By Kevin Spradlin
PeeDeePost.com
ROCKINGHAM — Homecoming isn’t only for high schoolers.
Members of the Mt. Calvary Rock of Ages church on County Home Road celebrating Homecoming on Sunday with a guest preacher and a special post-service meal that would be the envy of any food connoisseur.
Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com
The church was founded in 1934 under the name Oakdale Free Will Baptist Church by Clyde Ford and others. Several of Ford’s descendants, including Linda (Ford) Dyke and her sister, Carol (Ford) Goodwin, were among those who dressed in old-fashioned clothing to assist the celebration.
Pastor Donnie Nuttall was assisted in the morning service by visiting pastor Eddie Hildreth. Even this part of the program clung to the church’s roots, for Hildreth was previously the church’s full-time pastor.
The menu … wow. Tables were chock full of foods that emanated a deliciousness only those with full plates could confirm. There was no shortage; no one, said Kay Web, would go home hungry. Fried chicken, ham, roast and potatoes, check. Pineapple sweet-and-sour chicken, yes. Same for chicken ‘n’ dumplings, peas, lima beans and pinto beans, along with broccoli casserole, squash, tomatoes, Deviled eggs, potato salad, hush puppies and corn on the cob.
Dessert? You betcha. Snickers pie, sugar-free chocolate cake, peach cobbler, pineapple cake, banana pudding, red velvet cake, blueberry pound cake, fruit salad, apple pie and more.
“I have never seen so much food,” said one churchgoer.
Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com
Linda (Ford) Dyke, a descendant of Mt. Calvary Rock of Ages church co-founder Clyde Ford, dresses in old-fashioned clothing Sunday to celebrate the church’s annual Homecoming.
The congregation took a break from the meal to take a group photo inside the church.
The purpose of the annual Homecoming, Nuttall said, was to “remind us of our ancestors … and when the church first began.”
The church has an average of nearly three dozen people at weekly Sunday services. About 60 attended Sunday.
“They came to worship the Lord as well as (for) the food and fellowship,” Nuttall figured.
The church plans its revival beginning at 6 p.m. Oct. 5. From Oct. 6 through Oct. 10, revival service begins at 7 p.m.
Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com
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