Yes my past actually existed

Ever wonder what it would be like if you were a PB that didn't have any other young people in the church, and had to go to Memphis City public schools to fulfill your educational needs? Now I'm not saying that it makes for a legitmate accomplishment or anything, but it does test one's faith to an extensive margin.

Anyway, I decided to post a few pictures from back in the Whitehaven days of my church. Back in Nov. of 2002 we (Whitehaven) decided to pack our bags and move, due to the declining ethnic environment around our church. After numerous break-ins, behind-the-church dumpings, thefts, vandalism, broken windows, etc... we decided to sell our precious 26-pew, greatly over-sized Whitehaven church building, and attempt to find land further south, below the Mississippi-Tennessee state border, in what we hope to be a safer community to locate our 15-20 member congregation. Often I think and imagine of the day when we will have a home of our own to worship and serve God in. What will it be like? Well, its been so long since we actually had a church building, I almost forgot what it was like. Here's a little reminder of some of those joyful memories I was blessed to experience at Whitehaven:

Here is our former Whitehaven church. A nice little isolated place in Southwest Memphis.

April 18, 1999: My Dad was ordained on this day as a deacon for Whitehaven. The following is a picture of the brothers that were present at my Dad's ordination service. There are five ordained preachers in this picture. I am positively sure that many of yall can name at least two of them, as those two are relatively well-known among the PBs. I would say about 60% of yall could get three of them, 20% could get four, and roughly 5-10% of my loyal blog readers I would estimate, could name all five ordained preachers that are in this picture. I will list the names of the men below, and challenge anyone who is willing, to try to name the preachers among them.

In this picture (from left-to-right): Brother Kevin Poe, Brother Joey -----, Brother Howard Case, Brother Danny Hardwick, Brother Myron Wilkenson, Brother Edwin Carter, Brother Calvin Warren, Brother Zack Guess, my Dad (Brother Dwayne Thompson), Brother Bobby Poe, Brother Howard Berry, Brother Mike Thompson, Brother Grady Camp, and Brother Jim -----.

Back when I was a wee lil' feller. As I told yall, I had no other wee lil' fellers in the church to socialize with.

O yea those Easter-egg hunts that Brother Warren always loved to have for us on Easter Sunday, its a shame we havent been able to have those since our days at Whitehaven, but they sure were fun. All the older members of our church would always bring their grandkids to church that day (the one or two times each year I had other wee lil' fellers to socialize with).

I would estimate the date of this picture to be Easter, around the year of 1992 or 1993. As yall can see I would dominate those Easter egg hunts. I tried to show Brother Warren that he raised a strong prospect for those Easter Sundays. However, soon afterwards I unfortunantely lost my touch, and was demoted to Triple-A Easter egg hunting.

Some sister's from those good ole days. I'm not sure of the date of this picture either, but it was on the same day as the previous two. The lady on the far left, Sis. Christine, was my grandmother (she was Sis. Mary's younger sister). She passed away (God rest her soul) in Feb. 2002, 3 months before I graduated HS, and 10 months before we sold our building at Whitehaven. Brother Warren and Brother Isaac Guess preached her funeral.

In this picture (from left-to-right): Sister Christine Thompson, Sister Beth Warren, Sister Mary Thompson, Sister Nina Thompson, Sister Sandra Wilkenson, and (not sure of the name or identity of the last sister).

So many people, so many faces that I haven't seen in ages, this brings back lots of good memories.

Perhaps many of yall who are unfamiliar with my church do not know about any of this and are probably bored by this post, but these pictures bring back an important, and memorable, part of my childhood. Growing up in public school, the main part of my life that built up such a strong Biblical background was the Whitehaven church. Brother Warren, who has been my pastor my entire life, has been a real blessing to helping develop me spiritually throughout these years, and its touching to look back at those pictures, and just remember the days of Whitehaven.

Vote for Harold Ford Jr. The Christian's Choice!!!

A day for the future Senator

Well today was definently one of those days I will remember. For anyone who knows me well, should know that I am a member of the Harold Ford Jr. campaign committee, and will stop at nothing to get Congressman Ford elected to the Senate. A few days ago, I received a phone call on my cellphone from the committee inviting me to a rally this Friday morning that would included pastries, coffee, and more, at 9am at the headquarters. So, since I have no Friday classes, and am not scheduled to work at the time, I decided to attend. Before I get to the events of today, I would like to post a picture from the first time I ever met Congressman Ford.

May 1998:
On an 8th grade field trip to Washington D.C. my entire class heard Congressman Ford speak to them. Afterwards, we got a picture with the Congressman. The picture (from left to right) is of me, Jeff, Derek (my friend who had muscular distrophy, he passed away less than a year after this picture was taken), and Congressman Ford. Please click here for the story on my friendship with Derek.

Friday, September 15, 2006:
So I came to the Ford rally, downed a cup of coffee and half a blueberry muffin, and then the rally began with some guy in which I was unfamiliar with speaking briefly, yet motivationally. Anyway, following his speech, another lady came up to speak. As she was concluding, there was a loud applause from the entrance, and low-and-behold, there was Congressman Ford coming in.


Then Ford gets up at the podium and speaks. And let me tell you, he is one of the best speakers I have ever heard. Being A.D.D., I can hardly listen to someone speak for an hour, but Congressman Ford I could listen to all day long and never get tired. He's very motiving, and even throws in a joke here and there, to maintain the interest and enthusiasm from the audience.
Ford Jr. spoke for about 30-40 minutes. Over to the side, was his father, Harold Ford Sr. (in the bright orange tie, in the center of this photo). Ford Sr. shook my hand when I first entered that morning.
After the campaign speech, there was a crowd of people up at the front trying to get pictures with the Congressman, or speak to him. I fought my way to the front, and asked one of his security guards "will I have an opportunity to get a picture?" and he said "yes, right after this interview." So I watch Ford give a short interview to an unlabeled camera, then continued taking pictures with people. I finally got his attention and asked a man standing by to get a picture of us. He did, but then it turned out very blurry. My initial thoughts are "o well, I'm sure the Congressman is very busy, at least I had an opportunity" so I am about ready to head back to my car. Then the same security guard I talked to before asks me "would you like me to get a picture of you and the Congressman?" I said "yes sir" and then he asked me to go and approach Ford as he posed with another man (you see, most campaign security would have asked me to move along, but Ford and his campaign have always had a good reputation with this kind of kindness, they make sure always to treat their supporters and to allow everyone their opportunity to get pictures with the Congressman). Then Ford asked "are yall two together" (referring to this other man standing next to him and me), I responded "no sir" and Ford said that he would pose for seperate pictures for each of us. I stood aside, then after the other man was done, posed next to Congressman Ford, and......
......after the picture, the security guard handed my camera back to me. I shook his hand and thanked him for the picture.

So that was my morning, one that I will not soon forget. Having the priviledge to meet and get a picture with the Congressman that helped out my friend with muscular distrophy just 8 years ago was more than a blessing. I hope you win Senator Ford, God bless you!!!!

Tonight, concluding the event I experienced at the Ford headquarters, I got together with my family and we looked through all our old pictures for that one of my friend Derek along with Ford. After numerous searching, it finally turned up (thus the first picture in this post). I also happened to find a few old Whitehaven pictures that I want to try to get together for a post in a few days, so please stay tuned for that, it will be worth it. God bless yall.

The First Home Game

Well its been a record-shattering 12 days since my last post. So though long-overdue, here I finally am again. Last Saturday was the first home football game this season for the Univ. of Memphis Tigers football team, and a huge group of us went to the game from Grace Chapel. We had a lot of visitors, due to the fact that Bro. Timothy was ordained Saturday morning (praise the Lord), so that was a real blessing. I am certainly looking forward to the Tigers football season this year. The wonderful high-fiving and dog-piling on each other everytime the Tigers score a TD, the best Turkey Legs ever smoked in the world, the face painted/hair dyeing, etc... O what a memorable football season this will be. Here are a few of my pictures from the game:

This is probably the best picture of Drewski that you will ever seen. I'm in tears over how wonderful this picture is.

Ms. Kathern and Ms. Lacey. These arent a pair of damsels I would brave to be around at this point in time. Thankfully, this is the only of the 5 posted pictures here, that was not taken by me.

This picture was supposed to be, and is, of Lacey and Mercy gettin' crunk at the game, but I just have to point out the look on Lydia's face. She's got that "get that camera off me or else!!!" look, with the clinched fist and everything. I was very scared, and nervous, about taking this particular picture.

SURPRISE!!!

Only in Memphis... Is it even possible to get any crunker?

For the rest of my pictures from the game, you can Click here. Enjoy, and God bless. Go Tigers!!!!

Summer 2006, One for the Memories

Well, even though its officially been over for a week now, this is my first opportunity to give the summer of 2006 its proper send off, as it so deserves. So here is a recap of one of the most memorable summers of my life, in order of events.

There was that fun trip to St. Louis back in May, with the stop at the famous Lamberts, home of the throwing rolls.

Dustin and I looking up at the Arch during that fun St. Louis trip...

The only baseball team I got to see this year that is actually winning, GO CARDS!!!

The Redbirds game that I invited my good friends from G.C. to for my birthday. Thanks everybody who came. It was fun, the socializing that is, the Redbirds have been nothing short of a disaster this year.

In mid-June, right before Harmony Hill, I had the pleasure to go to the Tyler Meeting and stay at the house of some former Memphians who knew my dad well, the Machiavello's.

Ok Nawill I know you've been waiting for these next two pictures, so for your convenience, here they finally are. At the Tyler Meeting an intense, bloodshed game of pool went down between two friends and fellow church members, yet bitter rivals. Here we have the loser falling down on the pool table in utter defeat...

...And here is the reigning champion!!!!!

Harmony Hill, one of the windiest places this side of the planet.

Bro. Joey made us all amazing singers. Well, everyone except me, I still sing like a frog, and freeze up everytime I try to start a song when I am leading.

On the way back from Harmony Hill, I had many intellectual and rheotorical conversations during the 10-hour trip with my good buddy Davis Beauchamp.

Camp Moriah. I supposed this has already played itself out, but just a reminder of what kind of mess four guys in a tent can make.

In the hottest months of early-July, even right in the middle of the off-season, you still see us Memphians getting out there to play basketball every chance we get. This was during Seth's birthday, Nawill has to show off of course.

So during the latter half of July and the first week or so of August I had the priviledge of taking a summer course at the U of M. During it came the Grace Chapel meeting. Here is some of what we PBs do most, besides socialize, its sing!!!

In August, I decided to take a final trip to Alabama to cap off the summer, to visit my cousin Andrew. Here is when we went swimming. Being the mature young men we are we had to have fun with the inflatable animals.

Goodbye Summer 2006, you will always be remembered!!!

Bring on football season!!! GO TIGERS!!!! Boo Vols!!!!

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Also, if anyone would like a copy of some or all of my sets of pictures for the summer of 2006 (I have a total of about 500 pictures), then please contact me and I will set you up with a personal CD of the pictures you choose, absolutely free of charge. God bless.