NotTheUglyDuckling

Mom arrived at my house at 5:00am and we packed up the car. We headed out towards Baileyton, TN as our first destination in search for my Grand-dad's Grandfather's Grave. (Catch that???) All we knew was it was in a "small grave yard next to the church" he used to be a pastor at back in late 1800's to early 1900's. We knew it resided in Baileyton, TN and that was, literally, it! We arrived in Baileyton about 10am and founded the Town Hall. It was TINY!! In there, we proceeded to tell the woman about my Great-Great-Grandfather's grave and our mission and why we were doing it and such. She said that she knows of an old Methodist church that might be it and warned us that it does have some very old graves and a lot you cannot read the head/foot stones on them due to this. We were aware of this possibility and accepted the reality of it. She told us to go straight and we will go through THE stoplight and the church will be on our right and the grave yard is behind it. Well, we left the town hall and "THE" stop light she was talking about was merely a four way flashing light!!! I laughed SO hard at this! I'm like, that is NOT a stoplight!! (Still funny to me!) We get to the church and what my Granddad told my mom it was a "tiny graveyard". Well, maybe back then because today, well, it's not exactly tiny by any means! We were debating on where to begin when mom said, "Why don't we just park and walk down each row and just look... We've got all day." So, that's what we did. We were, literally, there for five minutes when we came across his grave. It was in the second row, the second from the end and one of his daughters was the third from the end. We could read it clear as day and beautiful! We assume that since he was a pastor that's why it's of one of the nicer head/foot stones. We took pictures and decided to head back towards THE stoplight and locate a Wal-mart or something to get paper and crayons to do the "rubbing" since we forgot to bring them. Back in "town", we came across an Amish Store and just had to stop! We picked up lots of goodies. YUM YUM! As we were leaving, we noticed across the way was an old Antiques store and decided to go in there. Well, right when we first walked in a sketching caught my eye. It was of my great-great-grandfather's church! It's part of their Historical Society! Pretty neat! So mom purchased the cards and I will scan and put them up once we back home. Pretty neat!! Started talking to the lady in the store and explained the story and she asked what his name was. Well, when we told her William Robert Byerley, her face lit up and she said that she heard her mom talk about him all the time! Her mom had been apart of his congregation and shared stories with her daughter. This was just too cool!! Well, we then went to the Dollar General there and after some random lady tried to get us to take home a free black kitty that was six weeks old, we got the paper and crayons and headed back through THE stoplight to the church and grave yard. Mom said, "With how things are going... Wouldn't it be cool if someone was at the church to let us in?" As we proceeded over the little hill we could see someone, indeed, was turning out of the church parking lot. We were hoping they would stay there but instead, they turned out. I started waving my hands frantically to try to get them to turn around! Mom said, "Yeah, they aren't going to turn around for some lunatic waiving their hands around crazily in the air! And on top if it, it's a woman!" We pulled into the parking lot and sure enough, here comes the lady turning back into the parking lot!! Mom asked if she was affiliated with the church and she said yes. Told her the story and she told us the church isn't locked but let us in, and turned on all the lights and such. We walked in and wow! It's beautiful!!! She too had heard stories of my great-great-grandfather! One of the pictures is even of a Bible that was found dating from the late 1800's to about 1924 which is about the time frame he would have preached there and they had it preserved and shown in a box with an engraving which you cannot make out through the picture. (Sorry) As we were leaving she asked us how long we were going to be in town. We told her we were actually heading up to Roanoke, VA and heading back home on Sunday she told us about Laying of the flowers. It's an event that happens ONCE A YEAR and it is the third Sunday in May, every year. (We just HAPPENED to be coming back through, the third Sunday in May) She said it's where a lot of people, mostly affiliated with the Methodist church, gather to put flowers on the graves, especially those that do not get flowers put on them the rest of the year. Mom decided we were going to do this and would leave Roanoke, VA early enough so we could do it during the day. We told Wonda to look for flowers on their graves as we would be back, not sure what time though. All day long, God had just shown us his hand working in every single situation! God never ceases to surprise us yet He really shouldn't as we KNOW he's capable of this all along! Just amazing that God does care about everything we care about! What an AWESOME God we serve!!! So still in just utter amazement at how the day has proceeded thus far, we were excited to see what else God had in store for us! WELL, driving along we hit some rain and sure enough, in the rain we saw not one, not two, not THREE, but about a DOZEN different rainbows!!!! AND, about half of them were the brightest, most clear rainbows I have ever seen in my life!!! AND, I saw my first ever rainbow, complete, beginning to end. Point to point! AMAZING!!!! I was only able to get a few on cameras so enjoy the ones I got! In a couple pictures you can see a double rainbow which was really cool too!! Ya know, I just can't say it enough, GOD IS SO GOOD!!!!!!

"Zion M.E. Church Organized 1830. Present Building errected 1858." The Original church was "down the hill" and made out of logs.

The Bible that was found which was used between late 1800's to about 1924. Good guess would say that my Great-Great-Grandfather used it as well!

Mom, talking to Wanda, the wonderful lady who let us in the church!

Just various Virginia scenery along our journey. Beautiful! Took my breath away! :-)

This is what Virginia Bug-guts look like...

Only a few of the dozen or so Rainbows we saw!!! So glad I was able to catch a few with the camera!

This is the "Small" graveyard we were told about. (It goes over the hill, down, and back up a small hill and there's more room to grow!)

FAR Left hand corner is where he is buried.

One of his daughters, Agnes, was buried next to him after dying from a disease at a young age.

Mom "rubbing" on Great-Great-Grandfather's foot stone.

Ready for Part 2, eh?

Piczo