Follower of Christ, Husband, Father, Pastor of Pine Forge SDA Church, Teacher at Pine Forge Academy
Pennsylvania, USA
Joined October 2012
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One of only four surviving historically black boarding schools for high school students. Pine Forge Academy is one of the others (est. 1947).
When Laurence Jones learned about the 80% illiteracy rate of Rankin County, he started Piney Woods School with just $2 and 3 students at an abandoned sheep shed.
In 1918, he not only survived a near-lynching, he also persuaded the mob into collecting money to support his school.
—Laurence C. Jones was born into a Missouri family of educators in 1884. He completed his studies at the University of Iowa in 1908. Laurence received many job offers after graduating but would ultimately find himself in Rankin County, Mississippi, in 1909.
During slavery, it was illegal to teach enslaved Africans to read and write. Therefore, Rankin County had an illiteracy rate approaching 80%.
Mr. Jones settled in the county and began teaching three students. The number of students increased, and with land donated by a former “freed”slave and support from several white-owned Iowa businesses, Piney Wood School would receive its charter in 1913.
Mr. Jones had also established a friendship with prominent Iowan, Captain ASA Turner. Captain Turner, abolitionist, and civil war veteran, would donate a significant amount of his time and wealth to support the school, ultimately serving on the school’s board of trustees.
In 1918, for whatever reason, the residents had had enough of Mr. Jones and sought to hang him. Laurence was also an oratory master. He not only convinced the mob not to lynch him but solicited funds from the rabble for his school. Later, Mr. Jones is quoted: “No man can cause me to stoop low enough that him.”
Today, Piney Woods School is the largest of four historically Black American boarding schools, educating youth from grades 9-12.—
This app has been gutted and it’s clear the qualities that drew me to use it have evaporated. The latest announcement to change its name and direction has convinced me that it’s time for me to leave.
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One of the great, iconic voices of Adventist musicians and examples of Christian nobility has gone to his rest. Thank you God for T. Marshall Kelly. #nowresting
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Faith functions best when you don’t know.
If you knew everything, you would have no room for faith, discovery, or innovation.
Creativity comes from uncertainty. -@BishopJakes
On this MLK Day, let us all look to the light. #justice
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This appears exponentially graver than Watergate and constitutes a call for an abiding principle inherent in our constitution. In a word: accountability. (2/2)
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It is abundantly clear that a significant chapter has been written in the annals of American history with the formal airing of the Select Committee findings and their referral to the Justice Department. (1/2)
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The darkest chapters of history are burdened with the record of crimes committed by bigoted religionists. - E. G. White
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Stephen Richardson retweeted
The Word of God is like a lion. You don't have to defend a lion. All you have to do is let the lion loose, and the lion will defend itself.
Charles Spurgeon
