By By MARY-ALLISON LANCASTER – Managing editor
More than 100 men gathered at the lower field at the Brewton YMCA Friday morning and boarded two traveling buses that will travel to Mobile for the 2005 Promise Keepers Convention. Another bus filled with 20 men will leave after the football game Friday night to join the rest of the group.
Larry Fussell coordinated the trip for members of the Brewton Area Fellowship of Christian Men, which represents 25 local churches. The two-day seminar will teach the men to become better individuals - inside and outside the church.
Roderick Williams, who was co-captain for one of the buses, has attended the Promise Keepers Conventions off and on for several years.
According to Williams, the purpose of the convention is to teach a man how to carry and maintain himself. In essence, all the men come back better men.
Leonard Payne, a member of Peace and Goodwill Missionary Baptist Church, has been attending the conferences for the last six years. He said the conventions allow him to "be a better Christian."
Howard Smith, of First Assembly of East Brewton, is attending his first convention.
Fussell said that the fellowship has been attending conferences since 1995. He said that there are at least 18 conferences each year.