Pastor Buddy Edwards' Baptist church in Tennessee has become a local attraction. People stop by the small white church in Banner Springs to see a gift created by Tim Keck, of Monkton.
He recently gave the church a 3-foot by 5-foot carved glass window that depicts Jesus carrying his cross just before his crucifixion.
Keck's labor of love took 267 hours. After drawing the image, he carved it into the sheet of glass with a sandblaster and then embedded 800 lights inside a wooden frame. When lighted, the cut glass acts as a prism, refracting a rainbow of colors.
"Nobody can believe that somebody would do something so nice for a small country church," said Edwards, whose church has about 100 members. "When people ask me where it came from, I tell them it's from one of the nicest people you'll ever meet in your life."
Keck met Edwards several years ago when Keck hunted at a lodge where Edwards' son, Tracy, worked. Buddy and Tracy Edwards have since opened their own hunting reserve that Keck visits.
During those trips, Keck stopped in Mt. Calvary Baptist Church to listen to Pastor Edwards.
"I always got such a good feeling when I was there," Keck said. "Last New Year's, he had a sermon that touched me. I felt he was talking to me. As he spoke, I looked at the archway above the altar. A feeling came over me as I envisioned creating an image on glass that people could share what I felt at that moment."
Keck, 67, is a self-taught jack-of-all-trades. The former technician for Ford built and raced his own cars, including 15 hot rods. He ran a fishing boat out of Ocean City. He owned Baltimore's Best Seafood, a restaurant in Ocean City, for 12 years. He currently restores vintage cars.
Although the Parkville High School graduate never had an art lesson, he was in demand in Ocean City, where he hand-painted T-shirts with a boat's name and a design for boat owners. Many owners then used his design to have T-shirts made for their friends and families.
Soon, some of those same people asked Keck to carve their boat's name onto its glass doors or windows.
He bought a sandblaster and ended up working on boats from New York to Palm Beach.
When Keck set out to make the gift for Edwards' church, he drew the image on contact paper that he attached to plain glass. Using a razor, he cut away sections of the drawing and sandblasted the 3/8th-inch thick glass.
In all, he went through 750 pounds of sand of five different grits.
"I just kept working on it until I got it right," he said. "If I was doing this for a living, I'd have to get it done in a certain amount of time. But to produce a piece of art, you just have to feel when it comes to life."
He asked Tony Serafis of Baldwin to help him make the frame and cut a channel in it for the lights.
"I knew Timmy does great work but I was surprised by how good this was," said Serafis, Keck's former doctor who is now retired. "I should know that anything's possible when he's involved in a project."
Just before putting the frame together, Keck invited friends and neighbors over to write messages that will only be seen if the frame is dismantled.
Keck then made the 1,200-mile round trip drive to deliver the glass in person.
"Tim had been saying for two years he was going to make something, but I had no clue what until he brought the glass down here," Roberts said. "Our church has high ceilings, and we put it behind the altar. When you walk into the church, it's the first thing you see. It's amazing."