Out of the Ashes

Out of the Ashes

Wes Broussard

Edited by TAYLOR KELLIHER

Illustrated by BOBBY BARNHILL

Foreword by Chris Thomas

LAKEVIEW PUBLICATIONS

Author owns complete rights to this material and may be contacted in regards to distribution.

[email protected]

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for brief quotations in a book review in which the author is noted.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing, 2020

ISBN:  9798597638928

Book Cover Design: BOBBY BARNHILL

Editing: TAYLOR KELLIHER

Publishing: LAKEVIEW PUBLICATIONS

Formatting: CRAIG A. PRICE

Forward: CHRIS THOMAS

Contents

Foreword

Chris Thomas

Section One: Wrestling with Doubt

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Section Two: Defining Moments

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Section Three: Families Lost and Found

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Section Four: How to Win

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

FOR THE SAKE OF CLARITY: BLUE PRINT

About the Author

This book is dedicated to the incredible brothers and sisters at St. Mary's Missionary Baptist Church, with special attention to Brother Joe Lea, Brother June, Brother Stanley, and their pastor, Kyle Sylvester Senior.

Foreword

Chris Thomas

I do not know of anyone better qualified to write a book of this nature than Wes. His life has always been geared toward shining a light into the darkest of places. I have personally benefited from his gifting and friendship for over 12 years and cannot imagine where my life would be without his voice. He champions the broken, the lost, the confused, the overlooked; and in my case the arrogant and passionately misguided. As Wes focused on my strengths and gifts, it gave me courage and insight to work on my weaknesses.

Out of the Ashes is a book the world desperately needs right now. As a nation, we are searching for this light to shine brightly into our hearts, so it can highlight what needs to change. In this book, Wes shares an incredible story of an extremely hateful and violent crime that had the potential to leave a group of believers completely shattered. You will find on this journey, no matter what you are facing, God never leaves us hopeless. Regardless of the actions of those around us, God is always in power. We can never allow the actions of others to negatively change our hearts. To quote my favorite person in all of history, Dr. Martin Luther King, Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.

Prepare yourself to be challenged to see people and your story differently. My prayer is that you would know, no matter what you are facing, you too can rise out of the ashes to find truth and wholeness. 

Section One: Wrestling with Doubt

He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8 (NASB)

Chapter One

Helpless Revelation

The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

In April of 2019,

I was playing on my phone in a theater in Lake Charles, Louisiana— oblivious to the turn my life was about to take. As I waited for the movie, The Best of Enemies, to start, I read an article about three historically black churches that had just been burned to the ground only a few days apart in central Louisiana (about an hour and a half away). I couldn't believe something so openly hateful was happening more than half a century removed from the heart of the Civil Rights Movement. Three houses of worship, each roughly 100 years old, the hub of life and spirituality in these small towns, were entirely incinerated. The effects would be deep and long-reaching, damaging race relations for decades. The term Bombingham came to mind (I'll explain more later). As my movie started, I prayed for the communities affected by this vicious, unspeakable crime and the unity of my beloved Louisiana.

The movie was about Ku Klux Klan klavern leader C. P. Ellis, a man with considerable political connections, who fought against school integration in 1970’s Durham, North Carolina. His opponent was Anne Atwater, also known as Roughhouse Annie, who had brazenly served the disenfranchised black community all of her adult life. Throughout the film, we see the racist behavior typical of KKK members—violence, collusion, blackmail, sexual assault, etc. While I know featuring this God-awful evil is necessary to establish the characters and plot of the film, watching the vile acts remained difficult for me to stomach. Halfway through the film, we discover that C. P. Ellis has a child who is severely mentally handicap. The boy is his oldest son, still an important role in the South to this day. While this man is confident and savvy in his day-to-day dealings, when faced with the condition of his languishing child, he's utterly broken.

About halfway through the film, we are shown a meeting wherein C.P. Ellis is forced to meet face-to-face with members of the black community. During the meeting, one of his opponents, Howard Clement, starts to share that all parents are afraid when their children face the dangers of life. At this point, Ellis cuts in to say what he incorrectly presumed the black parent was about to add: we are all the same, because we all fear for our children. That being the case, there's no reason to be racist, right? Mr. Clement matter-of-factly corrected Mr. Ellis by stating black parents and children have the additional danger of violent racism to contend with, which is the chief concern of their community. He went on to add how desperately helpless each parent feels as they attempt to prepare their children for a world wherein their