Me and my family….

Hello World,

Since Black History Month, the shortest month of the year, is not over yet, check out an article I wrote about my personal Black History LOL for Christian Standard this month. I was blessed to be able to write about the ministry of my father Dr. Denzil D. Holness, who recently retired after 38 years serving as pastor of Central Christian Church in Southwest Atlanta. Although I lived with my father as I grew up and again for a few years after I graduated from college, I still discovered some things about him that I didn’t know. In fact, I think everyone should interview their parents beyond the day-to-day interactions because I’m sure you will gain a new perspective on the people whose genes you share…

Pastor Denzil Holness Spreads a Message of Racial Reconcilation…

Had Denzil D. Holness been hired as a pastor in Coward, South Carolina, or Peculiar, Missouri, or any other out-of-the-way American town or city, he may not have been led to take on racial reconciliation in the Christian church. However, since Holness was hired as the first black pastor at Central Christian Church in Atlanta, Georgia, “The City Too Busy to Hate,” it would seem tackling racial reconciliation was God’s plan for him all along.

Committed to Christian Church Principles

Holness became CCC’s pastor in September 1979 and in December 2017, he retired from ministry after 38 years serving that church. Holness began his journey with the Christian church when he was a teenager in his homeland of Jamaica, which boasts the motto, “Out of Many, One People.” Originally a member of the Anglican church, Holness was persuaded by a friend to join the Christian church because of its principles.

“The more I learned about the Christian church, the more I became committed,” Holness said. “For example, we believe that all Christians should be one. We don’t use denominational labels or names. If the world is to be won to Christ, then believers should bear witness to a visible unity in accordance with the Lord’s prayer in John 17.”

Just before Holness graduated from high school, Fred Kratt, a missionary from the United States, visited Jamaica one summer and was instrumental in arranging for the young man to receive a full scholarship to attend Minnesota Bible College, Kratt’s alma mater.

“Prior to receiving that scholarship, I had been under the conviction that the Lord was calling me to the ministry,” Holness said. Although he received a catalog about the school before he started there, he did not realize Minnesota was much colder than sunny Jamaica. “That first winter, it was so cold, I almost cried,” Holness said with a smile.

Fast forward from the 1960s to April 1979. By then, Holness was married to fellow Jamaican Alice May Holness, and they had a daughter, me, and a son, Delvall.

Read the rest of the story at christianstandard.com.

Any thoughts?

The post Check Out My Article in Christian Standard! (I Interviewed My Dad!) appeared first on After the Altar Call.

Had Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lived, today would have been his 85th birthday! Although he is no longer here with us, I think the best way to celebrate Dr. King’s birthday is to honor his legacy which he spoke of so passionately and eloquently in his “I Have a Dream” speech delivered Aug. 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in our nation’s capital…One of my favorite sentences in Dr. King’s speech is below….

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I think our nation has made great progress in allowing people of all races the opportunity to be judged by the content of their character rather than their skin color. While the American church has not always been at the forefront of equitable race relations, we have a long way as well…

My father, Dr. Denzil D. Holness, pastor of Central Christian Church in Southwest Atlanta, has been a champion of racial reconciliation in the Christian Church and began hosting our church’s Racial Reconciliation eight years ago in honor of Dr. King’s birthday and as a way of bonding Christians of all races.

Join us THIS Sunday, Jan. 19, at 11 a.m. for our 8th Annual Racial Reconciliation Service. Dr. Billy Strother, a full-time Professor of Preaching and New Testament at Point University, West Point, Ga., will be our guest speaker. The youth of our church will be paying tribute to Dr. King. And you know we’ve got to have the fellowship dinner after service!

Central Christian Church is located at 1916 Dodson Drive, Atlanta, GA 30311. For more information, call (404) 344-4114.

The post The Content Of One’s Character…Central Christian Church Hosts 8th Annual Racial Reconciliation Service! appeared first on After the Altar Call.

The last time I blogged which was on Wednesday, Aug. 7, I was a single woman getting ready to be married on Saturday, Aug. 10…Leading up until the actual ceremony, I was pulling all-nighters trying to get everything done before the big day, particularly as we were flying out to Hawaii, the state where President Obama was born and raised, the next morning at 7:59 am!

So because you are my people, I have decided to share some of photos with you leading from the morning of the big day throughout our honeymoon…It has been a wonderful week…my best week ever…

Here I am in my special robe…Can you see the word bride?

One of the bridesmaids took this obligatory contemplative pose…Actually, it was a beautiful and prayerful morning in which God showed me over and over again that it would be a blessed day…

Getting made up…

My wedding dress…Isn’t it beautiful? A bridesmaid dress is in the back too…

Getting my hair did and being buttoned up…

Almost ready!!!

Getting ready to be summoned from the church annex to the church sanctuary…

A quick pose with my bouquet…Isn’t it beautiful? Thanks HYR Designs!!!

Of course, I didn’t take pictures during our ceremony…Here is one from the reception…Presenting Mr. & Mrs. Robert L. Meredith Jr.!!! Thanks to Take That Media 1 for the awesome photo booth at our reception…

Mom and Dad clowning at the photo booth…

We had an official cake made for the reception, but this is one of the Jamaican rum cakes that we had made as we gave out slices of Jamaican rum cake as one of our favors…

Our fancy schmancy wedding vehicle…Robert and I had to return it before heading off to Hawaii…

Cinderella has left the building…in my glasses for the looong flight…If you look closely, you can see my fake eyelashes are still on…I paid $100 for that face, and I intended to keep it on as long as possible…

We have arrived…Note the palm trees in the background at the airport in Honolulu…

On the way to the hotel…Blue skies and the sun…Missing them now that I’m back in rainy Atlanta…It has been one rainy summer in the A…

Where we stayed…Lovely hotel…

The view from our room…

Posing in our room…

The beach…

This is where President Obama scattered his grandmother’s ashes in the ocean…beautiful site…

The Dole Plantation…I had no idea this is where Dole pineapples come from…

A fruit stand in the Hawaiian countryside…

A fried banana…Note my bite taken out of it…

A beautiful Buddhist temple…

Enjoying the sun…

Me and the handsome hubby about to barter for souvenirs…

At a luau…Handsome huh? I know I’m married, but I can still look…

And for the fellas…

At the Ala Moana Center, which is the size of three Lenox Malls…We spent a lot of time window shopping there…

sooo….there are so many more photos I could share…literally hundreds…but this kinda gives you a feel of my last seven days…

Very last photo for this post…

Leaving:(

Any thoughts?

The post I’s Married Now!!! AKA Marriage, Day 8 appeared first on After the Altar Call.