Meet Cynthia Stidham

My name is Cynthia Stidham. I was born and raised in Lawrence County where I graduated from Hatton High School in 1981. My parents are Raymon and Arlene Sutton. I am a “preacher’s kid.”

My Christian journey began in a small country church called Harris Chapel. It was in this church that my mother felt a calling of God to minister. In the early 1970’s she and my father decided our family should step out on faith and start a mission church in Moulton, Alabama. Dad’s cousin and close friend, Coy Sutton, his wife and children felt that God wanted them to join us. We rented and remodeled a small building and begin having services. This is when my mother began to teach me to play the piano. Many times the attendance was only 12 people (my parents and their 4 children, as well as Coy, his wife and 4 children), but we loved the Lord and sang like there was a house full. Eventually the attendance began to grow and we were able to purchase some land with an old rundown house, which meant more work. We picked cotton, pepper, cucumbers, and stripped sugar cane to earn money for building supplies after work and school, then worked on the old house on Saturdays. A new church now stands on that same property today.

In 1975 we moved to Phil Campbell to pastor the Church of God of Prophecy there. My dad drove 1 ½ hours to Decatur every day to work a 12 hour “swing” shift and then 1 ½ hour drive home. Even after working all night and getting home at 7:30 a.m., he was faithfully at church every Sunday morning, playing his guitar, singing, and teaching Sunday School. His faithfulness still inspires me today.

My mother has also served as pastor (and my dad as deacon) in the Church of God of Prophecy at Haleyville, Athens, and Decatur. It was during her tenure at Haleyville that I met and later married Norman Lacey. We married June 11, 1982 and I moved to Haleyville. My first job was in Haleyville at Goar’s Big Star Supermarket. Later I worked at the TG&Y department store and finally at Ther-A-Pedic Sleep Products where I have been employed for more than 20 years.

July 22, 1989 God gave me the gift of a lifetime, a precious baby girl, Halie Nichole Lacey. She turned out to be such a “Daddy’s girl”, fishing, hunting, and being his shadow. On January 9, 1993, being only 3 ½ years old, she lost her dad in a house fire. Halie was a flowergirl in a wedding at our church that night and upon arriving home we found firetrucks everywhere. It was too much for a child to understand, but we had each other, and our church, family, and friends constantly love and encouraged us.

Then in July 1994, I met Ronnie Stidham. He, too, had lost a spouse in Janurary 1993, (Teresa Black Stidham). We seemed to have so much in common. I quickly fell in love with him and his two children, Emily Faith Stidham and Morgan Craig Stidham. We married on August 11, 1994. Our families began to “blend” into one. We had a lot of decisions to pray about…what house to live in, what church and school to attend. We agreed to put a “FORSALE” sign on both houses and let God decide. Two days after putting the sign in the yard of my Haleyville home, my house sold. Halie and I moved to Hackleburg were we now live, attend church and school.

Cynthia serves as Worship Leader, Prayer Warrior, Sunday School Teacher, Bible Memory Club Teacher (along with her Husband Ronnie), Wife, Mother, Sister, Daughter, Friend, and wonderful servant of God. She is loved and respected by all.