- Report: #337111
Complaint Review: Pastor Charles O. McDowell Minister Katherine McDowell Baker - Lumberton, Fairmont North Carolina
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Pastor Charles O. McDowell Minister Katherine McDowell Baker
1209 Pine Street Lumberton, Fairmont, 28358 North Carolina, U.S.A.
Phone:
843-667-4336
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Pastor Charles O. McDowell ,"Charlie Brown", Minister Katherine McDowell Baker, Pastor Kofi Atta Ben Bani Pastor Robs Prophetess Florence,South Carolina And Fairmont, Lumberton, North Carolina
In November of 2007, I began to construct an Affordable Housing Project under the Agape Wings CDC, Inc. of which I am founder. After having several Affordable Housing Expo's the response from the community was so great, I decided to introduce the program to my church because the income potential was extremely great, as well as the economic empowerment opportunities made available to the community. The creation of jobs and homeownership. The program would bring an income opportunity of about 4.6 million dollars.
I wanted to be a blessing to my church which would be a blessing to me so I introduced the program to my former Pastor, Charles O. McDowell, who was over joyed at the idea and agreed to host the program through the church.
We then arranged for me to conduct several housing expos to attain housing applications to potential homebuyers. The Expos were a success; the outcome yielded approximately 450 applications in addition to the 60 that were attained at the housing expos prior to my presentation of the program to my former pastor, Charles O. McDowell.
The President of my CDC, Kofi -Atta Ben Bani was my mentor and business coach for several years. He is a community development expert and advised me on the process by which the program would work. I had never conducted a program of this magnitude so Pastor Kofi Atta Ben Bani was assisting me as my President to conduct the program.
After the first Housing Expo, there were so many applications that needed to be processed, grant requests to be filed, and credit reports to be pulled, application packages to be compiled, Pastor Kofi and myself agreed to charge an application fee of $25.00 which would cover the processing of paperwork for the program, because there was no income in the CDC as of yet, and the applications had to be processed. Pastor Kofi informed that Grant monies would come in approximately 3 months time, which would then cover expenses to operate the project.
We first had to have the applications to present the Banks and foundations, which would then grant the CDC a line of credit and grant monies to run the project. We would also have to acquire credentials to begin to run credit reports in house rather than from an external source. We began to put the program together under the instruction of Pastor Kofi.
Shortly after the program began, Pastor came to me and informed me that the Drs. Had said he would die soon because the heart he has from a recent heart transplant was rejecting in his body, he was hospitalized shortly after. He asked me to work quickly with the project because he didn't know how much time he may have, but wanted to see the project come to fruition and desperately needed the money.
After having such a charge, I began to expedite the program, even putting aside my other business obligations to focus on this project. After Pastor Charles McDowell was released from the hospital we met in Lumberton, NC because he wanted to know what the next step was, He said that he appreciated what I was doing for him, but couldn't pay me because he didn't have money, asked what I needed, I said I was trusting God for a Laptop, and a new projector, my laptop was getting old, and my projector was broken. He said he would see about getting me one.
Pastor Kofi, instructed us to get an office so that we could qualify for CRA monies at BB & T bank, so Pastor McDowell obtained a line of credit of 10,000.00 to use to purchase the office, office equipment and supplies. So the office was purchased, office equipment was purchased, office supplies were purchased, and Pastor McDowell told me to go to office Depot with his daughter Katherine Baker, to purchase a laptop and projector for me, he also instructed me to pick out office furniture, so I picked out a desk and 2 chairs, and Katherine Baker picked out a desk and 2 chairs as well as other office equipment. Pastor McDowell asked me to work with his daughter, Katherine Baker to train her to assist with the program.
The initial agreement was that Agape Wings CDC, Inc. would manage the program, Agape Wings would have an office in the Agape Amnesty Ministry's building and I would also continue with my Consulting business, we even discussed my sharing the expenses of the office, but since I was not working much on my own business and working constantly to build the Affordable Housing Program, Pastor McDowell said he would pay it the line of credit, as instructed by Pastor Kofi, since it would all be paid off anyway in 90 days, with Grant monies he would attain.
And while I am building the homes from the initial expo conducted by Agape wings only, I would assist them to build the houses obtained from the joint expo (Agape Wings CDC, Inc. (Pamela S*** founder) and Agape Amnesty Ministries (Charles McDowell, founder). We also under the direction of Pastor Kofi entered into a partnership of 60/40, profit sharing on the homes acquired through the joint expos, Pastor McDowell said he wanted me to have 40%, I otherwise was getting no pay for conducting the expo or putting the program together for Pastor McDowell, with Agape Amnesty having 60%, Agape Wings having 40%.
Katherine Baker, Pastor McDowell's daughter was having a problem with Pastor McDowell's purchasing the laptop and projector for me so I told her to prevent problems I would pay for it, and told Bishop I would pay for the laptop and projector, Pastor Kofi said I didn't have to pay for the laptop and the projector because in 90 days, the entire line of credit would be paid in grant monies and nobody would owe anything for any purchases.
We opened the office and began to put the program together, Katherine Baker had the front office as secretary, and the Rear office was that of Agape Wings CDC, Inc. On Wednesday, February 24, I came into the office and I noticed that files that I had put into my filing cabinet were missing, I asked Katherine Baker and she said she had taken them from the filing cabinet and wanted to know what they were, I said, I had to organize them, that some of them were from the expo, some were personal and business, I was just moving in the office so the clear my desk before leaving the day before, I put them into the cabinet.
I also noticed that the printer cable and software were missing so I asked Katherine Baker and she said she didn't know where they were. She and I were the only ones to have keys to the building. I then said to her that it would be a good idea if we both put locks on our doors to protect others and ourselves that may come in the office. So I purchase 2 locks, one for her door and one for my door. I put my lock on the door Wednesday before leaving for the day.
On Thursday, February 28th Pastor Kofi came to Lumberton NC because we had to meet to organize and structure the program and I had arranged an appointment with BB & T Mortgage Department. Pastor Kofi, Pastor McDowell, Katherine Baker, and myself had a meeting with the Bank President via telecon and the Mortgage Director. The bank agreed to extend to the partnership- and line of credit in CRA funds of 1.6 million dollars to operate the program. The next day Friday 28th, Pastor Kofi, myself, Katherine Baker, and a friend of Pastor Kofi's, worked until around midnight putting applications together, they were in the conference room area and I was in my office constructing the database for the application so that files could be constructed on each applicant as credit reports were pulled.
I left my office around 12:15 am, left my files on my desk along with my Toshiba laptop, I carried the new lap top with me because I had programs I was still downloading to it, I wanted to work on it at home, I had the new projector with me, Pastor Kofi asked to borrow it the Saturday to conduct a grant training seminar, he said someone stolen his projector.
On Monday morning around 7:30 am, Katherine Baker called me and was wanted to do an exchange of office keys, she have my key, I have her key, I said no because I didn't see the need for that, I didn't want access to her office, if I need something from her office I'll ask or wait until she returns. I expected the same respect.
She became angry and said that locked offices made her nervous and made her think that anybody locking things up had something to hide. She then hung up on me. And called back and said since you want to lock things up, then pay for your office and bring the laptop and projector back that my daddy bought you! she then hung up again.
When I arrived at the office, about 2 hours later I discovered that my office lock had been broken, that all of my files were gone, including my laptop, flash-drives, and software, removed the rest of my things and left the office. I then called Pastor McDowell to address the issue with him, he then said that he knew that I had a terrible childhood, that I was a runaway and had no parents to love me, and that I didn't know or understand what family love was all about, but that his daughter just loves her daddy. I was hurt that he would regurgitate my testimony and use it against me in such a negative way. I then asked how can we resolve this because it will be hard for me to work with your daughter after this, what should I do? he then said he wanted the housing applications and the keys to the office. And he hung up.
I have not spoken with him since. I called Pastor Kofi to tell him what happened and that I just wanted to continue to work with my own housed and process them, and end any partnership with Agape Amnesty Ministries. I had given Pastor Kofi, approximately 60 applications from expos conducted before any interaction with Agape Amnesty, as the arrangement was, I would collect the applications and surrender them to him and he handle getting them processed. I was very upset and crying when I called and told him of what happened he then yelled at me and said, I don't need Agape Wings to do work for with Agape Amnesty! He then hung up; I have not spoken to Pastor Kofi since.
I called Katherine to ask her for my things, she responded and said I will look for them and call you back; she called back a few hours later and said I didn't see anything that belongs to you, in the things I took from your office.
Since then, Katherine Baker, Pastor Charles O McDowell, and Pastor Kofi have been processing the applications, and telling the applicants, as well as calling my clients, friends and family members, telling them that I have stolen a laptop and projector from the church. They have conducted several meetings and have announced that the $25 application fee was a fraud, that I have stolen their money. Have contacted my clients and have told them to watch out for me because I stole a laptop and projector from the church. I have lost my clients as all of my work and contacts were in my laptop. The work that I had business agreements to complete, I could not because they had my laptop and client's files containing personal information, social security numbers, etc. Grants that were due, I missed deadlines and lost funding for clients and myself because they had my laptop.
As a single mother of four children, by lively hood was stolen from me. I was to move into my new home, I could not because I had no income to pay closing cost or afford payments. I lost clients trust due to their contacting them and defaming my character. I mostly lost connection with my church family because Pastor Charles O McDowell was also my pastor, whom I had deep respect for as a man of God. I was forced to change my phone number because of the influx of calls from applicants wanting to know the status of their application.
They, Charles McDowell and Katherine, were not informing the applicants that they had their applications they were telling them that I had the application, their app fees, had stolen from them and was a fraud.
One of my clients personally contacted Charles McDowell and demanded his personal files from them. They met my client and surrendered his files, his name is Billy Govan.
On, Monday 21, 2008 a man named Mark Parrish called me and said he was a friend of Charles McDowell, and that Charles said I stolen a laptop, projector, and software from the church and that he wanted it back and that a woman named Patricia McRae, one of Charles McDowell's friends, as well as a board member of Agape Amnesty Ministries, had my laptop and files, and he wanted to settle this without going to further measures, he also said that he had friends that were judges, CIA and lawyers and that he could find me anywhere. I informed him that I was not running from anyone that in fact, I was the one robbed and that as intelligent as Pastor McDowell is, if I robbed him, he has my number, he's free to call me, bring me before the church and accuse me, but I have not heard from him since the day he and his daughter robbed me. My number is not private, and my email address is still the same. I asked if he was an attorney he said no and he hung up the phone.
Later the same day, I received a call from my new client, who informed me that he had been contacted by a friend of Charles McDowell and told to watch me; I was a fraud and had stolen a laptop and projector from the church. Because of that contact with my client, he cancelled my appointment and rejected my $7,500.00 business proposal.
I feel violated by Charles McDowell and Katherine Baker, I have lost literally millions of dollars because of their robbing me, and my character in the community has been damaged by their continual lies and false accusations. I have lost 7 clients costing me thousands of dollars. I have lost my home, my car is in repo status, I can't sleep at night, I am afraid to answer my phone because I don't want to hear anyone else calling me to tell me of the lies these two are spreading through the community about me. I get call from unknown numbers hanging up almost daily.
I am depressed because I have lost confidence to function as a successful entrepreneur due to so much damage to my name and business reputation. I am saddened and in utter shock that as ministers we had to come to his, but they have left me no choice this ungodly behavior on their part has to stop!
At this point I have no choice everybody needs to hear the TRUTH about the matter!! It is so sad we are supposed to be righteous examples as leaders, people enough to deal with worldly evil and wickedness, why then those that we look to as leaders to gently lead us as shepherds with a staff of love an correction take the same staff and now use it as a sawed off shot-gun to murder the ones they are supposed to mentor?!! If all I my hope was in my pastor and not God, I would have backslidden, given up on God, the church and salvation, BUT I'm soooo glad that before I knew Charles McDowell and after find out who he really is, I'M GLAD I KNOW GOD FOR MYSELF! But here's what God's Holy word says about it; Jeremiah 23:1-8
1 "Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!" says the Lord. 2 Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel against the shepherds who feed My people: "You have scattered My flock, driven them away, and not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings," says the Lord. 3 "But I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. 4 I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking," says the Lord.
Pamela
Fayetteville, North Carolina
U.S.A.
I wanted to be a blessing to my church which would be a blessing to me so I introduced the program to my former Pastor, Charles O. McDowell, who was over joyed at the idea and agreed to host the program through the church.
We then arranged for me to conduct several housing expos to attain housing applications to potential homebuyers. The Expos were a success; the outcome yielded approximately 450 applications in addition to the 60 that were attained at the housing expos prior to my presentation of the program to my former pastor, Charles O. McDowell.
The President of my CDC, Kofi -Atta Ben Bani was my mentor and business coach for several years. He is a community development expert and advised me on the process by which the program would work. I had never conducted a program of this magnitude so Pastor Kofi Atta Ben Bani was assisting me as my President to conduct the program.
After the first Housing Expo, there were so many applications that needed to be processed, grant requests to be filed, and credit reports to be pulled, application packages to be compiled, Pastor Kofi and myself agreed to charge an application fee of $25.00 which would cover the processing of paperwork for the program, because there was no income in the CDC as of yet, and the applications had to be processed. Pastor Kofi informed that Grant monies would come in approximately 3 months time, which would then cover expenses to operate the project.
We first had to have the applications to present the Banks and foundations, which would then grant the CDC a line of credit and grant monies to run the project. We would also have to acquire credentials to begin to run credit reports in house rather than from an external source. We began to put the program together under the instruction of Pastor Kofi.
Shortly after the program began, Pastor came to me and informed me that the Drs. Had said he would die soon because the heart he has from a recent heart transplant was rejecting in his body, he was hospitalized shortly after. He asked me to work quickly with the project because he didn't know how much time he may have, but wanted to see the project come to fruition and desperately needed the money.
After having such a charge, I began to expedite the program, even putting aside my other business obligations to focus on this project. After Pastor Charles McDowell was released from the hospital we met in Lumberton, NC because he wanted to know what the next step was, He said that he appreciated what I was doing for him, but couldn't pay me because he didn't have money, asked what I needed, I said I was trusting God for a Laptop, and a new projector, my laptop was getting old, and my projector was broken. He said he would see about getting me one.
Pastor Kofi, instructed us to get an office so that we could qualify for CRA monies at BB & T bank, so Pastor McDowell obtained a line of credit of 10,000.00 to use to purchase the office, office equipment and supplies. So the office was purchased, office equipment was purchased, office supplies were purchased, and Pastor McDowell told me to go to office Depot with his daughter Katherine Baker, to purchase a laptop and projector for me, he also instructed me to pick out office furniture, so I picked out a desk and 2 chairs, and Katherine Baker picked out a desk and 2 chairs as well as other office equipment. Pastor McDowell asked me to work with his daughter, Katherine Baker to train her to assist with the program.
The initial agreement was that Agape Wings CDC, Inc. would manage the program, Agape Wings would have an office in the Agape Amnesty Ministry's building and I would also continue with my Consulting business, we even discussed my sharing the expenses of the office, but since I was not working much on my own business and working constantly to build the Affordable Housing Program, Pastor McDowell said he would pay it the line of credit, as instructed by Pastor Kofi, since it would all be paid off anyway in 90 days, with Grant monies he would attain.
And while I am building the homes from the initial expo conducted by Agape wings only, I would assist them to build the houses obtained from the joint expo (Agape Wings CDC, Inc. (Pamela S*** founder) and Agape Amnesty Ministries (Charles McDowell, founder). We also under the direction of Pastor Kofi entered into a partnership of 60/40, profit sharing on the homes acquired through the joint expos, Pastor McDowell said he wanted me to have 40%, I otherwise was getting no pay for conducting the expo or putting the program together for Pastor McDowell, with Agape Amnesty having 60%, Agape Wings having 40%.
Katherine Baker, Pastor McDowell's daughter was having a problem with Pastor McDowell's purchasing the laptop and projector for me so I told her to prevent problems I would pay for it, and told Bishop I would pay for the laptop and projector, Pastor Kofi said I didn't have to pay for the laptop and the projector because in 90 days, the entire line of credit would be paid in grant monies and nobody would owe anything for any purchases.
We opened the office and began to put the program together, Katherine Baker had the front office as secretary, and the Rear office was that of Agape Wings CDC, Inc. On Wednesday, February 24, I came into the office and I noticed that files that I had put into my filing cabinet were missing, I asked Katherine Baker and she said she had taken them from the filing cabinet and wanted to know what they were, I said, I had to organize them, that some of them were from the expo, some were personal and business, I was just moving in the office so the clear my desk before leaving the day before, I put them into the cabinet.
I also noticed that the printer cable and software were missing so I asked Katherine Baker and she said she didn't know where they were. She and I were the only ones to have keys to the building. I then said to her that it would be a good idea if we both put locks on our doors to protect others and ourselves that may come in the office. So I purchase 2 locks, one for her door and one for my door. I put my lock on the door Wednesday before leaving for the day.
On Thursday, February 28th Pastor Kofi came to Lumberton NC because we had to meet to organize and structure the program and I had arranged an appointment with BB & T Mortgage Department. Pastor Kofi, Pastor McDowell, Katherine Baker, and myself had a meeting with the Bank President via telecon and the Mortgage Director. The bank agreed to extend to the partnership- and line of credit in CRA funds of 1.6 million dollars to operate the program. The next day Friday 28th, Pastor Kofi, myself, Katherine Baker, and a friend of Pastor Kofi's, worked until around midnight putting applications together, they were in the conference room area and I was in my office constructing the database for the application so that files could be constructed on each applicant as credit reports were pulled.
I left my office around 12:15 am, left my files on my desk along with my Toshiba laptop, I carried the new lap top with me because I had programs I was still downloading to it, I wanted to work on it at home, I had the new projector with me, Pastor Kofi asked to borrow it the Saturday to conduct a grant training seminar, he said someone stolen his projector.
On Monday morning around 7:30 am, Katherine Baker called me and was wanted to do an exchange of office keys, she have my key, I have her key, I said no because I didn't see the need for that, I didn't want access to her office, if I need something from her office I'll ask or wait until she returns. I expected the same respect.
She became angry and said that locked offices made her nervous and made her think that anybody locking things up had something to hide. She then hung up on me. And called back and said since you want to lock things up, then pay for your office and bring the laptop and projector back that my daddy bought you! she then hung up again.
When I arrived at the office, about 2 hours later I discovered that my office lock had been broken, that all of my files were gone, including my laptop, flash-drives, and software, removed the rest of my things and left the office. I then called Pastor McDowell to address the issue with him, he then said that he knew that I had a terrible childhood, that I was a runaway and had no parents to love me, and that I didn't know or understand what family love was all about, but that his daughter just loves her daddy. I was hurt that he would regurgitate my testimony and use it against me in such a negative way. I then asked how can we resolve this because it will be hard for me to work with your daughter after this, what should I do? he then said he wanted the housing applications and the keys to the office. And he hung up.
I have not spoken with him since. I called Pastor Kofi to tell him what happened and that I just wanted to continue to work with my own housed and process them, and end any partnership with Agape Amnesty Ministries. I had given Pastor Kofi, approximately 60 applications from expos conducted before any interaction with Agape Amnesty, as the arrangement was, I would collect the applications and surrender them to him and he handle getting them processed. I was very upset and crying when I called and told him of what happened he then yelled at me and said, I don't need Agape Wings to do work for with Agape Amnesty! He then hung up; I have not spoken to Pastor Kofi since.
I called Katherine to ask her for my things, she responded and said I will look for them and call you back; she called back a few hours later and said I didn't see anything that belongs to you, in the things I took from your office.
Since then, Katherine Baker, Pastor Charles O McDowell, and Pastor Kofi have been processing the applications, and telling the applicants, as well as calling my clients, friends and family members, telling them that I have stolen a laptop and projector from the church. They have conducted several meetings and have announced that the $25 application fee was a fraud, that I have stolen their money. Have contacted my clients and have told them to watch out for me because I stole a laptop and projector from the church. I have lost my clients as all of my work and contacts were in my laptop. The work that I had business agreements to complete, I could not because they had my laptop and client's files containing personal information, social security numbers, etc. Grants that were due, I missed deadlines and lost funding for clients and myself because they had my laptop.
As a single mother of four children, by lively hood was stolen from me. I was to move into my new home, I could not because I had no income to pay closing cost or afford payments. I lost clients trust due to their contacting them and defaming my character. I mostly lost connection with my church family because Pastor Charles O McDowell was also my pastor, whom I had deep respect for as a man of God. I was forced to change my phone number because of the influx of calls from applicants wanting to know the status of their application.
They, Charles McDowell and Katherine, were not informing the applicants that they had their applications they were telling them that I had the application, their app fees, had stolen from them and was a fraud.
One of my clients personally contacted Charles McDowell and demanded his personal files from them. They met my client and surrendered his files, his name is Billy Govan.
On, Monday 21, 2008 a man named Mark Parrish called me and said he was a friend of Charles McDowell, and that Charles said I stolen a laptop, projector, and software from the church and that he wanted it back and that a woman named Patricia McRae, one of Charles McDowell's friends, as well as a board member of Agape Amnesty Ministries, had my laptop and files, and he wanted to settle this without going to further measures, he also said that he had friends that were judges, CIA and lawyers and that he could find me anywhere. I informed him that I was not running from anyone that in fact, I was the one robbed and that as intelligent as Pastor McDowell is, if I robbed him, he has my number, he's free to call me, bring me before the church and accuse me, but I have not heard from him since the day he and his daughter robbed me. My number is not private, and my email address is still the same. I asked if he was an attorney he said no and he hung up the phone.
Later the same day, I received a call from my new client, who informed me that he had been contacted by a friend of Charles McDowell and told to watch me; I was a fraud and had stolen a laptop and projector from the church. Because of that contact with my client, he cancelled my appointment and rejected my $7,500.00 business proposal.
I feel violated by Charles McDowell and Katherine Baker, I have lost literally millions of dollars because of their robbing me, and my character in the community has been damaged by their continual lies and false accusations. I have lost 7 clients costing me thousands of dollars. I have lost my home, my car is in repo status, I can't sleep at night, I am afraid to answer my phone because I don't want to hear anyone else calling me to tell me of the lies these two are spreading through the community about me. I get call from unknown numbers hanging up almost daily.
I am depressed because I have lost confidence to function as a successful entrepreneur due to so much damage to my name and business reputation. I am saddened and in utter shock that as ministers we had to come to his, but they have left me no choice this ungodly behavior on their part has to stop!
At this point I have no choice everybody needs to hear the TRUTH about the matter!! It is so sad we are supposed to be righteous examples as leaders, people enough to deal with worldly evil and wickedness, why then those that we look to as leaders to gently lead us as shepherds with a staff of love an correction take the same staff and now use it as a sawed off shot-gun to murder the ones they are supposed to mentor?!! If all I my hope was in my pastor and not God, I would have backslidden, given up on God, the church and salvation, BUT I'm soooo glad that before I knew Charles McDowell and after find out who he really is, I'M GLAD I KNOW GOD FOR MYSELF! But here's what God's Holy word says about it; Jeremiah 23:1-8
1 "Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!" says the Lord. 2 Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel against the shepherds who feed My people: "You have scattered My flock, driven them away, and not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings," says the Lord. 3 "But I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. 4 I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking," says the Lord.
Pamela
Fayetteville, North Carolina
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Pastor Kofi
Springfield,Massachusetts,
United States of America
Prophetess of Falacy
#2REBUTTAL Individual responds
Wed, July 13, 2011
In fact I would not have taken my precious time to waste on such nonsense, but it seems that most people in the world today are only and always looking for ways and means to either destroy or tarnish other peoples reputation. This is one of those situations where nothing makes sense, but those who are looking for unscrupulous accusations with no veracity will take any lie and try to extrapolate things from it that will help them and make them feel that they are better that someone else, especially some like me who have taken several hours of my precious time to help people build their lives and get them out of poverty and economic malays, including the person who posted this fallacy.
The person who posted this on the web identify herself as a prophetess, at least thats what the title of the lie says Pastor Robs Prophetess. My concern is not about this persons title but about what really happened. The prophetess took about five pages to dramatize how her Bishop Charles O. McDowell, her daughter Katherine and I, Pastor Kofi Atta Ben Bani robbed her of her affordable housing project that could have become the catalyst that was to make her become rich or at least help her to pay her bills.
By introduction, I was the Director for the whole state of North Carolinas Faith Based Community Economic Development programs. I worked for the state programs called the Association of North Carolina Community Economic Development Corporation in collaboration with the North Carolina Community Development Initiatives. In my position as the Director/ Manager of all the state initiatives, I was responsible for training in the areas of non-profit management; Program design, development, implementation, evaluation and program financing; organizational development, infrastructure and leadership development. I worked with the Executive President of the BB&T Bank; Wachovia Bank; RBC Bank and several foundations such as: Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation; Phillips Foundation; Kellogg Foundation; Ford Foundation and many other state and federal organizations to leverage grants for the development of all the mature and emerging CDCs in North Carolina. I also worked with federal organizations such as the Department of Commerce to leverage Community Development Block Grants for Empowerment Zones in North Carolina. These developmental projects led to economic self-sufficiency and independence for the poor and the underserved population.
Some of the projects that I was involved with includes, Wilson Community Development Initiative (WCIA), a community development initiative that leveraged over S15 million from the BB&T Bank and other sources to build over 350 affordable homes for first time home buyer in and a Senior citizens apartments in Wilson, North Carolina. I worked with the Elizabeth City Community Development Corporation another CDC in Elizabeth City North Carolina. During my time, the CDC leveraged and built houses and other projects that were worth over $25 million in grants and line of credit from the bank. I also worked with Project Homestead, a Faith Based CDC in Greensborough, North Carolina that developed over 400 single family affordable homes for first time home buyer and a Senior Citizen Center worth over $15 million in funding from the bank, the federal government and local foundations. As the Director, I worked with the Passage Home CDC in Raleigh, North Carolina to build new homes, rehabilitate old homes and provided affordable housing for the poor in the inner city of Raleigh, at that time Passage Home CDC was involved in projects that was over $10 million in funding. I worked with the Metropolitan Community Development Corporation in Washington, North Carolina. Metropolitan CDC was the first to build specialized housing for the HIV/AIDS patients who could not rent form the conversional market because of their situation; the CDC built a clinic for them and provided housing for the homeless and the disabled, that CDC also did over $10 million dollars of housing in different categories. I also worked to start the New Life Community Development Corporation in Plymouth, North Carolina; I personally wrote a grant of $750,000.00 for this organization from the CDBG of North Carolina and secured a $1.6 million dollars of development line of credit from the BB&T Bank in North Carolina to begin an affordable housing project in the County.
Beside working with CDCs on the state level and helping them leverage millions of dollars for community development, I also worked with the Executive President of the BB&T Bank in charge of the CRA and Community Development Funding to train Pastors in community and economic development programs. In May 2001, I worked with Bishop Waymon Burton, of North Carolina, Bishop Paul Morton, the Presiding Bishop of the Full Gospel Baptist Fellowship, Dr. Floyd Flakes one of the leading Christian leaders in this country to put together an Economic development training for pastors in North Carolina and over 500 pastors attended that training from all over the United States and it was fully paid for by the BB&T Bank.
Now I put all this out here not because I want boast but I want anyone who reads this to know that I am not a novice when it comes to community and economic development. Also to know that I have been involved in housing development projects that was worth several millions of dollars and none of those motioned above will have anything negative to say about my reputation. For the testimony any of these individuals will justify my work, responsibility and reputation.
The case in point took place in Lumberton, North Carolina. I was the president and consultant for this particular project. I was training Bishop McDowell, his daughter Katherine and Pamela Sowell who put this false information on the web. As the President and consultant, it was my responsibility to see that everything that was going on as far as the housing development was concerned was legal and was done according to the specification of 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) of the Internal Revenue Code and according to the laws of the state of North Carolina. One of the laws of the 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) tax exempt code is that when one conducts affordable housing prequalifying workshops that was done by the bank it must be done free of charge to the poor people who attend. First of all the BB&T Bank was doing the pre-qualifications for free. Secondly, I paid my own way to travel from Massachusetts about five different times to conduct the workshop for free. On top of that, I also invited a credit counselor from FANNIE MAE and FREDDIE MAC to come and assist to expedite the process and they also came to offer their expertise and services for free in order to help the poor become first time home owners. Because of the nature of the services being offered, it was my legal responsibility to make sure that no laws were broken.
There were about 450 individuals that were attending the pre-qualification workshops and I came to understand from Bishop McDowell that Ms. Pamela Sowell was charging $25.00 per person for participating in the process. Not only were these charges illegal at the time, but Ms. Pamela Sowell was not reporting what she was collecting to anyone. As the president of the organization and the consultant for the project I was the one representing the project before the bank and doing all the negotiations with the state government. Neither Ms. Sowell nor Bishop McDowell knew anything about affordable housing development nor how to get the project funded. So when I confronted Ms. Sowell and advised her to put a stop to the charging of fees from the attendants she got very upset and then everything began to collapse. Since the confrontation, Ms. Pamela Sowell left the office and never returned and till this day I do not know what Ms. Sowell did with the monies that she collected from the poor people who were attending the workshops.
As far as Ms. Pamela Sowell claiming that I robbed her of her project, I think any reasonable person will understand that if I was the president of the CDC and the consultant and the sole expect on the project there was no way I could rob anybody because there was nothing to rob and without me there was no project. The bank did not give any money for the project. In fact I was to write the business plan for the project and prepare the development proforma for funding but none of these were done before the project collapsed. Ms. Sowell did not bring anything to the table I brought my expertise, travelled many times on my own from Massachusetts to North Carolina and conducted on an average five hours of workshops for free while she was charging the attendants. When I stopped going to North Carolina the project collapsed and everything fell through. For her to accuse me of robbing her is beyond my understanding. If anything, she took advantage of my expertise and was making money for herself while I was doing the work and trying to get people from different places to come and give their services for free. As a matter of fact she did not reside in Lumberton where the project was being developed, and everybody that came to participate in the project came because of Bishop McDowell who lives in the town and has his church in there. When the Bishop saw that the illegal charges were going to affect his ministry and reputation we stopped Ms Sowell from charging the fees and confronted her, then she went and fabricated this story. I was expected to write the grant, train the people conduct the workshops, write the business and developments plans for the project. So, she did not bring anything and no one took anything from her.
For the issues between Bishop McDowell, his daughter and Ms. Sowell, I do not have a clue what they were doing, they knew each other long before this project and if there was any feud between them before this time I do not know. All I know is that I do not owe Ms. Sowell any project, in fact there was not a project worth a penny at the time and for her to try to scandalize my name and went as far as putting my name on the internet, I will pray that the same God that she was talking about have mercy on her as for me, all I can say is that my God says vengeance is mine and I will repay and whatever outcome she expect from this false allegation will be handled perfectly by the Almighty God.
