thedrifter
12-16-05, 07:01 PM
Mother dedicates Christian bookstore to son killed in Iraq
Friday, December 16, 2005
By CONNIE BAGGETT
Staff Reporter
BREWTON -- With devotional books, sparkling ornaments, scented candles and angelic figurines displayed in every available space, the small bookstore doesn't look much like a battlefield.
But it is.
Owner Gail Williams sees each day and each customer as a chance to send good into the world and carry on the mission of her son, Marine Cpl. Christopher David Winchester, who died
this summer in Iraq.
Ellie
"It's my way of fighting back," said Williams, with her daughter and business partner Allison Murphy at her side. "I know God didn't have anything to do with his death. It was Satan. Everything that goes out of the store is a blow against evil, a blow against him."
Winchester was killed in July when a roadside bomb ripped through an armored vehicle on patrol. He and another Marine died instantly.
Winchester is believed to be the first Escambia County serviceman killed in combat since the Vietnam War.
Williams said she had long felt called to open her own business, although she figured it would be a bookkeeping operation that she could run from her home. But when a Christian bookstore in town announced its closing last year, she began thinking about buying it or opening a store of her own, she said.
"I kept thinking, 'God, is this what you want me to do?'" Williams said. "I was working at Industrial Machine Works in Flomaton, and thoughts would keep coming to me about what I could sell. The name of the store, 'It Is Written,' came to me."
Williams said that Winchester served as a source of encouragement for her. "I'd been telling my son about it all along, and he told me I needed to do it," she said.
Her son was a dedicated Christian who shared his faith with other Marines, Williams said. He cared deeply about his family and church, and even e-mailed a Mobile television station during Hurricane Dennis to tell people back home that he was praying for them just as they had been praying for his safety in Iraq. Days afterward, he was dead.
The family's pastor, the Rev. Doug Greer of Divine Temple Church in East Brewton, said Winchester was fighting a "double war" as a Marine in Iraq. One war was for the freedom of his countrymen. The other was for the freedom of men's souls.
"Chris was dedicated to his country and to God," Greer said. "He took tapes of our services and played them for the troops. He was planting seeds there, and his dream was for his mother to have the bookstore here."
He noted a verse in scripture that says, "And by it, he being dead yet speaketh."
Said Greer, "A lot of young people go in that store now to see the memorial wall. Chris is still bringing them in, and he's still speaking. It's more than just a store."
As Williams contemplated establishing her own store, she obtained an loan application from the U.S. Small Business Administration. She never filled out the forms, she said, because of her concerns about going into debt.
But two weeks after her son's death, Williams received enough money from a life insurance policy that her son left to her to open her own Christian bookstore, just off U.S. 31 in the Brewton Heights Shopping Center.
She and her daughter incorporated as "Christopher's Ministry." The name of the store is "It Is Written."
Inside, shoppers meander past displays of a wide variety of items and most stop to look at a wall dedicated to Winchester. A photograph of the handsome 23-year-old in his dress uniform hangs in the center, flanked by letters from the president and governor. Other scenes from his life also have places on the wall.
Many shoppers on a recent weekday paused to tell Williams and Murphy that they appreciated the sacrifice Winchester made.
"I didn't know him," said customer Johnnie Mae McConnico, " but I thank God for him."
McConnico joined hands with the mother and daughter and prayed for them. Several shoppers in the store stopped browsing, their heads bowed until the prayer ended.
"We've been open for three weeks now," Williams said later. "Sometimes God takes bad things and turns around to do something special."
Friday, December 16, 2005
By CONNIE BAGGETT
Staff Reporter
BREWTON -- With devotional books, sparkling ornaments, scented candles and angelic figurines displayed in every available space, the small bookstore doesn't look much like a battlefield.
But it is.
Owner Gail Williams sees each day and each customer as a chance to send good into the world and carry on the mission of her son, Marine Cpl. Christopher David Winchester, who died
this summer in Iraq.
Ellie
"It's my way of fighting back," said Williams, with her daughter and business partner Allison Murphy at her side. "I know God didn't have anything to do with his death. It was Satan. Everything that goes out of the store is a blow against evil, a blow against him."
Winchester was killed in July when a roadside bomb ripped through an armored vehicle on patrol. He and another Marine died instantly.
Winchester is believed to be the first Escambia County serviceman killed in combat since the Vietnam War.
Williams said she had long felt called to open her own business, although she figured it would be a bookkeeping operation that she could run from her home. But when a Christian bookstore in town announced its closing last year, she began thinking about buying it or opening a store of her own, she said.
"I kept thinking, 'God, is this what you want me to do?'" Williams said. "I was working at Industrial Machine Works in Flomaton, and thoughts would keep coming to me about what I could sell. The name of the store, 'It Is Written,' came to me."
Williams said that Winchester served as a source of encouragement for her. "I'd been telling my son about it all along, and he told me I needed to do it," she said.
Her son was a dedicated Christian who shared his faith with other Marines, Williams said. He cared deeply about his family and church, and even e-mailed a Mobile television station during Hurricane Dennis to tell people back home that he was praying for them just as they had been praying for his safety in Iraq. Days afterward, he was dead.
The family's pastor, the Rev. Doug Greer of Divine Temple Church in East Brewton, said Winchester was fighting a "double war" as a Marine in Iraq. One war was for the freedom of his countrymen. The other was for the freedom of men's souls.
"Chris was dedicated to his country and to God," Greer said. "He took tapes of our services and played them for the troops. He was planting seeds there, and his dream was for his mother to have the bookstore here."
He noted a verse in scripture that says, "And by it, he being dead yet speaketh."
Said Greer, "A lot of young people go in that store now to see the memorial wall. Chris is still bringing them in, and he's still speaking. It's more than just a store."
As Williams contemplated establishing her own store, she obtained an loan application from the U.S. Small Business Administration. She never filled out the forms, she said, because of her concerns about going into debt.
But two weeks after her son's death, Williams received enough money from a life insurance policy that her son left to her to open her own Christian bookstore, just off U.S. 31 in the Brewton Heights Shopping Center.
She and her daughter incorporated as "Christopher's Ministry." The name of the store is "It Is Written."
Inside, shoppers meander past displays of a wide variety of items and most stop to look at a wall dedicated to Winchester. A photograph of the handsome 23-year-old in his dress uniform hangs in the center, flanked by letters from the president and governor. Other scenes from his life also have places on the wall.
Many shoppers on a recent weekday paused to tell Williams and Murphy that they appreciated the sacrifice Winchester made.
"I didn't know him," said customer Johnnie Mae McConnico, " but I thank God for him."
McConnico joined hands with the mother and daughter and prayed for them. Several shoppers in the store stopped browsing, their heads bowed until the prayer ended.
"We've been open for three weeks now," Williams said later. "Sometimes God takes bad things and turns around to do something special."