Beauty Come Forth-FEBRUARY 2016

I began recruiting those who people God had placed in my life who were gifted in areas where I lacked. Enter, my beautiful niece, Nailah Lee, who has an amazing gift of administration and journalism and my dearest brother and friend, creative director and marketing master, Davide Stennett. Now this is where the story gets gooder. As we began to discuss new ways to brand the book and ignite the movement, we came to agree that the first order of business was a website.

As my mind began to envision this massive movement of God, my mind went to overload. I couldn’t think, all I knew was that it had to be bigger than anything I could think of or create. One day, before a planning meeting with my initial web designer, Phallu and creative director, Mr. Stennett, my neice, Nailah calls me with this bright idea about how people read a book, then place it on the shelf, but how a magazine has longer staying power and visual appeal, she then says “ I was thinking you should start a magazine”, I thought to myself, is this a joke, where’s the cameras? I simply replied, I don’t think so, a magazine is a whole other animal, that I have neither the time or resources to take on, but hey with your journalistic savvy, you do it and I will support you all the way. The following day as I sat in a meeting with Davide and Phallu searching for the right look and concept for my website, my brain began to ache once again and I decided to take a break. As I walked away, I told them that I trusted their judgment and creative instincts with regards to the direction the project should go to best market for me, my book and the movement. My final words were whatever you decided, I will do it. Well little did I know they would come up with the same bright idea Nailah suggested the day before. My first thought was that this was some kind of conspiracy and they had set me up. Only to find out they had not spoken to Nailah.

I knew then, it must be God’s plan and my famous last words on that subject came to fruition, I trusted their creative instincts and more importantly, God’s voice. I must admit, however, it has been my Senior Managing Editor, Wendy M. Reynolds, who has held me to those words, while putting her hands to the plow to keep this vision going month after month, never skipping a beat.

Obedience is key when it comes to living on purpose and because of it, here we are, Beauty Come Forth nine years in the making. Kept alive by prayer and dedication of those who believed in the movement and ran with the vision. I must say,it hasn’t been easy, but it has definitely been worth it, and though I may receive many accolades for this vision, it has truly been the hard work of those who, wrote, photographed or contributed every month, encouraging the vision, empowering the vision and keep the vision going. May the legacy continue.