Hallman turns recovered wood into beautiful cutting boards
A citizen’s prayer
Five years ago, Chickamauga resident Randy Hallman bored a hole through a log and wired it to make a primitive lamp. After making one for each of his grown children, he got to thinking the lamps would sell. But they didn’t do so well.
In the meantime, Hallman had his regular work — cutting grass. One day he was mowing a lawn and a fellow from the next house over asked if he’d do his lawn, too. The man had a woodshop and introduced Hallman to some of his methods, including the use of patterns.
“Woodworking is really in my blood,” says Hallman. “A lot of my ancestors were loggers and pulpers.” Hallman says his grandfather was an old-time sawyer — someone who assesses a log to determine how to get the most usable board out of it, then saws it. Modern sawyers, says Hallman, have computer technology to help determine the best way to cut logs, but in his grandfather’s day, they had to develop a keen eye and feel for the wood.
Inspired by what he learned from his new customer, the next thing Hallman tried his hand at was Adirondack furniture made from cherry, oak, walnut and cedar logs he harvested when local trees succumbed to storms or other forces. “That was profitable,” says Hallman, “but hauling it from show to show to sell it was a lot of work on top of my regular job.”
Hallman had a lot of wood scraps left over from his furniture making. “A neighbor asked if I would make him a cutting board from scraps he picked out. I made it and it looked awful.”
But when he ran the board through a planer, Hallman says it turned into a pretty piece of work and he started thinking about switching to the smaller items, in spite of a couple of people who discouraged him from going that route. “They said cutting boards were an item of the past.”
Hallman decided it was worth a try. He made around 40 boards, mixing woods to give them a unique look, and took them to a show in Blue Ridge. Within three hours he’d sold all of them. It was a twoweekend show, so he came home and worked double-time to make another 50
He had arrived in country 69 years ago, and not willingly. He was now an old man, an octogenarian at the very least. Where had the years gone? How did his eyesight grow so weak, and his steps so slow?
Old, yes, he was old. But his advancing years had not even begun to diminish the fire in his heart. He was just as in love with God, just as faithful, just as spiritually sensitive as he had been as a young man.
Daniel was no average believer; he had braved the den of lions, foretold dreams, and risked everything to do right in a land where wrong was the norm. How does an old man like that pray? What does he say, what does he ask for? Probably not what you think...
His prayer can be found in Daniel 9:1-19. It is, of all things, the prayer of a citizen rather than the prayer of a legendary hero of the faith. In those verses, we find Daniel saying,
“We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments...O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel...because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.
“O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee...As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth... O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.”
It amazes me how many times Daniel used the word we and us in reference to the sins of the people. A man of whom not one negative word in Scripture is ever said was nonetheless boards, all the while mowing his clients’ lawns.
Back in Blue Ridge, he sold his second batch of boards by noon Saturday. “That’s when I knew I was onto something,” says Hallman.
Hallman’s boards range from $15 to $130. The most popular ones — a 22x17inch cutting board and a 22x10-inch cheese board — run around $22. He also makes rolling pins from mixed woods.
Using local recovered wood is what Hallman says enables him to keep his prices reasonable. When he’s collected enough wood, he hires someone to come to his home with a portable sawmill to cut it.
Hallman says he gets excited about trying new designs. While he does some custom work, he prefers not to. “I’m kind of a free spirit,” he says. “I like to do what I like to do, and if someone wants to buy it, that’s great. If not, that’s okay.”
“Everyone has a God-given talent,” says Hallman. “You just have to keep searching to find it. I’ve found mine.”
Hallman will be set up with his cutting boards and rolling pins at Camp Jordan in East Ridge, Tenn., July 30-31. humble enough to view himself as part of the problem. Does a prayer like that work? One year later they were allowed to go home. Shortly after that the temple was rebuilt. And then the wall around Jerusalem.
America is in a disastrous state now, much like Israel was then. We are balkanized, drowning in debt, violence fills our land, and people cannot even agree on the problems, much less the solution.
But as we approach Independence Day, the good news is that the fate of America still rests as much on the citizen as on the legislator. And when citizens pray, truly pray, when we speak to God as Daniel did, things can change. We know of Daniel’s citizen prayer, may I humbly offer my citizen prayer, and urge everyone who cares to sincerely pray it.
“Dear God of heaven, you have birthed and blessed this land, yet I and my people have done great wickedness in it, and the turmoil we see around us is nothing but the law of sowing and reaping taking effect. God, forgive us, forgive me. We have shed the blood of countless babies, and not only have we legalized it, we have justified and celebrated it. We have laughed at sin, turning it into sitcoms, memes and even children’s entertainment.
“We have forsaken your house, relegated you to nothing more than an insurance policy, and left off true worship in favor of worshiptainment. Lord, we selectively speak out against sin, carefully avoiding our own. We sit back passively while the truth of Scripture is forced into ever smaller and smaller “approved areas,” rather than evangelizing the workplace, the neighborhood, and even the halls of power.
“Lord, we deserve judgment, but we ask for mercy. Forgive us our sins, turn our hearts and the hearts of our children back in full to you. We so often glibly say, “God bless America.” Lord, help us not just to ask it; help us to live our lives in such a way that we do not look foolish to you when we do so. In Jesus name, amen.”
Bo Wagner is pastor of the Cornerstone Baptist Church in Mooresboro, N.C., widely traveled evangelistand author of several books, including a kid’s fiction book about the Battle of Chickamauga, “Broken Brotherhood.” He can be emailed at 2knowhim@cbc-web.org.