By Colleen Nelson
When my good friend Pete Zapadka and I pulled off the road beside Windy Gap Church last summer, it wasn’t to go in – it was to help a befuddled truck driver with a trailer load of pipe find his way to a well pad. He was from Ohio, his GPS wasn’t working and he was more than grateful for the map Pete gave him, along with cheerful country directions to the road he was looking for.
We stayed to admire the old cemetery and take some photos of God’s view of the hills and valleys that seem to go on forever under an endless sky. It was a day we won’t forget.
This quintessential country church sits on the Warrior Trail above Aleppo and the old cemetery across the road slopes upward to a place where the first log church once stood. Early farming families took to the teachings of the Church of God, an offshoot of Baptist doctrine shaped by revivals in Kentucky and Tennessee in the early 19th century. Windy Gap organized in 1846 and the present church was built in 1871. Sometime in the late 1970s it became Independent and Evangelist W. Wilson Bowman held revivals and helped the new congregation find a pastor. By 1985 the congregation found their spiritual match with Rev. Clifton Light, who helped bring the church into the twentieth century. A full basement with a fellowship hall and classrooms was added in 1991 and when the 150th anniversary rolled around in 1996 the church was decked out with a sign in front celebrating its sesquicentennial year.
In writing about Aleppo, I meet longtime churchgoer Marcella Ross, who just turned 80 and she invites me to come with her to church and to Sunday School too. Windy Gap Church is small, high ceilinged and I’m delighted to see a baby grand piano beside the altar. A beaming Rev. Tom Singo, who makes it in “an hour and 20 minutes if the traffic’s good” from Clarington, Ohio to preach, greets us. We shake hands then find ourselves hugging. The kids race downstairs for Sunday School and we turn to Corinthians 13 and are treated to Pastor Singo’s funny, folksy way of describing what Faith, Hope and Charity are all about.
These are the words we use at every Grange meeting, I realize. Add Fidelity and you have a Granger. I listen and realize how subtle Truth can be when parsed from ancient words. Charity is Love, which is greater than Faith and Hope and the root word here is Greek – Agape – the action of Love, not just its thought. These acts are the purest form of Love given through what we do for ourselves, for others, for the world.
It’s a great revelation to have on a Sunday morning, surrounded by folks who would drop everything to help a neighbor or a stranger.
More of the congregation begin to arrive, some families I’ve known for years. It’s time for church service, filled with singing in harmony and good voices not afraid to reach high. Pastor Tom’s sermon is practical, personal and leaves plenty of room for thought.
Afterwards we go downstairs for an ice cream social with all the fixings. Parts of my story about Aleppo that were missing get found. I hear enough stories about the goings on of those who call this place home and the Marcellus drilling that’s changing the face of these hills and rerouting traffic as the pads and pipelines get built to write a book. Somebody fills containers with soup and sandwich fixings and a donut for me to take to Helena Galentine over by Morford, I’m on my way to visit her next. But the stories and laughter keep coming and it’s hard to leave.
Filled with ice cream and good cheer we finally head outside for a group shot.
Come back soon!