Author and speaker Donald Harper to return to Malone

He will serve as guest speaker for Community Worship at 10:00 a.m., followed by a book talk at 5:30 p.m. in the Johnson Center Dining Room. 

Both Community Worship and the evening book talk are free and open to the public.

“We are excited to welcome Donald Harper back to Canton and Malone to share his story with us,” said Andrea Ramsey, director of multicultural services. “As we celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it is timely to hear the moving testimony of how the faith of Mr. Harper's family and his personal trust in God has allowed him to triumph. And as one of our former members and chairs of the Malone Board of Trustees, it feels particularly special to welcome him home.”

In Blessed Is the Man: A Legacy of Faith and Family Values, Donald Darnell Harper shares the spiritual values passed on to him by his parents. Their example, to him and his twelve siblings, grounded him in his faith and propelled him to professional success as a vice president with a Fortune 100 company.

Harper grew up in the segregated South on the cusp of the Civil Rights movement. In the midst of those often trying times, his parents' simple formula for life -- faith, humility, wisdom, and love -- taught Harper everything he needed to know about becoming a Christ-follower and a respecter of all men. "The lessons learned while living and working together on the farm have stayed with me and continue to impact the way I live my life," he writes.

Blessed Is the Man is more than just a collection of stories about an African-American family in rural Alabama, but also includes "testimonies to the goodness and provision of the Almighty God," Harper writes. "The love and grace He showed us is the same that He shows all His children."