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    To Give You a Future and a Hope: More Than a Biography
    To Give You a Future and a Hope: More Than a Biography
    To Give You a Future and a Hope: More Than a Biography
    Ebook186 pages2 hours

    To Give You a Future and a Hope: More Than a Biography

    By Grace McClain

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    About this ebook

    Grace illustrates through the life of her Texan husband, Tommy, the role that compassion, conviction, and courage can play in overcoming the disappointments and obstacles of life. She gives the Biblical answers to prejudice. She also illustrates how faith and trust in the One who rules over all can defeat deception, and discrimination.

    She tells you of how a memory system Tommy learned helped him to overcome a learning disability and he has allowed her to share some tips with you with illustrations that can be found in the appendix of this book:

    • How to memorize the Presidents
    • How to learn the genealogy of Jesus
    • How to memorize the Books of the Bible


    She includes in the appendix the letter from their son, David, a victim of A.L.S, who, before he could no longer hold a pen, drew some of the illustrations of the memory system that he, too, had learned from his father,...and how he has found the secret of triumph over tragedy.

    This book offers to all who will.....a future and a hope.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse
    Release dateMay 14, 2010
    ISBN9781449079390
    To Give You a Future and a Hope: More Than a Biography
    Author

    Grace McClain

    You can learn about the author in her first book "Desire of Your Heart -- In Search of Treasure

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      Book preview

      To Give You a Future and a Hope - Grace McClain

      © 2010 Grace McClain. All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

      Published by AuthorHouse  03/18/2022

      ISBN: 978-1-4490-7938-3 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4490-7939-0 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2010903413

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

      and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      This book is

      dedicated to my husband and best friend,

      Tommy Gene McClain

      And to our five children to whom he has been a wonderful role model

      Kathryn Ilene Brown

      Thomas Bradford McClain

      David Kurt McClain

      Karen Elizabeth Ramthun

      Deborah Gene McClain Llinares

      Chapter Titles

      Preface

      1. The Cherokee Connection

      2. Peanuts, Anyone?

      3. More Than Genealogy

      4. Air Force Arena

      5. Ministry and Marriage

      6. Race and Religion

      7. Keep Deception and Lies Far from Me

      8. Do Not Weary Yourself to Gain Wealth

      9. My Compassionate Friend

      10. Pride and Prejudice

      11. Lost in the Kasbah – Lost in Real Estate

      12. Who Is Raymond?

      13. For the Love of Memory

      14. God Spoke and Moses Remembered

      15. Ten Feet Tall Ain’t Nothing at All to Jesus

      16. Change Points

      17. The King’s Heart

      18. The Dream Comes Through Much Effort

      19. In the Day of Prosperity Be Happy

      20. The Rest of the Story

      Appendix

      Preface

      "There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven –

      A time to give birth, and a time to die;

      A time to plant, and a time to uproot what is planted.

      A time to kill, and a time to heal;

      A time to tear down, and a time to build up.

      A time to weep, and a time to laugh;

      A time to mourn, and a time to dance.

      A time to throw stones, and a time to gather stones;

      A time to embrace, and a time to stop embracing;

      A time to search and a time to give up as lost;

      A time to keep, and a time to throw away.

      A time to tear apart, and a time to sew together;

      A time to be silent, and a time to speak.

      A time to love, and a time to hate;

      A time for war, and a time for peace."

      These words were penned by King Solomon thousands of years ago as recorded in the book of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.

      We will have times of plenty and we will know times of want.;

      We will know joy and we will endure sorrow;

      We will have times of faith and we will have times of doubt.

      This is the way of our fallen world. Life is not always the way we would like it. We used to say you have to learn to roll with the punches. My mother used a different phrase, Life is not a bowl of cherries. It is what it is for now...but not forever. For those who accept the gift that God offers to everyone, the fact of a risen Savior, Jesus Christ who died for the sins of the whole world, there is something more!

      "but just as it is written,

      Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,

      And which has not entered the heart of man,

      All that God has prepared for those who love Him". I Cor. 1:9

      This is what Christians know as their blessed hope. when either by death or when Jesus returns for His own, we will see Him as He is....so in the meantime as we dwell in these mortal bodies here on earth, we will have some good times, some not so good times, and some downright bad times. Tommy has known a little bit of all of them at one time or another and his life’s story can be an example to all of us.

      In reading this book, it is our prayer that you may come to know that whatever times you are going through, our Lord will be there with you if you are part of His family through Jesus His Son. We are writing to let you know that whatever you are going through at this time, it won’t last forever, whether good or bad. You will have your ups and downs. We have had, but we have learned, it’s okay. That’s kind of what this book is about. It is about Tommy, but where his story intertwines first with his deceased wife, Mary Kathleen’s, and then with my own, his story becomes our story, too....but it is more than that, it is about the ups and downs of life that we all encounter.

      As the song by Ira Stamphill goes:

      "Many things about tomorrow

      I don’t seem to understand

      But I know who holds tomorrow,

      And I know who holds my hand."

      It is our prayer that you know who holds your hand, too, and Who it is that can give you a future and a hope.

      Chapter One

      The Cherokee Connection

      Adam

      Seth

      Enosh

      Kenan

      Mahalalel

      Jared

      Enoch

      Methuselah

      Lamech

      Noah

      Well...the above are the beginning of Tommy’s genealogy as well as all of ours. It is interesting to know where we came from. If you are a believer in evolution, do not bother to read this book. You think your ancestors were a piece of protoplasm, you were descended from a missing link, and when you return to dust...that is it; it is all over! This book is written for those who believe that God created the heavens and the earth, the sun, the stars, mankind, and beast as related to us in the Book of Genesis, the book of beginnings.

      From Noah we spin off into three ancestral lines: Ham, Shem, and Japheth. Japheth is known in early Greek literature as Iapetos. He was known as the fair one and was the ancestor of the Indo-Europeans.

      Shem was the father of most of the middle eastern nations including Israel. The designation of Semitic is derived from Shem as Aramaic is derived from Aram, one of the sons of Shem.

      Ham was the youngest son, most of whose descendants settled in Africa ..In fact, Egypt was sometimes referred to as the land of Ham. However, one of Ham’s sons, by the name of Canaan, the father of the Canaanites, in part settled in the area of Palestine until defeated by the Israelites under the command of Joshua. We are told in Genesis, tenth chapter, afterward the families of the Canaanites were spread abroad. This is certainly an interesting statement. Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that they are at least in part ancestors of the American Indians. How did they arrive in the New World? It is believed they migrated across the Bering Straight from Russia to Alaska and eventually south to what is now the United States. That is probably true. What do you think about this possibility for others, though? The genealogy continues after Noah,

      Shem

      Arpachshad

      Shelah

      Eber

      Peleg, for in his day was the earth divided. Genesis 10:25

      Could this be a fascinating clue as well to the way the continents of Europe and Africa seem to be like a puzzle fitting into North and South America? Could the legend of Atlantis fit into this scenario also? Many legends originate in truth distorted over time.

      Nevertheless, the American Indian lived in America long before most of us. Among these was the Cherokee tribe of the Southeast. They had been established in the southern mountains for two or three centuries before the first contact with western civilization during the incursion of Hernando de Soto in 1540... according to the Encyclopedia Americana.

      In the eighteenth century Moravian missionaries worked among the Cherokees and made a large impact on their lives.. In the early nineteenth century a syllabic alphabet was invented by Sequoya. This led to a constitutional form of government.

      In 1838, the Christianized, educated Cherokee Nation was forcibly moved by the armed forces of the United States under President Andrew Jackson, a former Indian fighter in sympathy with the State of Georgia in spite of the fact that the Supreme Court had sided with the Cherokees. Pressure mounted on the Cherokees with the discovery of gold on their land, and in 1835 they signed a treaty stating they would leave for Indian lands, now known as Oklahoma, within the next three years. In Georgia, their property was distributed by lottery to Georgian residents and thus began the march that has come to be known as the Trail of Tears where so many Cherokees died along the way. Some escaped to the Great Smoky mountains of North Carolina forming the eastern band.

      Tommy’s ancestor was not among the eastern band. His mother, Mamie Artie Misha Adams McClain was one-quarter Cherokee. Her father, Jess Adams married Effie Golden who was known to be one-half Cherokee. Her mother and father, John and Margaret (Maggie) Golden are said to have drowned crossing a river, most likely the Arkansas River, as part of a wagon train.

      From oral history from family members, we understand that Little Orphan Effie was taken by the wagon master and raised as his own. She had an older brother. We are told that a man on horseback came along and offered to take the boy with him. He was headed west and placed the boy in a boarding school and changed his name to his own. There were mysteries involved with this man who came back later and married a distant member of the family. We were told that he always had a lot of money and many beautiful horses. Family members wondered if he was a horse thief. How different things were allowed in the wild west back in those days!

      Jesse Adams, Tommy’s grandfather, may have worked for the wagon master. It is thought that was how he knew Effie Golden. However, as we research the Adams history, the ties may go back to Cowetta County, Georgia from where Jesse’s father, Absolem migrated. He was born in 1807 and married Sarah Brooks, Jesse’s mother. He was given a land grant from President Buchanan in Arkadelphia, Arkansas sometime before he sold his property in Georgia which was in 1843. He and Sarah were members of New Hope Baptist Church, Cowetta County, Georgia at that time.. Absolem was the son of Jesse Adams, for whom Tommy’s grandfather was named. He was born about 1786 in Virginia. We have no information before that time. So it seems that the Adams ancestors migrated from Virginia to Georgia and then to Arkansas where Tommy’s grandfather Jesse Adams was born. January 2, 1856. A question is, did the Adams travel the Trail of Tears with the Cherokees? Could that be why they received the land grant? Could that answer the question as to why some of the Adams family are seen in the 1850 census records as living with the Goldens? Had they become friends on the Trail of Tears? Did they know each other before in Georgia? We don’t know the answers to any of these questions but perhaps someone may choose to do more research at a later time to learn more about the Cherokee connection.

      Jesse

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