14 The Hampton Roads Messenger


Volume 10 Number 2 HBCUs FROM PAGE 1


October 2015


Hampton University President Dr. William R. Harvey gives welcome remarks during HBCU Week Conference


Photo by: HRM Staff


The panel also included the Director of Multicultural Marketing for Home Depot and diversity executives from Intel and AT&T. The discussion was facilitated


by Howard University


President Wayne A.I. Fredrick. Other


Joe Biden, speakers, panelists Secretary and


presenters at the 2015 HBCU Week conference included U.S. President


Technical


Vice of


Education Arne Duncan, Hampton University President Dr. William R. Harvey, North Carolina Agricultural and


State University


President Dr. Harold Martin, actor Laz Alonso and Founder and President of Johnson Research, Lonnie G. Johnson.


Other organizations represented at the conference included The CW Network,


Aspire TV, BET, CBS


Entertainment, Sodexo, Wal-Mart, eBay, NASA, Uber and Pandora. A


Forte


Michael Warren - Congas Felix Valderrama - Congas Brian Pinner - Sax Darryl Rawlings - Drums Shevonne Newby - Vocals Daniel Quackenbush - Bass Guitar Pete Jaymes Ford - Keyboards Jeffrey Bradby - Guitar


“Forte is a jazz band in a class unto itself. Tey play with such enthusiasm and heart…the dynamics of which simply take you away!”


-- Keisha Blackwell Greene, Gospel Recording Artist 757.575.1863 Our Faith


By Rev. Dr. Gregory Headen, Pastor THE THIEF AND THE SHEPHERD


The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10) Who is this thief? It is Satan. Many may have dismissed Satan as an embodied being with horns and a pitch fork, but we cannot deny the presence of evil


in the world, the reality of the demonic. Jesus identifies this thief for his inten- tions--to steal, kill, and destroy.


Thus


he is not only a thief but a murderer and a destroyer. We can dress this up any way we want to with our philosophical and theological jargon, but this does not change the thief's intentions.


What does this thief seek to steal?


What is it about us that he wants so bad- ly? For four decades of ministry I have watched the thief at work in and out of the church, and I personally have gotten caught up in some of his traps. Even to- day, I am living with the consequences of having been robbed by this thief. Let me name a few of the things that the thief desires to take from us.


He wants to


steal the brightness of our youth. There is a time in life on the early end when children and youth need to feel safe and loved. It is a time when they should walk in a certain innocence about life. They should get the chance to be chil- dren, to play, to dream, to sit at the feet of excellent teachers with the freedom to ask questions and learn. The thief steals this away from children in so many ways. The thief uses lust without love as the weapon to cause so many of them to


be birthed into the world without parents who love each other and are unprepared to care for the guide them. The thief gets them involved in behaviors that are un- becoming of children, exposing them to adult things long before they are ready through the use of television, internet, and various social media. The thief also wants to still the best years of an adult's life. How? He fills up the young adult years with pleasure, drugs, and shallow relationships as distractions form the hard work of preparation for the future. He entices them to despise commitment in favor of a carefree "don't care" dispo- sition. During these years, the doors of opportunity for advancement, income, and career are passing them by as they opt for the frills of the moment. This thief also kills. He kills dreams and hopes. He kills family and friends by riotous living. A many young man has been shot down in the streets as a re- sult of bad behavior, misunderstanding, and plain bigotry and injustice. The thief uses people to do his work of killing. The thief also destroys. He is set on tearing down what God has built up. He wants to destroy the church, and he uses people to do it. He wants to de- stroy families and he is skilled at doing it. He would destroy everything that is righteous and holy. BUT CHIST CAME THAT WE MIGHT HAVE LIFE, AND HAVE IT MORE ABUNDANTLY. Whatever the thief is intent on doing, we have a hiding place in Christ, our Sav- ior, who wants us to live and be blessed. What the thief has stolen, Christ can re- store with a new birth, a new heart, and a transformed mind. The Lord answers the Thief.


plethora Week of university and corporate


attendance. Students


attending Conference presidents executives were in expressed after


the HBCU their


excitement to be part of the event. “As a student at North Carolina A&T, I have a great sense of Aggie pride; however,


attending the


HBCU Week Conference and meeting amazing students from other HBCUs, I have truly developed an even greater sense of HBCU pride,” commented Angelica Willis, who was selected as a 2015-2016 HBCU All-Star and student ambassador to the White House . “In addition to the opportunity to network with my peers from other HBCUs, I was able to connect with diversity executives from several Fortune 100 companies at the conference.”


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