RACHELS DYING

blogging Genesis 35

¹ Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”  

. . . ⁶ So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him.

. . . ⁸ Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the terebinth tree. So the name of it was called Allon Bachuth.

. . . ¹⁶ Then they journeyed from Bethel.

And when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel labored in childbirth, and she had hard labor. ¹⁷ Now it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said to her, “Do not fear; you will have this son also.” ¹⁸ And so it was, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-Oni; but his father called him Benjamin. ¹⁹ So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). ²⁰ And Jacob set a pillar on her grave, which is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day. (Genesis 35: 1-20)

Bethel was where Jacob first had a personal encounter with God.  Bethel was the twice anointed “house of God,” the holy city of Jacob’s generation.  The Lord told Jacob to stay, dwell, abide, live (depending on the translation) there.  The covenant family was to root their community at the geographical focal point of God’s revealed presence.

But Jacob didn’t want to do that. 

Sometimes when I’m preaching I see a congregant weeping on a back row, the look of conviction and God’s invading grace written all over their face.  Sometimes they get up and come to the altar, but being confronted by God always forces you to confront yourself and sometimes that’s too much so they get up and leave early.

Maybe living at Bethel was too much like living in a moment of worship.  Maybe the constant reminder of God’s promises to him and his promises to God so convicted Jacob that he either had to come to the altar or leave early.   Jacob chose to leave early.  Early because Rachel, the love of his life, was pregnant, but Jacob put her on the road anyway.   Jacob made his personal agenda more important than his wife’s health and that’s when the story took a tragic turn.

Rachel had a long history of gynecological problems.  Genesis 29:31 says she’d been diagnosed with infertility, i.e. “Rachel was barren.”   She’d conceived only after lobbying her sister for access to a rare mandrake-based treatment (Genesis 30:14-24).   Years later she’d finally conceived again.  Remember Jacob loved Rachel dearly.  He wouldn’t have hurt her intentionally. He’d figured that they would reach Ephrath before the baby was due.  But before they left Bethel, Deborah died (Genesis 35:8). 

Deborah had been nurse to Rebekah, Jacob's mother. At some point, probably at Rebekah's request, she came to serve Jacob, or more specifically, Jacob's wives.  Nurses were trained midwives and experts in female health issues. With 3 generations of experience, Nurse Deborah was the Old Testament equivalent of senior physician in the women's health center.  

So, Rachel was traveling in the advanced trimester of a high-risk pregnancy and she’d just lost her primary women’s healthcare provider. 

And when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel labored in childbirth, and she had hard labor (Genesis 35: 16).

Either the caravan was late, or, more likely, the baby was early.  Rachel’s labor was distressed.  The midwife filling in for Deborah no doubt did her best.  She managed to save the premature baby, but “Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem)” (Genesis 35:19).

In the movies, when a woman dies in childbirth she says something brave and inspiring before she passes away.  The Bible does not script inspiring scenes but it reports the often unpleasant truth from the lives of our spiritual ancestors.   

“And so it was, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-Oni; but his father called him Benjamin”(Genesis 35:18).

Rachel’s last words as she looked at the son she would not get to raise were “He is Ben-Oni” which translates into “He is the ‘son of my sorrow’ .”   Jacob changed the motherless boy’s name to Benjamin meaning “son of my right hand.”  It seems kind to save the child from such a sad name, but maybe it wasn't kindness but guilt.

Maybe Jacob didn't want the sound of his son's name to remind him that his decisions, his priorities, his POLICIES had killed the woman he loved.

Would Rachel have gone into premature labor if they’d stayed in Bethel where she could’ve stayed on bed rest instead of bouncing on the back of a donkey, or a camel, or the bed of an ancient cart? We can't know.  

Would Rachel have survived the birth if she’d had access to the senior midwife in Bethel instead of  Deborah’s trainees traveling with them?  We can't know.

We can’t know if the best Bronze Age medical care in Bethel was good enough to save Rachel from being a mortality in childbirth statistic. But, we do know that there were better healthcare options than going into labor on the side of the road.  We do know that the man Jacob made decisions that separated the woman Rachel from her best healthcare options. 

We know that God, in His infinite, precognitive wisdom wanted Rachel to have access to the better healthcare options. We know because God told Jacob to STAY in Bethel which would have kept Rachel and her high-risk pregnancy off the road to Bethlehem.  

Rachel died as too many women since have died when their best healthcare options were rendered unattainable by the decisions of men whose agendas weren’t really about keeping women healthy.   Jacob meant no harm to Rachel.  He loved her, but his plans in Ephrath were more important than her medical history and prenatal needs. 

We live in a nation that has cured male pattern baldness and erectile dysfunction.  We’ve figured out how to save and redeploy a soldier blown up on a battlefield two countries away from a decent hospital.  But 3,000-plus years after Rachel, women in the greatest nation in the world still die from having a baby. 

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/15/health/black-women-maternal-mortality/index.html

We don’t know a lot of things, but, if we believe the witness of Genesis we do know that God wants better care for His daughters than His sons have been providing the last few thousand years.  

So, brothers, instead of running ahead and forcing women’s health needs to submit to our priorities

we should hold up where we are.  We should stay, dwell, abide, live in this moment of conviction for our failings.  We should own, confess, and repent of our medical sins against women.  We should listen to what women who know women have to say about how to take care of women.  Instead of men setting women’s health on our path, we should take care of them the way God wants --- with the best resources this blessed place can produce.

  

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama. He writes a blog called A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

FOR THE LADIES: HOW TO AVOID SINGING THE BLUES

blogging Genesis 29, 30

Now Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah’s eyes were delicate, but Rachel was beautiful of form and appearance.

Now Jacob loved Rachel; so he said, “I will serve you seven years for Rachel your younger daughter.”. . .  So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed only a few days to him because of the love he had for her

. . . Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in to her.”

And Laban gathered together all the men of the place and made a feast

. . .  So it came to pass in the morning, that behold, it was Leah. And he said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served you? Why then have you deceived me?”

. . . Then Jacob also went in to Rachel, and he also loved Rachel more than Leah. And he served with Laban still another seven years.

. . . When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren.  So Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben; for she said, “The Lord has surely looked on my affliction. Now therefore, my husband will love me.”  Then she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also.” And she called his name Simeon. She conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore his name was called Levi And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she stopped bearing. (Genesis 29:16-35)

For 7 years, Jacob  made it abundantly clear that Rachel was his one true love (Genesis 29: 18-20).  But, Leah believed that she could change him. 

If only he was her man. 

Leah’s dad trapped Jacob into marriage to Leah, and Jacob honored those vows until they were parted by death, but he never really loved Leah (Genesis 29:30).

If she had the chance to “put it on him right” she’d make him love her.  If she had his baby, he would be hers, truly hers.

Jacob and Leah had sex --- a lot of sex.  She bore him 6 sons and his only daughter, and with each new baby she was sure that Now therefore, my husband will love me, now this time my husband will become attached to me.

Leah's troubles may have inspired the late, great blues artist B. B. King.

Leah gave him 7 children, but Jacob never really loved her back. 

And the deep theological insight we derive from this ancient text is: 

IF HE DOESN’T LOVE YOU, HE JUST DOESN’T LOVE YOU.

He might be loving and lovable but not love you. 

He might be really good to her, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be any good to you.

He might find you relationally compatible, maternally impressive, and sexually exciting; but that doesn’t mean he loves you.

 

Some men will say they love you when they really don’t.  Only time and objective discernment can test the truth of a declaration of love.

But if he told you that he DOESN’T love you, you don’t need to perform any tests.  He don’t (grammar intentional).  And he probably never will.

Move on before you fall any deeper, or you’ll end up singing the blues.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

REAL OVER FAKE (blogging Genesis 29-31)

Blogging Genesis chapters 29-31.

¹³ Then it came to pass, when Laban heard the report about Jacob his sister’s son, that he ran to meet him, and embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house. So Jacob told Laban all these things.

¹⁴ And Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh.” And he stayed with him for a month.

¹⁵ Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what should your wages be

. . .   ¹⁸ Now Jacob loved Rachel; so he said, “I will serve you seven years for Rachel your younger daughter.”

¹⁹ And Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to another man. Stay with me.” ²⁰ So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed only a few days to him because of the love he had for her.

²¹ Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in to her.” ²² And Laban gathered together all the men of the place and made a feast.

. . . ²⁵ So it came to pass in the morning, that behold, it was Leah. And he said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served you? Why then have you deceived me?”

²⁶ And Laban said, “It must not be done so in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn. ²⁷ Fulfill her week, and we will give you this one also for the service which you will serve with me still another seven years.”

²⁸ Then Jacob did so and fulfilled her week. So he gave him his daughter Rachel as wife also. . .  And he served with Laban still another seven years. --- Genesis 29:13-29

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been reading and re-reading Jacob’s time with Laban in Genesis chapter 29-31.  I felt something missing in the typical summaries of the passage, but I couldn’t find the right framework to explain it.  The usual synopsis is about how Jacob the trickster is paid back for his life of deception and so he realizes the error of his ways and runs back into the redemptive arms of God.

But that’s not what actually happens in the Bible.

Jacob is called usurper and trickster so we think of him as a usurper and a con man, but those were the names that other people gave Jacob.  Yes, he moved into the place of the firstborn, but God had promised that to him before he was born.  Jacob didn’t decide unilaterally to launch a family coup.  Jacob was known as a trickster, but lying to his dad was his mom’s idea.  Rachel came up with the plan and pressured Jacob into acting out his part.  Who was the real trickster?

Think about it.  Rachel was Laban’s sister. 

When Isaac and Rebekah met she was already a highly socialized young adult raised in the same ethical system as her brother Laban (Genesis 24).   Isaac (Laban’s cousin) lied about Rebekah being his wife (Genesis 26).  Rebekah devised the scheme to defraud her blind old husband.   Jacob’s wives were raised by Laban.  Jacob’s favorite, his beloved Rachel robbed her dad and pretended to be on her period to hide the idol statues she’d stolen from him (Genesis 31:19, 34-35). 

When Laban and Jacob first met, Jacob told Laban all these things (Genesis 29:13) about buying his brother’s birthright for a bowl of stew; his mom plotting to deceive his old, blind father; the lies; the death threat from his brother; and the vision we call Jacob’s ladder. 

Laban heard all these things and replied, “Yep.  That sounds just like stuff my relatives would do.”

And Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh. . . --- Genesis 29:14

Laban’s household was  a lying family of liars who lied.   

Jacob, was raised by a Laban-ite, but he wasn’t fully immersed into that world.  In fact, Jacob was actually a geek, a nerd, a bookish mama’s boy who stayed home, cooked porridge, and didn’t have the survival skills to pack properly for a journey to Syria. (Read the previous Genesis blogs for those references.)

Now, who remembers Tupac?

Tupac Shakur parents were politically woke before “woke” was a thing.  They named him after an 18th-century Peruvian revolutionary .  Tupac was an intellectually gifted child who studied acting, poetry, jazz, and ballet at the Baltimore School for the Arts.  When his family first moved to California, the settled in the suburbs.  His extended family’s many Black Panther Party connections turned into connections to convicted felons.  Poverty and crack caught up to his mother, and his young adult associations were bonafide street hustlers.  But Tupac was just like Jacob, the real bookish, intellectual, Dear Mama singing Jacob.

Where there’s a Jacob, there’s almost always also ----- a Laban.  In Genesis 31:22-32, Laban would have killed Jacob if the Lord hadn’t intervened.  Laban was a hustler for real, an O.G.

Jacob was the confirmed heir to the fortunes of Isaac and Abraham, the ancient Canaanite equivalent of a Rockefeller.  He was the chosen one, confirmed by God at the pillar of Beth-el to be the father of a nation as numerous as the stars of heaven.   

When Jacob first met Rachel he could have gone home to his rich daddy and sent for his betrothed.  Instead he spent a month working for Laban for free. 

And he stayed with him for a month. Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing (Genesis 29:14,15)?

O.K., a month.  After that though, Jacob could have sent word and received a fortune sufficient to cover any bride-price Laban could’ve named. 

But he didn’t.  He contracted himself out for 7 years of indentured servitude as a dowry (Genesis 29:18).

At the end of the 7 years, Laban got Jacob drunk and married him to the wrong daughter under the lame pretense of some obscure Syrian marriage tradition that he’d neglected to mention FOR SEVEN YEARS (Genesis 29:21-26).

THEN, instead of demanding reparations for Laban’s fraud and breach of contract, somehow Jacob gets tied into a 7 year extension of his contract to his lying uncle-father-in-law. Because family.

 

Laban recognized God’s anointing on Jacob’s life made himself rich off the younger man’s talents while repeatedly muscling him out of the rights and compensation he’d earned. 

So Jacob said to him, “You know how I have served you and how your livestock has been with me.  For what you had before I came was little, and it has increased to a great amount; the Lord has blessed you since my coming. And now, when shall I also provide for my own house?” (Genesis 30:29,30)

But why did Jacob let Laban run his life and run over his life for 20 year?  How was Laban able to dominate the more talented and anointed Jacob?

Consistency.

Laban was consistent in his character.  He was a lying liar from a family of liars.  Laban was consistent in his conduct and in his methods.  He tricked Jacob ----- every time.  He extended Jacob’s stay and stiffed him on his pay ---- every time.bLaban was fully committed to the life of a lying pagan hustler.  He didn’t deny his gods; he pursued them.  When Jacob tried to get out of the life, Laban was going to kill him.

Laban was wrong, but Laban was REAL.

Jacob, on the other hand, let his mother talk him into lying to his blind father when he really didn’t want to.  He received God’s promise at Beth-el, but he really didn’t fully believe it.

  

The Lord said, “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”

. . . Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God.” (Genesis 28:15, 20-21).

Jacob wanted Rachel and only Rachel, but he accepted Leah, even though the marriage was fraudulent, and he despised Leah, but he got her pregnant 7 times.  Jacob was the anointed one, but he was inconsistent.  He was more right but less REAL.

The guy who kept it real dominated the guy who didn’t know who he really was.

John had a vision of Jesus writing to the church, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.  So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” (Revelations 3:15, 16)

Real hot? 

I can use you.

Real cold even? 

I can use you.

Kinda, sorta, not sure, maybe?

You make me sick.

When God has called you to Himself, the old sinful ways aren’t REALly yours anymore.  Dipping back in a little doesn’t “scratch an itch” or “take the edge off.”  Backsliding just makes you inconsistent and susceptible to the attacks of the devil and his fully committed servants.

What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death (Romans 6:21).

Tupac was an intellectual social justice warrior who vacillated between thug and activist.  He wasn’t  (I know Tupac fans are gonna lose their minds here).  Pac wasn’t real.

Not to the calling her really knew in himself.

Dr. King died young. But he was real.  Not perfect.  But consistently committed to a path.  He died but he wasn’t dominated by a Laban.

Malcolm X, one could argue, was dominated by Elijah (Laban) Muhammad, but he got real in the closing years of his life.

When Jacob got real, he took his wives and left Laban because that was his calling all along.

So Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him (Genesis 32:1).

If you’re being bullied into someone else’s image of you but you know deep down that God has called you to be someone different, you need to get real.  Don’t wait for your oppressor to change; they probably won’t.    You have to change. Or, more accurately, you have to stop changing.  Stop modifying the truth of who you are to appease the Laban, the Shug Knight, or the Elijah Muhammad who is living off your anointing.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

MAMA, WHAT YOU CALL THEM---- THAT’S WHO THEY’LL BE

The Mother’s Day message is called MAMA, WHAT YOU CALL THEM---- THAT’S WHO THEY’LL BE.

Listen well.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer, and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church and the executive director of SAYNO (Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization) in Montgomery, Alabama.

Call  334-288-0577
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

You can help support this Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Or send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail should be addressed to:
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

Proverbs 31: 10. A WOMAN WORTH?

Proverbs 31: 10     Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies.

A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. (NIV)

Who can find a virtuous and capable wife? She is more precious than rubies. (NLV)

An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. (ESV)

Proverbs 31: 10. On the one hand this verse is a Divine affirmation that there are good women out there.  On the other hand, it is a Divine warning that every woman out there isn’t a good one. 

Esau, son of Isaac, grandson of Abraham, had no problem finding a wife/wives.  All around him, there were girls who made themselves “available.”  They were available, but they weren’t the kind of women that you could “bring home to mama.”  (Genesis 28: 8; 27: 46)   The family Esau’s built with those women became synonymous with idolatry and absolute destruction.  Edom, Esau’s line, was wiped out by God (Ezekiel 25: 13).

Jacob, Esau’s twin, made the right choice in a wife.  It took him 7, then 14 years of hard, hard work to win his wife/wives.  But through them God raised up a great nation.  (Genesis 29)  Jacob’s wives became the mothers of the nation of Israel, the biological line of Jesus (Genesis 49).

So, we have twin brothers raised in the same house by the same parents.  One of them picks the wrong women.  His legacy is destruction.  The other twin ends up with the right women.  His legacy is Jesus and the Jewish people.

What made the difference?

The difference was value and effort. 

Esau, according to Hebrews 12:16, had a messed up sense of value.  That’s value not values.

I’m not talking about moral values.  I’m talking about the internal calculator that tells a man which opportunity, activity, or woman to “spend” his time and energy pursuing.  I’m talking about the sense of what a good woman is “worth.”   (Cue Alicia Keys here.) 

Who can find a wife of noble character, a  virtuous and capable wife,  a woman who is just excellent?  The answer is:  A man who understands what a good woman is worth.  A man who understands what makes a woman WORTHY.

Not in dollars, but in every other sense. 

If she’s like every other girl you’ve slept with, then she’s “a dime a dozen” and that’s not wife value.

If access to her bed can be purchased by any man willing to spend the necessary funds---- regardless of the man’s character, intentions, or marital status----- she may be expensive; but, bro., she isn’t worthy.  She isn’t worth it.

If the sex is good, but the price of being with her is constant drama and unpredictable bouts of “seriously, how freakin’ ignorant can one woman be,” then you really need to re-calculate your sense of value.

And ladies, a really good man---especially one who paid attention to the advice of a wise mother----- will see your true value even when you don’t.

When you think you can’t, he’ll be absolutely, maybe nonchalantly certain that you can---- because he knows your true value.

When other men only smile at the sight of you boobs or your butt, you’ll catch your good man staring at your face, looking sideways into your eyes with a silly grin on his face.  (Now he’s also gonna smile at your boobs and butt.  A good man is still a man.)

Ladies, a smart man with a good sense of value, will see your true worth.  So if you say that  you’re worth/ worthy of a commitment; but your price is actually a trip to the mall------ he’ll see that, too.

If you say that you’re saving yourself for “the husband God sends me” when you’re really trying to hit the baller lottery and luck up on some random rich guy------ your could-have-been-the-one good man will see that, too.

Jacob, for all of his issues, knew what a good wife was worth.  He didn’t have money, but that wasn’t a problem, because an excellent wife cannot be appraised in dollars like something in a pawn shop jewelry display. 

A wife of noble character is worth your time.  She’s worth your effort. She’s worth building your family and fortunes together.   She’s worth betting everything you have.

Who can find a woman like that?

The man who knows what he’s looking for.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

 You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116