c. 1999 Religion News Service
PLEASANT GROVES, Ala. _ As a boy, Ray Helms enjoyed roaming through the woods around here, taking time to gaze at a sheer sandstone cliff that towers majestically over a deep hollow that winds from the top of a plateau to the valley below.
Those quiet times alone in nature brought him closer to God and God’s creation, he said.
And so, after 30 years working for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in Huntsville as a mechanical engineer, Helms returned to this area of northeastern Alabama in 1992 to build a Christian retreat on the side of the 60-foot cliff.
His goal was to help others find the peace he experienced at what he refers to as his”piece of the rock.” He and his wife, Estelle, named the center the Cliff House.
The three-story structure is connected to the bluff in a way that only an engineer could have designed. It contains seven guest rooms with twin beds and bathrooms and a dining room that seats 40. A spacious meeting room features a boulder jutting from the cliff as part of its 25-foot-high ceiling. A large window offers a panoramic view of the hollow. “The design of the building was dictated by the shape of the bluff,”Helms said. While each guest room has a rock wall and/or ceiling, giving visitors a bit of a sense of being in a cave, they are quite cozy. Most rooms offer views of woods that abound with squirrels, raccoons, chipmunks and deer.
Each room has a name _ the Cliff Room, the Fossil Rock Room, the Rock of Ages Room, the Solid Rock Room. “Each room has a piece of the rock,”Helms said. Even in the bathroom,”one can take a shower under the rock,”he added, recounting the biblical story of Moses striking a rock and drawing forth water.
When visitors step onto the wooden walkway or large deck outside their rooms, they get a bird’s-eye view of the hollow and a stream that can sometimes be seen flowing through it.
The center is secluded on 50 acres of pristine forest about 22 miles northwest of Scottsboro. “This is nature undisturbed,”Helms said.”We don’t hear road noises up here.” Church groups and other organizations, including marriage enrichment groups, use the center, generally on weekends, he said. “Because the place is dedicated to the Lord, we want groups that honor Christ,”Helms said.
Helms, a former naval officer, said that in designing and building the center he used engineering skills he developed while working for NASA.
He said he and a nephew used a sledgehammer and wedges to break apart pieces of the cliff in order to shape it so that the center could be built snugly against the bluff. “We’d knock off a boulder and let it roll down the mountain and yell, `Watch out, Limrock! (the community at the base of the plateau),'”Helms recalled.
Helms has several other projects going at the site, including digging a five-acre lake and constructing a fireside gazebo next to the center. The couple also owns a nearby chalet that can accommodate up to 16 people.
The Helmses serve as chief cooks and bottle washers when guests are at the center. “To run the place is hard work and humbling, for we do everything from washing dishes and scrubbing the floors to doing the laundry,”said Estelle Helms.”But it’s worth it if our guests can shut out the hustle and bustle of the outside world and get in touch with the Lord.” Eds: For more information or to make reservations, call the Cliff House at 1-256-587-9204.)
DEA END BREWER
