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Power of Faith
Continued from Page 1
when Alyson asked Mack to the ‘Sadie
Hawkins’ Dance.
“He was a year older than me,” said
Alyson “and already had a date.”
“But I never forgot how gracious
he was in turning me down. He even
kissed my hand,” she explained with
a quiet smile at an obviously fond
memory.
Mack and Alyson moved to St.
Simons Island separately in the early
1970’s during a time when a lot of
young Atlantans left the city in search
of the slower paced lifestyle of the
island.
“It was a hectic time,” said Alyson,
“people from Atlanta knew some of us
were living down here at the beach.
So they figured they always had a
place to stay for the weekend and
would come down to visit.”
Some of those people left, while
Mack and Alyson and others like
Chris Northcutt and Linda Newberry
have stayed and made St. Simons
home, raising their families here.
Mack first came to St. Simons
in 1969 with some friends who had
grown up here, moved to Atlanta and
were ready to return after a few years
in the city.
Mack then moved to Tampa, Flor
ida for a few years, returning to St.
Simons in 1974.
Soon after his return, Mack, who
had been playing guitar and singing
for a number of years, hooked up in
a duo with another singer/guitarist,
longtime island resident Bryan Gal
lagher. The two performed under the
name ‘Friends’ for many years.
It was during this period that Mack
and Alyson, who moved to the island
in 1972, began dating seriously.
They got married in 1976 by Pas
tor Bill Ligon, Sr. of the Christian
Renewal Center, because, as Alyson
4-H Pirates
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THE ISLANDER, AUGUST 25, 2008, PAGE 5
explains, “I was saved at 16 in the
Mt. Paron Church of God in Atlanta,
but had fallen away by the time I
moved down here. So, we didn’t have
a church at time. Our friend Kevin
Grady introduced us to Pastor Ligon
who performed out wedding ceremo
ny.”
Over the next five or so years, Mack
continued to perform in ‘Friends’ as
his marriage slowly disintegrated.
“My first experience with the Lord
was in my teens,” Mack recalls, “but
when Alyson and I got married I had
not been to church in a long time. I
was performing in nightclubs, which
is not at all conducive to marriage.”
“I had just returned from a gig in
Starkville, Mississippi with Bryan,”
Mack said, “Our daughter Cyle was
just over two and Alyson was ready
to leave. That’s when I made the deci
sion to get right with the Lord,” Mack
said.
Mack returned to the pastor who
had married him and Alyson, Bill
Ligon, Sr. and the Christian Renewal
Church.
Alyson followed soon after, and
the couple began attending Christian
Renewal regularly in 1981.
Combining his life long love of
music with his newfound love of the
Lord, Mack soon took the church’s
Minister of Music position, a job he
held for 15 years.
The last four and a half years at
Christian Renewal, Mack spent as
Ligon’s Assistant Pastor.
The Tuckers left Christian Renew
al in June of last year, but not out of
dissatisfaction.
Said Mack, “I felt a stirring that
we were supposed to leave. I woke up
at 5:30 one morning, Alyson had been
waiting on me to hear from the Lord,
to get some direction. I prayed and
heard that it was time to step down
from Christian Renewal.”
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“The first step was to depart,” con
tinues Mack, “It wasn’t easy, but we
sat and talked with Pastor Ligon
about it. When we were done he too
was at peace with our decision.”
“I had always had a dream to do
something on St. Simons,” explains
Mack, “it’s been our home for more
than 30 years and because my heart
is here. It’s something I thought about
whenever we left the island to go to
church in Brunswick, but we never
had any direction from the Lord about
the island church until now.”
“I spent many months praying and
thinking about this and finally, the
Lord gave us the release to start a
church on St. Simons,” said Mack.
At first, Mack and Alyson met
with a core group of the new church’s
members on Sunday afternoon’s at
the Food Lovers Market.
“We always knew that was tempo
rary while we were looking for a per
manent location,” said Alyson, “After
Turn to Page 6 - Power of Faith
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