It's a Miracle, I found my Church! - Cross-Country Road Trip 6.3

New Hope Baptist Church – Mt. Pleasant, SC

For the longest time I’ve had this completely random dream of being somewhere in the South and walking into a church while services were going on – just like you see in the movies. My dream was pretty detailed though – the church would be white, it would be off a main road but surrounded by fields, it would have double doors through which I enter and it would be filled with people singing and fanning themselves and blurting out lots of “hallelujahs” and “amens”. I have no idea why this has been a dream for me, but I’m going with it.

Before we left, I made finding my church a “to-do” on this trip. I had no idea if it was going to happen though because we really only had one Sunday that we would be going through the South. The odds didn’t look good but it doesn’t hurt to hope, right?

So we're driving through Mt. Pleasant this morning, on our way to Boone Hall Plantation, and what do I see pass us by? My church! It was white, it had purple doors and had open space on both sides of it! James quickly (well as quickly as one can in a Dodge Airstream van) turned around and we pulled into the unpaved, overgrown, tree-lined driveway. A sign let us know that it was a Baptist church. A Southern Baptist church...are you kidding? Perfect!

It's about 12:30 so we're not sure if services are done for the day but I was determined to find out. We walk up the steps, enter a foyer area and what is in front of us? That's right, double doors that open into a congregation actively listening and throwing out occasional "hallelujahs" and "amens" when the animated preacher said something that moved them. James and I found a nice bench in the back and took in the scene.

I couldn't believe it, everything was exactly how I imagined it, right down to a man fanning himself with a program or songbook or something. We were even invited by a couple of people to join the communion service afterwards, but we decided to continue on to the plantation. I wasn't wearing anything close to the vintage dress and matching hat that I wore in my dream, but I can certainly live with what I got!