Heartstrings of Fairview
-Our Story-
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Well, first off, no one ever set out to form what we now call ‘Heartstrings of Fairview’. In God’s providence, I
believe that it all began, or rather, He began the preparation for Heartstrings of Fairview years ago. When I
(Faith) was small, I developed a love of music and the piano specifically. My mom would hear me attempting
to play songs on the piano. At that time, all I had was a God-given ability to pick out songs by ear. It was my
desire to learn more. After some time, she realized that I really was serious about learning to play, so she
paid for me to have piano lessons. I was thankful. I remember those early days…I was saved when I was
around eleven years old at a youth revival. I remember sitting down to the piano and imagining that I was
seated right before the throne of God. I would sing and play to Him with all my heart. The Lord gave me
opportunities to sing for Him at my church, Temple Baptist, right up the street from where I lived.
Later he opened the door for me to sing for Him in a group called, Celebration Christian Ministries. He led us
to various churches and places to sing and give testimony. It was through this singing group that I met my
future husband, Tim ingle. Again under God’s providence Tim had decided to take guitar lessons at that time
to help with the group (or so he thought). We ended up just singing with the piano. So you see Tim’s training
for Heartstrings began years ago also.
Years passed and our time in Celebration Christian Ministries came to a close. Tim and I were married in
1987. Some years into our marriage, we dreamed of having a child. We had just about lost hope of
conceiving, but then the Lord stepped in. We had an appointment with NC Baptist Hospital for an evaluation.
After an exam the doctor told us that they would have to run some blood tests at our next appointment to get
to the root of the particular problem. But then, God stepped in. We did not need any help from man—we only
needed to wait for God’s perfect timing. Before Tim even went to give them a sample of blood, God did a
work. Probably not two weeks after that first appointment—God blessed us with Christiana.
Christiana is one of the greatest blessings that I have ever received. What a privilege to have the opportunity
to be a mother. Praises be to His Name forever!!!
When Christiana was around seven years old, God sent a gentleman into our lives. Again, God’s providence.
He worked with Tim and he began attending our church, Fairview Baptist. Earlier in his life he had played the
violin in an orchestra in his country. He was very musical. He approached us about the possibility of
Christiana learning to play the violin. He had one that he fixed up for her and gave it to her. Christiana began
taking classical lessons when she was around eight years old. After taking several years of classical, she
began to be interested in the bluegrass style of playing the fiddle. The Lord led us to a bluegrass teacher,
Darin Aldridge, thru a friend of mine. We just happened to be invited to her son’s guitar recital.
For a long time, I had a love for banjo. It was very exciting to hear the students playing that night. Tim and
Christiana decided to give me two banjo lessons for a Christmas present that year. My father-in-love had an
old banjo that with a little sprucing up would work fine. Well, needless to say after two lessons I was hooked.
I began teaching piano lessons in order to pay for my banjo lessons. Shortly after that, Christiana started
taking lessons from Darin as well. Eventually, we started playing as a family and took some group lessons.
We played for our church family occasionally. We dreamed one day of perhaps having someone that could
play the upright bass with us.
The Lord then brought Howard and Della Williams to visit our church. Howard heard us play and heard of our
desire to have someone play the bass with us. It just so happened that Howard was a craftsman of musical
instruments as well as a wonderful banjo picker. He had a bass that he had crafted. Somehow it had gotten
broken. It had a hole that needed patching and some other repairs that it needed. Our Pastor desired to
learn but he had hearing problems. His wife agreed to try and learn to play. Christiana and I showed her
what we could about playing the basic beats. In time, she learned to play well.
I enjoyed many evenings at Howard and Della’s. Howard was mentoring me and showing me how I could
better pick the banjo. The Lord had led another family to our church, the Clippard family. Jimmy Clippard
served the Lord with us with his talent for playing the guitar.
God used Howard to encourage us to play together as a group. He wanted us to go and play for some
people at a place called ‘Buffalo Creek’. After some persuading we decided to go. After all, we would have
the chance to sing for the Lord and testify of His goodness to us. We began to go there occasionally and
began to get requests to play at some churches. We needed a name. Up to that time everyone called us the
Ingle Family because the majority of us were Ingle’s. We decided on the name ‘Heartstrings of Fairview’
because we desired to touch people’s hearts with His message and our strings.
The Lord has opened many doors to us since that time. We are so thankful to Him for each and every
opportunity that He gives us. We wait on Him to show us where He desires for us to go and when we get a
call, we believe that it is His leading. Over the years, Heartstrings has changed somewhat. As of this time,
Heartstrings of Fairview is made up of the following people: Tim Ingle (Guitar) Faith Ingle (Banjo), Christiana
Ingle (Fiddle,Mandolin, Guitar, Bass), Guy Ballard (Bass), Randy Graham (Guitar, Mandolin, Dobro) , Kevin
Martin (Mandolin, Guitar) and Timothy Moore (Sound/Bass).
Previous members of Heartstrings: Worth Ingle (Harmonica), Anna Holloway (Bass), Howard Williams
(Dobro), Jimmy Clippard (Guitar), Dennis Plumley (Bass), Roger Neal (Bass), Pat Smith (Dobro), Parker
Mitcham (Guitar).
Our heart’s desire is to bring encouragement to people, because we know what a discouraging place this
world is at times, but our greatest desire is to lift the Name of Jesus high and see others come to know Him
as we know Him. To our most Holy God be all the Glory and Honor today and forever! Amen.
​
Psalm 100:3
Know ye that the LORD He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves;
we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.
