May 2018

We open all of our gatherings by giving praise to the CREATOR of the universe because we recognize that without HIM nothing would be possible. We also recognize that with HIM all things are possible.

A few years ago, we the men of Beit DCB collectively embarked on a journey to do our part to uplift this segment of GOD’s nation and to motivate and inspire our people. With the support of our loved ones we are able to stand here today amongst you all, our family from various walks of life and lift up our voices together to give praise to the one TRUE KING, the only GOD, the CREATOR of everything that we imagine and many other things that we cannot.

For the past few hundred years in our modern history we have been told by our oppressor all of the things that we are not, and all the things we cannot do. We were convinced that we cannot succeed in anything. We have been labeled shiftless, lazy, and evil. We have been called monkeys, coconuts, coons, and all types of derogatory terms.

On days like today we need to take a look at each other and recognize that we are all the same people, some a bit lighter and some a bit darker. The only thing that separates us are the ports where we were dropped off and the language that our oppressors taught us when we got there. Some boats went west with stops in South America and the Caribbean before arriving in the United States. Other boats went north with stops in western Europe before again making a final destination in America. The bottom-line is we all originated from the same place and various circumstances have brought us back together again … here today.

Brothers and sisters, in all the things that we were told that we weren’t, let me tell you who and what we are. We are some of the kindest, most caring, and loyal people that you would ever meet. We are some of the most attractive folks that GOD created on HIS green earth. And if you read the 28TH chapter of Deuteronomy in the Bible and read it really closely you will come to know and understand that we are all GOD’s chosen people. Just like the saying goes “we have been called everything except a child of GOD” and what you were not called is exactly who you are, a child of GOD. And with us being GOD’s people we need to look at each other for the beautiful people that we are and not the apes, animals, and other bywords that our colonizers have told us we were. We need to look through GOD’s eyes so we can see the peculiar treasure that GOD sees.

A few months ago, we were all inspired by a movie about a superhero and a fictional African country depicted as futuristic black utopia. Although fantasy, we were all able to relate; our hearts had a warm spot for that place because the idea of that place is spiritually a part of us. Brothers and sisters there is a place that we all can live when we trust in GOD and make the effort to turn our communities into that place honor, righteousness and glory. It will not be called Wakanda because that is a fantasy, but we will call it ours.

In Greenwood, Oklahoma a suburb of Tulsa, in a place named “Black Wall Street” our people thrived as a community and in business in the early 1900s, in the heart of the post slavery oppression period. We were able to prosper because we came together and made the neighborhood a community to be proud of. Those brothers and sisters showed the highest amount of self-respect and mutual respect. When they looked at each other they saw a brother and a sister, a son and a daughter, a mother and a father, and not an animal. The men respected sisters as if they were their own, and chose to be fathers, not only to their own but in the place where there were none.

So, as we go about our day and our week, take a moment to consider GOD and what He means to you. Take a moment to consider the good that you want for yourself and wish the same for your brother or your sister. Consider just one thing that you can do to make your community better, because if we all individually do just one thing to make our neighborhood better then we as a collective group have gone a long way to make our entire community better, thereby taking a huge step in changing all of our lives for the better.

And this is the easiest way to begin to get closer to GOD by doing good one day at a time. This is the quickest way to get GOD to come and get closer to you … closer to us. And it all starts by just a bit of consideration … consider GOD … consider yourself … consider us. May GOD Bless us all