Targeting Youth at Century-Old Camp Meeting- Next Step for Unity Ministry after June Event Downtown

 The Lancaster City and Countywide Prayer Rally is dressing an age-old message in young hip clothes, and taking it to the historic annual Mount Carmel Camp Meeting next month.
The group, formed in June for a rally on the courthouse grounds that drew hundreds of participants, will have its “prayer warriors” at the camp meeting Sept. 9-10.
The meeting grounds, at Mount Carmel AME Zion Church in Heath Springs, have hosted annual camp meetings for more than a century. Thousands of people come from across the Southeast for the multi-day events – part camping vacation, part revival, part family reunion.
Prayer rally organizer Ollie Alexander said her group’s mission at the camp meeting is to get the attention of youth, with preaching, praying, worship and song.
“Our focus will be on the young people, with the ultimate goal of unity,” said Alexander, program director for My Hope of Lancaster, which is affiliated with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Experienced street-evangelism teams will be walking the grounds, witnessing and praying, she said, pulling young people toward the camp meeting pews worn smooth by their parents and grandparents.
They’re called Holy Spirit S.W.A.T. (Spiritual Warfare and Tactics) Teams and their work in the community will continue long after the camp meeting ends, Alexander said.
She said the Unity Next Generation Praise Team Choir, made up of mostly young adults, will perform during the event, using music with a youthful, upbeat tempo.
Ministers of music Chelsey Sims and Khaleek Chapman will be directing the choir. Sims is from City of Promise Church in Rock Hill and Chapman is from The Living Word Church in Lancaster.
“It’s powerful,” Alexander said of the music. “The youth are looking for something, and they will naturally migrate to the music.”
Young people with powerful messages are among the speakers for the event. Terrance L. Gallman, a former inmate and author, will give his testimony. Gallman will share from his book and soon-to-be movie, “There’s No Right Way to Do Wrong.”
Most of the ministers who were at the downtown prayer rally in June will be on hand, praying and preaching at the campgrounds, including Alexander. Thirty-three congregations took part in the June rally.
The prayer rally organizers are working collaboratively with Mount Carmel AME Zion and other area churches. Mount Carmel was founded in the late 1860s by former slave Isom Caleb Clinton.
The Mount Carmel Camp Meeting has been an annual event for more than 100 years. A complex of about 55 small cabins, still called “tents,” cover the grounds behind the church.
When it began, tents, log cabins and shacks spread over the grounds. Concrete two-story buildings have since been built for the worshippers. An open-air, wooden arbor with well-worn wooden pews and a rusty tin roof is still the heart of the complex.
The camp meeting will begin Wednesday night, Sept. 7, and end with a celebration Sunday morning during the regular worship service inside the church. At that final gathering, the officials will present a total number of saved souls and rededicated lives.
The traditionally black camp is open to all races, Alexander said.
“Anyone who wants to come,” Alexander said. “Our teams are mixed with blacks, whites and hispanics.”
This past Friday, Alexander walked the church grounds to pray, anchor herself, and align with the sanctity of the space.
Alexander has been coming to camp meetings at Mount Carmel since she was a little girl. She took a few minutes to visit a cabin deep into the grounds, trimmed in yellow, with the number 72 on it.
“This is my family tent,” she said, smiling.

Mount Carmel trustee Fulton Thompson stood nearby looking over the tents and reflecting on his many years of attending the camp meeting. He is 62 years old and says he is certain he has been to 62 and plans to keep on coming back.
“When I was a little boy, we used to get into a little devilment out here,” Fulton said. “We had water guns and we would spray people and run.”
Mount Carmel Minister Clemestine Alexander has been the liaison responsible for bringing the prayer rally onto the historic Mount Carmel campgrounds.
“I think it’s a wonderful thing they are coming,” Minister Alexander said. “I believe it will make a difference in the young lives as well as the old ones.”
Churches interested in participating in the prayer rally should contact Ollie Alexander at USA.SUMMIT@yahoo.com or call (803) 741-6401.

8/21/16

MANDY CATOE/mcatoe@thelancasternews.com

Ollie Alexander sits on the front steps of Mount Carmel AME Zion Church, right where the unity ministry team will set up shop during the annual Camp Meeting in an effort to reach youth in attendance. “Our focus will be on the young people, with the ultimate goal of unity,” she said.

The Harley Hearse: Towed Toward the Hereafter by a Minister in Black Leather

By Mandy Catoe

Sunday, September 4, 2016

Like a grand carriage that might take a dignitary to the grave, this one gleams – shiny black paint, somber curtains and wall-to-wall glass to give onlookers one last glimpse of the casket.
But unlike most hearses, this one comes with the deep rumble of a Harley.
Lifetime biker and ordained minister Marty Starnes of Lancaster has launched a business offering his fellow cyclists a classy final ride in his motorcycle-towed funeral coach.
Starnes, 47, came up with the idea after pondering his own memorial service and last ride. For the past two years, he said, he has been thinking about it and praying about it and putting things together.
The former suit-and-tie preacher is a member of Frontline Biker Church in Kershaw. Not long ago, Starnes said he felt moved to shed the uncomfortable and restricting suit and return to being Marty again.
“God didn’t save the man in the suit and tie, but saved Marty,” Starnes said, adding that he “needed to get back to Marty so he could do what God had planned for him.”
Starnes said coming home to himself has allowed him to minister to bikers from a more genuine place. As a preacher, he offers guidance along the way and one last ride at the end of life’s journey.
Starnes said his wife, Jeanette, are co-owners of Rusty Nails Biker Memorials.
“It’s the thought of Jesus hanging on the cross by the three rusty nails, so this honors my savior,” Starnes said.
Severe arthritis in his back forced Starnes to end his 25-year career driving dump trucks. Climbing up and down from the cab had gotten to be too much for his painful back, so he began to look for another way to make a living.
“I wanted to find something that would not only allow me to make money, but be something I enjoyed and be a service to the community,” he said.
The hearse is about 12 foot long and four feet high, made of painted black wood with glass windows. It has a feel of royalty with tied-back fringed curtains visible from the outside.
Starnes will tow it behind a shiny black, chrome-accented three-wheeled motorcycle - a 2016 Tri Glide Harley Davidson.

 
 His services include transporting the body to its final resting place as well as officiating the service. Since some bikers aren’t affiliated with any church, this may be a service they need, he said.
Starnes said his service is not limited to biker funerals, which often have a long line of motorcycles in the procession. Sometimes his might be the only motorcycle in the procession.
“It can be for someone who always wanted a motorcycle but was unable to have one for some reason or another and this is something the family could do for them,” Starnes said.
 Starnes has not yet led a procession with the Harley-towed hearse, but has been in contact with local funeral homes and is developing his marketing, which includes his Facebook page, Rusty Nails Biker Memorials LLC. He says he has received lots of positive support.
Starnes said he’ll be looking for ways to grow the business, which might include other motorcycle-towed carriages, such as a family buggy for funerals or maybe a wedding coach.
His mission statement: “Treating you and your family with honor and respect.”

MANDY CATOE/mcatoe@thelancasternews.com

Marty Starnes, 47, was once a suit-and-tie preacher but has reverted to "being Marty again." He says he can now minister to bikers from a more genuine place.

Follow Reporter Mandy Catoe on Twitter @MandyCatoeTLN or contact her at (803) 283-1152 or mcatoe@thelancasternews.com

Targeting Youth at Century Old Camp Meeting: Next Step for Unity Ministry after June Event Downtown

By Mandy Catoe

Sunday, August 21, 2016

The Lancaster City and Countywide Prayer Rally is dressing an age-old message in young hip clothes, and taking it to the historic annual Mount Carmel Camp Meeting next month.
The group, formed in June for a rally on the courthouse grounds that drew hundreds of participants, will have its “prayer warriors” at the camp meeting Sept. 9-10.
The meeting grounds, at Mount Carmel AME Zion Church in Heath Springs, have hosted annual camp meetings for more than a century. Thousands of people come from across the Southeast for the multi-day events – part camping vacation, part revival, part family reunion.
Prayer rally organizer Ollie Alexander said her group’s mission at the camp meeting is to get the attention of youth, with preaching, praying, worship and song.
“Our focus will be on the young people, with the ultimate goal of unity,” said Alexander, program director for My Hope of Lancaster, which is affiliated with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Experienced street-evangelism teams will be walking the grounds, witnessing and praying, she said, pulling young people toward the camp meeting pews worn smooth by their parents and grandparents.
They’re called Holy Spirit S.W.A.T. (Spiritual Warfare and Tactics) Teams and their work in the community will continue long after the camp meeting ends, Alexander said.
She said the Unity Next Generation Praise Team Choir, made up of mostly young adults, will perform during the event, using music with a youthful, upbeat tempo.
Ministers of music Chelsey Sims and Khaleek Chapman will be directing the choir. Sims is from City of Promise Church in Rock Hill and Chapman is from The Living Word Church in Lancaster.
“It’s powerful,” Alexander said of the music. “The youth are looking for something, and they will naturally migrate to the music.”
Young people with powerful messages are among the speakers for the event. Terrance L. Gallman, a former inmate and author, will give his testimony. Gallman will share from his book and soon-to-be movie, “There’s No Right Way to Do Wrong.”
Most of the ministers who were at the downtown prayer rally in June will be on hand, praying and preaching at the campgrounds, including Alexander. Thirty-three congregations took part in the June rally.
The prayer rally organizers are working collaboratively with Mount Carmel AME Zion and other area churches. Mount Carmel was founded in the late 1860s by former slave Isom Caleb Clinton.
The Mount Carmel Camp Meeting has been an annual event for more than 100 years. A complex of about 55 small cabins, still called “tents,” cover the grounds behind the church.
When it began, tents, log cabins and shacks spread over the grounds. Concrete two-story buildings have since been built for the worshippers. An open-air, wooden arbor with well-worn wooden pews and a rusty tin roof is still the heart of the complex.
The camp meeting will begin Wednesday night, Sept. 7, and end with a celebration Sunday morning during the regular worship service inside the church. At that final gathering, the officials will present a total number of saved souls and rededicated lives.
The traditionally black camp is open to all races, Alexander said.
“Anyone who wants to come,” Alexander said. “Our teams are mixed with blacks, whites and hispanics.”
This past Friday, Alexander walked the church grounds to pray, anchor herself, and align with the sanctity of the space.
Alexander has been coming to camp meetings at Mount Carmel since she was a little girl. She took a few minutes to visit a cabin deep into the grounds, trimmed in yellow, with the number 72 on it.
“This is my family tent,” she said, smiling.
Mount Carmel trustee Fulton Thompson stood nearby looking over the tents and reflecting on his many years of attending the camp meeting. He is 62 years old and says he is certain he has been to 62 and plans to keep on coming back.
“When I was a little boy, we used to get into a little devilment out here,” Fulton said. “We had water guns and we would spray people and run.”
Mount Carmel Minister Clemestine Alexander has been the liaison responsible for bringing the prayer rally onto the historic Mount Carmel campgrounds.
“I think it’s a wonderful thing they are coming,” Minister Alexander said. “I believe it will make a difference in the young lives as well as the old ones.”
Churches interested in participating in the prayer rally should contact Ollie Alexander at USA.SUMMIT@yahoo.com or call (803) 741-6401.

MANDY CATOE/mcatoe@thelancasternews.com

Pastor Ollie Alexander stands in front of several “tents” at the Mount Carmel AME Zion Campground, one of which she stayed in as a child.

2 AJHS Students Disciplined After Incident at Camp: Noose made of shoelaces hung in tree, district reports

Two Andrew Jackson High School students were disciplined after they acknowledged making a noose out of shoelaces and placing it in a tree at band camp Aug. 5, according to school officials.
The school was not aware of the incident until Monday, when a band member and her parents came in to complain, said Bryan Vaughn, safety director for Lancaster County School District.
Vaughn said the two students had been suspended from school, but due to school policy he would not reveal the length of the suspension or whether they would be allowed to return for the first day of school Monday.
Vaughn said the noose was made from two shoelaces tied together. He said two students made the device and hung it in a tree after getting the shoelaces from a third student.
Witnesses said the loop in the shoelaces was about 6 inches in diameter, Vaughn said, but that couldn’t be confirmed because the noose was no longer in the tree Monday, and school officials do not know what happened to it.
After the student and her parents complained, the school district immediately began investigating the incident, Vaughn said.
“Two students made poor choices, and they have not been at school since the investigation this past Monday,” he said.
Vaughn said school officials were concerned because of the negative and racial connotations of the noose and said the school will not tolerate such displays.
“It is a big deal when anyone feels bullied or harassed,” he said. “We have no tolerance for that behavior.”
The interviews did not reveal any intimidation or overt threats to anyone, Vaughn said, and there were no racial comments made by any of the students.
“This was not a difficult situation to investigate,” Vaughn said. “The students were straightforward.”
He said the students who made the noose and the witnesses didn’t disagree about what happened, and the school district was comfortable with its findings by Monday afternoon.
But Friday morning, the mother of the complaining student, Kim Cunningham, disputed parts of Vaughn’s account.
Cunningham, president of the Lancaster branch of the National Action Network (NAN), called a press conference with other members of the civil rights group, which is affiliated with the Rev. Al Sharpton.
About 10 people attended the event at the Resurrection of Life Ministry on East Brooklyn Avenue. They included three other NAN officials: S.C. State Coordinator James Johnson, Charlotte Vice Chair Robin Bradford and Charlotte President Rosa Garvin.
Cunningham expressed her dissatisfaction with the school district’s handling of the matter.
“The students who hung the noose said, ‘Time to kill myself,’ and one said ‘First, let’s hang some other people,’” Cunningham said, reading from what she described as a statement from her 15-year-old daughter.
“That made me and my friend uncomfortable,” Cunningham quoted her daughter as saying. The teen was not at the press conference.
Cunningham said the two girls were the only African-Americans in the band camp at Andrew Jackson High, which had a 20 percent black population at the end of last school year.
Late Friday, Vaughn said Cunningham’s version of her daughter’s account is not consistent with what the student told school officials.
“From witnesses interviewed, no one ever made a statement to indicate a student wanted to harm himself, or harm others,” Vaughn said.
Vaughn said the girl has never stated that she was bullied, harassed or in fear.
“The child to this day has not made any kind of statement to anyone at the school district stating any of this,” Vaughn said.
“The statement presented at the news conference is in direct conflict with what she presented to the school this past Monday.”
At the press conference, Cunningham complained that the school should have handled the incident as a threat and “an extreme safety matter,” considering the noose a weapon under school policy and referring the matter to law enforcement.
Cunningham said she called Sheriff Barry Faile to complain, but received no call back.
Vaughn said the school’s resource officer, a sheriff’s deputy, was notified about the incident Monday by school Principal Alex Dabney, and the officer participated in the interviews with students. Based on those interviews, Vaughn said, the officer and school officials determined no crime had been committed.
Sheriff Faile issued a statement Friday.
“The incident at Andrew Jackson High School last Friday was investigated by school district personnel and was not reported to the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office as a criminal matter for investigation,” Faile said.
“The deputy assigned as school resource officer at the school became aware of the matter and discussed it with school personnel. Based upon the information we were provided, this matter remains a school disciplinary issue.”
Cunningham said she wants the school to provide counseling to the students involved.
Vaughn said counseling is readily available to those students. 
8/14/16

Follow reporter Mandy Catoe on Twitter @MandyCatoeTLN or contact her at (803) 283-1152 or mcatoe@thelancasternews.com

Shower Truck Will Aid Homeless

Beneath the surface of our community is an interconnected web of services working to make life better for the sometimes invisible homeless population.
The strands connect various agencies, churches and volunteers so that one phone call can result in food, clean clothes, resources, and now, even a hot shower for a homeless person.
Through the coordinated efforts of Lancaster Area Coalition for the Homeless (LACH), local churches and volunteers, a new shower truck will be unveiled at 10 a.m. Saturday at The Life Center, 421 West Gay Street.
The event will showcase a project spearheaded by Kevin Lilly. He and the Rev. Patrick Clark of New Hope Baptist Church are part of a network that ministers to the homeless.
The Life Center’s quarterly food drive will take place during the event. Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina will be delivering a truckload of food for those in need. The goal is to showcase the work being done for the homeless, provide services to those in need and to offer a chance for the community to make donations.
Citadel of Love’s pastor James Pringle will be grilling and serving hot dogs. His ministry, Citadel House, works with the homeless. The event will also host a prayer walk.
“Ministry is not inside the four walls of the church, but it is outside where the needs are,” Pringle said.
The goal of Citadel House and LACH is to create a permanent emergency shelter for the homeless with a service component.
“Some homeless people just want a place to sleep, but some want a job and need their self-worth rebuilt,” Pringle said.
The Citadel House is applying for grant funding and seeking donations from the community for a permanent shelter. This past winter, LACH set up a temporary warming center downtown. During the recent hot summer days, Pringle has used his HUB center at 1789 Lynwood Drive for a cooling center.
The HUB (Helping Uplifting and Building our community) has a computer lab where the homeless and those in need can get help with resume building and job searching.
Pringle’s inspiration is very real and personal. He was homeless for three years in New York City in the early1990s.
“I lived in abandoned buildings, slept on subways and ate out of trash cans,” Pringle said.
After receiving treatment for a drug addiction, Pringle felt called to give back to the community. He has done so with several outreach projects.
Pringle’s church partners with New Hope Baptist Church and The Life Center and demonstrates to the community that the church has to take its message outside the walls where the needs are.
The ministry to the homeless is the result of much work that began two years ago when LACH was formed with a mission to deliver services that help homeless people improve their quality of life. The coalition includes several local agencies as well as a core group of volunteers.
“We have been working for the past two years to bring attention to the homeless and are now seeing the fruits of our labor reaching the homeless in a very real way,” said Melanie Outlaw, LACH chair and United Way Executive Director.
One of the real ways is the shower truck. Lilly said he got the idea after connecting with a homeless man who had been living in his car for weeks. The man, a former truck driver, wanted to apply for a job, but felt he didn’t have a chance in his dirty clothes and had no way to bathe and shave.
Lilly set up a camp shower and tent for the man along with clean clothes and a hygiene kit.
“To see someone’s face after that shower, knowing that people haven’t forgotten them and that God still loves them, is the most amazing experience in the world,” Lilly said.
The man got the job.
The shower truck, stocked with clean clothes and toiletries, was donated to Lilly for his ministry. The donations come from Lilly’s social media connections, the community and The Closet Ministries of Second Baptist Church.
“What good is a shower if you have to put dirty clothes back on?” Lilly asked.
The Closet Ministries provides clean clothes routinely for the shower truck as well as in emergency situations after someone loses their home to fire or financial misfortune.
“It has taken someone like Kevin to reach this population because there is so
much embarrassment and secrecy among the homeless,” said Sherry Stalvey, emergency coordinator of The Closet Ministries.
Stalvey said The Closet Ministries serves 3,000 people yearly through community events and 300 more in emergencies. She said they provide basic needs and contacts with a network of service agencies.
Stalvey said The Closet Ministries will be hosting its Back to School Event at Second Baptist Church Saturday at 1426 Great Falls Road from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. School uniforms and book bags will be available. First Dental will be giving out toothbrushes.

This camper truck, with a shower, clean clothes and toiletries, was donated for Kevin Lilly and his homeless ministry, which operates with New Hope Baptist Church.

 8/12/16

Follow Reporter Mandy Catoe on Twitter @MandyCatoeTLN or contact her at (803) 283-1152

Lancaster Man Pleads Guilty in Adopted Son's Death

Lancaster resident Robert Jordan, 47, pleaded guilty Monday to infliction of great bodily injury upon a child in connection to the death of his disabled adopted son last fall.
He was sentenced to 20 years, suspended upon the active service of 14 years in prison, followed by five years of probation, said 6th Circuit Deputy Solicitor Lisa Collins.
Jordan was arrested Oct. 12 for the death of his 5-year-old adopted son, La'Marion Jordan. The boy died Sept. 4, 2015.
Jordan was in jail from Oct. 12 until April 14, when he bonded out.
He entered his plea June 13, but the judge requested a pre-sentencing investigation report from S.C. Probation and Parole. Jordan turned himself in, since he had pleaded guilty and remained in jail until the sentencing hearing Monday, July 25.
Jordan had no prior record and this appeared to be an isolated, but tragic incident, Collins said.
Jordan confessed to law enforcement that he flung La'Marion to the floor in reaction to the child scratching him on the face as he was getting him ready for school the morning of Sept. 4, 2015. As a result, La’Marion hit his head and began having seizures.
Jordan immediately called 911 and transported the child to Springs Memorial Hospital. The child was flown to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, where he died later that day, Collins said.
"There did not appear to be any malice or pre-planning,” Collins said.
The original charge of homicide by child abuse does not require there be malice or pre-planning.
Even though the autopsy clearly revealed the child died from blunt force injury to his head, Jordan was allowed to plead guilty to infliction of great bodily injury upon a child, rather than homicide by child abuse because he had no prior record and this was an isolated incident, Collins said.
Homicide by child abuse carries a minimum prison sentence of 20 years.
Collins said other care givers and teachers reported that the home appeared to be a loving one and La'Marion had been well-cared for prior to this incident.
La'Marion was wheelchair-bound and had cerebral palsy, requiring a lot of care, Collins said. All reports indicated that Jordan took good care of the child up until this event.
"This was a tragic, one-moment lapse in judgment," Collins said. "He will pay a significant price for that."
Jordan was a single father to La’Marion, who had been in his care since he was an infant, and another adopted son, who was 7 years old at the time.
The other boy was not home at the time of the incident. That child is now in the care of the Department of Social Services.

7/29/16

Contact Mandy Catoe at (803) 283-1152

Aspiring Designer showing at Charlotte Fashion Week

As a little girl, Teresa Jennette Faulk stripped her dolls down to their bare plastic skin and sat on the floor with her mom, armed with a sharp pair of scissors, a vivid imagination and pile of old clothes.
Teresa could see the new clothes in her mind. Together, she and her mom cut scraps from their discarded wardrobe to make new, fashionable outfits for the dolls.
“I cared more about the clothes than the dolls,” Faulk recalls.
Focus and attention to details are starting to pay off for Faulk, now a blossoming fashion designer known by her design name, Teresa Jennette. Her work will be featured during Charlotte Fashion Week, which starts Tuesday.
Faulk is one of only six emerging designers to have been selected to showcase their work during Charlotte’s fall fashion show.
The week will include a night with runway models exhibiting 10 of her original designs in front of upscale buyers on Friday at the downtown Hilton Charlotte Center City.
Fashion weeks are held in major cities across America, allowing designers to display their work for boutiques, department stores and shoppers. Charlotte Fashion Week, produced by CharlotteSeen, was started in 2010. Last year, the company says, it attracted more than 6,000 attendees.
Faulk hopes to build a relationship with buyers and build a buzz for her developing brand of ready-to-wear women’s clothes. She said that growing up in the South taught her women’s three most important clothing concerns.
“Can she wear it to work? Can she wear it to church? And can she wear it to flirt?” Faulk said. “When I say flirt, I mean like a date night, cocktails with friends or a formal event.”
She said her clothes are versatile and available in sizes 0 to 24.
“I’m concerned with all women, not just a certain size,” she said.
Faulk, a 2009 Lancaster High School graduate, didn’t travel a runway-straight line to the world of design.
She spent her first year after high school working as a fashion stylist for Charlotte celebrities including Carolina Panthers player Jonathan Stewart. The year after that she enrolled at USCL to study fashion merchandizing. None of that satisfied her creative fire for design.
Her frustration led her to work for several retailers including Victoria’s Secret and Forever 21 to learn the business side of having a retail store. She hoped to open a boutique clothing store someday.
But she changed directions after not being able to find affordable quality
clothing. At age 25, she became a seamstress.
“You know what, I think I will make my own clothes,” she said to herself and then to her mom.
She sold the furniture in her apartment and bought her first sewing machine on Black Friday last year.
Her mom, Jennifer Faulk, invited her to move back home to pursue her dream full-time.
“I had fears. I did this on a whim and feared this was not going to work,” she said. “If this doesn’t work, I am going to sell this sewing machine and do something else.”
It took her 10 hours to sew her first skirt.
“Now I could make it in 30 minutes,” she said, laughing.
“My mom is my No. 1 investor. If i need anything as far as fabric, which is expensive for the clothes I am making, she gets it,” Faulk said.
“And she told me to not even worry about working a job outside this right now.
“Without knowing if I would be any good at this, she took a chance, and I really appreciate it,” she said.

Mom and daughter have been roommates for the past 10 months, and neither reports any issues.
“She’s my best friend,” said Jennifer Faulk.
After the fashion show, Faulk will be busy filling orders from her Facebook page and website. She received two orders this past week. One for the Caprice wedding gown along with nine bridesmaid dresses, and another for 10 bridesmaid dresses.
Faulk hopes to hone and sharpen her self-taught skills by studying couture at the London College of Fashion in the near future.
Faulk has been wrapping things up for her upcoming show. About nine outfits hung behind her as she made a few last stitches here and there. Sitting at the kitchen table in the house she grew up in, she described some of the outfits and the inspiration behind them.
Faulk designs with thoughts of special family members and tries to sew their personalities into the outfits. One form-fitting dress, made of a burnout velvet fabric in a rich burgundy color called port wine, was inspired by the memory of her grandmother, Mae Carol Hughes.
“My grandmother had the perfect hour-glass shape, and when she dressed up, she was beautiful,” Faulk said. “I loved to watch her get ready to go out.”
Faulk said her grandmother had a “weird, funky style” and customized everything she wore. Her grandmother loved the Chicago Bulls so she customized a Bulls T-shirt to jazz it up a little. 
Faulk sat behind her sewing machine and spoke of her future beyond the fashion show. Originally, she wanted to offer clothes to people to help them feel good about themselves, but her dreams have grown bigger and deeper than the fickle world of fashion.
The girl who taught herself to sew watching YouTube videos less than one year ago, said her dream is to one day have a manufacturing plant in Lancaster and a couple of boutiques.
“I looked around my neighborhood and it made me want to help people have something to do, to make,” she said. “I’d have Bible study at work and give them weekends off.”
To view the Teresa Jennette line of fashions, visit teresajennette.com.
Follow Reporter Mandy Catoe on Twitter @MandyCatoeTLN or contact her at (803) 283-1152