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Stroke
Survivor of the Month
Rev. Kenneth T. Whalum Boulevard – his beginnings were not in the pulpit. He worked for the United States Postal Service in many human resource capacities including District Manager of the Michigan Postal Service, Director of Personnel for the Memphis Post Office and Director of Employee Relations for the Southern Region. It was this vast experience of people management and his intense faith in God that ultimately brought him to church leadership. During the Civil Rights Movement, it was Rev. Whalum’s persuasiveness that convinced an alliance of other local ministers to bring Martin Luther King, Jr. to share his dream in Memphis. The year was 1968 and that appearance was to become Rev. King’s final and most famous mountaintop experience. In 1969, Olivet Baptist Church called Rev. Whalum to serve the people as Senior Pastor and he won souls there for Christ until 1999. In those 30 years he grew a powerful ministry that changed the face of Memphis on many levels. After retirement he began to experience TIAs (mini-strokes) as a result of his diabetic condition accompanied by stress and a certain amount of depression. He sustained 28 such TIAs in the course of one year causing his son, Kirk, to reach out to the Stroke of Hope family for assistance. (Kirk knew about Stroke of Hope’s work with Luther Vandross, with whom he has recorded and performed.) In October, family members accompanied Rev. Whalum to New York where he spent 5 days being evaluated by Stroke of Hope specialists, receiving therapy from our physical and aquatic trainers, attending a Hope Group (support group) session and even enjoying spiritual revival at Grace Baptist Church in Mt. Vernon where his long time friend, Rev. W. Franklyn Richardson, is Senior Pastor. The man that arrived at New York’s LaGuardia Airport wheel chair bound, frightened and insecure left with a new attitude – one of empowerment, belief and anticipation. He came not knowing what to expect and found the gifts of HOPE and LOVE. At 72
years young he is prepared to open a new chapter of his life. He
has 3 sons, Kenneth, Jr., Kirk
and Kevin. He also has 9 grandchildren and 1 great-grandchild.
Now he can also boast a wonderful extended family embodied in Stroke
of Hope. He has so much to give that we are privileged to
receive! Be blessed by reading the profound words of this mighty
man. Rev. Whalum says: "God is not required to give us advanced notice of his impeding activities and frankly we cannot be equipped to comprehend the same, so God does not have any such requirements for us. We are not expected to understand life or its vicissitudes. We cannot even come close to understanding what or why. God moves because his is a mysterious way. Someone said centuries ago "mine is not the reason why, mine is but to do or die". Why does sickness come… why disease… why stroke… why mishaps… why accidents? All these answers shall remain unknown until such time as we reach the point of no concern. Then, handle what you can when you can. God IS and WILL remain sovereign without our understanding. I have
no answers to my own whys, nor do you -- nor shall you."
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