Man-2-Man

Contents

DEDICATION

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

DARNELL’S STORY

REAPING

Scripture taken from The Holy Bible NIV version

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my nephew, Robert Anthony Yancey. I am so proud of the way you have taken the time, and put forth the effort, to inspire and encourage young boys in your community. Your expressed interest in them and support of their efforts has had a profound impact on many of their lives, changing the course of direction for many of them. I applaud what you do, but I challenge you to do more. Know that God has searched your heart and He sees your compassion. He knows your fears and your desires. Trust Him. Open your heart and receive His mercy and grace. Let God order your steps and let the light of His love shine through you. If when those young boys look at you, they’re able to see a man, washed in the blood of Jesus, forgiven and saved, walking in all His ways and keeping His commands, your guidance will do more than lead them to a better life. It will lead them to Jesus where they can receive eternal life!

My prayer is that you will open your heart and receive the love of God for yourself. Then you will realize that the truth of God’s word, and His love, is the most valuable lesson that you could ever share with another human being, and you can be about the business of watering God’s precious garden with His word.

2 Peter 1:2-10

Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self—control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.

Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

May God bless you and forever keep you in His Graces.

Chris

DEDICATION

Man-2Man is dedicated to every young man who has given in to the distorted views of what a man is, what a man does, and how a man provides for himself and his family; to that young man who may be struggling with outside forces that encourage you to pursue the fast life, easy money, fashionable and expensive clothes as the measure of your success. Take time to read this book. Allow the contents to sink into your spirit. Then ask the Lord to speak to you, to live in you and to move you from the very thing that displeases him and is slowly killing you. Be open to hearing the truth and incorporating it into your life.

To that man who is fearful, selfish, or just too caught up in your own life to reach out and help someone else, I challenge you to just take a moment and think of what a great and long lasting impact you can make in the life of just one young man. Then imagine the rippling affect it could have among men.

I wonder . . . Where we would be, if God hadn’t offered his son to save us?

Where would we be if Jesus had decided that he didn’t want to get involved?

I pray that this book will encourage and inspire you to seek God for yourself, and let him use you, to draw others.

Grace

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Giving Honor and Glory first and foremost to the Lord God Almighty through whom all things are possible! Thank you Lord for your saving grace, your mercy and your love. I pray that your word will go forth and bring many souls home to your glory.

I acknowledge and thank Evangelist Briggie Stansbury-Beater, a powerful woman of God. Thank you for bringing the word of the Lord to me. I admire and respect you. May God continue to bless you and your ministry with Children of Destiny.

To Pastor Marcus D. Johnson, First Lady Stephanie Johnson, and my entire church family at Life-Bridge Ministries, I give warm, heartfelt thanks for your teaching, guidance, love and support. You have been very instrumental in my Christian growth and development. I thank God for placing me under your anointed leadership.

To my husband Michael, thank you dear for all the support you’ve shown throughout this entire journey. Your support and encouragement helped to carry me through time when I thought I couldn’t do this. You never doubted. You were patient and understanding, and you were willing from the very beginning to go all the way with me. I thank God for giving me you.

I want to thank my parents, Melvin and Lillie Edwards for their continued love and support. You always give so much of yourselves, expecting nothing in return. You’ve shown me by example how to love.

My two sisters, Phyllis Woods and Debra Lowe—Again you were both there to inspire, encourage and critique. Thank you for your input not only with the writing of this book, but for your input in my life. You have been my spiritual Naomi’s.

Earnest Robinson, we could not publish this book without acknowledging and thanking you for your guidance, encouragement, support and prayers. You were like a light tower blinking on and off in the darkness; letting us know that we were still moving in the right direction. You are truly an inspiration. Not only for the countless times you assured us that we were doing a great work, but also for the times you’ve lifted us up in prayer, made subtle suggestions, and armed us with scripture. We sincerely thank you, my brother in Christ.

To Ron Scarbrough, a very talented and skillful artist who designed and drew the cover for this book.

And last, but certainly not least, I want to acknowledge my children, Nikyra and Taccara. I am so very proud of you both. You have grown into beautiful, respectful, God fearing young ladies. I pray that you will forever have an insatiable hunger and thirst for the Lord, seeking Him first, and living your lives according to His word.

Thank you all, for in your own unique ways, you’ve all contributed to the successful completion of this book.

May God Bless and Keep You Forever,

Chris

STAND

I can’t get there by myself,

I need a stepping-stone

Fame and fortune… not my goal,

My interest is in saving souls

To lift up, strengthen and reveal,

The truth of who we are,

Our Dad’s a King! Sits on a Throne!

Victorious in war!

Yet we seem to be so very lost,

And far away from home,

Our eyes are blind and cannot see,

The wickedness condoned

Destroyed our minds and made us fight

Each one against the other,

With hateful hearts, deceitful deeds,

We try to kill our brothers

Caucasian, Arab, African

To him it doesn’t matter,

His goal is to destroy ALL men,

Divide, breakdown and scatter

But God gives us grace and strength to stand

Reveals the lies, and shows HIS plan,

To live in peace with one another

Extend your hand, lift up your brother

We’re children of The Royal King,

We’ll fight to live His plan

Through God we’ll conquer every foe,

When we stand Man-2-Man!

Two young black males were gunned down this morning in what is believed to be a drug related feud. The unidentified bodies were bound and shot in the head execution style.

Late last night a convenience store clerk was shot and critically injured during a robbery. The assailant got away with less than one hundred dollars in cash.

A group of protesters are picketing outside the State Capital. The protesters are angry over a bill that will grant an early release to convicted felons. This early release program was initiated by state officials to help combat the problem with overcrowding in the state prisons.

"Later in the news…

And good morning to you too, I said as I rolled out of bed.

What a way to start the day; killin’ . . . killin’ . . . and more killin’. I guess no news really is good news when the only news you hear about is riddled with the same old reports of death and destruction in the hood. Really gives a brotha something to look forward to at the start of a new day.

I picked up the remote control, turned off the morning news and popped in a CD.

It’s Saturday morning, and before my feet can even touch the floor, I’m hearing it… The brutal truth of self annihilation… brotha’s killin’ brotha’s once again reins as the top story of the day. I don’t even know why I bother to turn on the news. It’s always the same old stuff… killing, robbing, raping and stealing.

I looked at the clock on the dresser and flopped back across the bed. I wasn’t tired… I just didn’t feel like spending my Saturday afternoon dealing with those hard-headed, smart mouthed, kids at St. Matthew’s gym.

Coach Cooper has been working with neighborhood kids in that gym for years. That’s how I met him. He was my little league coach and mentor. He taught me the fundamentals of basketball and mentored me through my college career. When he asked me to cover for him at the gym today, I really couldn’t say no. So… here I am. And I don’t even like kids! The only good thing I can say about this whole situation is that it’s only for one day. Coach Cooper will be back tomorrow and I will be out! So I figured, what the heck… I’ll hang out with the lil’ fellas for a while, turn’em on to some real skill, and get myself a lil’ work out at the same time. I had no idea what I was really getting myself into.

I had played sports pretty much all of my life, including college ball. But that part of my life was over now and all I was interested in was money, women and more money… in that order. I was living a care-free life, and enjoying it to the fullest… a young, single black man with a good job, no kids, no responsibilities, and no worries.

I knew as soon as I walked in the gym, that I had made a big mistake. St. Matthew’s gym was one of the poorest run facilities in the city. No nets, poor lighting, and the gym just flat out STANK! The combination of mildew and funk I kinda halfway expected in a run down gym like St. Mattews. It was that rotten, dead rat smell on top of the mildew and funk that made me feel like throwing up. I just kept telling myself, two hours and I’m out!

Four kids were running around the court with their shorts hanging off their butts, due rags on their heads, and raggedy gym shoes on their feet. I blew the whistle that was hanging around my neck and summoned the boys to the bench. (Hey… if I was gonna be a coach, I had to look the part.) I had on a fresh jogging suit hook-up with matching Jordans. I had stopped by the sporting goods store on the way and bought a shiny new whistle (with a color coordinated string that matched my jogging suit of course), a stopwatch, and a play-board with the court design on it. You know, one of those boards you write on and wipe clean. The kind the pro’s used. If I did nothing else, I made a good impression walking in the door.

Hey, what’s up?

What’s up, they said almost in unison.

Where’s the rest of the team?

This all we gat. Kevin and Earl quit last week.

What’s your name shorty?

It ain’t shorty… My name is Darnell. That’s DeAnte, Jason and Eric. What’s your name?

Coach.

Coach what?

"Your coach for today… That’s all you need to know.

Ok look… I’m filling in for Coach Cooper today. He’ll be back tomorrow so don’t worry. I’ll be outta your hair, and you’ll be outta mine. Now let me see whatcha got."

Whatchu want us to do?

Darnell was obviously top dog in this group. When he opened his mouth, he spoke for them all.

Ok, let me see y’all run a screen.

What? We don’t do that.

Well what do y’all do?

We just practice playing against each other and Coach Cooper calls the fouls.

What? . . . I couldn’t believe Coach Cooper was letting things go like that.

Well look… we gon’ do it a little different today. Everybody line up and get a ball.

We ain’t got but one ball. How we all gon’ get it at the same time?

The boys started laughing and tussling over the basketball. I reminded myself that this was just a one-day deal, so I decided to just roll with it. I had’em play a little two on two, and was not surprised to see that they lacked a basic fundamental knowledge of the game. Every two seconds I was blowing my whistle: double dribble… travel… foul.

Man you can’t just run with the ball. This was the worst attempt at playing basketball I had ever seen. There was no structure, no strategy, and no skill. There was absolutely nothing I could do with these boys in 2 hours that was going to make a bit of difference, so I just sat back and let them play their own game.

Well, my 2 hours of breathing in stale, funky air, and watching the 3 stooges version of basketball was over. I went to my truck and gave them all sodas from the cooler I kept in the back. It’s usually filled with cold beer for me and the fellas, but I thought I’d