Welcome to five minutes in church history hosted by Dr Stephen Nichols, where we take a little

break from the present to go exploring the past. Travel back in time as we look at the people,

events, and even the places that have shaped the story of Christianity.

This is our story, our family history.

Let's get started.

Welcome back to another episode of five minutes in church history.

It was many episodes ago I asked you all a question.

Have you read any good books lately? Well on this episode I want to ask you

another question, do you know a good river? I was thinking of this question from

the poet Langston Hughes.

Langston Hughes, the African American poet,

lived from 1992 to 1967.

And when he was only 17 years old, he went on a trip, and that trip required him to go across the Mississippi River.

And as he was on that

he wrote a beautiful poem called The Negro Speaks of Rivers.

And this is what a 17 year old Langston Hughes wrote.

I've known rivers. I've known rivers ancient as the

world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers. I bathed in the

Euphrates when dawns were young. I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans and I've seen its muddy

bosom turn all golden in the sunset. I have known rivers. Ancient dusky rivers.

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