We Made It

John P. Kee has a song entitled "We Made It" The song says, We made it through hard trials We made it through the pain Often criticized, we never gave up Lied on, we remain strong My life is in God's hand. Many tired, along the way Had no vision, desire to stay Felt it would crumble if they were gone We kept praying, we stood strong My life is in God's hand. He upholdeth me He holds me up He upholdeth me With His right hand Yes, yes, yes With His right hand My life is in God's hand.

We just finished hosting The 88th Session of The Original Missionary Baptist State Convention of Indiana, Incorporated and I am so proud of the Macedonia Church family. We are not a big church or a church blessed with an abundance of money but God gave us favor.

I need to thank many people who made our hosting possible. My mother taught me that people don't have to be nice and when they are nice, they don't have to be nice to you, so let me say thank you to a lot of nice people in this town.

Thank you to my South Bend Pastor, Pastor K.D. Witherspoon for his knowledge and assistance for helping South Bend put our best foot forward. Without him and BBC, this would not have been a success

Thank you to Angelia Forrest and the entire office staff: During stressful times, the office deals with the brunt of the pastor's moods. I certainly was barking loudly but I am grateful that the staff knows I don't bite. Bless you!

Thank you to our state youth director Martha J. Bowlds: Your knowledge of convention work and your love for me made everything work greatly. Every Pastor needs a "sweet meanie".

Thank you to Ida and Jerry Malone and the entire kitchen committee for serving food the entire week. Bless you for your patience and dedication.

Thank you to All the Pastors of South Bend whose support and physical presence made a lasting impression to our convention, with special thanks to my South Bend seminary professor Pastor Andre A. McGhee who is part of another convention but still came to help his brothers out. Also, a special shout out to Dr. Erskine A. Jones, Pastor of Sweet Home Ministries Church for preaching our late night service and completely killed the house.

Thank you to our Greeters Ministry: who served as guides, hospitality agents, bathroom directors etc. bless you for being kind.

Thank you to the greatest choir ministry and one of the most gifted minister of music musicians in the land Jovan Lewis: for singing every night for 6 straight nights bringing us into an atmosphere of worship.

Once again let me thank the entire Macedonia church for all of the teamwork of cleaning, painting, polishing elbow grease and grunt work it took to pull this off.

Due to the influence of Pastor Witherspoon, I was blessed to receive a position that will require a lot of prayer. I was honored to become the President of the State Congress of Christian Education of The Original General Missionary Baptist State Convention of Indiana, INC.

Please pray for us as we step out in faith. Haters are everywhere! Admittedly, I have only been pastoring 15 months here in South Bend so to walk into this position is nothing but the favor of God and the generosity of kind Pastors. I don't want to embarrass MY God, my church or my preaching brethren but I firmly believe that Christian Education in our churches is the key to transforming them into what God actually intended for them to be.

Owens