[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 35 (Thursday, March 14, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E363]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       A PASTOR FOR THE COMMUNITY

                                 ______


                          HON. JAMES A. BARCIA

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 14, 1996

  Mr. BARCIA. Mr. Speaker, learning to live one's life according to the 
Scriptures is both tremendously rewarding and tremendously challenging. 
For the past 40 years, the people of Saginaw have been blessed with 
individuals who can both guide and encourage people to live their lives 
to the fullest, including living in the image that the Bible has 
suggested for us. Pastor Roosevelt Austin, Sr., and his wife Nurame, 
have helped countless men, women, and children improve the quality of 
their lives with the spiritual direction of the Baptist Church. They 
are being honored for their 40 years of service to their church and 
their community, and I can think of no individuals who better deserve 
this recognition.
  Coming to Michigan from Louisiana, Pastor Austin has served as both 
the associate pastor and the pastor of the Zion Missionary Baptist 
Church in Saginaw. He has led from the pulpit and from the streets 
during these years, having also served as an advisor to Delta College 
and its campus ministry, as well as being the spiritual advisor for the 
Saginaw County Jail. He has been a board member of the NAACP, the 
president of Saginaw Training Center, Inc., a board member of the 
Commission on Quality Education for all Children, and a member of the 
Saginaw City Council.
  Throughout this time, he has been supported and aided by his wife, 
Nurame, who has served as a community volunteer, and has been certified 
as a teacher by the Evangelical Teachers' Training Association. She has 
been recognized for her community service by the Michigan House of 
Representatives, the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, the Saginaw County 
Community Action Center, and Top Ladies of Distinction, Inc.
  They have been blessed with three children, Roosevelt Austin, Jr., 
who is also a minister, Dona, and David. These lives have been made far 
richer by the wonderful example set by their parents.
  Pastor Austin has a motto which is profound encouragement to each of 
us. He believes that ``Our lives are songs; God writes the music and we 
set them to music at pleasure; and the song grows glad, or sweet or 
sad, as we choose to fashion the measure.'' We each have been given an 
opportunity to succeed in a wide variety of fashions. It is up to each 
of us if we want our own songs to sing glad, or to let the refrain be 
sad.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge you and our colleagues to join me in thanking 
Pastor Roosevelt and Nurame Austin for their wonderful 40 years of 
devotion. I am sure that their work will continue with even more 
impressive results for years to come.

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