A young man grew up in a rough Boston housing project called Columbia
Point in a family of nine children. Although he’d been a hardworking
student, paying for college seemed impossible. But his mother’s favorite expression was. "Pray, and the Lord will make a way somehow." He viewed that as good advice for other people
But when he decided to go to college and seminary because he believed the Lord had a call on his life, he had no other choice!
He packed for college and even went to orientation, but still didn’t have any money. He’d have to pack up his belongings and make the hundred-mile trip back home. But an heir to a corporate fortune heard about his plight and paid for his college and seminary education. After he graduated, he went to his benefactor’s office to thank him for all he had done for him and asked him what he could do to pay him back. Imagine his saying to a multimillionaire, "What can I do to repay you?"
The man responded, "Help somebody." He has spent the last 20
years in the ministry with that goal in mind. He has pastored in the
drug-ridden, crime-infested inner city as well as well-manicured
suburbs. And he has learned that the blessing of God is like a
boomerang. As he’s tried to help somebody, the Lord has blessed him.
His name was Vernal E. Simms, senior pastor of Morris Brown A.M.E.
Church in Philadelphia. From the book One Brother to Another.