Stony Point Church of Christ

The rest of my family is still asleep. I am home from taking Mary Kate to Highland to meet the rest of the group going to New Orleans. I can't wait to hear about this week and the amazing things that will happen.

Family reunions make us think about ourselves and who we are and where we've been and where we're going. I know that this was Tim's family reunion and not mine but it still made me think. My mom's family is from the same area of Alabama and so there are so many similarities. We visited the homesites where they had lived and the churches they had attended and the cemeteries they are buried. The Danley family first lived on a little hill overlooking some beautiful pasture on one side and the The Railroad Pleasant Valley Methodist Church on the other. There are some relatives buried in their huge cemetery and they attended this church while they lived there. They moved into Florence, Alabama later and lived in a prairie style white house. No indoor plumbing and no electricity. They also didn't have an outhouse for many years. But their family flourished there. They built an excellent reputation in the community. They farmed and were good business people. The neighboring farm had little girls the same age as a couple of their daughters and they would often play together. These little girls invited the Danley girls to Sunday School at Stony Point Church of Christ and their parents let them go. They hadn't been attending church since moving because there wasn't a Methodist Church nearby. Eventually they were all going to church there and eventually were all baptized in Stony Point creek at a place where the water pools still. We went to stand by the creek and the only Danley daughter still surviving, Stella Ruth Masterson, told us the stories of their baptisms. Ken, and Tim and Lucy went to stand in the water. Those are family waters and that spot is sacred to the Danley family. It is a serene curve of the creek with leafy branches overhanging the water. Tim's grandparents, and his dad, and all his aunts and uncles on that side of the family made a choice there to follow Jesus. They have all stood by that choice. Different journeys. Some good and some bad choices but still following and still loving. We worshipped Sunday morning at the Stony Point Church of Christ. Still very traditional and yet they use power point. I have never been in a church where the main disruption during worship was whistling hearing aids. I know that sound well because my mom has worn a hearing aid since I was a kid. During class one hearing aid continually whistled and during church one let out one loud squeal. Too funny. As soon as church was over a very elderly woman came straight to Tim. She had to tell him that he looked just like his grandfather. She knew his grandfather, who had been an elder at Stony Point, and could see his grandfather so clearly in him.
So many stories left to tell.