On Saturday night as I was preparing for the Sunday sermon, I received a phone call from one of my deacons. He called to tell me that our neighboring church, Mt. Tabor Baptist, had heard about how CBF is responding to the tragedy in Haiti and that the church was planning to take up a love offering on Sunday to help in the situation.
“That is wonderful,” I told my deacon friend, “and we should join them and do the same.” Miracles in the making, and these kinds of things are happening in churches everywhere as generosity and prayers overflow for the people of Haiti. Hope abounds when these miracles take place, but there is something particularly miraculous about what was happening between these two rural churches.
You see, Mt. Tabor and Mt. Hermon Baptist churches are “twin sister churches.” The were both birthed in 1872, when a wealthy landowner had a vision from God and offered two parcels of land for two churches to begin. One church would be built for poor, white folks who were busy “whiskey drinking and carousing” on Sunday mornings in the county” (direct quote for our church history); and the other church would be formed for freed slaves who were meeting under a brush arbor.
The landowner offered the words of Psalm 89: 12 for the churches to choose their names. The Psalm reads, “The north and the south, You have created them; Tabor and Hermon shout for joy at Your name.” The black church chose Mt. Tabor, and the white church chose Mt. Hermon. They churches were constructed soon after, about a mile down the road from one another.
Now fast forward 138 years to last Sunday. This black church and white church who had stood at arm’s length from one another for so many years turned, joined hearts and hands, and together they offered over $900 for CBF to aid with relief work in Haiti. Hope abounds. Miracles still happen.
On this day as we pray for the people of Haiti and remember the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., may we all join hearts and hands doing our part, to borrow the words of Dr. King, to “carve a tunnel of hope through the mountains of disappointment.” When we do, hope abounds!