A Memphis preacher returned to the pulpit on Easter Sunday, just five weeks after the religious leader was shot in the mouth by crooks as they stole his car outside church.
Pastor Clemmie Livingston, Jr., delivered a sermon before his flock at a packed New Zionfield Baptist Church in South Memphis for the first time since that fateful day, according to WREG-TV.
“Laying there, I kept saying to myself that I’ll be dead in a little while,” Livingston, 70, told the station. “Well, what would a person say when they bleeding in the manner that I was bleeding?”
But he survived the attack — and said he never lost consciousness or felt any pain during the chaotic ordeal.
“While I was down on my knees, let me tell you what [God] said, He said to me, ‘Stop trying to die and start back living,’” Livingston said. “In my spirit and in my heart, I know that Jesus brought me through this.”
Livingston believes he survived because God still has a plan for him, the station said.
“It appears to me that God got some for me to do,” he said.
Livingston still must endure at least two more surgeries — even though the bullet hole in his mouth has closed, he’s got a long way to go before he can say he’s fully recovered, the outlet added.
Those operations will likely keep him from the pulpit for another eight weeks. But that’s better than the alternative.
“That’s my greatest blessing,” he said. “I’m still alive.”
No arrests have been made in the case.
Livingston told WHBQ-TV that he plans to devote more time to help prevent young impoverished people from turning to a life of violent crime.
“Help these guys, teach them how to put a roof on, teach them how to lay bricks, that’s my plan,” the pastor said. “Teach them all these things, whatever it takes, stop the killing.”
