Praise &Celebration!

28 Years...“By God’s Good

Grace!”

Our Exodus...December 1984 to November

11, 2012Time for a new beginning

He was asked, and Pastor Brown answered, “Yes!” When the flock heard, they shouted and danced, and praised God! Soon after, they wanted to know what the church would be called. “Let me pray about it,” said Rev. Brown. Two weeks passed before he returned to them saying, “God gave me ‘New Haven’. New Haven will be the name, because the people need a haven to go to,” he explained.

Rev. G.G. Brown shepherded this flock for 24 years, from 1985 until his retirement on July 31, 2008, at age 83. Though having passed the torch on, this Man of God can still be found on the battlefield for Christ here among the body of New Haven.

Rev. Brown was one of the co-founders of New Haven Missionary Baptist Church, along with...

Mother Mary Bland (Left) and her daughter, Sis. Ersaline (Bland) Bryant, and...

Mother Frankie Haire Burrell (Left), and her daughter, Sis. Marie Corbin.

Also, the first President of the Mothers’ Board, it was Mother Burrell who met with Rev. Brown in December of 1984, soon after he had resigned from True Vine. She asked him not to leave town, but to stay and help them build a new church that they had already started with a handful of others who had come from True Vine.

The New Haven Mother’s Board now consists of Sisters Dorothy Gatlin, President and eldest daughter of Mother Burrell, Callie Bobo, Lela Johnson, Ethel Dunbar, Geneva Ewing, Thretha Carter, Iola Johnson, and Sis. Velma Sterling.

On the battlefield for most of their adult lives, Mother Burrell (grandmother of Rev. Corbin) and Sis. Bland were surely watching from above as the congregation marched that Sunday from Jerry Street to our current home.

Mother Mary Bland was a faithful worker and the first President of the Usher’s Board. During their earthly service, She and Sis. Frankie Burrell were a formidable and inseparable tag team for Christ!

Sis. Ersaline Bryant made each of the crossings from 5th Street to West street, and was with us at this site, for 6 years before going to be with the Lord in 2010.

And, now under the pastorship of her son (Rev. Rodney Corbin), Sis. Marie Corbin continues to be a faithful member and willing worker here at New Haven.

In December 1984, Sis. Bland, Mother Burrell, Sis Bryant and Sis. Corbin-- these four women held the first Sunday morning worship service at the home of Sis. Bland. This little house at 415 Garland, in West Helena, served as the first church of what was the start of New Haven Missionary Baptist Church. The women were joined there that morning by 4 other adults (and their children), who had also left True Vine soon after them.

On This Rock...The Garland Street Church Roll

Sis. Queen JarrettSis. Vivian Banks Bradford

Sis. Brenda JohnsonSis. Ruthie Rogers

Sis. Mary BlandSis. Ersaline Bryant

Sis. Frankie Haire BurrellSis. Marie Corbin

Most of these women had children and/or grandchildren who came with them. Including the youth,

there were 21 who first gathered to worship at the little house church that wintry December Day.

Our first choir rehearsal was held at the home of Sis. Queen Jarrett (Bro. Elbert) in West Helena. The first New Haven choir was made up of 17 women and children. There were no instruments. They sang hymns acapello, with the stomping of feet and clapping of hands as their only accompaniment. But it was a high holy time!

Church...More Than Just A Building...

To most who first laid eyes on it, it was an old ragged shack... “But to us, it was a palace..” -- Sis. Ersaline Bryant

New Haven’s second church home was an old hamburger hut, called the Buccaneer, leased to the fledgling flock by Bro. Clyde Bobo. It still stands on Panama Road in West Helena. When the church opened its doors there in February of 1985, that Sunday morning, nine new members were added to the roll, joining those would had come from the Garland Street house church.

...I Will Build My Church

Those nine were:

Sis. Rosie NorvellSis. Elizabeth Honey Sanders

Sis. Dorothy GatlinBro. Troy Bobo

Sis. Mattie SandersSis. Tosha Johnson

Sis. Phyllis WhiteSis. Lottie Stone Sis. Emma Lee

There were not the men to comprise a deacon board back then. So, as God uses whom He will, these women were officially the first deacons of the church, coined “deaconesses” by Pastor Brown. They served from the start of the church’s time in the Buccaneer and through out a long portion of time at Jerry Street. They were Sis. Elizabeth “Honey” Sanders, Sis. Ersaline Bryant and Sis. Marie Corbin. Sis. Brenda Johnson, now deceased, was also on this Board.

Members going all the way back to the Buccaneer are Sis. Choice Peer, who would later follow Sis. Bland as Pres. of the Usher Board. Sis. Lucille Maxey (C) became the Pastor’s first nurse. She went home to take her rest in 2010. Sis. Vanilla Burrell Kemp (daughter of Mother Burrell) joined at Jerry Street working throughout as a dedicated usher. She saw the foundation of the current home be laid, but passed on to her eternal home before the building was completed.

Prepare the Fatted Calf!“We’ve been here for as long as it takes a woman to have a baby,” Rev. Brown would say just as they were preparing to move from the little hamburger hovel

that they had transformed into a place where God was truly worshipped!

It was a cold Sunday morning when they left the Buccaneer for the last time. Members

marched the way to what was to be their third church home, shouting, dancing and singing ‘Moving

Up To Zion,’ as they went. A humble people were making a crossing, and doing it with praise

for the One who made it all possible.

Once Pastor Brown had said, “Yes” to the new building that had first been spotted by Sis. Bland, another of the co-founders, Sis. Marie Corbin, found an angel who gifted the church with the money for the down payment to purchase the building.

Finally, while at Jerry Street, the Lord sent New Haven one of its’ first Deacons--Bro. James Carter, who has since passed on. But even with his coming, men were still scarce. So, the women continued to work with him in their role as Deaconesses, until God sent those men who might be trained to serve as deacons.

And, soon thereafter, God did send men! The Deacon Board sprouted .

(Left to right) Bro. Edward Lewis, Bro. Ike Tribune, Deacon Troy Bobo, Bro. George Hicks (Deacon in Training at Jerry Street), and Bro. Marvin Jarrett. Not pictured, Bro. Fate Heard and Bro. Elbert Jarrett also served for a time as New Haven Deacons .

But, Rev. G.G. Brown couldn’t have known at this time, that he and his congregation, after a decade, would soon be leaving Jerry Street for something greater that God had in store for His people...

Oh, That You Would Bless Us

And Enlarge Our Territory....

It was long time member, Mother Earnestine Russell who first carried the vision for a new church home. Then, she and Mother Dorothy Gatlin took the idea to Sis. Marie Corbin, a member of the Board of Trustees. From there, it was discussed between the Trustees, the Deacons and Pastor Brown.

...And the body also believed! In the summer of 2002, they, too, said “Yes” to the dream. The time had come! And on June 15, 2004, members joined together for the historic ground breaking.

Those who were closely involved with the project would learn first hand of the dips and sharp turns that were to be endured in this crossing. Yet, they never forgot to look to the Lord and to glorify His name!

Yes, we had an expert guide who knew the course better than anyone else ever could. His name was Jesus! With Him wearing the hard hat, the construction of the fourth church home was begun. Set on 5 acres of land purchased from Bro. Clyde Bobo, miraculously, it was built without there ever being blue prints drawn up! Who could lead such a project but God?!

Entering into our new home on July 1, 2005, on that blessed Sunday morning, the congregation once again marched from the old place to the new one. Oh, what jubilation! How we worshipped and praised God that day!

And just as the Lord gave us a good Shepherd at the start of our exodus, before we ever imagined Rev. Brown’s departure in the summer of 2008, God had already chosen the man to walk this way after him... It was to be a young preacher who had grown up at True Vine, under Rev. Brown, and who at this time resided in northwest, AR. He was no stranger to New Haven. Still, we could not have known...

So, with much fasting and prayer, we beseeched God to send a preacher—not just any preacher, but a man of God who lived the type of life that he preached about...

Yes, God heard our cry and opened up the way, moving one barrier after another to bring this preacher to us; allowing us once again to witness only a work that God could perform—showing us that He is with us, New Haven; For, to know the story of this Shepherd’s coming, is to know that God sent him to us.

So, on March 29, 2009, Rev. Rodney Corbin preached his first sermon as Pastor of New Haven, to become only the second Pastor to lead these people during our 25 year history!

His official installation date was June 28, 2009. Since this time to the present, Rev. Corbin has lead approximately 227 souls to Christ!

Not forgetting the road less traveled, or the faith and work of those who have come before us. But, Looking to our future... To what the continuing story will tell...how the final history will read through the efforts of us all who are here in this place--which has been and is a haven for God’s people...

The path has been cut by God and first pressed down by the treading of our co-founders, and by each of you– old and new members...

From a tiny seed... Since it’s founding, the New Haven body has grown from 8 adult members to more

than 600 adults and children who have accepted Christ as their Savior! Making

each one of you who were there from the very first day of December 1984, to this, the 11th day of November, 2012—the 28th year, a

part of the history that is New Haven Missionary Baptist Church.

We Are Our Past...

OurPresent...

& Our Future...

We shall not be ashamed of our history, for God commanded

Joshua, “Take twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan

and carry them over with you that they may be a sign among

you when your children ask their fathers in times to come,

‘What do these stones mean to you?...”

Yes, like the Israelites, we must let our children know-- and their

children’s children-- that we came over to this placeon the shoulders of our

ancestors, blessed by the favor of our God. That all the people of

the earth may know that the Hand of the Lord is mighty– even unto a people who are called by the name New Haven Missionary

Baptist Church... (2011 Ver 1/2012 Ver II Compiled/Written by ADLCorbin)