By Nina Keenam

 In 1975, a darkroom technician at the newspaper where I was community editor noticed an old frame church while driving around in rural south Alabama. He was trying out a new camera. It was obvious from numerous broken window panes and a dangling door that the building was abandoned. After photographing the exterior, he ventured inside to shoot pictures of a piano layered with dust and laced with spider webs, two chairs with worn upholstery beside the pulpit, a cardboard fan on a dusty pew, and other signs of neglect.

Mike, the technician, developed the negatives and filed them in a plastic container. One day when I stepped into the darkroom with a roll of film for him to develop, the negatives caught my eye. The church looked a little like one my minister husband served. I asked Mike to print the pictures.

For a while I could not figure out how to use them, but I felt led to do so. On days when I found a spare minute or two, I spread the pictures across my desk, still pondering what to do. After several weeks, God led me to place all of them on a full page with a headline reading, “Where have all the people gone?” Then I left on vacation.

The newspaper published the page during my absence. The office was flooded with calls inquiring about the name of the church and the location. Mike was no help. A newcomer to the area, he had spent a day driving around in unfamiliar places, photographing anything that interested him.

A few days later a former church member called with the church identification: Long Branch Baptist Church in the Cohasset community. Its doors shut in 1972 after attendance dwindled and the preacher left to serve another church. She requested we publish a notice that a building fund had been established to restore the church to use for funerals, homecomings, and singings. She and several other women who wanted to bring the church back to life wrote to former church members and those who had moved away. Contributions arrived with numerous responders’ comments that they did not want the church to die.

More than a thousand dollars poured in. Restoration of the interior included fresh paint to brighten the walls. The chairs on each side of the pulpit looked almost new with fresh beautiful upholstery. The piano was highly polished with no sign of spider webs. The sagging door and the window panes were replaced.

We did not hear anything from the church for a while, but during that time God was preparing it for other than funerals, homecoming and singings. In 1978, a dedicated retired pastor stepped in to serve as an interim until the church could afford to pay a full-time pastor. He conducted Sunday morning and evening services and prayer meeting on Wednesdays. Soon Sunday school and Training Union resumed. A spring Bible study ran for a week and the following summer the church held Bible school. A number of people who had attended the church as children returned and brought their children.

In early 1979, a church member invited me to a ground breaking for a combination fellowship and education building. I was there with my camera on a beautiful, cool Sunday afternoon to make pictures and report on the momentous event. As requested by some members, the article was titled “The People Return to Long Branch Church.”

Isn’t it amazing how God works, leading a photographer to the abandoned building, stirring interest in the negatives resulting in publication, prompting a former church member to organize a letter-writing group to appeal for contributions, and touching the heart of a retired minister to serve as interim at a church that died and was reviving?

Today only a few of those who were there during the “revival” in the 1970’s are still active in the church. Some moved and others passed away. The congregation is small, but glory to God, the 137-year-old church still lives!

A Little about Nina Keenam: I worked for newspapers for almost twenty years, beginning as a typist. I had always wanted to write. When copy to type showed up in my basket, I kept thinking I could do that.

One day I wrote a personal essay about my shortcomings as a house wife. After a few days, I got up the nerve to show it to my editor. He liked it and, to my delight, published it. Afterward, he assigned me a feature story about the local library and handed me a big heavy camera with a large flash attached. He gave me a brief lesson on how to use them. I shot a lot of pictures, hoping I would get at least a couple of good ones. They turned out okay. So did my article. After that I became a staff writer.

I was with The Andalusia Star-News for almost ten years. Besides features, I covered law enforcement. When my husband was appointed to a church in Lillian, I worked part-time for The Onlooker in Foley. Features were my specialty and I wrote at least one a week, sometimes more.

My writing has been published in The Optimist Magazine and The Upper Room. My weekly column once ran in The Troy Messenger, The Onlooker, and five Gulf Coast Media newspapers in Baldwin County. Today it runs in The Andalusia Star-News (and has for almost 30 years) and The Atmore News.

My late husband Claude served 20 years in the army. After retirement, he taught high school ROTC for 13 years at Andalusia High School. During that time he answered God’s call to ministry through the United Methodist Church. He preached for more than 30 years.

I am a member of First United Methodist Church of Andalusia. I serve on the Help Committee, and participate in Wednesday Bible study and prayer group.

I belong to the Lunch Bunch, a joyful group of six women of different denominations, who eat and fellowship at favorite restaurants every Friday.