Dateline: Charleston, South CarolinaNovember 5-7, 2007
After lunch with Dee and Doug we left Savannah and headed towards South Carolina, Charleston and Fred and Soni’s house. We followed the GPS and after two and a half hours we found we had taken the “scenic route” and finally found ourselves in Hanahan, South Carolina, which is a suburb of Charleston.
Hanahan is a small town within the Charleston area and it was so very wonderful to see Soni and Fred. Soni is as beautiful as ever and Fred is just as I remembered him, funny, good natured and good looking (what a combination!). We were joined by Soni and Fred’s sons Randy and Rodney and their families. We got to talking and realized we had not seen each other in almost 30 years. Randy surprised me by telling me he is almost 40 years old! I remember when he was just a little boy and I still remember the story about Rodney taking his clothes off in church! We had a huge family BBQ and shared stories late into the night. Even stories about 13-foot alligators in the lake outside Soni’s backyard; Steve was pretty excited after being bummed about the alligators in Florida!
Soni and Fred are truly amazing people; they moved to Charleston with nothing and have created this wonderful community within their church. Their church has grown from a very small church with 25 people in the congregation to a church that has a congregation of over 2,000, a school complete with programs for children from infant to high school. They have created a community which is a testament to the two of them. The church recently burned down and the amount of work that has been done since then is phenomenal. If you want to see people who are the salt of the earth and see how to make a difference in your world, you need only look at the people of Northwood Assembly Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
I am very fortunate to have such wonderful people in my life. Soni and Fred have talked the talk and they have walked the walk. Their family, Randy, Rodney and their families have spent time in third world countries ministering to people in prisons, working in orphanages with children who don’t deserve the treatment they are receiving. Rodney and his wife Tracy and their daughter Sarah told us stories of helping babies who are covered with sores and crying, taking people to stores with their last few dollars to buy them rice and beans and ministering to the youth of Charleston to help them find a better life. We all talk about what needs to be done to help the poor and less fortunate, Soni, Fred and their family are actually doing something about it and Steve and I are honored to call them family. We will always remember the courage, faith and fortitude Soni and Fred have shown us.
We finally had to leave but have promised to stay in touch and are looking forward to our next visit. Fred and Steve mapped out the best route to Williamsburg,Virginia, we packed up the bus and headed out.
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