Really Be of Good Cheer: I Have Overcome the World

By S. Williams

Few or no books are written on the way certain women of color seem to simply disappear from one of America’s oldest church organizations.

Really Be of Good Cheer: I Have Overcome the World succinctly uncovers the experiences of a female pastor’s triumph over trivialization and sexual harassment within the African Methodist Episcopal Zion denomination.

The pastor’s story depicts her vindication at the trial of a presiding elder from the West Alabama conference in 2010. After graduating from seminary, she received relentless propositions and opposition from several leaders in the Greensboro/Demopolis district.

Due to her continued unwillingness to enlist sexual misconduct in exchange for a pastoral church appointment, in 2015, she was forcibly ejected from a church meeting.

Really Be of Good Cheer: I Have Overcome the World also includes old and new testaments scriptures concerning the infallibility of God’s promises that are paramount to overcoming trials and tribulations in the world today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781662427701

S. Williams

S. Williams is the bestselling author of Tuesday Falling. He has written lyrics for many bands, including for an international rock star, writes and performs bespoke ghost stories in historic buildings, and runs an alternative personality in the dark web.

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Really Be of Good Cheer

I Have Overcome the World

S. Williams

Copyright © 2021 S. Williams

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2021

ISBN 978-1-6624-2769-5 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-6624-5529-2 (hc)

ISBN 978-1-6624-2770-1 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

As Far Back as I Can Remember

Teenagers Love Affair

Two Women Tore My House Down

Trials and Tribulations

Church Rejection

The Great Fall

Picking Up the Pieces

The Enemy Returns Again

An Interruption from Within

A Rude Awakening

A Glimmer of Hope

To the Loving Memory of My Sister

Dr. Billie Jean Young

Foreword

As we say: life goes on; we must pick up the pieces, as I did. It has not been easy, but Jesus has spoken, Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world (John 16:33 KJV).

I have overcome the things written about in this book and a whole lot more. Really!

There is no guarantee that people always say what they actually mean or mean what they say, so the word really has different connotations.

The experiences in today’s world lend themselves to ignite a general type of caution even when a perception of optimism is present.

For example, I think that when individuals interpret scripture through the eyes of God, they can obtain a pure view of life: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

In other words, irrespective of individual strength, after people coalesce with life’s uncertainty, any type of hope which is fundamentally grounded in the teachings of Jesus Christ has great propensity of producing traits of divine substance and natural. Really!

An ambiguity of the word really is that it confirms that someone’s answer is yes, but it also may be used to express doubt as well.

For example, when really occurs in our general conversational language, the dichotomy of the word really is that when it is used by the first person, it can confirm what is stated.

Comparably, the word may express sarcasm, doubt, or disbelief when it is a response concerning what has been stated.

As stated from the outset, life goes on.

If you were to do a word study on really, real is a root of the word really, which means to be honest and true.

Because of fear of how another individual will receive the naked truth and nothing but the truth, or how the truth which is being spoken will be understood by others, some people are not always open and feel that they must protect themselves through boundaries.

So what does it mean that life is full of trials and tribulations? One interpretation could mean that life is trials and tribulations, only. To another person, it means that in life, trials and tribulations bring about the learning necessary in order to be successful.

Preface

Biblical reference provides an evidentiary prognostication of the omen by a strange twist of fate: With these words, All things work together for good to them who love God, who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28 KJV).

The last day of the November 2019 AME Zion Church Conference (i.e., November 9, 2019), was the deadline I chose for myself to either return to pastoral care, or I would begin an active engagement in putting my life story out there by writing this memoir.

I viewed this as a form of poetic justice and trust in God that the Lord was about to reveal the direction my life would move into.

By November 10, 2019, my long-awaited motivation to begin the odious and lengthy process of publication became obvious because at the end of the