Sabbath Rest

My grandfather, the Reverend Ora M. Locust, Jr. entered into his rest Thursday morning. He was 73.


Memory Lane

Pop founded and pastored a storefront church in West Philadelphia called Pilgrim's Rest Baptist Church at 5333-35 Market Street in 1984. I was born into that church. My grandfather was my very first pastor. I came to know Christ at the tender age of seven. He baptized me. I remember living on 58th and Spruce Street at my mother's house and playing church on Sundays with my brother and our childhood friends Riko and Shanelle. I was the preacher. My "pulpit" was the steps. I would shout just like my grandfather. I remember it like yesterday.


The Call

I was called to preach the Gospel on May 6, 2006. I called and told my grandfather a couple of days later. He "grilled" me. Pop wanted to know if I was really called. I told him the scenario. He told me that he wanted to speak with me about this call. I remember him telling me that he might be dead and gone someday and told me it was necessary for him to speak with me. It took me a couple of months after this phone call to actually speak with him. I was a very busy college student and I didn't make the time to speak with him.

Our meeting lasted a few hours. It was the best time I had with my grandfather. He was concise and clear about what he wanted me to hear. His words are still impressed in my heart until this day.


Final Days on Earth

Pop was diagnosed with stage-4 cancer a few months ago. Metastasis spread throughout his body. He had chemotherapy and radiation. But on the Wednesday before thanksgiving he was hospitalized. I got to see him on Thanksgiving. He was feeble but feisty. He couldn't eat a lot but he had a couple bites of sweet potato pie. The Sunday after Thanksgiving, he had a bad fall in the hospital. He fractured his neck and was bed-ridden. He had to wear a gawky neck brace to stabilize his spine. Metastasis spread to is spinal column. There was no bone wear he fractured his neck, just cancer. That Monday I visited him along with a bunch of my relatives. It was the last time I seen him alive.

Eternal Rest

Thursday around 11a.m. my cousin called me while I was at work. She told me she got word that Pop Pop passed. My mother called me an hour ago and told me that when she went up to see him that he looked peaceful. She said that Pop wanted to pass knowing that his kids would be okay. So he went in his sleep with no one in the room. Now is joins his God and the Church triumphant in eternal victory and fellowship. To God be praised.