Bishop Chris Parker

Bishop Chris Parker sat down with me for Heroes I Know.

A hero of mine. Jumpmaster. Informal leader. I enjoyed working with him at every level. Air defense. Third of the Fourth.

He came to Bragg in 1990 out of Virginia. Nadine is from Norfolk. They went to high school together. He brought her up. She enlisted. They have been married twenty-four years. Both in the service. Together. He came up behind us. Watching. Wanting to do what we were doing.

He went to Korea in ninety-three. Came back in ninety-four. Late ninety-four he walked into Jumpmaster school from Third of the Fourth as a corporal promotable. Black hat. Fort Bragg. He said that was everything. He learned it on the platform. Basic Airborne at Benning, watching those black hats. Short. Professional. Then he was one. Turret training. POIs. Composure. He will tell you that is how he preaches now.

He left the school to go back to battalion and get ready for warrant officer school. He was tired all the time. Failed a PT test. Sergeant Major Patterson ran with him on Ardennes until he passed. He got to Rucker. A flight buddy told him if he did not go to the TMC he was going to peer him out of the course. He went. Chronic myelogenous leukemia. They told him he had less than twenty-four hours. They medevac’d him to Fort Gordon. Nadine and their oldest, Chris, came. Chemotherapy. That night he accepted the call to preach. The doctors had put him on morphine. He told the Lord whatever You want me to do, I will do it.

Seventeen years later he is still here. Remission. Oncologist once a month. Medication every day. They put him on TDRL. Five years. Medically retired at Bragg. He stayed. Abundant Life Ministries. Raeford, North Carolina. 504 West Sixth. He started it in the living room. Him, Nadine, the kids. Six of them. Bible study outgrew the house. Then a three-bedroom they gutted into a church. Then they bought a church. More than a hundred and twenty-five members.

He preaches life to people who do not have much. Possibility. Hope. Where they are is not where they have to stay. Summer camp for the kids in Raeford who eat free and reduced lunch during the school year. Breakfast and lunch. Reading. Math. Music. Arts. Bible study. Nine to two. Teachers from Polk County volunteer.

He was in his twelfth year when we talked. His daughter had just graduated high school. Winston-Salem State. She wants to be a pediatric doctor. He is proud of her. His parents were in great health. He said he did not know what more he could ask for. I asked him what to put at the top of a three-by-five card. Don’t ever quit on what you believe. Walk by faith and not by sight.

That is why we hit record. Get the story on tape before we are too old or too sick to tell it.