(c)2009 NPT PHOTO BY DAVID POPIEL

George Trent stands in front of a red-berried dogwood tree in his front yard of Marshall
Hollow Road. In his small shop behind him is the unique cabinet with a holy message.
Now that he has finished the cabinet, George waits on God to direct him as to the cabinet's
destiny.

Not long after the first frost, rain resumed and may be blamed for the immense rockslide that has turned I-40 into a private drive leading to our hometown.

Before I tell you about a most interesting cabinet project built by an ordinary mean with a mission for God, let me finish sharing some news from last week.

Trying to find out more information about the Swine flu vaccination clinic at the Cocke County Health Dept., I dropped by to see Jana Chambers last Wednesday. She was working in Sevierville, but Emily Grooms told me about 400 people came in to get the shots. They were "sold out" for the free vaccinations. We expect more vaccine to arrive in early November. When I started to leave, Donnie Herndon walked in through a side door. You recall we talked about him in connection with Renner Trucking and how the two former county deputies had started the trucking business in the 1970s. Donnie said he still drives, working for Premier Transportation in Knoxville driving tourists. He also does maintenance for the health dept and was doing some window washing on a sunny day. He said he had already seen snow around Asheville during the recent cold snap that sent temperatures to freezing.

You recall reading in the Plain Talk coverage of the Parrottsville town council meeting mentioning Mayor Ronnie Hommel had been sick. Not many days ago I bumped into him at Arby's and asked him about his condition. He explained that a rare kidney disease is forcing him to go on to dialysis soon. Many years ago, the illness caused his kidneys to nearly shutdown and he underwent chemotherapy to restore their function. He said he has chosen not to do chemotherapy again in favor of the local dialysis center. He looked tan and hardy to me.

 

Cabinet & Crosses

 

I can't recall exactly when I first met and talked with George R. Trent, but it was earlier in the year around springtime. He had an interesting story about a wooden cabinet he built, inspired by God and reflecting Biblical truths. George is a humble man of modest means and did not want any publicity or credit for crafting an item for his Lord so I did not hear from him again for many months. Then, I called and said, "It is time." We talked and did a story on the cabinet, and he agreed that the time was right. He didn't want to focus on him or his family but I felt it important background to why the cabinet was created and its importance to the Christian community.

Many of you know him as his family, his mother was Mary Madelline Fine married to George William Trent, lived off Cosby Cut Off in Newport years ago. George is candid when he says that his father was an alcoholic and left when the children were young. When George (Ralph) was six, Mary died from tuberculosis, and the children were raised by her parents, Rose and Ralph Fine. They are kin to many of the Newport Fines. George's siblings include: Clark William Trent, who died tragically when he fell through the roof at the former Quaker Oats plant. I recall the news story we did at the time the steel roofing was being repaired. There is also a sister, Mary Elaine Gentry, of Salem, married to Bobby Gentry. I see her at Newport Federal Bank and know her family connection. George (Ralph) also was married three times and has several children and stepchildren.

The elder Ralph Fine was a hardworking simple man. He toiled at the Tannery most of his life, lost some fingers in a machinery accident, and eventually went blind. George went to work as a young man helping uncle Banjo Fine build houses. George also mowed lawns, such as Dr. Bill Ryans' and worked for Stokely Van Camp. He did a stint in the Army from 1970 to 1973 in Germany during which time his wife left him. After the Vietnam War, he returned to Newport and joined Sonoco Products, when Bobby Gowan was paper mill supervisor. George spent over 17 years at the plant until the early 1990s. He suffered a severe back injury and eventually was disabled. Then hardtimes made an appearance. He went to jail for growing marijuana. But that wasn't the end of his world. "I thought I had no other choices. I served six months. I'm not ashamed of this." Then he went to work for Charlie Blaylock and Danny Beck doing pipeline construction, but his real love was woodworking. Ronnie Bullard gave him an opportunity to work at the Del Rio Legacy plant in the rough mill. Joan Stokely was a foreman at the time. "I got to learn everything. In six months I became a foreman. Bill Brown was plant manager," he said. It was if George was on a mission to learn the craft and worked with Bullard, who owned Southco, "everywhere."

By age 62, George had retired and will be 66 in December. In between those years he offered his help at the old plant and continued a lifestyle that does not reflect the character brought out in the man who built a cabinet for Christ. What happened? At his Marshall Hollow home about a year ago, he was watching preaching on TV-a time he was not involved with church. "I asked for forgiveness and felt cleansed," he said. George became active in Mt. Zion Church of God near Baneberry where George Askew is pastor. "I knew him as a boy. His dad ran a store in Newport." George Trent felt directed to this church, just as the idea for the tall cabinet "came to me." It was early this year when he suddenly began planning and work. "I didn't know the size, wood, design, anything." He went to the sawmill north of Parrottsville (Phillips Lumber) operated by "a Christian Man" and got some poplar. George admits that he doesn't know the purpose of the cabinet, why he felt directed to build it-it is not like the Ark with the Noachian Flood coming, as far as he knows. Eventually he came up with seven different woods to build the 78-inch tall, 15-inch deep narrow cabinet with seven shelves.

The white poplar wood he "worked out at Del Rio" sawing larger thicker boards at the Old Fifteenth on a bandsaw: "Because Jesus was the most popular man on earth."

Cedar is commonly found in the county, known as Juniper with its red and white tinged aromatic heart. "It represents the incense" from the Bible's description of the incense offered to God. "It's a Biblical wood. Gene Bradshaw helped me with this"

Red oak is strong and beautiful and often seen in furniture. To George it signifies the strength and blood of Jesus. His friend Johnny Thomas of Parrottsville donated the red oak and helped with the intricate burned engravings. Johnny also has had his dark valleys with drugs and has overcome this, said George, recalling how close Johnny was to death, due to illness, not many months ago. Johnny worked alongside George and others at Legacy.

Lowe's had the thick yellow pine boards to be used for the 26-point cabinet crown that encompasses the top-"The Lord is the crown." Underneath and inside the cabinet is some white willow-weeping willow. "I've never used or seen it used. Preacher Askew had a small dead willow in his yard" and donated it to George, who cut it up into small strips. "It represents all the tears that have been shed."

The sixth wood, but not necessarily in that number order, is wormy chestnut. It symbolizes the "endurance of time" and is today a much-sought-after cabinet wood. The planks he and Johnny got were planned and used for the four doors.

The seventh and final wood on the cabinet is dogwood. You cannot miss the six pale crosses on the cabinet face made of dogwood. He found the wood in his own backyard, cut the small tree down, and made the six crosses "because Jesus was crucified on dogwood" said George. If you stand on the front porch of his home, you will see a line of dogwoods with dark fall-reddened leaves and bright red berries. "He's a beautiful person," said George, talking of Christ.

Like man, and the two ordinary men who built the cabinet, it is not perfect. "It is not supposed to be perfect. He didn't give me the exact measurements," like Moses or Noah might have been given for two different wood creations in the Old Testament era.

The cabinet attracts attention on its own standing in the light cast through a window of his small shop. Yet, open the doors and the real message of the cabinet is evident, as George showed.

Several days before the Feast of the Tabernacles, the cabinet was complete. "I had an urging to complete it-you are to come before the Lord with an offering. I took it to church." And that's where I first saw it and the intricate, inspired engravings inside. These were done in the colder months mostly on Johnny's kitchen table where the large cabinet back panel was placed. Above each shelf is a Biblical scene. The upper inside doors are also engraved: on the left are the Ten Commandments; on the right John 3:16 and Matthew 28:18. Johnny does some amazing carving using a woodburning tool, and though he is younger than George has poor eyesight. He uses a large sheet magnifier to read his Bible.

The very top shelf back panel engraving shows the heavens and Earth at creation; then, below on the next shelf, Moses parting the Red Sea. It was difficult to depict the water and waves, said George. The third shelf panel shows the burning bush, at left, and the Ten Commandments drawn against a stony mountain. The next shelf features the Ark of the Covenant and its contents: Mose's staff, the Ten Commandments, and Manna from Heaven.

Other scenes on descending shelf back's are the Star of Bethlehem, Suffering of Jesus, the sealed tomb, the opened empty tomb at resurrection. And finally, stoop and peer at the panel above the last and seventh shelf where George has presented images of the Holy Bible and Revelation.

The cabinet continues to reveal things about its craftsmanship that George was unaware of when it was being built. For example, he noticed as we talked that he cedar planks on the inside of the cabinet sides matched perfectly with the blood red cedar boards at the center of the shelves, built from three pieces of wood glued together to make one shelf. "I don't know what it all means. It will be revealed to me, to us," he said. He plans to have it available at churches for viewing; just contact pastor Askew