“I was born here in Shaw,” said Coker, who now leads a Baptist church in Connecticut. “My ancestors came to this area around the turn of the twentieth century, like most families did, to farm.”
Coker received his early education through the Shaw School District before moving to Cleveland High School after his tenth grade year.
“While I was at Cleveland High School I became a Christian and it didn’t take long for me to hear God calling me into the ministry,” said Coker.
Coker says that God’s calling is what brings him back to the Mississippi Delta every year.
“When I got up to Connecticut, I realized rather quickly that the resources there were different from what I was used to in Shaw,” he added.
“I knew my home town and I asked myself ‘How can I match the resource that I have here in Connecticut with the needs that my community has in Shaw.”
That is when he came up with the idea to enroll members of his congregation and others that he has met on his journey with God to come to the poverty stricken areas of the Mississippi Delta to help the people here restore hope and pride in their community.
“On a personal visit home to Shaw, I was traveling through town looking for projects that needed to be done. It was then that I ran into the Partnership Sisters.”
Partnership Sisters is a vowed faith community who share the mission of Jesus. Members will willing go forth to any part of the world to work for justice, alleviate oppression and promote human dignity, especially among the poor.
“On that trip, I watched this little lady from Ireland walking the streets of Shaw and I stop to ask her what she was doing. She told me about their organization and the work that they are doing in Shaw, especially with the kids,” Coker said.
Coker decided to join forces with the sisters and asked an old friend and colleague, Matt Marston, a Baptist pastor in Georgia, if he would like to join the effort.
“I was raised in Memphis and attended college at Mississippi College,” said Marston. “I have seen how far a little bit of hope can go in these communities and when he (Coker) asked me to join, I was obliged.”
Working together, the two Baptist ministers and the three catholic sisters made an overwhelming bond and brought joy to the kids of Shaw.
Last week, a vacation bible school was held by the group at the Presentation Sisters downtown location. When they were not teaching the gospel to the kids, the group was out on the streets cleaning up and making repairs throughout the downtown area.
“They repaired the wall of the Presentation Sisters Center and painted it white so that in the future a mural can be painted on the building,” said Sister Wiona Engel. “While some worked on the wall, others worked cleaning the alley behind Presentation Sisters Center and behind the buildings on the Bayou.”
On Tuesday evening, Pastors Coker and Marston, held a dinner meeting with some of the local people in order to find out from them clear directions in relation to what they wanted for their town of Shaw. Various ideas were shared among the group.
“What we want to do is create a relationship with the Delta community,” said Coker. “We do this through assets based community development, a basic social work strategy.
“We are part of The Together for Hope Rural Poverty Initiative,” continued Coker. “This is a concentration of Christians working with the 20 poorest counties over the next 20 years.. We are ten years into the program and three of those poorest counties are right here in the Delta.”
Wednesday evening the Presentation Sisters, Maura, Una and Wiona hosted a dinner for the group in their home.
“It was a small way of saying thank you to the group for all they did for the Sisters and the town Shaw,” said Engel.