This is a Story About Ahrend Walters, Believer Poet and Angels

(Author Note: Ahrend Walters' life and mission are the subject of a book being written by me - more here. It's goal is to tell the world more about who the Believer Poet is, what his life has been like and to explain the mission God has called him to. I recently visited Mississippi to interview Ahrend and many of his family and friends. During that visit we had an interesting experience and this is the story of that experience.—Tom Gilbert)

This is a story that relates to a future book by Ahrend Walters to be titled Dust From Angel's Wings.

The storm passed on through and a new day had dawned, bright and sunny. My bags were packed and I waited in the hotel lobby, passing the time by writing about the interesting events of the day before. I'd been introduced to some Mississippi history, toured the Natchez Trace, and learned about the rich heritage of the area. During the 1800's, particularly the Civil War period, Mississippi, and especially Natchez, saw its share of settlers, travelers, gamblers, riverboat captains and pioneers.

Ahrend Walters grew up in Mississippi and still makes it his home. That day we traveled by car, Ahrend's grandfather, Allen Torrey, at the wheel. His wife, Trudy, also accompanied usfor the day. She is Ahrend’s step-grandmother, although she despises that term. Ahrend calls her Maw. She is a delightful woman, artistic and full of joy. She’s a bit of a free sprit and a kindred spirit to Ahrend, although they are not blood-related. Trudy and Ahrend are very close.

I got a history lesson about the area accompanied by colorful stories of their relatives and acquaintances. The Natchez Trace was once a stage coach line from Nashville to Natchez. Robbers like Jesse James and his gang would often ambush people on the route. Supplies and travelers would ride the trail. Today it is an historic and scenic highway. We drove it for a while and then stopped to see a house that was once a traveler's stop on the Trace. The ranger on duty told us the history of the place. Ahrend showed me the room in the small house where Trudy had photographed him as he sat at the desk. It was "officially" off limits but they both couldn't resist the photo opportunity.

Our day also included a vist to the small town of Rodney. This town once almost became the capitol of Mississippi. It failed to do so by just a few votes.

Rodney was close to the Mississippi river. In fact, in the 1800’s the river ran much closer to it than it does now. The mighty Mississippi changes channels over the years. Rodney had a long-seed cotton gin, the first to be powered by a steam engine. There was a high level of literacy in that town, unusual in that day. Eventually the population died off from cholera and yellow fever, or moved away because the river channel changed.

On our visit to Rodney we stopped at the old Presbyterian Church. This church is no longer in use, but during the Civil War some Union soldiers were attending a Sunday service and when the Confederacy found out they captured them and held them hostage in the church. Union forces were docked nearby on the river in the gunship "Rattler. When they discovered the fate of their fellow soldiers they responded by bombarding the town. One of the cannonballs struck the front of the church and lodged in the stonework. It is still there today.

Trudy and Ahrend had previously visited this town and the church. They often go to places like this to explore and she will take photographs of Ahrend. I've seen many of them and they are quite good. I’ve even used some of them on the Believer Poet website.

On this day the church was unlocked and that was unusual. Of course we all went inside and looked around. It is a simple and aged building. A series of old white pews fill the sanctuary, short doors at the end of each row that swing out. I've seen other churches like this and it was common for families to have their own pew, although I didn’t see any names on these. Dusty hymnals were still stacked in some of the pews. Ahrend posed for a photo in the large pulpit at the front of the church, his arms spread wide long an old time preacher.

Ahrend had discovered an old piano at the back of the church. He’d been telling me how much he wanted to play a piece of music he’d composed. “Dust from Angels Wings” is an instrumental and as well as the title of a new collection of poems yet to be published. He sat at the old piano and began to play. Unfortunately, the instrument was out of tune and some of the keys stuck. He did his best to get through it. In the end he could only play part of the composition, but what I heard was lovely.

Trudy had her digital camera and snapped a couple of pictures while Ahrend was playing. I didn’t think anything special of that at the time as I was standing off to the side thinking about the history of this old church.

We came outside and looked around some more. I read the historical plaques with information about the town and church on it. Allen had stayed outside to do the same while we were in the church. Ahrend wanted some more pictures and Trudy obliged, even though the wind was beginning to whip up and it looked like it could bust loose with rain any moment. Ahrend and I even posed together on the ground surrounded by the lovely yellow daffodils.

Back in the truck Trudy reviewed the photographs. She noticed something unusual about the two taken of Ahrend at the piano whilehe was playing “Dust from Angels Wings”. There seemed to be a bright white object in the corner of each.

In one of them this object was hovering in the air off to the side and in the other it looked like it was perched just off of Ahrend’s back and neck. Ahrend remarked that it looked like an angel. I looked at it and agreed. We all marveled that it was in both those photos, but none of the others. We were excited and wanted to see what those pictures looked like on the computer where we could see them larger and with more detail.

One of the most remarkable things about the object is that it cast a shadow in both photographs. We all speculated what it could be. Was it an angel or spiritual form? A supernatural sign? None of us were spooked by it; neither did we get a dark or evil feeling about it. In fact, I felt a kind of peace as I studied the pictures.

The more we looked the more convinced we became that an “angel” was in the pictures, present during Ahrend’s “Dust from Angel’s Wings” song. None of us had seen anything unusual while he was playing the piano, nor had we sensed anything when the pictures were taken. But there it was; we had the photographic evidence. We all became excited and more and more convinced we'd witnessed some kind of sign from God, perhaps an affirmation of Ahrend’s art and mission. The experience left both Ahrend and I feeling amazed and humbled.

The next day I caught a plane back to Albuquerque. It had been a long, but fruitful four days. Ahrend called me just before I boarded the flight out of New Orleans. He wanted to tell me that Maw and Paw (Allen and Trudy)had driven back out to Rodney to once again check out the church we'd been in. Allen wanted to look around the spot where Trudy had snapped the photos with the "angel" in them. As it turns out there is a bell tower rope hanging near the window that must have been in front of the lens when Trudy took those pictures. I remembered seeing that rope but at the time I'd thought nothing of it. And I didn’t realize when she was taking the photographs that it was anywhere near her. Looking again at the photos it became apparent that our dear angel was just the bottom of the rope, complete with the frayed edges I mistook for angel hair! In a way, it seemed a shame. But then again, it is still a great story. Even though there was a practical explanation for the mysterious object we saw I take it as a sign. It still "looks" like an angel and who is to say there weren't angels present, listening to the music of Ahrend's tune, "Dust From Angel's Wings".