Pastor Robert Earl Houston, Sr. visited two of America's premier events - the Congress on Christian Education sponsored by the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc. in Louisville, Kentucky, Dr. William J. Shaw, Convention President / Dr. R.B. Holmes, Jr., Congress President, and the 15th Annual Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship Conference in Birmingham, Alabama, Bishop Paul Sylvester Morton, Sr., International Presiding Bishop / Bishop Darryl S. Brister, Executive Secretary.

Pastor Houston studied "Evangelism and Church Growth" (Course 7007) which was taught by Rev. Leon C. Sims, pastor of the Union Baptist Church, Morristown, New Jersey. The Congress was held throughout venues and the anchor facilities were the Kentucky Convention Center (downtown) and the Exposition Center (airport). Pastor Houston's classes were held at the Marriott Hotel Downtown and he attended various programs including the Late Night Services coordinated by Dr. Frank E. Ray, Sr. 

Pastor Houston journeyed to Birmingham for the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship and was able to fellowship with several ministerial friends from throughout the years - Bishop Kenneth B. Spears, Sr., Bishop Charles Dickerson, Overseer Elvis Bowman, Sr., and others. Pastor Houston was in attendance during Bishop Morton's powerful annual address.

A DREAM WHO'S DAY HAS COME!

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NOTE: This is from Pastor Houston's blog, written on June 3, 2008

My foreparents were slaves - freed during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, in the Northern areas of Louisiana. I wish I could tell you how they made it through America's worst chapters - the beatings, the separations, the death, the struggles. But I believe that my foreparents, who were denied freedoms in this country simply because of the sepia tones of their skin, dreamt that one day their children or their children's children, or even their children's children's children would live to experience what freedom is, live to be considered by the content of their character and not the color of their skin, and finally, that someone who looks like us, understands our plight and history, and yet have the unusual gifts and abilities - would lead this nation.

Tonight, with tears in my eyes, I am happy to report - that day has come.

Barack Obama, has sewn up the nomination for the Presidency of the United States of America. An African-American, born bi-racially, educated, compassionate and not a speaker, but an orator has broken a color barrier that has existed for over 200 years.

I don't know how much time the Lord will give me to live. I'm in relatively good health tonight, but who knows what tomorrow will bring. I'm just praying that God will do two things for me - (a) Allow me to live long enough to vote again for Barack Obama, not for the Democratic nomination, but for the Presidency of these United States; and (b) I was to see him installed with splendor as the President of this nation.

And then I will know that we have truly overcome.

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