‘Feed My Sheep’ Trailer Is Dedicated In Seadrift

Terry G. Hall and Janna Sandidge Hawes Perform Southern Gospel

The First United Methodist Church has been serving the spiritual needs of the people of Seadrift, Texas, for almost a hundred years. The church’s commitment has involved a great number of pastors and parishioners and programs. Two of its recent pastors and two of its programs combined their forces with many parishioners on Sunday evening of March 4, 2012, to celebrate, dedicate and renew the church’s goals.

Pastor June Cantrell and her Seadrift planning committee invited Rev. Janna Sandidge Hawes and her husband, Leslie Hawes, to be a part of the celebration. Janna Sandidge Hawes had pastored the Seadrift church from 1998 to 2004 and she currently serves as pastor at Somerset, TX. Among her other credits is a vocal and piano talent that has resulted in the production of several gospel and praise C. D.’s and frequent public presentations of this music.

However, it was Rev. Sandidge Hawes’ deeply-felt commitment and leadership to the “Feed My Sheep” food distribution program during her ministry in Seadrift that surely brought her back this month. That food program’s big draw in 2012 was its receipt of grant money totaling $5400.00 to cover the purchase price of an enclosed trailer (measuring 16’6” x 7’ x 6’8” high). This trailer will be used exclusively for transporting food from Victoria’s Food Pantry of the Golden Crescent and from other private food contributors to the storage and distribution site at FUMC in Seadrift once a month.

The “Feed My Sheep” food trailer was purchased and then parked near the church in February to await its dedication service. In collaboration, Rev. Sandidge Hawes and Rev. Cantrell, two musically-talented ministers, developed a plan to combine the trailer’s dedication service with an already scheduled musician’s concert on March 4 at the church. Rev. Sandidge Hawes was acquainted with a recording artist, Terry G. Hall, who had been traveling and singing his gospel music for 42 years. Both Hall and Sandidge Hawes have had their vocal music engineered and recorded through the Riversound Production studio in Maryville, Tennessee.

So it seemed logical to combine the food program trailer dedication with an outstanding gospel music ministry on a Sunday evening in Seadrift. Terry G. Hall has a remarkable bass voice whose range extends over four octaves. Interesting also is his remembrance that his unusual voice was manifested in 1962 when he turned 11 years of age. Not many 11-year-olds have a deep bass voice. This was a time when he and his peers were adolescents and his peers found this anomaly to be an uncomfortable social situation to deal with. Certainly Hall has adjusted well over the years and was happy to report that these school mates were now happy to invite him back to school reunions.

Terry G. Hall and Janna Sandidge Hawes

Terry G. Hall is a native of Kentucky, having grown up in Vaughns Mill, KY, near Clay City, a farm area which is SE of Lexington. He was married as a young man to a woman who proved to be most supportive of him and his music career and of their family. She travels frequently with him to his music ministry. In 2000 he and his wife, Janice, moved to Sevierville, Tennessee, where they have views of the beautiful Smoky Mountains. Together they have committed themselves to a full time gospel ministry where he is able to do 300 bookings a year, not only in churches but in various other settings such as festivals, retirement communities and prisons. For a period of about two years he sang with a group at Dollywood.

Hall’s voice has a clear, comforting and smooth sound. He stated that much of the influence for his vocal music could be found in his early church experiences, and in listening to the Blackwood Brothers and the Jordanaires, Johnny Cash and various bluegrass musicians. Singing schools were sometimes found in his southern churches where the reading of shaped notes and four part harmony were taught. He performs as his own backup parts when recording his music.

His C. D. of Classic Gospel songs include such favorites as “No One Ever Cared For Me Like Jesus”, “The Lord’s Prayer”, “Standing on the Promises”, etc. His C.D. named Called To Sing includes “Long Black Train”, “Beulah Land” and “God Bless The USA”.

Both Terry G. Hall and Janna Sandidge Hawes have chosen to include their renditions of “Church In The Wildwood” and “Old Rugged Cross” on their individually- recorded C. D.’s.

The season of Lent was recognized as Sandidge Hawes sang of Jesus’ time of suffering with “Via Dolorosa”. Then she expressed the general feeling of the congregation at large at the conclusion of the concert with the singing of “Holy Ground”. Surely all people congregated there felt they had stood in God’s presence and were left with joy and peace of mind because of the messages presented in the good old Southern Gospel Sound of these two musicians.

In conclusion, the congregation gathered outside the church and laid hands on the food trailer, dedicating it to the work of “Feed My Sheep”.

“The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us.”

‘Feed My Sheep’ trailer at First United Methodist Church, Seadrift