Bluemont Presbyterian Church, one of several stone churches built by Bob Childress in Southwestern Virginia. — Virginia Department of Historic Resources
Bob Childress, The Man Who Moved a Mountain.
PEOPLE WHO CHANGED THEIR WORLD I
Taming the Buffalo
“Shrouded in the mists of the Virginia Blue Ridge is a place called Buffalo Mountain… it is not an impressive peak. But to the people who have lived within its long shadows it casts a powerful spell.”
“There are those who say a devil used to dwell there.”
“Then a man named Bob Childress came to live there. He had grown up a mountain man with mountain habits. He drank. He fought ambush style with rocks and pistols. He was scarred from many brawls and twice wounded by gunshot. But something happened to change Bob Childress, and the change in him shook and transformed Buffalo Mountain.” – Richard C. Davids, in the preface of The Man Who Moved a Mountain
Last week our Pastor talked about Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego – the massage was on ‘surviving (and thriving) in exile.’ Carried away from their homes in Jerusalem, these promising young men found themselves living in a culture that was quite foreign to them. How would they sustain themselves, and even lift the people surrounding them.
At lunch after church, I asked our Pastor if he’d ever read The Man Who Moved a Mountain? To me, it seemed that the life of Bob Childress certainly fit in the paradigm of living in a needy culture and influencing it for the better. Bob Childress might have begun as a rough mountain man, but when he came to faith in Jesus Christ, he found himself on a distinctly different path.
The hopelessness, drunkenness, and violence he had grown up around were now as foreign to him as Babylon must have seemed to four young God-fearing captives from Jerusalem. Bob Childress had a heart for the mountain people. He only had a rudimentary education, but went back to school and prepared himself for ministry. Eventually he was able to complete seminary.
Now, seminary degree in hand, he was ready. But then a big church in North Carolina offered him a very comfortable position. He would have had a handsome salary and comfort and safety for his family. Bob turned that down, instead choosing to go into the mountains where there were many trials and dangers awaiting him.
He might have been returning to his roots, but in fact, Bob Childress was a different man than he had been in his rough and tumble youth. He served a higher Kingdom. Some of the mountaineers didn’t understand what he was doing. Moonshiners, in particular, did not like the fact that he was leading people away from liquor and replacing it with newfound hope. His life was threatened on a few occasions. Often when Bob thought things were getting better, there would be crushing setbacks.
Bob’s persistence eventually led to changed lives. There was Bootlegger John Whorley, the self-proclaimed “King of Slate Mountain.” He resisted Bob at first. Bob won him over with humor and genuine friendship. He took the rugged Marine Sergeant along with him as he visited people, gradually convincing him that serving the Lord was way more fulfilling than his old life — giving him a “kind of excitement and peace all at the same time.” The King of Slate Mountain went on to become an ordained Methodist Minister.
Childress took an interest in the wellbeing of his community, establishing a sawmill to bring employment to the people. He established a school, knowing that education of young people was so important. He helped lobby for decent roads and bridges, knowing that isolation and lack of opportunity led to despair.
Gradually a new way of life took root as Bob Childress followed the instructions given by the prophet: “Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.” – Jeremiah 29:5-7
In our day there are many who will tell you that things are beyond hope. They will tell you that things are worse than they’ve ever been. These are the ones who don’t know history. They say that things won’t ever change. Here is wonderful solid evidence to the contrary. The Man Who Moved a Mountain will make you laugh, then bring you to tears. You’ll put it down with a renewed sense of what difference one man, fueled by the Calling to Divine mission, can do. It will leave you with hope!
Sunlight Peeking Over the Blue Ridge. — Photo by Bob Kirchman
The Sun Breaks Through on a Winter Day on the Blue Ridge Parkway. — Photo by Bob Kirchman
