From President Tammie Hill”s passage from Romans 8:32 “for all things work together for the good to them that know God” to the closing song Amazing Grace, the message of the 27th Annual Union County Business and Professional Prayer Breakfast on Good Friday, March 29, was “come together and ‘Just Believe.’”
Rev. Corey Carroll, Pastor of First Baptist Church, Maynardville, welcomed everyone to the gathering at the church and reminded them of the significance of Easter and the sacrifices that Jesus made.
Three siblings, Martin Shafer, Chairman of UCBPA Board, his sister Lyn Shafer Overholt, and his brother Bo Shafer introduced the keynote speaker, Suzanne Stelling. Suzanne is the niece of Martin and Bo and the daughter of Lyn and Dr. Gene Overholt. Besides being an artist and a baker, Suzanne is the author of Woodbine Chronicles: A Neighborhood Love Story. She built on the theme and asked everyone to remember the words “Life, Death, and Life.”
She related how her own story has similarities to this theme. Suzanne described how she came from a privileged white background where her whole world was white. Her West Knoxville neighborhood, her friends, and even her music were white. One day her husband said to her that he just did not feel that he nor they were fulfilling God's purpose; there was no challenge, no sacrifice in their lives as the scriptures related.
Suzanne was confused, but supportive of her husband. She decided to pray about her life and asked God if there was something else she needed to do. Using her unique way of praying, as she wrote her prayers, she could feel God talking to her.
Suzanne thought of her beautifully landscaped yard with ponds, a fire pit, and many gentle birds, raccoons and other animals that brought joy to her life. When she told God that she would miss this life, God said that He was the water that flowed in her life, that He could light a fire in her spirit, and that He could bring her wild animals with different names. Finally, she knew just as Jesus knew that she must leave her life and sacrifice so that others could witness God’s spirit and just believe.
So Suzanne and her husband Grant sold their house and moved to Woodbine Avenue in East Knoxville, a predominantly black and very diverse neighborhood. At first the change was more than a struggle. The sounds of gunshots rang across her street three to four nights a week. Her neighbors treated her as an oddity. Her life became a “death” that she hoped to overcome much as Jesus overcame the persecution and sacrifice of his life. Gradually she got to know the people mainly through baking bread and cookies to share with neighbors on the front porch picnic table.
Suzanne would walk the neighborhood and pray for her neighbors and herself that God would help her rise to this challenge. After seven years, the neighborhood is changing. The gunshots have nearly stopped. Rents have increased which has caused some families to move. The diversity of race and economic means has grown more varied. But neighbors are developing an acceptance and a desire to come together and help each other.
Suzanne and Grant have bought an old building on Olive Street that is being renovated to be a bakery, Olive Street Rising. The neighborhood is slowly transforming from a food desert where not even a banana could be purchased to a kind of home cooking that seeks to improve the nutritional offerings. The bakery will employ people to bake bread, serve meals, and moreover breathe new life into the neighborhood. Suzanne and Grant are feeling that purpose. They too are experiencing “life after death.”
Kelly Cunningham and her daughter Haven sang about this life after death. Their voices blended in “When I Lay My Crown” to show the gratitude for believing in God. In the song “Between Me and the Storm,” they told how Jesus protects us from the storm of troubles that face our lives. They performed “I Have Been Blessed” to share the many beautiful blessings that faith provides.
Rev. Kathy Chesney, pastor of Millers Chapel United Methodist Church in Maynardville and Irwins Chapel United Methodist Church in Sharps Chapel, thanked Suzanne for her courage and her faith. In the benediction, she asked for God’s protection and grace as our community comes together in faith that a more abundant life can come through believing.
Shannon DeWitt, UCBPA Program Chairman, shared some of the blessings that UCBPA has witnessed. From the community coming together over the past 30 years, UCBPA has held a golf tournament and raised the funds to award over $125,000 in scholarships to graduating seniors. The 2024 Scholarship Benefit Golf Classic will be on Saturday, June 15, at Three Ridges Golf Course on Wise Springs Road in Knoxville.
Many sponsors blessed the breakfast: Sessions and Juvenile Judge Travis Patterson, Court Clerk Barbara Williams, Commercial Bank, Corum Bookkeeping & Tax Specialist, FirstBank, Griid Infrastructure, Martin Shafer, Tammie Hill, Realty Executives Associates, Thunder Road Printing & Graphic Design, R. Larry Smith & Associates Insurance Agency and Marilyn and Wayne Toppins.
Buttercup Bakehouse catered the breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon, biscuits and gravy, and fruits and pastries. The Prayer Breakfast committee members Shannon Brooks, Tammie Hill, Shannon DeWitt, Charlene Kosegi and Melissa Stormer sold tickets, invited sponsors, and arranged the table decorations donated by Flowers by Bob and Hickory Valley Farms.
Frances Hamilton, IT Director for First Baptist, posted the theme flier developed by Hill to make a perfect backdrop for the event. Debbie Cox and members of First Baptist made sure the room was set up and ready. UCBPA thanks everyone who made this a successful celebration.
As the celebration came to a close, the attendees sang “Amazing Grace,” united in “Just Believing” in a life filled with faith in God and the blessings that follow. Suzanne Stelling made one last challenge, “What are you sacrificing for your faith?”