Homecoming

Services

Sunday AM Sunday School at 10 am ; Children's Church and Worship at 11 am, and Wednesday at 7 PM.

God’s Faithfulness through the years

By: Ricky Coggins

There are so many ways God has blessed me and my family through the years but I want to talk about one that I think set the course for Crane Eater and we are still seeing blessings today, because of the blessing of the Fellowship Hall.

I started attending crane Eater around 1974.

I began attending at the invitation of a pretty girl, Kathy Logan.

She and I dated and attended church together and she and I were married at Crane Eater in 1976.

Back then we only had the old rock Church and some Sunday School rooms that were in a block structure located in the same location that our Sunday School rooms are at now.

I can remember attending Home Coming services back then, in the Rock Church and we would have dinner outside under the trees on a tall table that was made out of concrete. Those were wonderful times.

I can remember listening to members sharing their visions and prayers for God to supply an airconditioned building that we could gather and fellowship in.

God Blessed and supplied the building that the congregation prayed for.

I am going to talk about some of the challenges and blessings that we received during the construction of the building and the biggest blessing that came at the end of the construction with a sincere prayer from a wonderful man that I will never forget.

When the congregation voted to build the Fellowship Hall, we were short on some essential things, like money and the land to put the building on. We got to work on the design of the building and started to work on funding for the project. After much deliberation we settled on the design and received funding from the bank for the project. I don’t remember the exact amount of money we borrowed but it was around $50,000.00 dollars. Not a lot of money now days but at the time it was a huge commitment.

When the building was almost complete one of the last things we had to do was the final inspection from our county inspector, until the county inspector approved the structure we could not have permanent power hooked up to the building.

The day came for the final inspection, everyone knew about the inspection and were praying for final approval so we could get power and complete the building. I met Robert Hudgens the county inspector and he started his inspection. Everything met his approval until the end. According to Robert, the location where the power was to be hooked up did not meet county code. I explained to the inspector what we intended to do an it would be changed in the next phase of construction but he did not agree with me and turned down our building.

During this time Brother Gordon Mize was praying and watching the inspector and I from across the road at his house. Brother Mize realized there was a problem and got in his car and came over and asked me if there was a problem. I explained to him what the problem was and told him that the Inspector could not understand what we wanted to do. Bro. Mize immediately put his hands on the inspector's shoulders and started to pray in a loud booming voice…

Dear Lord Please let this poor blind man see what we are doing and it will be alright!!

Bro. Mize slapped the inspector on the shoulder and said that’s all I can do, turned and got in his car and went home.

The inspector turned and look at me with tears in his eyes and said, "Go ahead with your plan I will approve your building." Then, he said, "In all my years inspecting, I have never had anyone pray for me about a problem."

God answered Prayer!

Then on our first home coming in the new building, we were all proud of our new building and everyone was gathered in the building lining up for the wonderful meal that we were about to receive when Our Pastor and his wife, Bro. and Sister Brummett introduced me to sister Maude Ragsdale and told me that she wants to talk to someone about the building. They told her that I had overseen the project and could answer her questions. Sister Ragsdale was a charter member of the Church.

She and I started talking and we walked through the building, she asked all kinds of questions, she was very impressed with what she saw. I couldn’t believe this lady wanted to know so much about the structure. We walked and talked for quite a while, long enough that I was thinking to myself that Sister Ragsdale is going to cause me to miss this wonderful meal. At the end of our tour she wanted to talk about the loan we had received from the bank. I explained to her that we had borrowed approximately $50,000.00 dollars for the construction.

She told me that she felt that God wanted her to pay the loan off for us!

God answered Prayer!

This building project started a fire in the church that still burns today.

If we keep our eyes on the Lord and not ourselves who knows what can be accomplished.

I am proud of the selfless members that we have in the church and that they are willing to do their part without expecting any praise.

All Glory be to God!

Ricky Coggins

God is Faithful

By: Steve Logan

When I look back on my life, I see God's hand at work. I see how God protected me when I had car wrecks. God was listening to mom's prayers to bring me home at night. God has shown mercy to me many times. He knew in the future I would ask for forgiveness. God had a plan for my life and He was faithful and showed mercy to me.

When I look back, I see his faithfulness in my family. He gave me a wife and a daughter. We dedicated her to the Lord. Now she is grown and has a family of her own. When my wife went through cancer, we placed it in God's hands. He showed up and showed out. She has been cancer free for 21 years. To God Alone Be the Glory!

Now that we are older, God is still the same faithful and merciful God to us. He has brought us this far and we will hold to His unchanging hand til the end.

I am thankful for our church family on this walk for their prayers and encouragement.

Thanking God for opportunities to grow

By: Karen Fauber

Through his Holy Spirit, God and the Crane Eater Community of believers have molded
my life for 73 years. Our pastors, Sunday School teachers, and leaders have given me the opportunity to grow into a servant of God. At age 12, I became the janitor and part-time pianist. Through the years, opportunities to learn, then to teach; to practice, then to play piano for the choir and special music; to become a young adult, then to lead the youth and to teach older adults have given me great pleasures and joy in the Lord.

Watching the congregation grow and facilitate new learning avenues has been rewarding to all of us. The Awana program that Jenny Strickland launched has nurtured our children in the Word. The Vacation Bible Schools that Brenda Hall and Cassandra Parker have faithfully organized through the years have shown us all how learning God’s word not only enriched our lives but were so much fun!

Our Children’s Pastor, Chris Towe has led so many adults and children into work and
worship that has blessed the children. Personal joy has come from participating in these and other growth experiences, such as the Bible College and small group Bible studies.

Brother Aaron Brummett once said, “It takes some doing to be a Christian.” Crane Eater
has offered many the training and joy of the Lord to “do it.” Pastor Howard shows us what is good and right and to “do it”. Pastor Paul teaches us to “do it” more efficiently; and Donna teaches us to “do it” with a song in our hearts. Nina and her team of teachers show us what “it is” in the Word.

The Ladies and Men of the earlier days have been great role models. Children’s choir,
dressed in white robes, sang in C.E. regular services in the 1950s and even sang in other churches. Service projects have enriched the hearts and lives of our entire congregations. Mission challenges in other countries have spread the Word to the unreached or undeveloped for the sake of those who would never have received the life-changing power of Jesus Christ. Oh, how we have been filled with joy as others are empowered to help change the world!

Our family, large and loud, has been given opportunities these many years to serve and to be knitted into the Great Family of God. Thank you, C.E.C.C., for your love. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for leading us all. Thank you, God, for the amazing facilities that you have provided. Thank you, Jesus, for saving us and keeping us. Thank you, C.E.C.C., for making it happen.

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Homecoming memories

By: Donna Gay

DEUTERONOMY 32:7 -Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.

Sunday, June 12, 2022, Crane Eater Community Church will celebrate it’s 108th homecoming. For me personally it will be my 63rd homecoming. What does Homecoming mean to me?

I am the sixth child of Jack and Vivian Muse Stanfield. My father and grandfather helped to build the rock church which was built in 1938 and therefore I am third generation, my children Nathan Gay and Megan Gay Stephens are fourth generation and my five grandchildren, Jacob, Christian, Jesslyn and Jeryn Stephens and Gracie Gay are fifth generation members of CECC.

Homecoming has always been a time of remembering the origin of CECC on 1-13-1914, reminiscing of all the saints who have gone before us, the miraculous revivals, the numerous pastors who have shepherded the flock at CECC, the countless lives saved by the blood of JESUS CHRIST, and the outpouring of HOLY GHOST baptism! I would like to share some of my fondest recollections…..

I was saved at the age of seven during a revival with Rev. Brown. I vividly remember the pew my Father and I was setting on…My father weeping as he and I prayed together. Immediately following my salvation experience at that revival, a baptism was held at New Town Creek on New Town Road where two of my best friends, Glenda Harkins and Carolyn Bell who were also saved in that revival, and I were baptized. After baptism, we were taught to go the altar every service and “seek” for the baptism of HOLY GHOST! And for almost two years, that is what I did….I sought for more of GOD….fervently praising and praying for HOLY GHOST to fill me.

One Sunday night as we began to worship, HOLY GHOST begin to take over the service and we all found ourselves in the altar worshipping. As we worshipped, one of CECC’s most faithful altar workers, Ella Hales tapped me on the arm and said, “Listen to yourself… I was speaking in the heavenly language so lost in the SPIRIT that I didn’t even realize what had just happened. I had received the baptism of HOLY GHOST with the evidence of speaking in tongues as the SPIRIT gave utterance. I have never been the same since that glorious day!

In 1963, during the pastorship of Rev. David Manning, his wife Sis. Manning received a vision looking out her kitchen window of CECC’s parsonage. Sis. Manning saw hundreds of children playing in the field behind he rock church. Bro. And Sis. Manning had been praying about starting a new church in town, and she felt that this was the answer to that prayer. East Calhoun Church of God was established somewhere around that time, I don’t have exact date. CECC continued to exist and a new pastor named Luther Raines became our pastor. The small congregation continued to serve GOD in the community, cooking turkey and dressing dinners every week to raise money. This was headed up by Johnnie King (Kim King’s mom) and my mother, Vivian Stanfield. These plates were delivered to local manufacturing plants and the church continued to thrive.

In 1982, Rev. A. W. Brummett and his precious wife Sis. Ethel Brummett became CECC’s pastor. They were COG missionaries for 40 + years and were true prophets of the LORD. Their heart’s desire was to finish their ministry pastoring a small congregation like CECC. One morning, standing at the same kitchen sink where Sis. Manning had stood some 20 + years before, Sis. Brummett had the same vision. Hundreds of children running and playing in the field behind the rock church and in 2017 after the playground and pavillion were built, I walked out the back door of Heritage Building and HOLY GHOST said “you are eye witnessing both Sis. Manning and Sis.Brummett’s vision come to pass!” There were children running and playing all over the field where they both had seen in the vision!

During their pastorate at CECC, Bro. Brummett established a building fund and cast the vision for a new sanctuary. And in 2010 after saving for 38 years, CECC’s new sanctuary was dedicated on May 16, 2010. The GOOD LORD had allowed my eyes to eye witness this historic event! And the rest is history….my eyes have now witnessed a Playground, a Pavillion/Tabernacle and a Family Life Center be built through and by the LORD GOD JEHOVAH! I am absolutely blown away by the miraculous things GOD has done at CECC!!!!!!! TO GOD ALONE BE THE GLORY!