EARLY HISTORY OF:

In the spring, March 1972, Mr. Paul Kelly, in dire need of help, "Phoned Home". On the other end of that long distance connection was The Reverend H.J. Smith, Managing Director, of Christ Faith Mission, in Los Angeles, California (Old Pisgah Home & Tabernacle). "Pisgah's" history was about to come full circle.

"Brother" Kelly, as he was better known, was President of the last remnant of the Pisgah Home Movement, a Christian Community that had moved from San Bernardino County, California to the State of Tennessee in 1947. They established themselves on a piece of farmland, land donated to them by the Cooper Family, in the historic Sequatchie Valley, in Bledsoe County, near the Town of Pikeville.

This small band of Christians from the big city, had decided to set up their operation in the country, where they might continue to express their Christian ideals through helping needy and outcast individuals, and to publish their "PISGAH" newspaper, a small tabloid dedicated to proclaiming and propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ, throughout the United States and Canada. They hoped to rely on their farming and gardening skills (which proved to be in very short supply) to assist in providing a supplemental income to the gifts and donations received from their ('PISGAH') publication's followers.

Although their intentions and dedication was blessed by God, the inevitability of frailty and illnesses, that becomes the onset of old age, caught up with them all. Beyond this progression however, lie the real problem; they had not succeeded in implanting their vision and passion into another, younger generation, who would have welcomed the challenge to herald, "The Great Commission", of Jesus Christ (Note: I present this only as an historic observation and not an accusation, by any means).

The Rev. Smith listened to, and accepted the proposals outlined by Brother Kelly, i.e. that Pisgah Home Movement and Christ Faith Mission, be spiritually merged together again in commonality of purpose and dedication (Yet, remaining two distinct corporate entities), with the authority for decision-making, ultimately going to The Rev. Smith, also that, at least temporarily, the "PISGAH" journal be combined with, and share a common mailing list with the "Herald of Hope", a journal of Christian Perspectives (Interestingly enough, still known as, "The Voice of Pisgah").