Joseph Willis, Wimberley, TX (2026)

The son of a white man and Cherokee slave, Joseph Willis gains his freedom and swims the mighty Mississippi, in 1798, riding only a mule . In the Louisiana Territory he preaches the first Gospel sermon by an Evangelical west of the Mississippi River. Joseph Willis's life is a story of triumph over tragedy and victory over adversity!

✯ He was born into slavery. His mother was Cherokee and his fat

her a wealthy English plantation owner.

✯ His family took him to court to deprive him of his inheritance (which would have made him the wealthiest plantation owner in all of Bladen County, North Carolina in 1776).

✯ He fought as a Patriot in the Revolutionary War under the most colorful of all the American generals, Francis Marion, The Swamp Fox.

✯ His first wife died in childbirth, and his second wife died only six years later, leaving him with five small children.

✯ He crossed the mighty Mississippi River at Natchez at the peril of his own life, riding a mule!

✯ He entered hostile Spanish-controlled Louisiana Territory, when the dreaded Code Noir (Black Code) was in effect. It forbade any Protestant ministers who came into the territory from preaching.

✯ His life was threatened because of the message he brought to Spanish-controlled Louisiana!

✯ His own denomination refused to ordain him because of his race.

✯ Joseph Willis preached (1798) the first Gospel sermon by an Evangelical west of the Mississippi River.

✯ On November 13, 1812, Joseph Willis constituted Calvary Baptist Church at Bayou Chicot, Louisiana. He went on to plant over twenty churches in Louisiana.

✯ October 31, 1818, Joseph Willis (and others that had followed him from the Carolinas) founded the Louisiana Baptist Association, at Beulah Baptist in Cheneyville. Joseph had founded all five charter member churches.

✯ After overcoming insurmountable obstacles, he blazed a trail for others for another half-century that changed American history.

✯ His accomplishments are still felt today. Randy Willis is a fourth great-grandson of Joseph Willis, and his foremost historian.

04/30/2026

https://youtu.be/V8rAJQacYQA

This is an interview about me with Dr. Marvin Olasky, Professor in the Journalism Department at the University of Texas at Austin.

In 1992, Marvin Olasky contacted me. He was working on a book entitled "Compassionate Conservatism."

The book eventually helped to define "compassionate conservatism" in relation to welfare and social policy.

In 1994, Olasky became an occasional advisor to Texas gubernatorial candidate George W. Bush. Bush made faith-based programs a major component of his 2000 presidential campaign, and Olasky's academic work helped form the basis for President Bush's "compassionate conservatism."

Olasky had read about me and Operation Warm Heart (in the Austin American-Statesman), which I founded in 1991.

Dr. Olasky asked if he could go with me to the streets of Austin. While we fed the needy and handed out Bibles, he asked me many questions and would later quote me in his book. President George W. Bush wrote the foreword.

Olasky also asked me to guest lecture in his journalism classes at the University of Texas, which I did.

During those talks, he asked if any of the students would like to go to the streets of Austin and into the jails with me.

Those who said yes were required to write a paper about that adventure for the class.

One Christian graduate student at UT discovered, in a survey, that the number one reason people in Austin did not attend church was the fear of condemnation. And that group was not the homeless. Her survey changed the way I shared the gospel.

The saying that the Christian army is the only army that shoots its wounded" has never left my mind.

I had been invited by Senior Chaplain Tommy McIntosh to speak twice a month at the Travis County Correctional Complex in Del Valle. The invitation was soon extended to the other jails.

Randy Willis Books

Dr. Marvin Olasky, Professor of Journalism, The University of Texas discusses Randy Willis.

04/19/2026

https://randywillisbooks.com/twice-a-slave

How to become a best-selling author.

1) You are born the descendant of a legendary man.

2) After decades of research, write his biography that only generates interest from other descendants and a few researchers.

3) But, said research draws the attention of one of Louisiana's most noted college professors and historians. Her advice in a footnote of a letter is to take my research and tell it as a story, a novel. A genre known as Historical Fiction will be my new platform.

4) After writing the first few chapters, pitch it to a Christian publisher and one of the best-selling Christian authors in history. Realize your chances are slim since he has sold 73 million copies, including 21 New York Times bestsellers. Ignorance of this is a plus.

5) Then suggest the novel to a playwright for consideration as an adaptation for the theater.

Oh, I almost forgot to consider your first half-million-words practice. You will get better.

nd study classic novels. My favorite novels are F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, and, of course, the father of them all, Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Ernest Hemingway's short story Hills Like White Elephants is a favorite, too.

These are the first two chapters I wrote that led to 19 novels, three biographies, a play, my own memoir, and countless articles.

These two chapters still remain among the most popular narratives I've ever written. And yes, they are based on a true story.

Randy Willis Books

Explore the transformative journey of Agerton Willis as he navigates love, dreams, and the harsh realities of 1756 slavery in South Carolina.

04/14/2026

https://randywillisbooks.com/fire-and-brimstone-in-louisiana/

One of the most tragic events in Louisiana’s illustrious history was unfolding. It was within walking distance of our family home, The Ole Willis Home Place.

The events shocked the nation, according to The New York Times.

It was the middle of prohibition, which banned the manufacture, storage, transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic beverages.

✯ ✯ ✯✯✯

The mayor of Atlanta asked Louisiana Governor Huey P. Long about his plans for enforcing the 18th Amendment. “Not a damn thing,” Long said.

But in Rapides Parish, where my family had lived since 1828, there was no New Orleans, dubbed the “liquor capital of America.”

It could be dangerous if you were a bootlegger or owned a Moonshine Still in Rapides Parish.

Only one thing was more hazardous than operating one. That was operating one and not being "lily-white."

The "Lily-White" movement within the Louisiana Republican Party attempted to make the party all-white.

Louisiana Law in the early 1900s established that "one drop" of Black ancestry defined a person as "Negro." The law was repealed in 1983.

The Great Depression was a few months away. There was plenty of money for an illegal visit to the "corner liquor store."

They were hidden in the tall pines along narrow red-dirt hog and cattle trails.

Known as Moonshine Stills, they were not overlooked in Rapides Parish, as they were in the Crescent City of New Orleans to the South.

Rapides Parish’s tall, thick Longleaf Pines were "rumored" to have several Moonshine Stills, although no one was able to remember where.

Our homestead, the Ole Willis Home Place, was high up on a hill overlooking Barber Creek. The Still was in the valley below, and the sounds of commerce would filter upwards through the fragrant piney woods.

My namesake and Grandpa Randall Lee “Rand” Willis had no issue with moonshine being bottled down below. It was at the end of a well-beaten path he often trod.

But my Grandma Lillie Hanks Willis did have a problem. She thought Grandpa had created that “broad is the way that leads to destruction” red dirt trail.

Grandpa was rumored to have forged the red dirt trail more than once.

The evidence surfaced when Grandma found him on the banks of Barber Creek. He was higher than a Louisiana Pine with an empty mason jar by his side.

It would all end when Fire and brimstone rained down on my grandpa's neighbor at the bottom of the hill.

Randy Willis Books

Fire and brimstone rained down on my grandpa's neighbor at the bottom of the hill. His neighbor lived on Willis-Gunter Road near our beloved Ole Willis Home Place. The family "below" deserved what they got, some said; they had committed the unpardonable sin of being born Black. That was the cry hear...

04/03/2026

https://randywillisbooks.com/thank-god-its-friday/

Thank God it's Friday.

Although the party began the night before...

And why not? After all, he was the ultimate master of positive thinking, proclaiming five times, "I will."

A third of his platform was sold on his teaching. Even unto death.

Randy Willis Books

by Randy Willis The party began the night before. This is written for and dedicated to nine people: my three sons and six grandchildren. They are the joy of my life. Anyone else who would care to l…

Address

Wimberley, TX

Telephone

+15125650161

Website

http://www.threewindblowing.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Joseph Willis posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Place Of Worship

Send a message to Joseph Willis:

Joseph Willis