By Charles Underwood
Sometimes one meets or hears about a person, and they make such an impact that their face or story will always be remembered. Otis Parker was one of these people. Otis Parker was a pretty normal guy. He played the trumpet in the school band. He wore glasses and looked kind of awkward, like most kids in junior high. He was starting to forget that girls had cooties, and he started “hanging out” with his friends instead of “playing” with them. But there was something different about Otis. There was something that just stood out about him. That became evident to me on September 17.
It was 6:00 A.M., and it was way too early for me to be awake. But I was, along with millions of kids around the world. I sleepily got ready for school and headed out the door late, as usual. I was supposed to be at the flagpole at 6:30 to meet the other See You at the Pole (SYATP) leaders. As I came up to the school at about 6:45, I saw at least 10 kids around the flag pole already. I ran up to the other leaders and reviewed who was going to do what and when. I was so excited! The group increased as the singing, praying, and Bible reading went on. The final headcount was 126. That was really good for a school as small as Sumrall.
That night, I went to church excited about what God had done in my school that day. My youth director made the whole youth night focused around SYATP. We all shared stories about how things went at our schools and how the numbers of people had been. A few guys from my church had gone to a few of the area school and filmed clips from the morning’s activities. The crowds of students from these schools were so impressive. It was amazing that that many students from just my area stood up for Jesus Christ. But that’s were Otis Parker came in. We watched the film clips of the crowds of students gathered at the flag poles, and it was really cool. But then the film switched to Hawkins Junior High. The camera focused on the flagpole for a few minutes, and then we saw Otis Parker. He was the only one there. For thirty minutes, he had See You at the Pole by himself. Other kids came by, but they didn’t come to pray. A few kids jumped up and down, made a lot of noise, and tried to distract him. Otis Parker stood strong, maybe even stronger than before. One boy came up and asked Otis what he was doing as if he thought Otis was stupid. Otis just smiled and said, “I’m praying for you.” My youth group sat silently, amazed at the freeze frame of Otis Parker sitting alone by the flagpole.
Sometimes one meets or hears about a person, and they make such an impact that their face or story will always be remembered. For some people this could be a movie star or a famous athlete. For me, this person is Otis Parker, a normal junior high kid that stood alone for the Lord. If more people would stand firm for what they believe, this world would be a better place. It is not always easy to be strong. The world may not accept those who try to stand up for their beliefs. But I believe that one should stand even stronger in hard times, because that is when an impact is made and lives are changed.
Charles Underwood has been involved in publishing content since the twentieth century. He has authored articles for the newspapers Hattiesburg-American, Lamar County Times, Healthy Cells Magazine and Parents & Kids Magazine. For several years he was the librarian for a First Baptist Church, writing reviews for the church newsletter; he also authored Librarian Perspective Reviews for the church’s physical and digital library’s collections, published by First Baptist Church of Midway. He is currently working on Christian Librarian Pastor Revue Anthology II.