If These Walls Could Talk
EARLY ONE MORNING in 1913, Dr. Forrest left Staley Cottage and with an ax and a brush hook cleared a place for a new dining room. After clearing the site, he and the Toccoa Falls Institute family marched around the site singing and giving praise and claiming this site for God. The dining room was built in 1916. The chapel section of the building was added in 1918.
Since this was the meeting place for most of the activities on campus, it was here that great decisions were made for the Kingdom of Christ. If walls could talk, the chapel building could tell many stories of glorious victories as young people gave their lives to God.
In 1939-1940, considerable dissatisfaction and complaining developed among some of the student leaders, and the Student Ministerial Association thought that we needed revival. T. Perry Brannon was invited to be the speaker. For nearly a week the meetings went on without any apparent impact. At the end of the week, however, revival broke out and great numbers came forward, including the troubled student leaders.
This is just one example of the many events that took place within the chapel walls. Lives were changed and decisions were made that led young people to go to the ends of the earth with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We will never know in entirety what their lives have meant to the kingdom of God.
But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 12:5)
(By Rev. Troy Damron (1915-1989) Toccoa, Georgia, TFC Alumnus, TFC Faculty and Administrator. From a taped interview. Taken from the book: Leaves From the Tree God Planted © 2006 by Toccoa Falls College, p. 6-7)