Bro. Danny M. Hall

By Dee Dee Hall

Background Story for the “Verily, Verily” Poem

The following poem was written about an experience of Danny Mack Hall.

As a teenager in the late sixties, he and five other boys ran away from home. One of the boys had an old car that they all rode in. They all piled in with a few canned goods for food, but they forgot to bring a can opener. They were headed to Hollywood, California. However before they got to Hollywood the car broke down. They just left it on the side of the road, canned goods and all. They were subsequently arrested for vagrancy and the parents of some of the boys were notified. These boys received money from their parents for a bus ticket home. However, Danny determined that he was still going to Hollywood.

His friends gave him a couple of dollars and told him good bye and good luck. He hitched rides until he arrived in Hollywood. But he had not money. He was hungry and alone. He later met some other homeless boys and they camped out at night in an abandoned building. In the day, they would make their rounds for food, sometimes getting peanut butter sandwiches at a Christian coffee house, and at other times they would raid the dumpster behind a Chinese restaurant for left over scraps. The Chinese proprietor felt sorry for them and would bring out scraps from off the plates of food and would feed them like stray dogs. “Come, come, the food is good,” he would say. “Come hungry hippies and eat.”

One day, while on the street, Danny heard a street preacher. This young man looked vaguely familiar to Danny. He asked the preacher, “Haven’t I seen you somewhere before? Have you ever been in Chicago?” The preacher replied, “Yes, I used to live there.” He had been a hippie and Danny had seen him there, but now he had a different look, a cleaned up look, and a story to tell. He had gotten saved and wanted to share the good news.

He opened up his Bible and started reading several verses out of the book of John. He had a red-letter edition and told Danny, “These words in red are Jesus’s very own words.” He evidently had marked most of the verses that began with the words verily, verily. He proceeded to read them to Danny until Danny had heard enough. “I don’t think I’m ready for that right now,” he replied.

The next day Danny decided that he was done with Hollywood and wanted to go home. He stuck out his thumb and got a ride. The poem will tell the rest of the story.

By Dee Dee Hall

Verily, Verily

(A Testimony of Danny Mack Hall)

“Verily, verily,” were the two words I heard

The street- preacher speak from God’s holy word.

I was so lost and far from my home,

On the Hollywood street, and completely alone.

The very next day, I hitched a ride

And was dropped in the desert with no place to hide

From the two words that swirled around in my head.

I couldn’t remember anything else that was said.

But, “Verily, verily.” I say unto you,

“That night was cold, but what could I do?”

With tears flowing down I looked at the sky.

“God, are your real? Do you hear my cry?”

As the sun came up I was no longer cold.

Just hot and thirsty and back on the road.

A car passed by and something flew out at me.

Was it money or food? I just had to see.

What? A little book of scriptures. Could this be?

Each verse starting with, “Verily, verily???

And then I knew that God heard my cry.

He was hot on my trail. This I could not deny!

Later that year my sins got me bound.

In a cold, hard, jail cell this sinner was found.

I was as lost as a sinner could be. Then-

“Verily, verily,” Jesus said unto me.

“I am the Door. I have the key.

If you’re a servant of sin, I’ll set you free.

Ye must be born again for the kingdom to see.

If you really want life, then believe on me.”

I cried out to God, there on my bed.
“Send a drop of your blood, so pure and so red.

Cleanse me, save me, please set me free.”

That’s just what He did! “Verily, verily,” I say unto thee.

-Dee Dee Hall

Well, spring is finally here. It has always been my favorite time of year and continues to be so, although now the Month of May will always be a bittersweet time for me. When the May apple plants started pushing up in the woods each spring, my husband would be found among them, looking for Morel mushrooms. They are called “spring chickens” in our neck of the woods. If he had good luck hunting, we would soak them in salt water, then batter and fry them for supper. What a delicacy!

     But it never failed that along with the spring chickens would be a fresh bouquet of Sweet Williams (beautiful blue phlox that grows in the woods) along with some May apples. You know, the little plants that look like umbrellas.  Brother Danny knew how much I loved the Sweet Williams because their fragrance is so sweet!

    Our anniversary was May 26, and  often on our anniversary he would bring  home a bouquet of wild, pink hedge roses, for that is what they decorated the little store-front church with on our wedding day. My sweet sentimental husband! How I miss him this time of year! Today he would have been 66.

    A few weeks ago, I did a bit of foraging in the woods. I came in the house with Sweet Williams, May apples, moss, dogwood blooms and some other spring specimens. I dried them in my silica gel and then when they were ready I arranged them behind the panes of an old window.  I added the verse from Song of Solomon which refers to the rapture.

Song of Solomon 2:10-12

My beloved spake, and said unto me,

Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.

For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;

The flowers appear on the earth;

the time of the singing of birds is come …

  Now I have a window of spring hanging on my bedroom wall, and I will always think of my sweet Danny when I see the Sweet Williams and May apples.

  Just four years ago we spent his last birthday in the hospital. The next week on our 40th anniversary he was taken off the transplant list and a week later he was in Heaven.

I had a dream a couple of years ago that was so real, that I still am not positive that is was a dream. It was so real and personal that I could hardly talk about it to anyone.

   I was outside of my mother’s house, when someone strong and young picked me up and carried me inside to the back room. I then realized that it was Danny. He was healthy. He was tender and romantic. I held him  tightly and didn’t want to let go. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that he couldn’t stay and I didn’t want the moment to end. Then I woke up with such an overwhelming longing that I could scarcely stand it. I had read this script before, I felt like my experience was referred to in the Bible. I then opened my Bible to Song of Solomon chapter three.

By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth:

I sought him, but I found him not.

I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets,

and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth:

I sought him, but I found him not.

The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said,

Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?

It was but a little that I passed from them,

but I found him whom my soul loveth:

I held him, and would not let him go,

until I had brought him into my mother’s house,

and into the chamber of her that conceived me.

  Never had the Bible come so alive to me. It had just described my dream of Danny. I felt that he had been with me. It was so very bittersweet!

And so today I think of him, visit his grave, and wish him a Happy Birthday in Heaven.

And as I long for him, so should we all have a longing for Christ, our precious and tender bridegroom to speak these words of love to us:

Arise my love, my fair one, and come away.

  Even so come Lord Jesus!

In the love of Christ, Dee Dee Hall
May 18th, 2016

I’m excited to share with you all a “new” Danny & Dee Dee Hall CD.  Mom has been dreaming of this project for a while, and thanks to several friends’ hard work and contributions (many many thanks to the Seminole String Band), it finally became a reality this year.

This CD has 19 tracks. It has four songs recorded live (which are my favorite because you can really hear dad’s heart when he was ministering to the church), two audio clips from Dad’s home going service, and 13 more of their most requested songs that were recorded back in the early 2000’s.

Mom and I were going back and forth on what to call this CD. We also were digging through pictures and doing our best to find the perfect one for this compilation of old and new. We finally decided on our last family picture that we all took together. It was Thanksgiving of 2011. Mom wanted to recreate aNorman Rockwell Thanksgiving photo, so there we all are, goofy grins in place, gathered around the feast at the table in our new dining room that dad worked so hard to finish for us all. We were about to hear dad give thanks one more time for his family and friends and all the blessings from the Lord that year. If there was anything dad was good at, it was giving thanks. Finally we had found our picture.

After mom and I decided on the picture, we agreed the only suitable title would be “Thankful Memories.” We are so thankful for all the special memories that we have of our family together, but most of all, of those memories were dad was thankful, where his life, his ministry and his music gave praise and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ.

CD Order Form

Our little country church, surrounded by growing corn fields and dusty roads, had never been so full. People came from all corners of the country to bid their friend farewell.  Preachers, church members, family, and old friends came to honor this Soldier of the Lord….

Home Going Service

We were blessed to be able to video Dad’s Service. It’s available to watch by clicking the link aboe.