Unfolding Destiny: How God Prepared Me to Do Battle with the Kerr McGee Corporation

By Steve Jamison

All I can say is WOW. I started reading and could not stop. What a powerful story and testimony. Will definitely buy the book.  —Pastor Ethen Gillespie

 

What a great read! God used and strategically placed you in a position to impact the church and community around you. I am certain that faith will be enhanced, patience encouraged, lives changed, and visions inspired as readers journey with you through your experiences and the culmination of your destiny unfold.&n

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 31, 2020
• ISBN: 9781640961180

Steve Jamison

Steve Jamison collaborated with legendary UCLA coach John Wooden on the national bestseller Wooden on Leadership. He lives in San Francisco, California. Visit his website at SteveJamison.com.

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Unfolding Destiny

How God Prepared Me to Do Battle with the Kerr McGee Corporation

Steve Jamison

Copyright © 2018 Steve Jamison

All rights reserved

First Edition

Newman Springs Publishing

Red Bank, NJ 07701

First originally published by Newman Springs Publishing 2018

ISBN 978-1-64096-117-3 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64096-562-1 (Hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-64096-118-0 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

I dedicate this book to my father, the late Bishop William Jamison Sr., who instilled in me the concepts of faith and perseverance. When I was very young, he would read the Bible with me. As I grew older, he would let me read for him. While reading the accounts of David, Daniel, and other biblical characters, it was easy to see that he took them literally. He taught me to believe this same God was willing and able to move in my life as well. It was these concepts that became the guiding principles for my life.

In the racially charged atmosphere of Mississippi in the ’50s and ’60s, he was not afraid to stand up to the white establishment and speak truth to power. His tenacity and boldness became the example of manhood and Christianity that would lead me in my approach to life. His own battles and successes against insurmountable odds furnished me the platform of faith and patience to endure a sixteen-year fight with the Kerr McGee Corporation.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank those who helped to make this book possible:

To LoRen, my loving wife of forty-three years, who took care of me during my protracted illness, who never complained or caused me to feel that I was a burden, who provided loving support and encouragement when needed, and who always believed in my ministry and calling. For making my home the warm, comforting haven I so badly needed these past three and a half years. For standing beside me, being my secretary, caregiver, and friend.

To Gloria, my oldest sister, assistant pastor, and second mom. Thank you, Gloria, for praying for me and standing with me during the darkest times in my life, for standing up for me when I could not stand for myself, for the loyalty you have shown me and the ministry over the past thirty-eight years.

To my daughter, LaShae, and my son-in-law, Greg, who took me to doctor’s appointments and drove me to early-morning dialysis appointments, and did whatever was asked of them to make life easier for LoRen and better for me.

To my niece Lori and her family, who voluntarily gave their devotion and assistance whenever needed or asked for.

To all of my relatives, who supported me with their love and devotion during this part of my spiritual journey.

To the entire ministerial and clerical staff, for their love and support. To Dovie for the time you donated to proofing and correcting this manuscript. And to the entire Maranatha Church family, for staying in place and giving their support through prayers and financial gifts. Without you, this book would not be possible.

Introduction

When God impressed upon me the need to write this book, I thought it would be the most difficult thing I would ever do. But as I began to remember all the wonderful things God had done for me, the task became less daunting with every recollection. The more I remembered, the clearer it would become that God’s hand of providence had been upon my life from the beginning. In an instant, God had connected all the major events of my life into one seamless story line. Suddenly, I realized that every significant event in my life was leading me into an epic battle with the Kerr McGee Corporation. And at stake would be the health and welfare of an entire community.

For more than seven decades, the people of Columbus, Mississippi, who lived in the Frog Bottom / Memphis Town community, had endured poor health and premature death as a result of Kerr McGee’s creosote wood treatment facility. And because of Kerr McGee’s far-reaching political influence, it seemed this poor community was doomed to spend the rest of its existence under similar or worse conditions. On some level, it is reminiscent of the story of Moses and the children of Israel, where God sends one man to stand against insurmountable odds, so that God himself might be seen as the lone deliverer of his people.

It is my prayer that this book will help believers recognize and appreciate the paths God has caused them to tread, as well as identify their own specific unfolding destiny. As believers, each of us have been placed here to bring glory to God in some specific area. We were not put here just to live and die, but God has invested his spirit and his wisdom in us, and he demands a return. While it may not be your destiny to be a Moses or a Joshua in your generation, it may well be your destiny to prepare the Moses or the Joshua of the next generation. Therefore, become retrospective and look for that common thread and theme in your history and connect it to your own unfolding destiny.

Chapter 1

Before My Mother Knew My Father

I was born to William and Pinkie Jamison in Monroe County, Mississippi. My mother was an only child, born with rheumatic fever and an enlarged heart; and according to the doctors of that time, she would not live to see adulthood. In her teens, it was recommended that she not marry, and if she did, that she should not have children. During my mother’s brief forty-nine years, she suffered many life-threatening episodes; but in spite of her weakened condition, she was able to give birth to six children, all of whom are either ministers or married to ministers. Both my father and my older siblings tell stories of my mother’s near-death experiences, and how the saints, or church members, would come to our home and pray for her. After prayer, she would get up under God’s divine power and care for her family. It is amazing how this woman who was not supposed to see adulthood was able to give birth six times, and even lived sixteen years after her last child—me. While some may choose to call this a phenomenon, in our family, we call it a miracle—in fact, we call it six miracles.

My father was the oldest of seven children and somewhat of a leader by nature. He was the kind of man who, once he made up his mind about something, there was no stopping him. He met my mother when he was nineteen and she was eighteen. Even though he was told that she was sickly and should not have a family, he said he knew she was the one for him. They were married in 1941 and, shortly thereafter, were introduced to the Pentecostal movement by way of a Methodist preacher by the name of Payton Harrison. After receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, our family found themselves no longer welcome at the Cross Roads Methodist Church, where they had always attended. Later that same year, God impressed upon my grandfather Fred Douglas Jamison Sr. to donate a half acre of land to construct a new church home for the displaced saints. It would not be long before the officials of the Church of God in Christ, the premier Pentecostal denomination of that time, would hear about the fledgling group and quickly invited them to join the organization.

My father quickly became somewhat of a Bible scholar, and he began to move out in faith. Believing God was with him, he was not afraid to do what some called risky for a black man in the decades of the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s. Most of my life, he worked for himself and taught my brothers and me to do the same. I was impacted by many of the things he did, but one in particular stands out in my mind.

In the early 1960s, my maternal grandmother passed away and left