John Senn said he couldn’t speak for God but his belief was that God was pleased with the praises that were sung to him at the Old Country Church Sunday afternoon.

A fist-full of chairs stood empty but the church house was full to overflowing with voices in song.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard such beautiful music as was sung here today,” said Senn, who along with his wife, Mary, hosts the annual Singing at the Old Country Church the Sunday before Thanksgiving. “This is our fourteenth year and I believe that Lord was pleased with the heartfelt singing He heard today.”

Margaret Shiver has attended all 14 of the singings at the Old Country Church and her husband, Hubert, has missed only one.

“This church is special to us and especially to Hubert because he worshiped here as a little boy,” Shiver said. “We love the church and we love the music. We look forward to it every year.”

This year, the Shivers invited friends, who said the music was so wonderful that surely the Lord opened the Gates of Heaven in celebration.

Some of those who attend the Singing at the Old Country Church have a history in the church. Charles Wilson was baptized in the church building, which was the original Hamilton Cross Roads Church of Christ and, to him, the church and the music are special because of his boyhood attachment to the church. However, his wife, Judy, who grew up in the Methodist church, enjoys the singings and looks forward to them just as much as he does.

The acoustics in the one-room church are such that, if there were only a dozen singers, they would sound like a heavenly choir.

“And I like singing without a piano or other instruments,” Judy Wilson said. “The harmony of the voices is so pretty and you can hear the words clearer. Many of the songs are familiar and some of them are new and I like learning new songs, too. We sang about 30 songs Sunday and I loved them all.”

There are bigger churches and more regal churches but there’s just a sprit about an old country church the touches the heart, said Margaret Ross.

“The song service is so meaningful,” Ross said. “I love singing without instruments. The voices are the instruments and the music is so pretty. Everybody sings and it’s such a wonderful want to worship.

“The spirit of the Lord is in that little frame church. When you leave, you know that you have been in the presence of the Lord.”