It's not swanky like Orlando, or sexy like Miami, its middle america, its military service and retirees, its big enough to have all you need and small enough to feel like a town. My parents lived their last years in Gulf Breeze, and as I was passing through I saw a little church that advertized itself as an annex to the Brownsville Assembly of God and memories flooded my mind.
Over a decade ago I attended an evening service at Brownsville and had to wait an hour to get into the building. It was all quite impressive and the music and the stuff that went on were interesting. They never got to a sermon that night for all the other prayers for healing and music, which did not still well with this former Presbyterian, but it was at the time heralded as part of the great end time revival. A huge new sanctuary was being built, and its ministers were buying property and building large private dwellings out in the suburbs as a testimony to prosperity.
So, my sis tells me.....it's gone, nothing left. Brownsville was already a transitional dying area and the folks just fizzled and it all died. The flashy ministers moved on to other showy and power grabbing opportunities, I assume. (Letting my feeling show in that last comment) The property sat for sale for a long time until an energetic black pastor began to build a ministry around focusing on the real needs of the area for feeding the hungry and education of children, and ministries of mercy and compassion.
And I thought..... Hallelujah.
If we ever return to Dixie, and I admit my heart has softened toward the south in recent years, Pensacola would be a possibility of a community we would enjoy.
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