With faith and vision NOTHING can stand in your way. This powerful story make unemployment seem like a small hurdle and will surely lift your spirits…
* Note to the Reader: All accounts / events in this article are true and accurate.
The ex con struggled to get in my car in arguably the poorest section of Detroit. It was Tuesday, January 26th of this year – 2010. When he finally settled in, I helped buckle the seatbelt behind him because I couldn’t stand to listen to the seatbelt warning beep for the entire trip. Honestly, I felt a bit uneasy sitting next to
the six-foot five giant who weighed over 450 pounds. As I pulled away from the curb, he said, “Head down Trumbull Avenue. In about a mile take Interstate 94 east towards Southfield.”
There is a great deal of truth to the statement be careful what you wish for!
The Criminal
The man sitting in my car preferred to be called Henry. Henry admitted to me that he committed just about every crime imaginable, except the crime he was accused of but was innocent of – manslaughter. He served 7 years in a maximum security prison for this crime he didn’t commit. But he was a drug addict and eventually a drug dealer where heroin was the drug of choice. Money, he said, came in faster than he could spend it. Henry admitted he sought respect and attention through intimidation and fear.
Henry’s life began in Brooklyn in a rat-infested apartment housing him and six siblings. At age five, his mother was sent away to Bedford Hills, a maximum security prison for women, for attempted murder – of her husband; Henry’s father. Henry’s childhood, if you can call it that, consisted of smoking cigarettes and pot, purse snatching; then moving up to grand theft auto and armed robbery. While Jay Block was growing up playing sports and going to proms, the guy sitting next to me was waving guns in front of people demanding cash, wallets, and jewelry. When Henry was released from prison, he tried to turn his life around and married his teenage sweetheart, Annette. Annette gave birth to a son who was born three months premature and died five days after birth. The pain and sorrow, bitterness and anger associated with the loss of his child were too much. Henry returned to his old ways.
The Vision
Henry and I were heading to his favorite restaurant – Big Boy. Somehow this didn’t surprise me. On the way, he told me he made one near-fatal mistake shortly after the death of his son. “I stole drugs from drug dealers I used to work for,” he said. “I hid behind trash cans in front of my house armed with a shotgun waiting for them to kill me. It was at this time that I had a vision for my future. I looked up and asked, ‘Will you save me Jesus? If I promise to give myself to you, will you save me tonight?’ And I meant it,” he said. As we pulled into the restaurant parking lot, Henry turned and looked at me. “You know… the drug dealers never did find me.”
Before we got out of the car, Henry said, “All this took place about two weeks before Easter. And all during that time I fought hard to get off the heroin. I took Nyquil ten times a day and prayed practically all the time. And then on Easter Sunday, I asked Annette a question: ‘What’s keeping you from going to God?’ Her answer brought us here to Detroit. ‘You are,’ she admitted. That’s when I had a clear vision; that I was going to become a pastor… (continued below)
How I Met Henry Covington
Over the Christmas Holiday, I was given a book by Mitch Albom, Have a Little Faith. You may know some of Mitch’s other books including Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven. Have a Little Faith is about Albom’s interaction with both his rabbi and a pastor. Mitch lives in the Detroit area and became an advocate for the homeless. One day as he traveled to a homeless shelter in Detroit, Mitch came across a huge Gothic structure – a church that, as he says in the book, looked like it “blew in from another century.” His connection with the rabbi was unique; but I was touched by his relationship with the pastor who served a poor and homeless congregation in the slums of Detroit.
Henry’s church had a huge 10-foot hole in the roof that invited year-round rain and bitter cold and snow in the winter months. With no money to pay the electric bill, let alone fix the roof, the homeless did their best to stay warm, feed themselves and find comfort in their faith. Albom admits that when he first met Henry, he didn’t trust him. In fact, he writes in the book, “If this is a man of God, I’m the man in the moon.” However, after numerous visits to the I am My Brother’s Keeper Church and many conversations with the ex-con turned pastor, Mitch concluded that Henry truly was a man of God. Also a reporter for the Detroit Free Press, Albom began writing articles about the church and the infamous hole in the roof. Soon thereafter, the community began donating food, clothing and money to the church – so much so that a new roof was put on the church. Hence, no more hole in the ceiling.
I was moved by this story and was in awe of a man who overcame so many challenges to become a much-loved pastor of a poor and needy congregation. I was impressed that he had a vision to repair the hole in the roof at a time when that vision might have been misconstrued by some that Henry was back on drugs and hallucinating.
As for me, I spent four months in Michigan – from October 2009 through January 2010 – trying to help the good people of Michigan address the unemployment issue; 16% statewide and over 30% in Detroit. This is a BIG ‘employment hole’ in Michigan’s economy. I had only a week left before my return to Florida and I had to meet Henry before I left. So I attended a Sunday service on January 24th and watched Pastor Henry Covington talk about vision and faith from the pulpit. He sermonized that both were needed to create miracles. “We wanted the hole in the ceiling fixed. We closed our eyes and saw the hole in the ceiling fixed. And we believed the Lord would work his miracle,” he preached.
Vision for Detroit, for America, for Job Seekers
After the service I introduced myself to Henry. I explained that I was in the Detroit area to help with the unemployment dilemma. I told him I would only be in Michigan another week and asked him if he had time to meet with me. I explained that in the four months I had been in Michigan, no one I met or spoke with seemed to have a vision for Detroit. “There is a big hole over Detroit,” I said to Henry, “and I’m not sure anyone has a vision or the faith that it can be fixed. Can we get together and discuss this before I return to Florida?” His smile was as big as the man himself, and he said, “Pick me up Tuesday at noon and we’ll go out for lunch with some people I know.”
At lunch that following Tuesday, I shared my vision for Detroit. I told him that my vision was not embraced by the business leaders, political officials, or people I met in the Workforce System. “My vision does not have to be Michigan’s vision,” I said. “But clearly, every city that turned itself around had leaders with a vision – Boston, Baltimore, Houston, and Pittsburgh to name a few.” Henry then told me that he had met many people as a result of Albom’s book, but wasn’t sure why he met them. Suddenly and without warning, a giant fist slammed down on the table and a smile came to Henry’s face. “Now I know. I’ll meet with these people and we’ll develop a vision for Detroit. I see the hole in Detroit’s ceiling. And I have faith that we can come up with a vision and fix it just like we fixed the one in the church. We can do this!”
After a 3-hour lunch meeting, I drove Henry back to Detroit. He left and went into the church. I left and prepared to return to Florida. He promised to stay in touch.
Take Home Message
As I travel the country and see good people struggling to land jobs, I am not sure they have a clear vision for themselves; thus it is difficult to have faith they will succeed. I question whether our elected officials have a clear vision for creating new, sustainable jobs; thus it is difficult to have faith they will. It has been said that “Where there is no vision, people will perish!” For me, Mitch Albom’s book was a metaphor for what can be done; an example that big holes can be fixed with a strong will, a collective vision, and a little faith – faith that better days lie ahead. We all must envision a better future – one we can share with our clients, audiences, families, and friends.
This is the reason I shared this article with you.