HAPPY BIRTHDAY MS. GAYE F. WELLINGTON

Everything is nicer when shared with an aunt!

A garden of love grows in my aunt's heart.

An aunt grows more precious as time goes by.

An aunt adds beauty, joy, and love to life.

An aunt makes life a little sweeter.

There are angels walking on this earth disguised as aunts!

An aunt is someone special to remember with warmth, think of with pride, and cherish with love.

WISHING MY AUNT/GODMOTHER A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

COME CELEBRATE THE LIFE AND HOMEGOING OF MRS. CHINA WHITLEY (AUNTIE CHINA/"TOOTA")

TO THE TRAVERS AND WELLINGTON FAMILY:

(John 14:27-29)
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe."



I thought I saw her face today
In the sparkle of the morning sun.
And then I heard the angel say
“Her work on earth is done.”

I thought I heard her voice today
Then laugh her hearty laugh.
And then I heard the angel say
“There’s peace little one at last.”

I thought I felt her touch today
In the breeze that rustled by.
And then I heard the angel say
“The spirit never dies.”

I thought that she had left me
For the stars so far above.
And then I heard the angel say
“She left you with her love.”

I thought that I would miss her
And never find my way.
And then I heard the angel say
“She’s with you every day.”

Auntie China's Visitation will be on Friday, March 30, 2012 @ 10:00 a.m.:

Gifts of Life Ministries
1542 Jackson Avenue
Memphis, TN. 38107
(901)272-7337

FUNERAL @ 11 A.M., Friday, March 30, 2012

Gifts of Life Ministries
1542 Jackson Avenue
Memphis, TN. 38107
(901) 272-7337

*The Repast will also be at Gifts of Life Ministries.

FLORIDA SHOOTING STIRS MEMORIES OF CIVIL RIGHTS ERA

By Wil Haygood, Brady Dennis and Sari Horwitz

They are joining the Trayvon Martin crusade by the hour now.

It feels like an echo from another era — when there was racial injustice in the headlines, when federal troops were dispatched to comb Southern swamps to look for blacks who had vanished.

Rep. Frederica Wilson, (D-Fla.) took to the House floor on Wednesday to call for justice for Trayvon Martin. The teen was killed 25 days ago. The shooter, George Zimmerman, has not been charged or arrested.
Video

After declaring victories in getting federal and state officials to investigate the case of an unarmed black teenager shot to death by a neighborhood watch captain, civil rights leaders continued to pressure authorities to make an arrest.

And when lawyers for the NAACP slid into town with briefcases and addresses of safe houses.

It feels like the not-so-long-ago ’60s, back when getting federal authorities to move quickly was often difficult. But this is a different era, however tragically similar the outcome.

The Trayvon Martin story has multiple layers: a black victim, a Hispanic man who did the shooting in Sanford, Fla. In Washington, the head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, Thomas E. Perez, is Hispanic. The attorney general of the United States, Eric H. Holder Jr., is a black man. The man who occupies the Oval Office, Barack Obama, is an African American.

And yet, even that arc of progress — while admired — hasn’t softened emotions and feelings.

“It reminds you of Emmett Till,” said Bernadette Pruitt, an associate professor of history at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Tex., who has written about Southern racial history and can’t stop thinking of Trayvon Martin and his family. “This so-called post-racialism is a figment of our imagination. Race, unfortunately, is still the barometer by which everyone is measured.”

Read more here:

Historical rift between hip hop and the Black Church

by Caitlin Yoshiko Kandil

The generational divide is nothing new.

Youths, wanting to set themselves apart from their parents and grandparents, adopt new styles, ways of speaking and even music.

In the African American community today, the Black Church and hip hop culture represent the two ends of this generational rift, says Emmett G. Price III — but this chasm goes deeper than it has in previous decades.

“No previous generational divide has been as extreme, volatile and destructive as the present divide between the Civil Rights Generation and the Hip Hop Generation,” Price writes in his new book, “The Black Church and Hip Hop Culture: Toward Bridging the Generational Divide.”

In this edited volume, Price, a professor of music and African American Studies at Northeastern University, calls for dialogue between the two camps, the only way he thinks the black community can “move forward together.”

The idea for his book emerged when Price noticed that young people between ages 18 and 40 were “missing” from the Black Church and that the same demographic was increasingly identifying with hip hop culture. “So many young people leave the Church at age 18 because it’s ‘old school’ — it doesn’t recognize new methods and new means of expression,” explained Price, who is also an ordained minister. “If the Black Church was more vigilant toward what was going on in the community, then it would have been more receptive of embracing the young people.”

Read more here:

PRAYER VIGIL FOR ALEX HEIDELBURG

The Class of 2010 of RIVER CITY HIGH SCHOOL is having a CANDLE LIGHT VIGIL at 5:00 p.m., Friday, March 23, 2012 at 230 Henry (formerly Caldwell Elementary School) in memoriam for ALEX HEIDELBURG!!!

Suicide among African American Teens and Young Adults: A Discussion

ALEX HEIDELBURG'S WAKE AND FUNERAL INFORMATION

TO THE HEIDELBURG FAMILY:

Trust Me to lift you up when you're down. Believe that I am vitally interested in your life, and I see those things which concern you. I am with you to help you get up and proceed on the path of life--eternal life and eternal joy. It is My will to establish you in peace and strength. Receive My help and rise up to a new level of confidence and faith that I will not leave you or forsake you. You are precious to Me, says the Lord. Be established in that truth.

Deuteronomy 31:8 "And the LORD, He is the one who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed."



ALEX HEIDELBURG'S WAKE AND FUNERAL INFORMATION:

Friday, March 23, 2012 (WAKE) 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.

ST. STEPHEN BAPTIST CHURCH
508 N. THIRD STREET
MEMPHIS, TN. 38105
(901) 525-0722

Saturday, March 24, 2012 (FUNERAL) 11 a.m.

ST. STEPHEN BAPTIST CHURCH
508 N. THIRD STREET
MEMPHIS, TN. 38105
(901) 525-0722

*The Repast will be at Gifts of Life Ministries, 1542 Jackson Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee, 38107.

Dr. Boyce: Racism, Sexism and Homophobia Will Turn You Into a Dinosaur

by Dr. Boyce Watkins

*I once had a friend who thought it was inconceivable for a woman to defeat a man on the basketball court. My friend, who was a very good player, happened to come upon the misfortune of meeting his match. The woman who showed him up was a college hoops star and eventual player in the WNBA, and she made my friend look silly.

After losing to the woman in a game of one-on-one, my friend challenged her to double or nothing. The woman then proceeded to spank my homeboy like a four-year old at daycare, taking his money once again. But my friend was stubborn; his brain could not absorb the fact that he was beaten, and that it was time to walk away. The woman took every penny he had, and he still doesn’t believe women know how to play basketball.

I learned from watching my acquaintance make a complete ass out of himself that a commitment to sexism can get you into serious trouble. The same is true for racism, homophobia, or any other bias you hold near and dear to your heart. These prejudices cause us to make the irrational decision to cut off our nose to spite our own face. When it’s all said and done, the closed-minded person almost always loses.

A recent example of this phenomenon has been the debacle known as the Republican primaries. Because the right wing is so outraged about having a black man in the White House, the party has been hijacked by illogical extremists who are determined to make themselves into dinosaurs. Unfit candidates such as Rick Santorum have been pushed to the top of the party, and Republicans will ultimately lose the White House because of their own internal divides.

Read more here:

Black Clergy: We'll Register a Million Voters

By: Jenée Desmond-Harris | Posted: March 13, 2012

The introduction of a far-reaching wave of state laws that will make voting in the 2012 election much harder than it's ever been in the past has been characterized as a "war on black voters" and likened to Jim Crow.

Much of the legislation is being challenged in the courts, but meanwhile, black churches are advocating for African-American voters in their own way: They've committed to doing their part to make sure as many of their members as possible are prepared to go to the polls. And what better time than Easter Sunday to make good on that promise?

From the Christian Post:

A coalition of African-American clergy has announced a project titled the Empowerment Movement, an effort to register one million black Christian voters on Easter Sunday.

Read more here:

First Lady Jones-Johnson Accepted in Masters Degree Program

Gifts of Life Ministries' first lady, Lisa Jones-Johnson, has been accepted into the Bethel University's Master of Arts in Conflict Resolution program. Bethel University created this program to address the growing need for mediators and conflict resolution professionals across Tennessee as well as the majority of the United States. In her work at a law office and dealing with issues with members of the church, our first lady knows how much we all need people who can mediate conflict. After much prayer and reflection, she feels God calling her to this journey and she ask for your support and prayers as she enters a new phase of her life.