[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 4]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 4424]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                PAYING TRIBUTE TO REV. PATRICIA SPEARMAN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JON C. PORTER

                               of nevada

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 29, 2006

  Mr. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Rev. Patricia Spearman 
for an exemplary life dedicated to God and community.
  Patricia was born in Indianapolis, and spent much of her childhood 
traveling throughout the Midwest and South with her evangelist mother. 
They spent a week or so at a time at different churches and between her 
eighth grade year and second semester of her junior year she attended 
over 200 schools. Traveling so much fostered in her a curiosity of 
people and the roads they travel and gave her a healthy respect for 
human diversity. After 16 years, Patricia was tired of traveling and 
decided to finish high school in Kansas City, MO. She supported herself 
with after-school jobs and later, took her first pastorate in a small 
Kansas City church.
  After graduation, Patricia attended college in Dallas on a band 
scholarship for 1 year, and then transferred to Norfolk State 
University in Virginia on an academic scholarship. She majored in 
political science, planning on a career as a minister and attorney. 
Then, during her freshman year, Patricia enrolled in Reserve Officers 
Training Corps to fulfill a physical education requirement. She did so 
well, that during her sophomore year she committed to serving 2 years' 
active duty in the Army after college, followed by 4 more years in the 
Army Reserves. She served with the military police in South Korea, 
advancing through the ranks until leaving active duty in 1983 as a 
lieutenant colonel. Since then, as a reservist, Patricia has been 
recalled to active duty several times, and last fall completed a 30-
month deployment working in counterterrorism at the Pentagon.
  From the days of that first posting in South Korea, Patricia 
continued working in ministry, sometimes unofficially, often under the 
auspices of overworked but grateful chaplains. Now she brings to Las 
Vegas skills learned during a lifetime of serving churches, working in 
campus ministry at the University of Louisville in Kentucky and serving 
as school board president in Texas. Last November, Rev. Patricia 
Spearman was named pastor of the Las Vegas's Covenant United Methodist 
Fellowship. While she has traveled extensively in her lifetime, she 
arrives in Las Vegas with the conviction that this is exactly where 
she's supposed to be. At the age of 50 she uses her experience to segue 
seamlessly from a story about everyday life into a Bible story. And in 
a time when many people segregate to worship Patricia holds firm to the 
idea that diversity is also one of God's creations and it must be 
celebrated. Anyone and everyone is welcome to attend her sermons and 
the average crowd that gathers to hear her words attests to Patricia's 
love of diversity.
  Mr. Speaker, I am honored to recognize Rev. Patricia Spearman on the 
floor of the House today.

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