Southside Scoop - 10.8.23

OUTHSIDESCOOP

IT’SFALLYA’LL!

EDITION 36 8 OCTOBER 2023

FRESH DEW

Ouch!(Yet,ThankfulOnthatResetLesson) BySis.RickiFuller

When I was still a student at Lyon Park Elementary School located on Halley Street in a part/community of Durham known as the West End, I was one of the best roller skaters on Thaxton Avenue (or so I thought – I had to encourage myself, ya know).

“He resets us in such a manner that we are safe/saved/prosperous ”

800ElmiraAvenue

Durham,NC27707

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Staff

OrlanderR.Thomas

SeniorMinister

WilliamA.Stephens

MinisterEmeritus

WileyShearin,Jr.

ElderEmeritus

RickiFuller

Women’sCounselor

CandiceP.Blount

ChurchAdministrator

QuentellaWilliams

ExecutiveAssistant

Deacons

JohnAlcox

AnthnoyGreen,Sr.

ArthurHackney

JohnMathis

ChesterMayfield,Jr.

RogerMcDougal

JoeWilliams

KeithWright

Thaxton Avenue was a couple of miles or so from Lyon Park, and the name of our community was Brookstown which was between the West End and Walltown (all predominately African American closely knit communities/neighborhoods/families). Well, anyway, back to the (Brookstown) professional skating personality. Back in the 1950’s and 1960’s, we skated on the various streets that made up our Brookstown community. Aunt Bea, my grandmother Alease’s sister, seemed to love/favor me because our birthdays were one day apart (August 3rd for her and 2nd for me). I spent a lot of time with her. Therefore in my childhood mind, I considered/figured that I was her babysitter especially because I had to stay at night as she lived alone.

At any rate, Aunt Bea loved ‘cokie-cola’ (Coca-Cola). One day she asked me to go to the Corner Store to get her a ‘cokie-cola’, and of course, I donned my skates to make it a fast and efficient trip/chore. Thaxton Avenue had just been repaved. The workers had laid down tar covered with small pebbles. I skated beautifully down to Woodrow’s store purchased the ‘cokie-cola’ and headed back to Aunt Bea’s house with her soda fix. But, about halfway back up Thaxton, my skates expressed their displeasure with the rough surface and stopped rolling properly causing me to fall. I dropped the ‘cokie-cola’ and fell on the broken glass resulting in a deep cut/gash in my left thumb.

Ouch! That repaved street surface worked beautifully for cars (and even for bicycles) that traveled upon it. However, the reset wasn’t suitable for those metal skate wheels that I used on the tar/gravel street. So, note, that as we focus on reset/resetting, let’s consider what the intended purpose is of resetting. Let’s get an understanding of what is proper to use in approaching whatever changes manifest as we undergo the process of resetting while intently focusing on GOD’s revelation of His new things.

Not only was the street reset, my family took me to Lincoln Hospital (the Negro hospital in Durham) where the doctor reset the tissues/muscle/skin on my thumb by sewing stitches without any pain-deadening medication. Ouch! He told me to scream ‘cheese’ and in the waiting room, my aunt thought I was calling on Jesus. So, it could be said that the Lord was glorified via that thumb reset, at least in Aunt Bea’s mind.

Truly, GOD works in a plethora of mysterious ways with His primary intent being to steady our lives (see Isaiah 61:10/55:6-13/John1:1-14) He resets us in such a manner that we are safe/saved/prosperous, and that He is pleased-honored-glorified through our willfully reset lives What an awesome GOD and Daddy we have/serve!

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