PRAYER
I’M STILL HERE By Elder Samuel L. Simmons
I
was born in Bruton, Alabama, and stayed there until I was about elementary-school age. One of my most memorable recollections then was when I would go fishing and hunting with my dad. Those were meaningful times for me. My father wasn’t saved but he was a religious man. I know this because of some of the things he would say to me…things like “Sam, understanding is one of the greatest things in the world.” I never forgot that. When I got older, I learned that this statement was related to everything, and that once you have an understanding, people can find a way to sit down at the table together. In fact, I related it to Proverbs 4: 7: Wisdom is the principle thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. My father would travel a lot – looking for work. At one point he traveled down to the Florida Keys to try and find farming work or any other opportunities. One day he decided to pack up the family and head to New York to look for work in the city. While we were enroute to the city, our car broke down in Buffalo. Looking back, I can see this was God’s will for us. We were a poverty-ridden family but we still had hope. God blessed us to find a place to live. We lived on Main Street by the railroad tracks in the ghetto for a while until we were able to graduate from the ghetto and move on up to the projects! It was there that I was initiated and became entangled with gang activity. I joined the gang because that’s what you did to survive. But God kept me. I did what gang members did - not even considering the danger level. But even during that time, God kept me. I flirted with a number of drugs, including THC, purple haze, heroin, cocaine, Acapulco gold, alcohol, and a horrible diet. But God kept me. I was big into nice cars, the night life and many other things that pleased the adversary. I have been shot at, and I’ve been shot, but I’m still here. One day, God spoke to me while I was at the club, and told me that I would never return there. When I said this to friends, they thought I was high. But as God isn’t a man that He would lie, I never again returned to that club. In 1974, God saved me. I attended Greater Emmanuel Temple in Buffalo, New York, where I served under Bishop William Crossley. Several months later, every day I woke up, I would feel a strong tug (that felt like a magnet) pull on my heart. That pull led me to read my Bible. I accepted my call to the ministry in 1975. Bishop Crossley let me know that he knew of my ministry call. This was confirmation to me. The burden of the pull got lighter once I yielded and submitted to the will of God. I became a student of the word and even began to build my own library of books.
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THE CHRISTIAN OUTLOOK
“POSITIONED FOR PROMISE”
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021
