BY WAYNE DOZIER
SPECIAL TO THE EAN
From my earliest years of recollection, I cherish my memories of my church Mt. Hebron West Baptist Church. It was of wood construction which had no insulation in the walls or ceilings. We had tall, huge windows. The children always scrambled to get to sit by a window.
In the summertime they were open, as this was the air-condition system that we had. We did have one large fan sitting up in the front that did not rotate. It just circulated the hot air in the summertime. We all had a hand fan that was provided by local funeral homes or insurance companies. In the wintertime we had a large pot-bellied wood stove that had to heat all of the building.
I never remember seeing any electrical heaters sitting around, we just didn’t have things like that. We dressed for the occasion. We had light bulbs hanging from the ceiling and that was it. We had 5 classrooms at the front side of the sanctuary with one large assembly room on one side of the front and two class rooms on the other side. These were really part of the sanctuary and just had curtains to pull to make smaller classrooms. At the front was a raised platform for the pulpit and choir loft. This is where I led the young people’s choir for the first time when I was 12-years-old.
There was a ladder that went up into the loft. There were dirty hand and footprints on the wall behind the ladder. These were there because over the years many prisoners that had escaped and ran from nearby Draper Prison would hide up there. They would run down the railroad tracks and this was the first place that they could find to stop and rest.
At Christmas we always had a large Christmas tree up front. All of the classes would draw names and that is where we would share our presents. Santa always showed up to pass them out.
Our Vacation Bible School usually ran for two weeks. On the Saturday before it started we would have a parade down highway 143 telling everyone to “come to vacation Bible school.” We older teens could ride our bicycles. The smaller children piled on Mr. Sarber’s dump truck that was used for his grave digging business. This truck was also our Vacation Bible School Bus. We hauled a truck load full back and forth each day.
Our revivals usually ran for two weeks, the first week we had Prayer meetings called cottage Prayer meetings. The reason they were called cottage was because we met in homes and had PRAYER.
We had a two-seater outdoor toilet at the edge of the trees behind the church. That meant that two people could use these facilities as long as they were of the same sex. We did not have a men’s and women’s, we all used the same one. We had no running water.
I remember someone in later years donating a drilled well with a hand pump to provide water. But it was put in the middle of the cemetery so everyone was afraid to use it.
I remember one other story about the church that was passed down to each generation. We had a large rug that was down on the floor in front of the pulpit. The story was said to be true by all of the old timers. One Sunday there was a man who was sitting near the back of the church, and he had said that he wanted to join the church.
He had been told by another man that if he did, he would kill him before he let him join his church.
This man came forward and the other man followed him and stabbed him to death. The blood stains were all over the wood floors and were covered up by this rug. They remained there until the church was bought by Mr. Sarber and torn down many years after we moved across the road and built another church where the present church is today.
Editor’s Note: Wayne recently wrote about his memories of building the new church. Visit his Facebook page for that story, and so many others that may be of interest to you.
We had our problems and our ups and downs; but over the years this ole church on this hill has sent many people out that have been used mightily of God around the world. It also ministered to many families over the years that never left this area but BLOOMED WHERE THEY WERE PLANTED.
Wayne Dozier is from Elmore County and works in Prison Ministry. We love to hear his stories! Thank you Wayne for allowing us to share them in the Elmore/Autauga News for our readers.
