring of love, support and prayer from the wider church. The people of God really were the people of God in a very powerful way.

Finally the time arrived to remove my son from the ventilator.

The night before, my wife and I prepared ourselves for what might be the end. I was at peace. I knew that whether my son lived or died, God had him. God would not let him go. Still, that morning walking down the hall to my son’s room was filled with very heavy steps. My legs felt like lead. We were told that when the ventilator was removed, our son may simply stop breathing. How does a parent even begin to prepare for such a moment? You don’t. Your whole being is numb.

Three hands came together as the mask was removed. I prayed with every breath. I was ready to tell my son goodbye.

And then, my son’s eyes began to flutter. Those hazel eyes opened and glanced at us, then slowly closed again. Then my son spoke. THAT’S RIGHT, then my son spoke, “I love you guys.” Tears of joy streamed from our faces, we held our hands tight, and joyfully embraced each other. Our son was alive! After much therapy and wonderful care, our son has made a miraculous recovery.

There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t give thanks to God for my son’s smile, laugh, and life.

Throughout this journey, I learned a great deal about life, death, hope, faith, and the church. I truly was at peace knowing that my son may not live, but I knew God would forever hold him. I saw the church at its best - lifting up those at their breaking point.

The Sunday before we were to fly back to NC, we worshipped with the good folks at First Lutheran in Fargo. It so happens that they were going through a series called “The Story” and we showed up on the day they were celebrating Christmas during Lent. The reading that day came from Luke 1. I’ve heard this passage many times before, but never like I heard it on that day. When the Lector said, “For nothing will be impossible with God” I glanced down at the reading, and there it was: 1:37. I will never see this piece of Good News the same.

The pastor’s sermon focused on how God continues to come to us today in Word and Sacrament and through the Holy Spirit’s movement among God’s people. I took my wife’s hand and placed it with mine. He ended his sermon by asking the congregation, “How has God come to you?” With that, our grip became tighter, and I couldn’t hold it in any longer. Suddenly those poor folks had a sobbing man sitting in the pew next to them.

For us, we received our miracle, thanks be to God! But for others who have been in those shoes, without the same happy ending, we look to the cross. We look to the cross and know that death is not the end, because God has us. Whatever journey you’re traveling, I invite us all to 1:37.

~

Written by Derek Boggs

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FIXING MY EYES ON

JESUS Fawn Roark

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y mom has always been my greatest prayer warrior.

From the time I was a little girl to this very day, I know she has quietly prayed for me through all that I have been through. I am so thankful for a Godly mother and father. I grew up in a Christian home and remember distinctly giving my heart to Jesus right before my 9th birthday. I remember it clearly because close to that time I was really sick. Over a two week period, I was in and out of the doctor’s office. Then on my 9th birthday, I was hospitalized.

When I first started getting sick, my mom took me to visit our family doctor. I remember something being said about “sugar like my grandmother,” and something to the effect that kids didn’t get diabetes. I remember being so happy that I didn’t have an “old people disease.” I later learned how wrong that statement was when my mom took me in for a second opinion.

On our way to that second doctor, I had very little physical strength so my older brother had to carry me to the car. I can barely remember riding in the wheelchair through the emergency room. So when I was released from the hospital, I tried my best to be strong and independent.

I was in the hospital for about ten days and was admitted in a diabetic coma. While I was there, I learned everything I needed to know about checking my blood sugar and giving myself insulin shots. I even practiced on oranges! However, for the first time, I felt pitied, especially by many of the older visitors. They would ask me questions about how long I would have to take the shots and how they could never do something like that if they were me. I knew they felt sorry for me, but I allowed for their comments to make me feel extremely weak and incapable. I didn’t like the way they made me feel, and because of it, I made up my mind that I was not going to tell anyone about being sick.

Throughout elementary, middle and high school, I put my best foot forward. I always tried to play ball harder than any of the other kids, run faster or fight harder. I didn’t want to appear old, slow or different from my peers. I thought I had to work harder on the outside so I wouldn’t look like someone who was sick. I wouldn’t talk to others about my diabetes. I didn’t want others to know.

When I turned 16, I went through another pretty difficult season. I wanted to quit school and change churches. I wanted something more and something bigger but I didn’t know what my options were. I was pretty serious about dropping out and making plans to get my GED and pursue a nursing career. During this same period, I was volunteering at the hospital. One of the physical therapists I volunteered with heard about my decision to give up on school. She spent several days encouraging me to reconsider. She told me that

my high school diploma would be important for my future. When I think about that moment, I see how God placed her and many others in my life. Because of those influential relationships, I went back to school and graduated.

I went off to college and thought things would be different but for a few years, I walked away from God. I wasted so much time on the wrong things, the wrong relationships and placed my affections in the wrong places. Having experienced the impact of mentors, I wanted to do the same for young girls. An opportunity came to me while I was in college to fill in as a Sunday school teacher for high schoolers.

While I was still walking in rebellion and keeping myself distanced from God, I had a great desire to be a teacher to these teenagers. I took that opportunity and it changed my life. One day after class, I sat down with a young girl who was really upset. I began tell her about her worth. “You are worthy and so deeply loved by God. You should never have to settle. I never want you to settle for anything or anyone less than God has for you,” that’s what I said to her.

When I heard those words leave my mouth, I knew I was speaking to my own heart. I left that conversation with a war in my heart.

I thought about the countless hours I was giving to all these young people, sharing about how to live a Godly life, reminding them of God’s promises, and yet I was struggling in my own life to live a life pleasing to the Lord. My role as a teacher challenged me to live a life poured out for God. I am thankful for that Sunday school class, because without them, I would probably still be living two lives, one in the world and one in the church.

It was from that reflection and repentance that I truly embraced my identity in Christ as a daughter of the King and someone exceptionally worthy of His love. My gratitude for His love, mercy and grace also grew.

I learned to appreciate life’s challenges. From those college days to the present, I have learned to love life in fullness especially as a single woman. People have said mean and ugly things about me being an older woman, single, and with no children. However, I have learned through the years that I cannot rush God. His timing is perfect even if it seems like His clock is delayed. I think because

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we live in an “I-have-to-have-it-now” world, people find it odd and unconventional that someone like me could dare to wait on the promises of God instead of settling for something that is less than God’s best for me.

I hope that when people look at my life they can be reminded of God’s promise of a hope and a future. I want them to know that those promises found in His word are for them too. They are written for us to claim and stand on. I have found such an acceptance in Christ and only in Him could I live in such fullness, even though it truly is a process.

On top of diabetes, a couple of years ago I was diagnosed with a condition called interstitial cystitis (IC). It isn’t easy because some days the pain is relentless which causes me to not be able to get a full night of sleep. Some days, I experience horrible physical pain and that in itself can be so frustrating. I had accepted the fact that I had Type 1 Diabetes as a young girl, but now having to deal with this additional diagnosis, it left me upset and perplexed. This challenged my faith but thankfully I can count more good days than bad. Through the last few years, I have had to remind myself to keep a thankful heart. My health could be worse so I constantly remind myself, sometimes daily, to praise God for what I do have. I can’t say that it has always been easy to trust God with these factors but ultimately I know God will not let me down. I know that God will either heal me or give me grace to get through this because His plan for me is good.

The enemy tries so hard to keep our eyes on anything or anyone other than God. He tries to get us to focus our energy on relationships, jobs, things, or other distractions. I find so much comfort in Jeremiah 29:11 which says, “For I know the plans that I have for you, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” It is a verse I have carried with me for a long time. I call it my life verse because through the stress and hurdles in life, this scripture is a promise from God that I can hold onto.

When you have hope and a future, you want to live strong, looking ahead. God makes me want to live, and to live for Him. No matter how today looks or how bad my situation may seem, I always remind myself that God is in control. He has a plan of hope and of a future for me. God’s word is like fire shut up in my bones and it always comes out of my heart to encourage not only myself, but others, too.

It becomes a beautiful process learning how to walk in Christ when you really allow the word of God to take root in your heart.

You begin to walk as a new creation, letting old mindsets go and adopting His promises. I look over the years of my life and think how impossible it would have been to remain positive had I not had the word of God in me.

Recently a verse has been circulating in my mind--it says that we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. I am thankful for the opportunity to be real and share things I often would not share. It’s not easy to talk about these things because I feel like I risk the chance of others feeling sorry for me again like they did when I was a little kid. But I believe it is by the power of God’s word that I can stand firm and hopeful in my weakness.

We can all stand on His promises, and if we allow it, His promises in His word will change each one of us.

Whether people label my challenges as juvenile diabetes, IC, or my singleness, I cannot be moved by those labels. I have to remain confident that God is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful. He has a hopeful future for me, and for that reason I cannot place my focus on anything else other than Him. When you fix your focus on Jesus, you have the best vision for a great life.

~

Written with Pangshua Riley

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A Journey of

Hope

Mike & Shauna Powers

M

ike Powers, better known as “The Moose” to Ashe County residents, has worked at WKSK since 1983, and has awakened the community since 1987, signing on WKSK at 6:00 weekday mornings with his jovial on-the-air personality. Listeners depend on Mike for school closings, weather, local news, birthday and anniversary celebrations, obituaries, and advertising for the local businesses in the area. His early morning schedule at the radio station has provided him the opportunity to farm, specifically growing the now famous Fraser Fir Christmas trees.

Shauna, his wife, has been employed in the customer service department at Skyline/ Skybest for the past 20 years, and is proficient at meeting customer needs throughout the SkyLine/SkyBest service area. She describes herself as a “fixer” both on and off the job. Shauna also administrates the “Snack Sack” program in Ashe County. This program enlists various churches in Ashe County to provide healthy, wholesome snacks to underprivileged children in the elementary schools. Each week, participating churches pack approximately six snacks in a bag, then, they are sent home to ensure the children are not without food over the weekend. More than 230 children are served through this program.

The couple met at Northwest Ashe High School in 1981. Shauna was 14, Mike 17. After a courtship that lasted through high school,

the couple then tied the knot and will celebrate their 30th anniversary June 29. Together, Mike and Shauna have a story to share, a story of hope, endurance, grace, the significance of community, and most importantly, God’s plan is always best.

Mike recalls the events as follows: “On December 23, 2005, two days before Christmas, I was clearing some land to plant a field of Christmas trees. I had been working there several weeks, cutting down trees, and being stubborn and stupid, I was there by myself. It was a long ways to the nearest house or highway and the only way in and out was an old logging road. On this Saturday morning in particular, I was up there working, cutting down trees and just came upon one red oak — it wasn’t any different from any of the others, but it did a strange thing. When it hit the ground, it had some strong limbs coming out and the trunk of the tree raised about 10 feet in the air and the entire tree rolled towards me. I was in a thicket where the tree was and tried to get out of its way, but it rolled and the trunk of the tree hit me in the chest and took me back.

Whether I blacked out or not, I don’t know.

The first thing I remember was the disbelief that I had finally done it. Here’s a tree lying across my chest and here I am in the middle of nowhere by myself. To begin with, I struggled, lifted, pulled and tugged and tried to free myself. That wasn’t going to work! So

The Journey / 2015 Summer

then panic really started setting in and I begin to scream for help. After I couldn’t scream any longer, and I have no idea how much time passed, all I could hear was dogs barking in the distance, and I realized no one was coming to help me. I thought, “Well, here I am.” I knew I was hurt; I had no idea where, but I could feel the blood collecting up underneath me.

My neck was wet, my back was wet. I accepted the fact that I was going to die. By the way, I was a Christian then. I was certainly not where God wanted me to be, not where I wanted to be [spiritually]. I thought of Shauna and the kids, that they would be spending Christmas without me and I just laid my head back and looked up into a beautiful, clear blue sky. I just said one simple little prayer.

“Dear God, whichever way this thing goes this day, I pray that you’ll be with me.” As soon as I said, “Amen,” from the top of my head all the way down my body was just like a wave of the ocean washing over me — the deepest peace I’ve ever felt in my entire life. From that point on, I knew I was going to be just fine, one way or the other. This peace gave me a message — God just decided it wasn’t my time to die. I could peer over the log, my arms were free, and I could put my arms around the log, raise my head up and see my chain saw about eight feet away. Lo and behold, there just happened to be a locust limb that had a fork on it and I was able to grab my chain saw with the limb and pull it towards me. I got the chain saw started with this log lying across my chest and began the long, tedious process of cutting the log off of me. It tried to pinch every way I tried to cut so I had to cut notches and keep cutting notches until I finally, finally got the log cut in two. I got the log off of me and laid my chainsaw to the side and looked down and I couldn’t find my left foot. I found it sticking out just below my arm. I didn’t do anything that day. I’m not squeamish by any means, but there isn’t any way I could have done what transpired that day. The bones had stuck through my coveralls and it wasn’t a pretty scene.

I was able to grab my foot and put my leg back into place. I cut one of the galluses off of my coveralls and tried to tie it around my leg. My Jeep was parked a good 75 yards up the hill, through

brush and briars; plus, it had rained tremendously the night before. I had to climb back through the trees that I had cut which meant a lot of brush between me and the Jeep—mud, dirt, briars. I grabbed my sock, scooted on my side, pulling on my sock to secure my leg because it was barely hanging on. According to the doctors, the trip through the dirt and mud probably

evening. About 11:30am a lady from the New River Fire Department called me and said, “Don’t be alarmed, but your husband has been in an accident but he’s okay. Can you come down here? Just come to Shelter Baptist Church off of Highway 16 and you’ll see all the lights.””

Shauna says she had no idea the severity of the accident. She asked if she could speak to Mike but the lady told her just to drive there and she could speak to him then. Shauna left Kendra (14) and Landon (10) at home; she had a strong feeling that something major was going on. She instructed the kids to clean up their candy making and put everything back in its place. She assured them she would be back. Shauna drove to the scene and when she arrived, all she could see was ambulances and lights. The logging road was blocked, so she had to park her car in the road. She thought to herself, “What is going on?” She turned on her flashers and decided to walk for a little bit. However, it was longer than anticipated — she walked and walked and walked — straight up a hill. She is still puzzled today how he drove his Jeep into this seemingly “no man’s land.” Mike admits the Jeep got

I just said one simple little prayer.

“Dear God, whichever way this thing goes this day, I pray that you’ll be with me.” As soon as I said Amen... saved me because it packed my injured leg full of mud. I finally made it up to the Jeep and I could barely reach up and get the door open. I took my arm and cleared everything out of the seat, including my cell phone, and called 911. The responders and ambulance crew were challenged in determining my location, and then had to walk in to where I was. They were super!! They stayed with me, never leaving my side, and many prayed with me. The first responder to arrive found me and crawled completely underneath my Jeep, in deep mud just to be with me.

She held my hand the entire time and talked to me. Every medic, responder, and attendant was fantastic! Once the team stabilized me, the helicopter was called and it landed in the field next to me. I was put on a stretcher and loaded onto the helicopter. The attendant on the helicopter held my hand all the way to Winston. The last thing I remember is being unloaded from the helicopter.”

Shauna then shares her recollection: “His Jeep was up the hill, through brush and briars and mud. His Jeep was really high off the ground because of the big tires. That’s where his cell phone was located—I made him charge it the night before. He is one of these who never charges his phone, never takes it and never talks on it. I MADE him take that phone that day. I’m not sure what time the accident happened—maybe just after 10:00am, because the kids and I were home making candy. We were going to Mike’s mothers for Christmas that

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him in places he shouldn’t have been. When she finally made it to the top of the mountain, she spotted Mike’s Jeep and a mass of people around the Jeep. She then saw Mike, and says it still had not hit her severity of the circumstances, although she recalls seeing blood everywhere. He was lying under the Jeep where he had collapsed from trying to retrieve his phone. She reached Mike and he was conscious, so they held hands and talked. His overalls were cut off but she was still unaware of the severity of the injury to his leg. She reports never being afraid because God had given her such a peace and she knew it was all going to be okay. At this point, the helicopter arrived and she promised Mike that she was going home to get the kids and they would see him in Winston. She told him bye, and that she loved him, again promising they would see him in a few minutes. When she got back to her car, she began calling people. Her first call was to his friend, whose son had a life threatening accident with a tree limb, and then a couple from their church. Prayers were prayed all over Ashe County on Mike’s behalf.

Shauna arrived home and ironically, her bags were packed.

She and Kendra were to attend a band competition in Memphis, Tennessee so they were already packed and ready to go. With the packing already complete, they got in the car and drove to Winston. A great metaphor here —Shauna says we don’t know what we’re getting ready for in life, but we do our best to be prepared and leave the details to God. They arrived in Winston and learned the severity of the injury to Mike’s leg. “It was bad. It was really, really bad.” This is the moment when Shauna discovered there was a problem that she couldn’t fix. God had to own this problem, and own it He did! He was the reason Mike was able to keep his leg. Shauna says it would take days to testify of God’s numerous miracles in their lives throughout Mike’s recovery.

Mike was in and out of the hospital until the end of April of 2006.

Most recently, Mike was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma in his left ear. Although it was a benign tumor, it was a very fast growing tumor and was removed at the same hospital in Winston on December 3, 2014. There were some complications from the first surgery, a cerebral leak and some bleeding on the brain, so he was left with no choice but to go back and have a follow-up surgery. He received a clean bill of health on May 18, and will need to have MRIs for the next eight years just as a precaution.

Today, Mike struggles with headaches, dizziness, and complete hearing loss in his left ear. He wears a hearing aid in his right ear.

As a radio announcer, this has been a tough adjustment.

Mike shares that he continues to find himself, “out in left field sometimes, by myself, trying to make it on my own. But, all I have to do is cry out, just like the day of the accident, and God is there to forgive me. He is just, restores, and heals — I am a blessed man!

I certainly don’t deserve any of the blessings from God which I have received.” Mike desires that each person who reads this story will realize that all the glory belongs to God. It was not adrenaline that saved Mike’s life, nor the mud which packed his injured leg, nor medical wonders, nor fate, but the God of the universe who counted a radio DJ, Christmas tree farmer, and a faithful soldier worthy to suffer for the cause of Christ.

Together Mike and Shauna are one, a beautiful example of God’s design for marriage. They have journeyed through life together celebrating God’s best — a marriage of 30 years, two wonderful children, and serving Jesus Christ in various capacities both in the community and as members of Tuckerdale Baptist Church in Lansing. In the midst of their afflictions, God has strengthened this couple, both individually and relationally, through the miraculous power of Jesus Christ — a message of hope for each of us.

~

Written with Kim Furches

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The Journey / 2015 Summer

We’re all Broken and

We’re all in Need of Christ Peter Vandenberg

L

ike many in the South, I grew up in church. In hindsight, looking back, I grew up “religious,” not in a purely Christian atmosphere. I was baptized as a baby in the church, I grew up in. It wasn’t until my wife Wendi and I got married in 1988 did I consider changing denominations.

When Wendi and I decided to stay in Boone and raise a family, we really struggled with the church, because I wasn’t comfortable with the Baptist church, and that’s where her background was.

All this time I had professed myself to be a Christian, but in my early twenties, I realized that I was far more religious than I was a Christian.

I struggled with having to be baptized again because I felt like I was only being baptized again to join the church, and not to honor Christ. Eventually, I did get a full-submersion baptism in the mid 1990s, and joined Brushy Fork Baptist Church.

In the next few years, Wendi and I were building a house, so I was doing a lot of work on that, and I sort of got out of going to church reg-

ularly. It was a low point in my life, because I was making my own needs the priority and not putting God first.

In 2007, I felt like something was missing, and my life just did not feel complete. A friend of mine, Carla Propst, encouraged me to start teaching Sunday School. I hesitated at first, but Brushy Fork was growing at such a rapid rate that I decided to help fill the need.

Several years later, in 2012, I took a job with Templeton Tours. That job was life changing, because it gave me opportunities to visit the Holy Land. At the same time, Brushy Fork got a new pastor, Toby Oliver. I didn’t know it then, but God had put both those new things in my life at the same time to show me who I could be, and to demonstrate how I could help fulfill the Great Commission, in which Jesus commands his disciples to “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I [Jesus] have commanded you.”

Toby was like no other pastor I’d ever seen. I’d

always thought that being a pastor was a job choice, but he showed me that it was a calling. Being a pastor wasn’t something he just did on Sunday morning, it was something he did all the time. Toby really showed me that the love of Christ could actively work in someone’s life. I never saw that love in a pastor before. That was just remarkable, for me to see that love in action.

That was when I really started to feel a calling to ministry.

I shared that with Toby, and he and I talked it over. He asked if Wendi was feeling the call, because God wouldn’t call me without calling her. After we all talked it over, Wendi and I began to look for opportunities to minister. I didn’t realize that I was going to be a pastor, I envisioned myself as the “pseudo-assistant” at Brushy Fork.

However, when I first walked into Middle Fork Baptist Church in Blowing Rock, I felt the love and the call to preach. It was an easy choice when Middle Fork asked me to be their pastor, and I feel blessed to be there.

The Bible says you’re anew when you’re in Christ. Christ didn’t want a better Peter, he wanted a changed Peter, and I have absolutely changed. I used to worry about money and finances, and Jesus took all that away. He was there through those times, I just ignored him.

I think the problem with the church is that we’re not different enough from the rest of the world. It can be difficult to distinguish a Christian from a nonbeliever.

The biggest part of my walk with Christ was realizing we are all broken, and we’re all in need of Christ. I’m not better than a drug dealer or somebody behind bars, and thinking that I am would be a barrier to witnessing to that person. I need to have compassion for all people, and I need to love all people. That is our job, to show Christ to others.

I really respect and admire people who have come to the Lord from alcoholism, drug abuse and other horrific trials. I’ve always thought to myself, “Peter, you’ve got such a boring testimony.” The way I choose to look at it is this: I might just play a small role, and I might just be the punter, but I’m getting on the field!

~

Written with Laine Isaacs This story was originally written 7 months ago. Recently in May, Peter experienced a few strokes. The last one left him without use of his right side. He and his family appreciate prayers.

They are thankful and give God all of the glory for the healing he has received and the healing still to come. His hope is that these present trials will draw him and his family closer to Jesus and point others to Him.

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The Journey / 2015 Summer

WHERE I’M GOING:

The Story of

Jimmy Mahan & The Crossnore School

E

ver since he was a child spending his summers at camp on the coast of North Carolina, Jimmy Mahan has known exactly what he wants to do with his life. “I’ve always just wanted to teach and work with kids,” Jimmy says.

“That desire is a God-given gift. It’s not like I practiced really hard at talking to kids, it’s just there, and I just have a responsibility to use it.”

Jimmy, who is now a social media coordinator and mentor at Crossnore School, grew up in Kentucky as part of a driven, business-focused family. “My father was a successful banker, and he and my uncle collaborated to put the first bank on the internet,” Jimmy states. “They beat Wells Fargo to the patent by 48 hours.”

Although his father had worked for years to increase his business, Jimmy knew that he wanted to pursue his passion rather than banking. “Everyone thought I was going into the family business, but I knew what I wanted to do,” Jimmy says.

Jimmy went to Washington Lee University and studied history, with the goal of becoming a teacher. During his college years, he also lived in London and studied Shakespeare. “I wanted to drink up life, and I got to learn from these incredible people,” he says. “Having those great teachers further increased my desire to teach.”

When Jimmy began looking for a job, he learned about a private school in Pinehurst, North Carolina. The headmaster of the school was also the mother of two of Jimmy’s friends from his time in summer camp. “I knew the moral and ethical background of these people, and I knew I wanted to be part of this institution,” Jimmy re-

members. “I was hired to be the 9th grade English teacher. I loved it, I absolutely loved it.”

During a school break, Jimmy went to his home state of Kentucky to visit with friends and family. He met with a friend who was the athletic director at the University of Kentucky, and he recommended that Jimmy apply for the position of academic counselor. “This was the team I had loved all my life, and now I had an opportunity to work with them,” Jimmy says. “It was unbelievable.”

Jimmy moved to Kentucky, and worked for the University of Kentucky from 2000 to 2001. “I got to work for my hometown team, and it was very rewarding,” he says.

But that position still wasn’t what Jimmy wanted to do. The school in Pinehurst asked Jimmy to return as the head basketball coach, and he decided to accept. “People thought I was crazy to leave Kentucky,” Jimmy laughs. “But my real gift is in a high school classroom.”

When he returned to Pinehurst, Jimmy coached high school basketball and taught electives. He also gathered a group of students and took them to London, where he lived in college.

The headmaster of the school was pleased with Jimmy’s work, and eventually asked him to become the school’s principal.

At the age of 28, he became a high school principal, and at the urging of the school administrators, decided to pursue a Master’s degree. “I would be a principal all day, and then get in the car at night and go to Raleigh to take classes, then get home at midnight and get up the next morning to be principal all over again,” Jimmy says.

Eventually, the school administrators asked Jimmy to con-

The Journey / 2015 Summer

sider taking over as headmaster. “I was burned out and exhausted,” he remembers. “I loved what I did, but I couldn’t handle any more.”

Jimmy decided to go back to school and pursue a doctorate at North Carolina State University.

Partway through his time there, his father contacted him about a new business venture. “My dad had the idea to start a bank that only lent to veterinarians,” Jimmy says. “These are people who need to pursue their careers, and have to have money to buy practices of their own. Every statistic shows that once a vet gets a clinic, they stay, and they don’t go out of business.”

At age 30, Jimmy stopped studying for his doctorate and began working with his father, another employee, and a golden retriever out of an office garage. They applied to the FDIC to start a bank, and began traveling all over the country to publicize the idea of lending to people in every state. “We hired the right people, and the bank was a success,” he reflects. “Then it was 2008, and the recession hit.”

Ironically, the recession did nothing but help the Mahans’s business. Because larger banks became more conservative and granted fewer loans, the Mahans were approached for loans more frequently.

Also, because of all their business contacts from previous ventures, they had all the right people in place and were able to grow their business astronomically in spite of the recession. “We now have several loans in every state in the country,” Jimmy reports. “And now we serve other types of business professionals, like dentists and independent pharma-

cists.”

The business, now known as Live Oak Bank, was eventually rated the best bank to work for in the United States.

“I taught myself marketing and web development,” Jimmy says.

“Then we had the idea to start to talk to veterinarians while they’re still in school. Folks in that position would be ready to start their own practices soon, and looking for help with that.”

For the next six years, Jimmy visited all 28 veterinarian schools in the United States and spoke with students to promote the bank, as well as teaching them to use the internet to promote their own businesses. Additionally, he was invited to speak in Dublin, Ireland and Glasgow, Scotland at their veterinary schools. It was during these six years that Jimmy met and married his wife.

In 2012, Jimmy began experiencing pain in his hip. He traveled to Duke University, where they told him his labrum was torn. After undergoing a surgery to fix the issue, he learned that the labrum in the other hip was torn as well. It was also fixed by surgery. Eventually, Jimmy went

39

to the Mayo Clinic, where he was told that he could keep undergoing surgeries to the area, or have hip replacements. So, in his early 30s, Jimmy had hip replacement surgery and was housebound as he healed.

“I was living at home in a hospital bed, I couldn’t travel anymore, it was brutal,” Jimmy says. “Then, not long after I got back to work, I blew out my right shoulder and had to have surgery on it. Then, in mid 2013, I tore it again and had to have my seventh surgery overall.”

As he recovered, Jimmy became depressed. “I was down,” he says. “I couldn’t work, I couldn’t be very social, I didn’t sleep well, and I was on loads of awful medications.”

To lift his spirits, Jimmy’s parents suggested they travel to the mountains of North Carolina, where they owned a house. “We came up here in the fall, and it was beautiful,” he smiles.

While in the mountains, friends of Jimmy’s parents mentioned Crossnore School to him. Jimmy was unfamiliar with it, but learned that it was school for children who have been rescued from families in crisis.

Because of his history as a teacher and his love for children and teens,

I’ve always just wanted to teach and work with kids, That desire is a Godgiven gift. It’s not like I practiced really hard at talking to kids, it’s just there, and I just have a responsibility to use it.

40

The Journey / 2015 Summer

Jimmy felt compelled to visit the school.

“As soon as we left the school grounds, I thought to myself, ‘I don’t think I’m supposed to go home,’” Jimmy says. “I considered applying to work there, and then it hit me like an anvil.

Life is short. Do what you love, and do what you want to do.”

Jimmy consulted with his wife, and they both applied for employment at the Crossnore School that week. “I was so anxious to hear back, I couldn’t sleep,” he laughs. Eventually, he and his wife received word that they would be house parents in Gilchrist Cottage at the Crossnore School. Jimmy worked out an arrangement with Live Oak Bank, and began employment at Crossnore immediately. For the first five months, he and his wife commuted from their home in Wilmington until they found a house in Avery County.

“I went from being bedridden and feeling down to working here, and it was just healing,” Jimmy says. “I feel like there is some common ground between me and the kids here, because I was healing, and they were recovering from their experiences as well.”

Transitioning from working in the corporate world to working at a school was a transition for Jimmy, but he says he couldn’t be happier. “I just had to turn to God and say, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’” he admits. “I realized that it doesn’t matter who I know or how educated I am, I just became aware that I can’t do this on my own, and I want to move forward and become what God wants me to be. And I feel like a big piece of that has to do with being here at Crossnore.”

While he loved being a house parent, Jimmy began to wonder who was doing the social media development for the Crossnore School. “I had all this marketing stuff in my head, so now let me help with social media, marketing, and creating ads for the school,” Jimmy says.

It’s easy to tell that Jimmy is in his element at the Crossnore School. “There are only two constants in this life,” Jimmy says, “And those two things are God and the human heart. All day, every day, I get to deal with those two things.”

One of the most satisfying experiences for Jimmy has been seeing how God has used his past connections in banking and marketing to bless the students at Crossnore. “I took my students to Kentucky for a ball game, where I used to work, and they loved it,” Jimmy continues. “They had never been in such amazing buildings! In fact, all the connections I have from all the time I spent traveling are contacting me and asking me to bring my kids to where they are.”

For example, one of Jimmy’s former students from the school in Pinehurst now works for the USGA. “He told me to bring my kids to the US Open,” Jimmy says. “That’s unbelievable.”

Jimmy feels blessed that his background is being used to help the children at Crossnore. “They get to experience new things in life that may influence their futures and help them with career decisions,” he says. “They all have this attitude that says, ‘It’s not about what happened to me or what I’ve been through, it’s about where I’m going.’” Jimmy smiles as he says, “Well, I’ve got some places to go!”

~

Written with Laine Isaacs

The Journey / 2015 Summer

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Silly selfies with The MSM & HC365 staff

The Journey / 2015 Summer

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