[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 6599]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      WELCOMING THE GUEST CHAPLAIN

  Ms. WARREN. Thank you, Mr. President.
  Mr. President, a warm thank-you to the Reverend Miniard Culpepper. 
His words of faith and community are greatly appreciated here today.
  For a long time now, Reverend Culpepper has been praying over me. 
Last winter, before I was sworn into office, Reverend Culpepper held a 
special Sunday prayer service for me in his church, Pleasant Hill 
Baptist, in Dorchester. That December evening the pews were packed with 
local preachers and churchgoers representing a dozen or so churches in 
the area.
  At the conclusion of the service, the ministers circled around me, 
wrapped their arms together and prayed to God to give me the strength 
to work for the poor and powerless among us.
  I feel blessed to have received their prayers, and I have tried my 
best to keep them in my heart in my work here. But I am just one of 
many who appreciates the hard work Reverend Culpepper and Pleasant Hill 
Baptist have put into strengthening and protecting their community.
  You see, Reverend Culpepper and his congregation understand that 
their community extends well beyond the walls of their church. When 
Jahmol Norfleet, a former gang leader from Roxbury, left prison and 
showed a desire to turn his life around as a peacemaker between rival 
gangs, it was Reverend Culpepper who reached out to him. Pleasant Hill 
Baptist welcomed him into their family. After Jahmol was tragically 
shot to death outside of his grandmother's home, Reverend Culpepper 
worked hard to implement antiviolence program methods that were based 
on his conversations with Jahmol.
  When in January of this year 13-year-old Gabriel Clarke suffered 
grievous gunshot wounds just blocks from Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, 
Reverend Culpepper and his congregation resolved to start their annual 
neighborhood patrols just a little earlier. After all, as Reverend 
Culpepper remarked, this is not somebody's problem down the street or 
on the other side of town, this is my problem.
  Pleasant Hill Baptist Church was founded more than 70 years ago by 
Reverend Culpepper's grandfather, Rev. Samuel H. Bullock. Reverend 
Bullock was deeply involved in his community working to educate 
children and to reduce juvenile delinquency. Reverend Culpepper and the 
congregation at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church have carried on that 
legacy of community involvement with spirit and determination.
  We thank Reverend Culpepper for his blessing. We thank him for 
gracing us with the same spirit that drives him and the Pleasant Hill 
Baptist Church family back home. We thank him and his church for 
reminding us that the problems that affect our neighborhoods, our 
cities, our Commonwealth, and our country aren't someone else's 
problems, they are all of our problems.
  I am honored to have Reverend Culpepper here today.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader.

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