As eight families with thirteen children came to north Georgia over Memorial Day Weekend to work and serve in a mission partnership. Kacy Brubaker, Director of Elementary and Family Ministry at First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta, organized the Elementary Family Mission Trip which included the donation of a 26 foot U-Haul truckload of furniture, the collection and processing of more than 300 children’s books, the distribution of books to local children from the Story Express, painting, planting flowers, raking, trimming

hedges, riding the Blue Ridge Scenic Railroad with some local families with children in the Fannin County Head Start/Pre-K, and trail maintenance. The group also enjoyed Sunday School and worship at Cherry Log Christian Church, which was founded by Dr. Fred Craddock in 1997. There was also time for recreation and devotions inside and outside in God’s beautiful creation in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. The families stayed in nearby Morganton in log cabins, where they enjoyed the hot tubs and eating s’mores after the good day’s mission work was finished.

The little gray house in the woods in Cherry Log out of which The Craddock Center reaches into the surrounding communities may look small at first glance, but the spreading of hope, compassion and God’s love is really big. This note written by one of the children sums up the experience:


— TLS   

I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT LIKE TO KNOW

How I can be reached now that I am at the Center less frequently and less predictably. My home phone number remains the same: (706) 632-5253. I would be pleased to talk with you. If you call when I am napping (I sleep well at night and fairly well in the morning, but in the afternoon I just toss and turn), leave a message on the voice mail. I have a new mailing address: P.O. Box 129, Cherry Log, GA 30522. We had a box in the Blue Ridge Post Office, but in July Blue Ridge has a new Post Office, at least a mile more distant than the present one. We really should have had a Cherry Log box all along, but water over the dam, so to speak.

If you continue to send gifts to the Center, and surely you will, please do not send them to my box. Gifts sent to me will, within the hour, become ice cream and peanut butter. Tammy will inform me from time to time who has given to the Center and that will give me an excuse to call or write you.

In the meantime, I will be occupied with my new business: a small roadside shack trafficking in fish bait, boiled peanuts and services such as motorcycle repair and acupuncture. — FBC

Gilmer Headstart/Pre-K family receives portrait from “Angels Thru Our Lens”  

WELCOME NEW BOARD MEMBER, DR. PEGGY CLEVELAND  

Peggy, in her previous life before retirement, taught high school biology and middle school science. Because of her concern for children whose life experiences kept them from learning at school, she stopped teaching and earned a Masters in Social Work from the University of Georgia. She then worked as a School Social Worker and Mental Health clinician and Director of a Day Program for teenagers. After earning her doctorate in Child and Family Studies, she worked as a private therapist and consultant while on the School of Social Faculty at the University of Georgia. In 1995, she went to Valdosta State University to start social work education there. She and her husband Carl Hendrickson and their dogs, Thelma and Louise, live in Mineral Springs, attend the Cherry Log Christian Church and love it in the mountains so much, they are convinced they have really gone to Heaven! — TLS

TARNATION

That I have just returned from Chattanooga where a retirement service was held for the word “Tarnation”. We could see retirement coming; sometimes a week will pass without hearing Tarnation. Some of us tried to delay retirement by using the word in public places at least once every day. Puzzled looks told us — It is time for it to go.

But there was a time when Tarnation flourished as though it would live forever. And it was so useful, in the home, at school, in the pulpit. I can hear it now: Where in tarnation do you think you are going? Why in tarnation are you wearing that? How in tarnation do you expect to get home? It wasn’t necessary to know what the word meant; it accomplished the purpose where with it was spoken. The scholars who read this paper (and there are many) would, of course, expect a definition, so for your sake here it is.

Tarnation is the union of “tarnal” and “damnation”. Tarnal is a common mispronunciation of Eternal. Damnation you already understand. Put the two words together, abbreviate, and you have Tarnation. As you have probably guessed, the word provides a way for Christians to cuss without cussing (I use “cuss” in the widely popular sense to cover swearing, cussing, taking God’s name in vain, and general profanity). Christians don’t hold to cussing, but sometimes they need to in the worst way. So they developed this clever way of almost cussing. For instance, “Darn”, or “Gosh”, or “For land’s sake”, or “By golly”, or “Goodness gracious”.

But no expression exceeds Tarnation, in beauty or power or general usefulness.

We had a good crowd in Chattanooga, well-behaved and respectful. Oh, there were a few protestors and a smattering of the curious. One of these curious passersby almost boastfully told me he never heard the word. “Never heard it?” I replied. “Where in Tarnation have you been?” — FBC

CAR DONATION

Tammy Blair and Trisha Senterfitt received keys from Hal Doster after the most recent car donation. The Craddock Center is grateful to Hal and Ann Doster for their generous donation. The woman who received this car had been in an accident and was so thankful for the gift of a very reliable automobile for her and her son.—TLS