The Journey That Led Me to Jesus Christ

By Courtney D. Watt

This book I wrote is a signature of my life from my youth until that designated time that God revealed his awareness to me; being blessed with the gift of athletic abilities and the rewards that came with the accomplishments, and the birth of my children and my grandchildren. The journey I made in leaving home to experience college life.
The opportunity to interact with a variety of international cultures and learning their personalities and traditions; I was blinded and deceived, believing and trusting the world system.
Also sitting myself in sessions with high elected professors, doctors and PHDs.
This true story tells how I tasted the world exaltation of popularity in athletics, the pain of participating in the system of this world and dealing with family crises.
But the sweetest flavor I have ever tasted was the deliverance, salvation and the freedom coming to Jesus Christ and the Lord my God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 9, 2007
• ISBN: 9781469122700

Book preview

The Elementary Years

We resided at 848 Lincoln Ave, living in a white house in a nice neighborhood. I considered us to be an ordinary family with the normal ups and downs. The elementary school that my brothers and sisters and I attended was Lincoln Elementary. The majority of the students were Black Americans, a very small percentage of Caucasians. Attending Lincoln I was very shy, I considered myself an average student. Academics was not one of my strong points, it was athletics. I played a great deal of sandlot football, and basketball. I also ran against individuals of my peer group in foot races in the streets and alleys. Participating in these various sport activities, I became pretty good. I discovered that I was fast and quick on my feet. So, I thought of using this God given talent to my advantage. I made a promise to myself to set high goals and work hard in my abilities and possibly earn a scholarship to some major college. And after completing my athletic career and academic achievements, I will be looking to teach or coach at some educational institution. Also to have my mother and father proud of me in accomplishing that goal. I was quite aware of the long road I had to travel and the journey which was not going to be easy.

At Lincoln, I participated in basketball and ran track. In the summer of 1970, I became more active than usual. At 9am I went outside, took my bike off the porch and rode up to the park. When I arrived I noticed a group of my peers surrounding a man in a baseball cap. I asked, What is going on? The man in the cap replied, I am organizing a youth baseball league. Would you like to join? I said sure, and I signed up. (The person who started the league name was Coach Mays. He coached the league for a couple of summers and then Coach Vick took charge.) They had morning games and afternoon games. I played in the morning because of my age group. The afternoon games were for the older youth. The only time I played with the older guys was when they needed a fill in, that’s how good I was. Usually after my morning game I went back home to decide if I was going back to the park or go swimming, I chose swimming most of the time because it was very hot some afternoons with intense humidity. When I went swimming, I always went swimming with a schoolmate or a group of schoolmates because I wanted someone to know where I was at all times. When I came back from swimming I ate dinner, and after dinner I went right back into the streets.

If I did not have a particular place to go, I just rode my bicycle around until I found some activity of interest. Every evening of that summer I came home between 9 & 10 P.M. I was so exhausted I went right to bed instead of giving my body time to relax. I was twelve years old that summer and eligible to play cub football. So I went to our family physician Dr. Downer, and informed him I was here to take a physical to play cub football. After the examination Dr. Downer informed me that I had a heart murmur. I immediately ask what is a heart murmur, he explain to me it’s an offbeat rhythm or fluttering of the heart, due to extreme stress and not giving the body time to rest back to its normal state. Dr. Downer did not pass my examination, and explained to me that it was not wise for me to play any sports or aggressive activities. Also he restricted me from participating in my physical fitness class at school. Dr. Downer advised me on a medical note if I continued to overexert myself in any type of aggressive activity, I would endanger myself of having some type of heart failure. He encouraged me to keep my head up, because he noticed the disappointed look on my face.

Dr. Downer sent me out the door with the thought of making me healthy for next year to come back stronger and participate in sports. When I walked out of that office, I was devastated of the fact not playing football for which I had waited so patiently. I took my yellowish goal 3-speed bike with the white streamers hanging down and started riding around in a circle in front of the doctor’s office with tears running down my face like a waterfall.

So, my 8th grade school year started and my enthusiasm level was at an all time low. As I mention at beginning of the book that I was shy, quiet and did not bring much attention to myself, so that worked out to my advantage. As the school year progressed, basketball season came around and I had the opportunity to be a team manager. As the season was in full swing, Coach Saucer looked at me strangely some times, so I looked around the bench and at the guys on the team to see if I was fulfilling my managerial duties correctly.

There was no mention to me of lack in duties, so I wondered sometimes what was the problem. His stare was a look of disappointment or frustration, but I could not see why because our basketball team was winning every game in the school district. Then I came up with an intuition that he was not upset with me, but disappointed I was not participating. Also I assisted Coach Saucer with the guys in track.

My 8th grade year was one to remember for athletics, because our school basketball team and track team won their city championships. I was very proud of the guys and it was an honor to rally around them to celebrate those victories. Having a paper route and being the team manager of the basketball and track teams became a great comforter in occupying my time. Then before you know it 8th graduation is knocking at the door. It was an honor in momentarily graduating that night, with a special peer group in anticipation of experiencing high school.

My parents and fellow classmates showed the expression of joy on their faces that night also. After graduation there was a dance planned for the graduates at the Carver Recreation Center next to the school in honor of our achievement. That night I felt pretty good, and wanted to express my self some that night, I was not much of a dancer at that time but in future years I became light on my feet. Also that was a night of getting lucky, so if you had any feelings for a female you needed to let it be known that night.

As the dance was in full swing it became hot, so I went outside to get some fresh air, I then walked out to the edge of the hill at Carver Center.

As I positioned myself on the hill, I expressed my greetings to some of my schoolmates. I noticed some of them were drinking some type of alcoholic beverage, I then asked, What are you guys drinking? they replied back Some wine. they asked me, Courtney you want some? I said Sure. When I had hold of the bottle and looked on the label it read Boone’s Farm Strawberry. So I took a big swallow and it tasted fruity which caught my interest. Also I observed some of my schoolmates smoking a thin like cigarette, I never smoked before, so I asked one of my peers for one, they accommodated me, and supplied me with the matches. When I took my first puff I coughed furiously. They said that was natural the first time, but my body rejected that type of substance, and to this day my body still does not accept tobacco. As I was smoking that thin type of cigarette I noticed the color was brown and had two silver circle strips around near the filter. I asked what type of cigarettes they were and he showed me the pack.

It was red and labeled More’s. After consuming the wine we all decided to walk to the liquor store to obtain some more. When arriving we stood at the side of the store in searching for someone to buy for us. We finally persuaded a street person to obtain some more wine for us and he asked to be compensated for his troubles. We all agreed to contribute and gave him some extra change. After obtaining the alcohol beverage we all walked back to the recreational center and stood on the hill to consume the wine, and smoke more cigarettes. As time went on, we all became a little silly, and started joking with each other and talking about what each one of us going to accomplish in high school. I do not think I even went back into the dance, the only thing I had on my mind is to be healthy to play football my freshman year of high school. It was getting late, the dance was winding down and people was leaving slowly but surely, and I was feeling a little tired from the wine so I said my goodbyes to my schoolmates and walked home, as I was walking home I was focusing strictly on football.

Summer vacation started and I was still under doctor’s orders not to participate in any aggressive activities, so I just delivered my paper route, mowed some yards for extra money and went to the park to interact with my peer group and park staff. Also, I went swimming to cool off some from the intense heat and humidity. The month of August was here and freshman football was about to start, and I needed to go back to the doctor to get a physical examination to play. This was the most intense and important moment in my 13 years living on the earth. At that time, Dr. Downer was the one who discovered my heart condition that past summer that medically restricted me from playing cub-football, for some reason I did go not go back to Dr. Downer I went to Dr. C.K. Newsome. When I was called next to be examined and started walking back to the area where Dr. Newsom examined his patients, I was more nervous then scared. After completing my examination he said I was fine to play football. At that moment, other than receiving my college degree, was one of the most wonderful times of my life.

Experiencing my disappointing 8th grade year not playing cub-football, basketball, and running track due to my heart condition, I thank my mother and father for their great support and the living God that regained my health.

My Parents

My mother was a warm hearted caring person and she loved us very much. She was a high school graduate and enjoyed caring for people. Most of her work was health care in nursing homes. Sometimes she worked independently in private homes when the doctor medically cleared her. That could be why I like helping people.

All she expected and wanted from her family was for us to do the right thing in life, for ourselves and in the eyes of others. My parents were big on moral standards, which the families of today have turned their backs on. These standards were to respect yourself and others, and to obey the principles and values of society.

As a youth, I was not an outgoing person, I hid back in the shadows, I became very observant. I looked at problems or certain issues, analyzed it and tried to find a solution. When I made my decision to respond to that issue, I made sure the appropriate action was initiated from harming myself or someone else. These strong characteristics of observation that I had discovered in myself, I still use today. Growing from an adolescent to a teenager then to an adult, my decision is and still trying to make that situation safe. That is what made me have faith in God, and his protection surviving the world’s trails and tribulations up to this present time.

My father’s instinct was somewhat aggressive, making sure our family was raised decently. Our parents demeanor was to make sure we address them as mother and father and respond back (yes—Sir, yes—Ma’am). Also to keep that same manner when we were out in public by ourselves, or in the company of adults that were present.

If this respectable manner was not meet on a continuous basis, you received one warning, after that warning your mouth would kiss the back of their hand.

Another mannerism that my parents wanted us to follow was not to talk when adults were talking, the only time my parents wanted us to speak was when we were spoken too.

My observation of my father, he worked hard to take care of the family needs, other than his recreational gambling activity. I believe the life he chose and made for himself growing up, he did not want us to follow that same path. I also believed as long as he was living, he wanted to see success from his children, and that would have made him satisfied. My father did not grow up in good times, it was the times of depression, and I believe my father’s life was not going so well at that time. As a youth, I assumed he noticed how money was made in the streets, and that temptation must have taken a hold of him and so he made a decision to dropout of school to make his life in the streets, he probably assumed at that time it was more profitable.

That time of the depression I believe it took my father through some type of psychological break down, and certain pressures came upon him to make that decision to go to the streets for a way to save his sanity, which he knew the consequences he would have to pay for dropping out of school. When I was participating in sports in high school, he would talk to my brother Andre how he used to play basketball in school. He drilled into my brother Andre that you have to practice everyday and stay in school to be better than your opponent, so you can succeed in your goals in life. He never expressed that personal wisdom with me, just my brother Andre. At that time I was doing pretty well in athletics, he talked to me later when I was a junior in high school about my talents and achievements.

After hearing many talks from my father expressing his knowledge of working hard to succeed and accomplish your goals to my brother Andre about his basketball future. I felt my father was tore up inside emotionally, and his heart full of sorrow for not staying in school. I did not say a word. I would just listen. I also noticed that when he was telling his stories to my brother, he spoke in humor and did not show any sadness, and I believed my father covered up his sadness with humor, mostly in front of my little brother and I admired my father very dearly for that demeanor.

The life my father chose was the hustle game, which has a variety of legal and illegal skills.