Roosevelt's Last Service

Wow! You already know that my baby brother passed away last week. I want to give you a final update on Roosevelt’s fight. We had church on Saturday, his homegoing celebration! The service opened at Victory Church with awesome Praise and Worship, Pastor Blackburn prayed us in and the singing was awesome as Highest Praise offered the Lord’s Prayer with such beautiful harmonies. My brother Joe read a scripture and offered . . . “commentary”, lol. Then Melissa sang so beautifully. My brother Jeff read the obituary and Pastor Dan acknowledged well wishes. A most poignant moment occurred when he asked Pastors and youth leaders to stand. They were a large part of the sanctuary (around 800 - 1,000 people attended) and many had given testimony to Eileen during family hour that their sons/daughters or the kids in their churches had gotten saved or called to ministry during a camp that Roosevelt preached or being in one of his services. Vicki Yohe took us back into worship In His Presence and thank God for Pastor Blackburn who followed her to bring the family up as we shared a few words about our baby brother. Vicki was a hard person to follow, James and Jessica spoke also. A testimony came from Victory Church from a young man whose 18 month old daughter had drown. Roosevelt was preaching a message called Singing in the Rain and gave him an umbrella, which he brought with him, talking about how it all helped him heal. Pastor Denny Duron gave an awesome and inspiring eulogy. We laughed as he talked about how each and every person in the room thought they were Roosevelt’s best friend! And we know that to be true. His website normally took about 30,000 hits per month. In the five days after his graduation it took over 400,000 hits. People were ‘tweeting’ on Twitter from all over the world – do a Twitter search. A facebook group was started about him and in about 3 days gained 2,300 members.

A lot was said on Saturday, thankful words, uplifting words – words that let me know that, although I did know that Rho had traveled the country; the world and I had traveled with him in Hawaii, Florida, here in Michigan, Louisiana –I had no idea who he really was. I knew that kids loved him everywhere he went and he remembered them. I knew he was an awesome preacher/teacher/evangelist and the people in the churches he ministered in loved him because they would tell me how much! I knew he had been in awesome places and that within the last year – since his diagnosis of cancer – he ministered in Malawi, Columbia, Canada and all across the country. I knew he’d sojourned to Israel being baptized in the Jordan River and I knew his heart for Nu Nation. I'm reminded of an old song "...believe I'll run on and see what the ends gonna be!"
I knew Roosevelt was generous, he loved for people to be happy and knew happiness could only come through knowing Christ. He was the best host and despite the people he knew and places he’d been; when you were with him, you were the only important person in the world. He was humbled by his relationships with ‘famous people’ thanking God always for the opportunities he was afforded, but his real joy came from the people he encouraged and led to Christ. Rho was always kingdom focused. If I texted him “whatcha doin boy” 8 times out of 10 he was in an airport – just getting on or off a flight. “Well, did you lift Him up today” “God showed up and showed out!” he’d text back. I’ve seen Rho leave church an hour after most had gone home because people wanted prayer, hands laid on and he would accommodate each and every one. No, that’s the wrong word – he accommodated no one, he served.

I knew Roosevelt was funny, you could not be around him without laughing – even if you didn’t want to! I knew he was a real rainbow coalition as people from all races, cultures, ethnicities, financial/social backgrounds learned to speak his language – God’s language; the language of love. Pastor Denny pointed out that Rho’s messages would include Bible; a little Greek, some Hebrew, some ebonics with a little Detroit slang thrown in. He became a master of the illustrated sermon and often used props - anything to help people receive the word. You know in his early ministry days he did camps and preached for Bishop Jack Wallace (another great evangelist, waiting to welcome him home) who remained a mentor for Roosevelt long after he left Michigan. Rho-speak was always “do your very best for the kingdom because God gave His very best for you”; it was “love each other, pray for each other, support each other”. And as Eileen pointed out, he taught “there will be fear, but there’s also faith – choose faith and just do it for the kingdom.”

Eileen spoke on Saturday, she talked about how Rho had been her primary teacher in the things of God, how she had just got saved when they met. She talked about how he always treated her like a queen and walking into the shops she knew he liked to shop in always brought comments from the store owners as they’d been wanting to meet the woman he was so particular about. She talked about their vision for Nu Nation which she will, by the Holy Spirit, continue. She preached in their new home church on Sunday morning about the Assignment and I understand “the Lord showed up and showed out”. This is a great spot to stop talking about who he was and what he did. I’ve attached a YouTube link of their Nu Nation vision – check it out. I’ve also attached a link to his website www.rooseveltonline.com and to Victory Church where you can view the program of his service if you like.

Finally, I would like to thank Victory Church (Pastors Blackburn and McBride and congregation), Pastor Bray Sibley from Harvest Family Church, Gentry-Morrison Funeral home, Eileen's family (who are our family) – all the Pastors I spoke with and who came, all the people who traveled from Holland, MI (old friends) and from across the country (new friends and family) to celebrate with us. Also to family and friends, my FB family, my DWO family, to those who called, sent emails or cards – I got them all, have shared them with family and I love you for supporting us with your prayers. Thank you!