By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
It's been 12 years since Versie Flake's family gathered to say goodbye.
After battling colon cancer, it would be a miracle if he lived through the night. Yet he did in 1997 and again in 2001, when he survived a bout with prostate cancer.
"The night I was supposed to die," he said evenly, "I was lying there in bed and my body started going up. It wasn't no rocket thing, but around and around, like a winding step. As I went up, I could see that presence in the bed. The further I got up, the more peaceful it got. I got up to a place where I didn't have any thoughts about my wife, my house, the church. It was just unimaginable peacefulness. From that point, I started getting better."
Flake learned he had colon cancer on his birthday, July 30.
A section was removed during surgery at Community Hospital in Watervliet Aug. 14, along with nine lymph nodes, of which seven were cancerous.
"He was so sick," his wife said.
"Somebody told me the Lord isn't done with me yet," Flake said.
Longevity seems to run in his family. His father lived to 95, his mother, 104, eating "little bits." He doesn't remember ever seeing her consume an entire meal.
Flake, 84, overseer of Peace Temple Church of God in Christ, 102 Andrews St., will be celebrating the 49th anniversary of his ministry this weekend.
When Flake first saw the property where his church stands it was an overgrown vacant lot strewn with trash.
He actually started his ministry a street over on Thickstun, in a former storefront near Walter Ward Park, where his son Matthew had a big outdoor wedding. Matthew lives in Tennessee, but visited in May.
"I wasn't familiar with this area, but I passed through here and saw some things I didn't like. I felt the Lord could do something about it," he said Monday morning in an interview conducted with his wife, Birdie, at the back of the sanctuary.
Though both of the couple are originally from Tennessee, they didn't meet until they were in Benton Harbor. "I had no connection to Dowagiac," he said. "I had a friend in Benton Harbor with a body shop. We were going over to Cassopolis to pick up some parts, but he drove down over here on Thickstun Street. They had wine bottles piled up to the extent you couldn't see over them. They had little shotgun houses. I was moved with compassion and I told him, 'Man, I've got to go to Dowagiac.' Dave Williams rented me that little store for a church for $25 a month. I bought 10 chairs at a used furniture store. He wanted $1 a piece. When I told him what I was going to do, he knocked off 50 cents – and he came to our service."
Versie left Cedar Grove, Tenn., and came to Michigan looking for work.
He worked for a bus line until the serviceman he filled in for reclaimed his job.
In Benton Harbor, Versie worked for Auto Specialties, or Ausco.
In Dowagiac, the Flakes lived on M-51 South until moving back to Berrien County on March 10, 1980.
He was in charge of the packing department at Master Cabinet.
Sept. 29 will be their 52nd wedding anniversary.
"Marriage today, I don't understand," he shakes his head sadly. "They have no commitment." They have five grandchildren.
When she finished high school, Birdie came to Benton Harbor to live with her sister and brother-in-law. "He knew some of my family. He played baseball with my brother, he knew my oldest sister and my granddaddy."
"She was the baby of her family," said Versie, who entered the ministry in his 30s.
"It's a strange thing," he said, "but I've felt a calling all my life – I just didn't know what it referred to. I was able to build this church from the ground without a mortgage, though I don't know where the money came from if I had to sit down and figure it out today. I bought another church in Benton Harbor, Flake Temple, and I gave that to my nephew after 23 years."
Flake also started churches in Vandalia and in Decatur.
"When we got ready to clean this lot up," Birdie said, "I was pregnant with our oldest daughter," born in Dowagiac, graduated from Benton Harbor High School, continued her education in Indianapolis and died in July 1997. "I was out there helping." Their youngest daughter, who has a child, lives in Portage.
The Flakes recall that when they first erected a tent on the property, it caught fire, so they also held services on Budlow Street for a time.
The church on Andrews Street was actually constructed in 1963 or 1964.
Homer Pompey offered to sell the property for $500 cash or $600 on credit – $100 down, $25 a month.
"Most of my congregation now comes from South Bend," Ind., he said.
"They grew up in Hatcherville, near Niles," she added.
Versie is semi-retired and shares duties with Tracy Hatcher.
A two-day celebration is planned for Saturday (7:30 p.m.) and Sunday (4 p.m.) with Philemon Reed from Reed Temple, Charles Motton from Mt. Zion in Benton Harbor, Melvin Burton from Refreshing Fountain in Benton Harbor, Versie's great-nephew from Abundant Life, Administrator William Nichols from Unity in Benton Harbor and Bishop Howard Thomas from Tabernacle in Benton Harbor.
Their denomination, the Church of God in Christ, is based in Memphis, Tenn.
"I think there have been other pastors who have pastored that long or longer," he said. "I don't think that's a record-breaker."
"It's a long time," Birdie mused, "but you receive something that's hard to explain having the opportunity to help build people's lives. It can be stressful, but yet it's rewarding."
"Every congregation becomes your extended family," he said. "She could be sick herself, and she would be trying to call the sick in hospitals. I know the pastoral ministry is a gift from God – but he's got to have a special wife, too."
Birdie has always bought clothing she "washed, cleaned up and ironed until they look presentable."
"She's got clothes in the back room now, 49 years later," he said. "She's never gotten out of that since the time we started. She's always looking out for others."
"I help somebody if I can," she said.