Makenzie Heidelberg.

Editor’s Note: This article has been changed from its original version. A college graduate’s name has been added.

MOULTRIE, Ga. — The Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, located at 421 Sixth Ave. N.W., will honor its 2021 graduates on Sunday, June 13, at the 11 a.m. worship service.  

The theme is “In All thy Ways Acknowledge Him and He Shall Direct thy Paths,” according to Proverbs 3:6. The graduation speaker will be Deion J. Mapp, a native of Moultrie and the son of Natasha Mapp and Julius Palmore. He is the grandson of Odell and the late Minnie Nunn Mapp and Eleanor Simpson. 

Mapp continues to work actively in the community and is a faithful member of the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, the church said in a press release. He is a 2016 graduate of Colquitt County High School and a 2020 alumnus of Fort Valley State University where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in Family and Consumer Sciences with a concentration in Food and Nutrition. While in college, Mapp was a devoted member of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. He was a 2016 recipient of the W. F. Johnson Scholarship. Currently, he is employed with the Southwest Georgia Community Action Council, Inc., where he is the nutrition specialist for the Head Start/Early Head Start Programs in southwest Georgia. One of his favorite scriptures is Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me.” 

During the service, high school graduates will be honored with a graduation memento, and the W.F. Johnson Annual Scholarship will be awarded at this time. The scholarship is available to qualified members who are college-bound. 

The scholarship was established by the Rev. Leroy Thompson, Jr., pastor of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church from 1971 to 2005. Thompson, a graduate of Florida A&M University, held a two-fold interest in our youth: One being spiritually fed and the other education. Ultimately, he instituted the scholarship to honor the legacy of his predecessor, the Rev. Willie Frank Johnson of Camilla, Ga. 

Johnson served as pastor of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church for 33 years (1938-1971); he moved the church forward spiritually, and through vast renovations, with a significant increase in membership, the press release said. Furthermore, Johnson was renowned throughout the southwest region and presided as moderator of the Great Eastern Missionary Baptist Association. The scholarship was maintained through the tenure of former pastor, Reverend Alfred Jones.  

The 2021 W.F. Johnson Annual Scholarship recipient is Makenzie Heidelberg, a 2021 graduate of the Colquitt County High School.  In addition, other graduates to be honored are Bretnney LeAnn McKelvary, DeAndria Yvonne Putnam, Isabella Camille Lawson, Shadasia Ray’Meka Reynolds, and Autumn Brooke Hampton. Honorable mention will be given to Friendship’s 2021 college graduates Shy’Derria Seay, Todd Myrick and Alexis Hadley.

The Rev. Moses Jordan serves as interim pastor of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church.