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♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫These are Our Stories and Our Songs
It all starts with a dream.
One of my earliest child hood memories is of a Southern Gospel concert.
I can actually remember going o the Tilghman High School Auditorium in
Paducah, KY with Mama and Dad to see a family group that was creating a
‘buzz’ around the nation. Dad went to the record table before the
service began and talked with this guy named Kenny. I thought he was a
good buddy of my father, but never thought much more about it. We took
our seat and somebody came to the mic and said, “ I want you to make welcome
here tonight, one of the most exciting, most spirit filled gospel groups in
America today. Please make welcome the exciting, the award winning
Hinson Family.” The crowd stood to their feet and gave a thunderous
applause. The first line they sang was ‘Who is on the Lord’s side among
you.” I don’t remember much else about the evening, but I remember thinking
that I would like to do that.
It has been almost twenty years since that time. I’ve thought a lot
about what I wanted to do when I grew up in that span of time. I’ve
been to college and have had many jobs, but not a day has gone by that I have
not thought about that concert. As a child, Samuel heard the voice of
the Lord in the middle of the night and was not certain of what was happening
to him. His teacher Eli told him it was the Lord and he responded to
God’s call. I heard that same call in that concert hall and have had an
earnest desire to serve Him ever since. Wes Morehead God will make this trial a blessing.
I was saved at 16 years old. Although not always living for Christ, His
presence was always real in my life. At 22, I married a military man
who was soon after stationed in San Antonio, TX. While there fertility
specialist revealed that having children would not be possible for me.
I remember as a young girly wanting to be a mother and a wife, and that dream
seemed to have come to an end. My husband and I decided that with his
military contacts, adoption could be a way for us to increase our family, but
after many unsuccessful tries, we began to question if this would ever
happen.
In 1990, after finishing on active duty, we came back to Kentucky. My
husband stayed active in the army reserves. Soon after, Operation
Desert Storm required him to fulfill a term of active duty. While he
was stationed in Iraq, I awoke to two uniformed men outside the door of my
home. Knowing well what they were going to say before I ever asked them
in, I immediately began to question why. It seemed that all I had
wanted in life was not to come true. Being widowed at the age of 28, I
felt I had no direction in my life.
But God is faithful and true and impressed upon Jerry Grief to invite me to
be part of this music ministry. I thought I had finally found my place
in the word, but the devil tried to stop me one more time. What started out
as a simple case of clumsiness soon turned into being not only unable to
walk, but no longer being able to dress myself or comb my hair. The
doctors at the hospital gave the illness the name of Guillian Barre. I
remember lying on a hospital bed and telling God, “I’ve never been much, but
if You see a way to use me now, that’s what I want to be, used by You.”
A Christian life is not a fairy tale, but God will never let you down.
Through the years, we have only had to cancel one singing because of my illness
and that’s because I failed, not because God failed me.
He sent a man into my life who is a great asset to our ministry and has
taught me to love again. God has proven Himself faithful and that
specialists don’t know everything. On September 11, 1998, after a very
uneventful pregnancy, Taylor LaRae Smith was born into the world. In
December of 2000, doctors finally diagnosed my illness that started many
years ago as Multiple Sclerosis. God is always faithful and God Never Fails. Tracie
Morehead Smith
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