Dear Granddaddy,

On behalf of our Trinity family, and from the deepest place in my heart, I want to say thank you. Fifty years of faithful ministry is a rare testimony in our world today. You have not only preached the Word—you have lived it. Your life has matched your message, and that consistency has shaped all of us more than you may ever realize.

Some of my earliest and most cherished memories are of watching you—standing in the pulpit with a fire in your belly, compassion in your eyes and love in your voice, opening the Bible, and declaring the truth without apology. But as powerful as those messages were, what has preached even more clearly is the way you’ve lived out what you preached: with unselfishness, with kindness, with a Christlike spirit that shines in every room you enter. To know you is to know a friend, each friend made to feel seen, valued, and loved.

I think often of 2018, when your beloved Muzette—my Grandmama—went home to be with the Lord. In those days leading up to her homegoing and in the days that followed, I saw a new depth of strength and grace in you. You carried grief with dignity, you bore sorrow with hope, and you stood— with tears in your eyes—and declared that God is faithful. That was one of the greatest messages you ever preached, not with words, but with your life. Grandmama’s faith, paired with your faithfulness, became a living picture of Christ’s love for His church. As she said so many times in those last 25 years of her life from a sickbed, “Honey I’m fine, you go on and preach.” There is no doubt in my mind that she would be so very proud of you for pushing on for the Lord the way you have.

In these past 50 years, Trinity has been forever marked by your obedience. Souls have been saved, families restored, generations built up in the faith—all because you said yes to the call of God. Let me be clear, this moment is not a farewell. This is not a closing chapter. It is a celebration of God’s goodness over fifty years and a reminder that He still has work for you to do. As you tell me all the time, “I’m not retiring, I’m re-firing!” We all say, amen! Keep preaching, keep loving and keep pursuing the perfect will of God for your life and your ministry.

Granddaddy, thank you for showing us that ministry is not a career, but a calling. Thank you for proving that the Bible is always sufficient, worth living for and worth dying for. Thank you for your unselfishness, your kindness, your Christlikeness, and your heart for people all around the world.

As your grandson, I could never put into words what your life and example mean to me. As your pastor, I am humbled to honor you today on behalf of a church family that loves you deeply. I love you, and I thank God for giving me the privilege just to know you.

With all my heart,
Pastor Winston Parrish 
and the Trinity Baptist Church Family