Post by coldfront06 on May 19, 2008 18:12:59 GMT -5
NBA star Wade's mother opens her own church
BY STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporter sesposito@suntimes.com
Perhaps she always preaches this way, but there was a particular urgency in pastor Jolinda Wade's voice as she stood before her flock Sunday evening.
"Who is big and bad enough to step past the devil and accept the Lord now?" she shouted.
A few moments later, stomping her feet, she warned: "Don't let the door close! Don't let the door close!"
Wade knows all about closing doors and temptation.
But on Sunday, with her NBA superstar son Dwyane Wade sitting in the front pew, Jolinda Wade began a new chapter in life.
After years of drug and alcohol abuse -- and time in prison -- Jolinda Wade opened the doors to her first church as co-pastor minister of the Temple of Praise on the South Side.
It's a simple, unadorned chapel with fluorescent lighting, a plain white pulpit and no windows. Her son bought the building.
Wade turned her life around seven years ago when, after years of urging by her children, she got help and got clean. Along the way, she devoted her life to spreading the word of God, starting her first ministry while doing time in state prison.
She joked Sunday about her old life, pointing to her mother in the church audience.
"That woman over there -- I used to tell her, 'Don't pray for me,'" Wade said. "Because if she prayed for me, the police came."
When it was his turn to speak, Dwyane Wade said: "People says what I've done is miraculous. No, no, this is miraculous."
BY STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporter sesposito@suntimes.com
Perhaps she always preaches this way, but there was a particular urgency in pastor Jolinda Wade's voice as she stood before her flock Sunday evening.
"Who is big and bad enough to step past the devil and accept the Lord now?" she shouted.
A few moments later, stomping her feet, she warned: "Don't let the door close! Don't let the door close!"
Wade knows all about closing doors and temptation.
But on Sunday, with her NBA superstar son Dwyane Wade sitting in the front pew, Jolinda Wade began a new chapter in life.
After years of drug and alcohol abuse -- and time in prison -- Jolinda Wade opened the doors to her first church as co-pastor minister of the Temple of Praise on the South Side.
It's a simple, unadorned chapel with fluorescent lighting, a plain white pulpit and no windows. Her son bought the building.
Wade turned her life around seven years ago when, after years of urging by her children, she got help and got clean. Along the way, she devoted her life to spreading the word of God, starting her first ministry while doing time in state prison.
She joked Sunday about her old life, pointing to her mother in the church audience.
"That woman over there -- I used to tell her, 'Don't pray for me,'" Wade said. "Because if she prayed for me, the police came."
When it was his turn to speak, Dwyane Wade said: "People says what I've done is miraculous. No, no, this is miraculous."
