On the 25th of August at 5 pm, The Walker’s Chapel Presbyterian Church held the 1st Anniversary for the Daughter’s of Destiny.

The Daughters of Destiny is a dance ministry made up of young women who have come together as a team and have made great efforts to become one in Christ, so that people would see them as a pathway to Jesus. Arann and I went to photograph the celebration. It was my very first time in a black church.

To be honest I was nervous about how we would be received. I knew one person at the church and I proved that I did not know him very well, as I referred to him as Belton Wayne instead of his proper name Belton Lane.

The history of black and white relations, especially in this area of SC, is scarred from the years of injustice towards the black population. Physically we were reminded of the separation by the fact that this church is the ‘black’ presbyterian church and it sits 100 ft behind the ‘white’ presbyterian church. In conversation we were reminded of the tension by a lovely older woman who said, “If it weren’t for the Lord, my people would have been wiped out by the way we were treated.”

But despite all of our nervous, it was an incredible experience: the music, the praising, the energy, the stories, and the people who welcomed us without hesitation. I met some wonderful people, who I hope to talk with again, to hear their stories of picking cotton and peaches and growing up black in rural South Carolina.