2

  Dam had been introduced to Isaac Walker Jr. at his wedding a few years back. It turned out that Amarrea and Isaac’s wife, Marissa were best friends since college. Dam had been fascinated by the stories Isaac told of the street revivals he used to do with his father. One thing led to another, and they began planning street revivals of their own. Dam was honored that Isaac thought enough of him to want to do street revivals with him. Because he was well aware that Isaac started doing street revivals as a teenager with his father, the original OG. Isaac Walker Sr. was a legend on the streets. Dam’s grandfather, Don Shepherd, was a legend in his own right, but even he told stories about Isaac’s dad.

  Isaac Walker Sr. had made millions as a drug dealer who murdered anyone who got in his way. But after going to prison, he came out a changed man. Isaac Walker Sr. gave his life to God and set out to make right the wrongs he had committed. He brought many women and men to Christ and even began doing street revivals and brought even more people to Christ from those. After he passed, his eldest son Donavan Walker became senior pastor of the church and his youngest son, Isaac Walker Jr. became an elder at the church and was supposed to take over the street revivals.

  For years, one thing after another kept getting in the way of Isaac’s street revivals. He was finally ready to get back to his first love and believed that God had hooked he and Dam up for such a time as this. Now Dam sat in his car trying to figure the best way to tell his wife that he would have to quit his job in order to do what he believed God has as his next assignment.

  Money was tight for he and Amarrea, and they needed both of their paychecks just to make the mortgage and put food on the table. But if they gave up eating out, stopped buying organic produce and cut off cable, maybe they’d be able to make it on Amarrea’s income while he looked for another job. Amarrea wouldn’t be off work until 11 pm, so he picked up dinner and headed home.

  But when he pulled into the driveway and saw Amarrea’s car, he immediately got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. Amarrea was a workaholic. She had not missed one day of work since he met her.

  Rushing into the house, he shouted for his wife. “Amarrea... Amarrea.”

  “I’m in the bedroom,” she yelled back.

  Dam climbed the stairs two at a time. Dam put the bag of Chinese food on the bed next to Amarrea, noting that she had her feet propped on two pillows. “Your feet bothering you again?”

  “It’s worse than that.”

  Dam sat on the bed and put a hand on his wife’s bulging belly. “This little one has been given you problems, huh? Must be a boy with a big head.”

  Amarrea hugged her stomach. “If it is a boy, he doesn’t have a big head. He’s perfect.”

  “Don’t defend him. I know he’ll have a big head because he’s getting it from me.”

  “Well let’s just hope if it’s a girl, she doesn’t inherit the big head Shepherd gene.”

  Dam leaned down and planted a kiss on Amarrea’s lips. “You don’t have to worry about that. If it’s a girl, she is going to inherit her looks from you.”

  “And I pray that she inherits your heart for God from you.”

  They sat there gazing into each other’s eyes. Taking in the moment. Because they both realized how special it was for the two of them to have met and fallen in love. Many people thought that the concept of a soul mate was not reality. But Dam knew better. Amarrea wasn’t supposed to be working the ER the night his brother almost died. But the nurse on duty got sick and had to leave. They called three other nurses but only connected with Amarrea.

  God made sure that Amarrea was in the right place at the right time so he could find his soul mate. The woman was the love of his life, and he would do anything to put a smile on her face. But right now, she didn’t appear to be smiling. “What happened today, hon? You seem a bit down.”

  “I did get some bad news at the doctor’s office today.” She hesitated and then continued. “It appears that my feet are swelling because my blood pressure is up, the doctor has put me on bed rest until the baby is born.”

  His antennas went up. “What does this mean? Are you at risk for losing the baby? Are you okay?”

  Amarrea put a hand on Dam’s arm. “Don’t get upset, bae. If I take it easy and eat the right foods, my blood pressure should come down, and the baby and I will be just fine. I’m just worried about you. I talked you into buying this house, and now I don’t know how we’re going to pay for it.”

  Dam’s mouth dropped, but he quickly picked it back up. No way could he tell his wife that Bishop threatened to fire him today. Not with her blood pressure up and her worrying about how the bills will get covered. “We both love our home, and if I have to work two jobs to cover these bills, you are going to lay yourself in this bed and not worry about one single thing.”

  “But you can’t work two jobs. Don’t forget you and Isaac are preparing for the revivals.”

  He put a finger to her mouth. “You are not too worry about anything, that's an order. Do you hear me, Mrs. Shepherd?”

  “Yes, but...”

  He tapped his finger to her lip again while shaking his head. “Have faith in God and your husband. We got this.”

  Amarrea let out a sigh of relief and then laid her head back against her pillow. “One thing that should help. Since I’m going to be home, I won’t be eating out all the time. That should save some money.”

  “See, we’re already working this out. And I’ll see if I can work from home one or two days a week to help you.” Dam got off the bed. “Are you hungry? Do you want some of this Chinese food?”

  “No, to the Chinese food. But I’d kill for a bowl of butter pecan ice cream right now.”

  “I thought you need to eat better?”

  “Pecans are good for you and ice cream is really just frozen milk,” Amarrea reasoned.

  “I’m going to let you have that one today. I’ll get your ice cream, but after today if you want something sweet, it’s going to be fruit.”

  She saluted him. “Yes, sir.”

  He couldn’t help but smile as he left the room. But he was serious about making sure that Amarrea watched what she ate. High blood pressure was nothing to play with. Unfortunately, Dam also knew that he couldn’t just quit his job and cause Amarrea to worry about the bills. He checked the freezer to make sure they still had the ice cream, then he called Isaac.

  This was going to be one of the hardest calls he ever had to make. Dam truly believed that the street revivals was God’s next mission for him. But maybe God was saying not now. Isaac picked up on the third ring.

  “You must have radar or something. I was just about to call you,” Isaac said joyfully. “You wouldn’t believe how many doors God has opened for us. I just received back to back calls from two networks wanting to broadcast at the revival. This thing is not just going viral, we are going nationwide, my friend.”

  Dam smiled, truly happy that things were going well with the planning of the revival. Even if he couldn’t be a part of it, he wanted nothing but success for Isaac. Because if Isaac succeeded, that meant many souls would be saved. “I’m happy for you, man. But I’ve got some bad news.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “Amarrea is having complications with the pregnancy, she's been put on bedrest.” Dam didn’t want to tell the rest of it but thought he owed it to Isaac to be completely honest. “And Bishop confronted me today. He said that if I did the revivals with you, then he would fire me. I was prepared to walk away from my job... but I wasn’t prepared for what Amarrea laid on me when I got home. I can’t put any further stress on her right now and losing my job would definitely stress her out.”

  “No, you shouldn’t stress out your pregnant wife, but I need you on my team. I know I heard from God on this. So, give me a few days to figure something out. Okay?”

  Dam thought he’d heard from God also, which was why the thought of not being a part of the revival was an agonizing one for him. But he couldn’t let Amarrea down. He would hold onto his job at the church and get a second job if need be.

  3

  Isaac was at his brother’s house when he received the call from Dam. He walked to the kitchen to share his good news. But when Dam gave him the news he didn’t want to hear, Isaac sat down at the kitchen counter and lowered his head. What in the world was he going to do now?

  As he was running options through his head, his three-year-old son came barreling through the kitchen on one of his cousin's skateboards and knocked over a bowl of fruit Diane, his brother’s wife, had on the table.

  Isaac got out of his chair. He angrily pointed at his son, who lay sprawled on the floor. “Boy, what is wrong with you? Are you trying to tear down this house the same way you tear mine down?”

  “Whoa, stop yelling at him. Donny told him to get on that skateboard. He took off before I could stop him.” Marissa picked the fruit up off the floor and checked on Isaac the third, affectionately called, Junior.

  “Why weren’t you watching him? Why would you let that boy race through here like that?” Isaac knew he was over the top with his anger, but he couldn’t stop himself. Nothing seemed to be going the way he wanted it lately.

  Marissa gave Isaac a look that said, ‘you know I’m not speaking to you the rest of the night, right?’ Then she walked out of the kitchen without answering either of his questions.

  “Bro, calm down,” Donovan said as he came into the room. “Today is not the day you should be yelling at your family, especially since we both know you’re not upset about Junior spilling fruit on the floor.”

  Isaac sat back down. Donovan was right. He had been depressed all day. The only bright spot had been when he received calls from those television producers. But even that hadn’t changed the fact that today was his father’s birthday. This was the reason he was visiting with Donovan. His half-sister Iona and her husband Johnny were there also.

  This was supposed to be a celebration of their father’s life, something they had done every year since the old man had been gone. But Isaac wasn’t in the mood and hadn’t been since his father died.

  Donovan put a hand on his brother’s back. “I’ve been praying for you. I know this is a hard day for you.”

  Shaking his head, Isaac admitted, “When I hear you and Iona laughing about things dad did when y’all were younger, it makes me angry because y’all had more time with him and mama than I did. I just wish they would’ve had me earlier.”

  “You can blame Donovan for that,” Iona said as she entered the kitchen.

  “Shut up, sis,” Donovan playfully shoved Iona, trying to get her out of the kitchen.

  “I’m serious, Donovan.” Iona being her normal feisty self-was not going to let it go. Pointing toward Isaac, she said, “He thinks Mama-Nina and Daddy were more concerned with their careers than they were with having another child. He thinks they had him late in life because they didn’t want any more children. Don’t you think we owe him the truth?”

  “Was there another reason that mama was in her fifties when she gave birth to me?” Isaac looked at his big brother with questioning eyes.

  Nodding, Donovan said, “I guess our know-it-all sister is right. I got into some trouble when I was younger. A thug came after me. He wanted to kill me, but instead of shooting me, mama got shot. The doctors told her that she would never be able to conceive another child. And for many years that doctor was right. But then God blessed them with you. And they were overjoyed.”

  “Thanks for telling me that, bro. I knew that they loved me. But I grew up feeling like I was some oops kind of accident. I still wish I had more time with them. But I need to find a way to appreciate the time I did spend with them.”

  “Exactly,” Iona said. “I don’t like seeing you mopping around so much, little brother. And you’ve got to know that daddy and Mama-Nina wouldn’t want you mourning for them so long.”

  “They wouldn’t want me neglecting the revivals either. But I haven’t done one since dad has been gone. That’s been over three years.”

  “I thought you were taking care of that. I just gave my secretary the approval to pay the invoice for the massive field you rented for the revival.”

  “I’ve run into some problems,” was all Isaac said.

  “You need to talk to Keith. He and dad handled those revivals for years. You might be able to do a little brainstorming with him,” Iona told him.

  Donovan cocked his head to the side as he looked at his sister. “You know, for a big-mouth, you come up with some really good ideas.”

  Why didn’t he think of that himself? Isaac had been spinning his wheels for years over this revival. Isaac reached over and hugged his sister. “You do have good ideas, sis. Thanks.”

  ~~~

  “Hey, Unc, how ya’ be?” Isaac said as he sat down in the rocking chair on Keith Williams’ front porch. There were two rocking chairs on the porch, just like the chairs his mother and father claimed they wanted to put on their porch as they went into retirement. Sadly, Isaac Sr.

  and Nina went home to glory before they could get a chance to chill out on their porch. “I don’t believe you actually put rocking chairs on your porch.”

  “I never imagined I could miss any human being this much,” Keith said. “But when I sit out here on the porch, rock back and forth in this chair, I sometimes imagine that your dad is sitting right where you are, and we are chucking it up about the good ‘ol days.” Keith took out his handkerchief and wiped his eyes.

  “I miss the old man too. I’ve been trying to get the street revivals you and he used to do back on track, and I’ve run into one roadblock after the next. I finally thought I was pulling it together. But I just received some terrible news.”

  “And you came over here hoping that I could fix your problem for you?” Keith chuckled as he kept rocking back and forth.

  “I need to brainstorm Unc. I know that God showed me that this young minister Dam Shepherd was supposed to partner with me on these revivals. There’s something that’s in him, that God is going to use mightily. I don’t know what it is, but God wants him. And Dam believes that this is the ministry God has for him as well.”

  “Okay, so what’s the problem.”

  “I’ve got the locations secured. I was even able to get a Christian television network to film the revivals.”

  “That’s something your dad and I never accomplished. You’re doing good, Ikee.”

  Isaac smiled at the name only his family still used. He was a grown man and no longer went by that name, but as far as Keith was concerned there was only one Isaac, so he would be Ikee to his Unc and be okay with that. “Yes, but they are giving us the airtime because of the sermons Dam preached on their network a year ago. One of the executives told me that they were flooded with letters and donations to the network after Dam’s sermons.”

  “I think I remember that. I wasn’t feeling so well, so Cynda and I skipped church one Sunday. I decided to do a little bedside baptist, so I turned on the Christian station. I expected to see Bishop Thomas, but instead got a pleasant surprise when this young, and full of fire preacher stepped to the podium and preached his heart out.”

  “To be quite honest, Unc Dam is a better preacher than I am. He is truly anointed by God.”

  “You’re anointed by God, and don’t you forget it,” Keith admonished.

  Shaking his head, Isaac said, “You don’t have to worry about that. I’m not ever forgetting who I am and what I’m called to do again in life. But, the special thing about Dam is that he has never strayed from God’s calling. He has lived a pure life, and God is going to do a mighty work when the two of us get these revivals back on track.”

  “It still doesn’t sound to me like you’ve got a problem.” Keith picked up his iced tea and sipped.

  “Dam’s wife is pregnant, she’s been put on bed rest. Money is tight for them, and Bishop Thomas is threatening to fire Dam if he does the revival with me.”

  Putting his drink down, Keith grinned. “Now that’s a problem.”

  “See what I mean... why do I keep running into all these roadblocks? I thought doing work for the Lord would be easier than this.”

  “Boy, you know better than that. Satan is not about to sit back and let you snatch souls out of darkness. You are going to have a fight every step of the way. So, you’ve got to figure out if you’ve got what it takes to finish the job.”

  Isaac knew why Keith was asking such a question. After his parents died, Isaac had gone through a depression that was so severe at times, that he didn’t even want to get out of bed in the mornings. If anyone had told him he would miss his parents so much, that he wouldn’t be able to function, Isaac would have called them a liar. “I’ve got what it takes, Unc. Don’t forget I’m Isaac Walker’s son.

  “No, don’t you forget that you’re Isaac’s son, my nephew and most importantly a servant of God.”

  “I hear you Unc. I got this, I promise. I just don’t know what to do about Dam and his issue with the bishop. I can’t just tell him to quit his job when his wife is off work and dealing with a high-risk pregnancy.”

  “Bishop Thomas reminds me of a bishop your father and I used to work for. Did your father ever tell you about Bishop Sumler?”

  Isaac shook his head.

  Keith smiled as memories danced in his head. For the next hour, Isaac sat with Keith and listened to him talk about the good old days. When Keith finished traveling down memory lane, it was time to leave, everything in Isaac wanted to stay planted in his seat. This was the place he came to hear about his mom and dad. He’d left home after college to make his own way in life but discovered that he had spent too much time away. Now, he was a grown man, with a wife and a child but no parents to share their child with.

  Isaac had allowed the sadness he felt for not being able to do another revival with his father to stop him from doing God’s work altogether. Now that he was finally on track, he wasn’t going to let anything get in his way, not even Bishop Thomas.