rdricketts.com Blog

August 31, 2008 was Ordination Sunday for Victory Family Church of Virginia in Danville.  Co-Pastors Danny and Nancye Ricketts and Associate-Pastors David and Deborah Price were ordained.

Nancye and Danny Ricketts graduated from Rhema Bible Training Center in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma in 1998.

Pastor Nancye Ricketts was in the Pastors’ Group at Rhema and Pastor Danny Ricketts was in the Missions’ Group.  In 1998 and 2000, we were a part of Rhema teams in Nagpur, India.  We ministered in the city and surrounding villages with Rev. Nahari Thorat and wife Lata, who are founders and directors of Rhema India Bible Training Center.  The map in this photograph, with captions in Hindu, was given to us by Kevin Castro, who was then a missionary to India.  Kevin is now Dean of the school.

Pray for the Christian people of India, epecially the Orissa state in east India.  Recently, police and officials stood by while mobs of Hindus burned Christian churches and the homes of Christians.  Fourteen pastors were murdered.  More that a thousand churches were destroyed.  Christian leaders believe the attacks are part of a much larger campaign by Hindu fanatics to stop lower-caste Hindus known as Untouchables or Dalits from converting to Christianity. 

The difficulties may be more economic than religious.  Under Hinduism people seem to be expected to stay in their place. This system is even worse that slavery which existed in this country long ago.  They is no underground railroad to excape the bondage of those who are persecuted.  The belief is that every individual must die in the state of life into which they are born.  There is no hope for having a better life in the caste system.  Christianity is a real threat to those who look down on certain classes of people and are determined to keep them down; slaves to the system.  Those who are born into a family of dung gatherers or ditch diggers must live and die in the same existence.  The eyes are the windows of the soul.  India has many empty eyes of hopelessness.  In a crowd, you can pick out the bright eyes of hope in the Christian people of India.  Many still live in total dispair.

Watch this video about the destruction and death:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvJ6WD13T2s

Click to see more pictures and more about our ordination service:

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My grandfather Mark Daniel Jones (1878-1946) told his children many times that he was the thrid person to arrive at the wreck site of the “Old 97″ fast mail train on September 27, 1903.  Dan and his pregnant wife (my mother was born November 12, 1903) Annie Brooks Pruett Jones (1880-1969) were taking a nap on that Sunday afternoon.  They were staying with Annie’s widowed mother Laura Lavelette Driskill Pruett at her home at 501 Middle Street.   In the spring of 1904, Dan, Annie and my four-month-old mother Annie Marie Jones, moved to a 35-acre farm which they bought on Westover Drive just above the Jewish Cemetery.  I believe that it included what is no the main Post Office on Teal Court.  In 1908, they bought a house just outside of Danville in Pittsylvania County.

That’s my grandfather Dan Jones house in the background.  He and Annie bought four lots with this old house at the corner of Washington and Aspen Streets in 1908. In 1904, Dan (1878-1946) and Annie Jones (1880-1969) bought 35 acres on Westover Drive (where the present Post Office is on Teal Court).  They sold the farm and moved to Washington Street (just a hundred yards into Pittsylvania County). The city annexed this area in 1931. All five of us Ricketts were born in the county. That is yours truly Danny on the poney. This was probably my first ride, i would think.  My sister Idella and James Lynch married in January of 1942 when I was one year old.  This is about that time; maybe a little before or after. 

This is a detail of a wreck picture which was in the Jones family trunk.  Dan pointed himself out to his family in the picture he bought shortly after the wreck.  25-year-old Dan Jones is at left.  Next to him is the sheriff with his badge and billie stick.  Idella died on August 10, 2008 at the age of 84. 

This is the complete photograph which Dan saved.  This is an early photograph showing the last car which is almost entirely undamaged.  The railroad allowed nearby residents to take the wood from the wreckage.  This also helped railroad officials reach the engine which was underneath this rubble. 

Click to see many more pictures and learn more about the wreck: (more…)