Home Care In Dry Prong, LA

DRY PRONG, La. (KALB) - The year was 1971—the desegregation of schools and the integration of Black and white students were underway in Grant Parish.

That year—Colfax Elementary, Pollock High School, and the all-Black Mary E. Graham High School consolidated into Dry Prong High School. The decision was met with boycotts and resistance from the community, but despite the big changes, the students persisted.

“We dealt with it, and we had no other choice but to deal with it because we were made to go to this school, Dry Prong High, so it made a big difference to all of us,” said Jessie Watkins-Foster, a former Mary E. Graham student and Dry Prong High School class of 1972 graduate.

“We were a close class, a very close class, and it was kind of devastating when we were told we had to go to another school,” added Quintilla Jones, who also attended Mary E. Graham and graduated from Dry Prong High School.

The 1971-1972 school year was full of challenges for the newly integrated students, especially those who in the wake of this decision, were completing their senior year.

“Some of our classmates were dropping out of school, going to other schools; we had bomb threats at school, they burned down the history building, the bus breaking down, and classmates not being honored at graduation,” said Watkins-Foster. “It was a rough time for us but we made it.”

The student integration served as an example for the rest of the community who initially rejected the decision to desegregate and consolidate the schools.

“It kind of grew us, grew us to know the difference and make a difference,” said Jones. “As a matter of fact, it brought the other people in the community closer together, seeing how we interacted.”

Now 50 years later, the graduating class of 1972 is reuniting and looking back, sharing a bond as the first integrated class to graduate from Dry Prong High School.

“We are proud of each other,” said Jones “Our class, is like blood, like family, from the beginning we have always loved each other, taken care of each other and we are proud to see each other’s children prospering. We were close, but we are even closer now.”

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The secret to keeping bread starter alive is to name it, said Lauren Thompson of Dry Prong.

She and her husband Jacob purchased a 100-year-old starter from New England that she says has managed to make bread each week.

"Valjean is our starter," said Lauren as she laughed. "It's actually the main character in 'Les Miserables,' the musical. He went to prison for stealing bread so we named it Valjean."

"He was stealing bread to feed his sister's family, who were starving," added Jacob.

He says he's not much of a talker, but he's the talent behind Brickhouse Bakery making all the artisan breads, cakes and pastries that the Dry Prong family sells each week at the Cabrini Farmers Market on East Texas Avenue.

"He got the talent. I got the words," said Lauren.

They also have seven children who sometimes sing and play musical instruments for market visitors while mom and dad sell the goods.

"We were told initially that nobody would be interested in organic bread," said Lauren. "It's just floofy, boujie bread. That sourdough is kind of weird. But we found that a lot of people appreciate artisan bread. And it's bread — not like our grandmothers' but like our great-great-grandmothers made. It is a totally yeast-free bread."

"Their products are always fresh," said customer Lisa Hendrix, of Alexandria. "I never had anything there that wasn't delicious."

She likes that she can look at their Facebook page to see what they have ahead of time and pre-order.

And, she added, she thinks the Thompson kids are really cute.

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Jacob had always been interested in baking but it wasn't until five years ago that he began to get into it.

"We had just had our sixth baby," said Lauren. And they sent their other five children to Texas to stay with her parents.

Since Jacob was off, he decided to take the opportunity to learn a new skill.

"He made some choux pastry," said Lauren. "And it was the first pastry he had ever made. They were like tiny pancakes."

Unfortunately, it was a horrible flop the first time around, said Lauren. But Jacob was undeterred.

So he tried again. And the second time around?

"They were amazing," said Lauren. "They're actually called religieuse or nuns. So that's what started it. And he really enjoyed baking."

Jacob began to ramp up the baking. After he came home from work, Lauren said they would make something fun together and sit by the oven to watch the puff pastries puff.

Later on, they visited the Paris Bakery in Paris, Texas, where Lauren is from. The owner gave them a list of books and told them if they wanted to learn more, they would need those guides.

At the time, baking was just a hobby but they invested purchasing in a couple of the suggested books.

That's when they began to get serious.

"I asked him to make me almond croissants on my birthday. And he did. And it was the most amazing thing," said Lauren.

They started baking for their friends who owned As the Crow Flies coffee shop in Pineville.

"They were super helpful — just so happy to let us sell our stuff there," she said. "And, the rest is history."

In 2019, they started selling their baked goods at the Alexandria Farmers Market. Even though Lauren said it was an amazing market, selling on Tuesdays didn't work for their schedule. So they started working at the Cabrini Farmers Market on Saturdays.

The Thompsons never expected the business to take off like it did.

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"We couldn't believe that so many people were interested in organic artisan bread," said Lauren. "These are breads that we make with our hands with local ingredients.We try to use as many local products as possible to support the local economy."

They use Ruston peaches, local blueberries and milk from Flowing Hills Creamery.

If they make a coffee filling, they'll get it from Khmericano Coffee. She doesn't want to shop at big box stores for ingredients.

"We try really hard to just bring home... food sustainability," she said. "That really is the best description because it's our people. It's our food. We have a really awesome community here."

Since they've been running Brickhouse Bakery, they've been pleasantly surprised by how many people are interested in supporting local economies and small businesses.

"We're just a cottage bakery," said Lauren. "We bake out of our home."

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DRY PRONG – Lloyd Whitman was nearing his final weeks of a 30-year ministry at First Baptist Church Dry Prong, but refused to “coast along” until he retired.

Instead, Whitman wanted to baptize at least one person during his final two months at the central Louisiana church.

He did that and more, baptizing at least one person each week from the the first Sunday in January until he stepped out of the pulpit Feb. 28.

Whitman said not doing so would have gone against the very mission of Jesus Christ that he has tried to fulfill in his 51 years of ministry.

“To see what God was doing at the end of my ministry was rewarding to me,” Whitman said. “The mission of the church is to win people to Jesus. To see that being fulfilled at Dry Prong gave me a sense of thankfulness and gratitude to God that He was moving in a powerful way.”

The string of baptisms came on the heels of the end of an 18-month search for a new pastor at First Baptist Dry Prong. Whitman said the congregation had prayed during that time that God would lead them to the right man for the job. In the process, the church experienced its own personal revival.

“God was just moving in every area of our church,” he continued. “I believe the key to this was that we began to pray and we began to search our own hearts to seek God’s face for a new pastor. I told our people to search your own life and pray if this is the man to lead us the next years.”

When Whitman came to First Baptist Dry Prong in October 1985, the congregation was averaging 90 in Sunday School and 125 in Sunday morning worship.

During his time as pastor, Lloyd Whitman loved visiting with church members and staff at First Baptist Church in Dry Prong. Whitman retired earlier in the year after pastoring at First Baptist Prong and other churches in central Louisiana for 51 years.

Today, those numbers have grown to 200 and 300, respectively, with Whitman baptizing 400 new Believers during the same timeframe.

For the first three years he was pastor at First Baptist Dry Prong and 17 years prior to that, Whitman was teaching and coaching at the parish school district. He taught physical education and coached track, football and basketball.

He said serving as a bi-vocational pastor in that capacity had its advantages.

“It was rewarding even though it was tough on me,” Whitman said. “When you coach, teach and pastor, you are working really hard each day.

“The reward was that some of the young people I taught and coached later came to know the Lord,” he said. “I’ve told people many times if I was to come back, I would want to do the same thing.”

Reminiscing on his 51-year career as a pastor, which also included pastoring at Bethel Baptist Church in Colfax, Fairfield Baptist Church in rural Grant Parish, Lataignier Baptist Church near Lecompte and Mermentau Baptist Church, Whitman offered several tips for others serving in the ministry.

First, love the people where you are.

“Everybody makes mistakes, everybody sins,” he said. “My philosophy through the years is to find a person where they are and move them to where God wants them to be.”

Also, mentor individuals in your church and teach them to win people to Jesus, he said.

“We as shepherds need to guide them to Jesus,” he said, “and preaching is very, very important. But pastoring people also means getting outside the church walls and reaching out to them, being there with them.”

Finally, Whitman said “don’t discard a person who is living in sin. Find a person where he is and move him to where he needs to be.”

Looking to the future, Whitman said he will stay active in ministry in a number of ways — helping out with Vacation Bible School, preaching at a church for a Sunday and just standing alongside someone who is hurting.

“I just want to minister to people,” he said. “I am willing to preach anywhere, or minister to anyone who is hurting. I just want to go out and touch people’s lives. I want them to know Jesus and touch their lives for Him.”

FISHVILLE (LBM) – Lloyd Whitman remembers the day he preached a revival at Friendship Baptist Church and the pews were filled with a congregation passionate for spiritual renewal among them and hungering for a spiritual awakening within the community.

The church eventually dwindled to just a handful of members and closed its doors in June 2019.

However, Whitman did not forget how God moved during the revival service in 1982. Consequently, he began to pray, asking God to return the church to its former strength of service to the Kingdom — and it appears his pleas have been heard.

Whitman stood before a worship center filled with 143 people, Feb. 2, for the first service of the congregation as the New Friendship Baptist Church, a cooperative effort by the First Baptist Church in Dry Prong, the primary sponsor, and other churches in the Big Creek Baptist Association.

“I had 100 bulletins printed up because I figured we would only need that many, but God showed up by bringing in even more than I could have imagined to the point where we ran out of bulletins,” Whitman told the Baptist Message. “When I looked across the church and remembered how I had stood there many years ago, it made me very joyful.

“Knowing that people who left are coming back to this church makes me very excited about this church’s future,” he added. “My prayer is that God will use us to be obedient and win people for Christ as we build a foundation based on Him.”

BEGINNING AGAIN

Friendship Baptist Church held its first worship service on Jan. 29, 1900, and drew people from throughout the Fishville community for nearly 120 years. But attendance waned over the years until the congregation voted in January 2018 to operate under a new name, Anchor Baptist Church. That effort was short-lived and the congregation voted on June 2, 2019, to hand over the property to the Big Creek Association.

A committee formed and prayed about God’s direction for how they would use the property.

Associational Mission Strategist Daryl Stagg was joined by Whitman, Kevin Simmons, pastor of Wayside Baptist Church in Pollock, and Trey Lewis, pastor of New Prospect Baptist Church in Dry Prong and they concluded that the Holy Spirit was leading them to replant the church.

“When Anchor Baptist Church gave the church to us, my heart became to be heavy for that community,” said Whitman, who was interim pastor at First Baptist Church in Montgomery at the time. “I didn’t know what I was going to do but I knew we wanted to be a church. That community needs a church presence and through the process of my prayers I know God placed me there. When this came open, my heart became heavy to be the pastor.”

Stagg added, “I am excited to see God working to replant this church. It has been a team effort. Pastors and lay leaders in our associational churches are working together to help struggling churches.”

Drew Gardner, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dry Prong, said his congregation is humbled for the opportunity to join with Whitman and New Friendship Baptist Church in the effort to reach the community with the Gospel. First Baptist supports New Friendship financially, and they send members on a rotating basis to serve as ushers, greeters and other roles on Sunday mornings.

“For the future, our hearts and hands are open toward whatever God might lead us to do,” Gardner said. “The call to follow Jesus is a call to open-ended surrender, and we want to make our partnership with New Friendship an extension of that call. So as needs and opportunities arise there, we want to be ready and willing to meet them.”

Looking ahead, Whitman said the future is bright for New Friendship Baptist. They will continue to hold just one Sunday morning worship service until after Easter, when they will add a Sunday evening service and Wednesday night prayer meeting.

“I believe as we develop this church into a good solid foundation of growth and getting people to come,” Whitman said. “I see a church in the future that will be filling the sanctuary on a regular basis and will get out in the community to see people saved. I see a church that will function the way a church is supposed to function. We want to build on Jesus.”