He was gesturing dramatically with every point he made. He said if a person is looking for Jesus, that person shouldn't look to the White House in Washington, D.C., and that person shouldn't look in governor's mansions in any state. With he emphasis he made, with each strong point, certain members of the audience said "Amen" loudly, or "Oh Yes Jesus!" -- and some would clap hands together just once with each special phrase he spoke. Some stood up and raised their hands up high. I couldn't understand every word he spoke because his voice rose and fell so quickly and his accent was from the Deep South. But it was fascinating sitting in a back pew watching, listening, and even clapping my hands when the audience was responding to something dramatic or particularly poignant that he spoke. Some of the women moved their heads back and forth with the rhythm of the pastor's cadence. Some nodded their heads throughout the sermon like they were agreeing.

The pastor quoted from the Gospel According to St. John, Chapter 5 verses 1-9. It was a very moving story about how Jesus went to a pool where disabled and downtrodden people were in attendance. One man had been an invalid for thirty-eight years, the pastor explained, and several people in the congregation said "Yes Lord!"

And when Jesus saw that invalid lying there and found out that the poor man had been in this condition for a long time, Jesus stopped and asked...

While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.' Then after Jesus said to him, 'Get up! Pick up your mat and walk,' the man stood up and walked on his own. And the congregation broke out in applause. Then the pastor told his church members that if they want to find Jesus, go to a homeless shelter or go to a prison and visit an inmate, and he told a story about a little boy who went to a rich church. Everyone put a hundred dollar bill into the collection plate, but when it was passed to the little boy, he took it and set it on the floor, and then he stood up in it.
"I don't have a hundred dollars but this is all I got, myself, to give to Jesus." At that, the audience clapped loudly and many stood up and raised their hands up high. It was a very emotional moment. It made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. I stood up with the others and clapped, while the pastor continued his loud, emotional sermon urging people to find Jesus' spirit in the sick, in the lame, in the homeless, in the prisoner, and in the elderly shut in person living alone.

In conclusion, this was a beautiful service, very different, but very powerful. Several members of the congregation, clearly seeing I was the only Caucasian in the service, came up to me and showed friendship by shaking my hand.