By Stanley O. Williford
Director of Publications
Two of Crenshaw’s more visible and devoted volunteers are Desmond and Deirdre Thompson. Desmond is an usher, and an intercessory prayer leader (he prays from home). Both serve as auxiliary heads for Ambassadors for Christ and are part of the team that prepares the invitation packets.
In addition, Desmond serves on the CCC executive board; Deirdre serves as a hostess and, up until recently, on the CCC Alzheimer’s Board.
Their diligence and discipline are worth noting. On the church’s recent 10-day cruise to Bermuda, St. Maarten, Puerto Rico and Haiti, Desmond maintained his Wednesday morning intercessory prayer schedule, as well as his regular Wednesday and Thursday fasts.
While most people put on an extra layer of weight during such lengthy cruises, Desmond gained only five pounds, which he dropped shortly after returning.
The couple, who have been married 33 years, joined Crenshaw in 1988. They were so steady in attendance that for six years they often structured their vacation time so they wouldn’t miss Sunday services.
Before they joined Crenshaw, they were members of Angelus Temple, the first church of the Foursquare Gospel, located in Echo Park.
“When I met Deirdre she was attending Angelus Temple with her great-aunt, so I attended also,” Desmond said. “We were active in that church as well. One of our assignments there was to handle the prayer calls on Saturday mornings, which we enjoyed thoroughly.”
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Desmond came to the United States with his parents and five siblings in 1968. He was 10 years old at that time. Deirdre is a native of Jamaica, Queens, New York. They have three sons and five grandchildren.
Desmond credits the longevity of their marriage, his success in management at Lexus of Cerritos, as well as his service at Crenshaw and everything he’s accomplished, to the “goodness of God and the Word as richly taught at Crenshaw Christian Center. He’s been good to me,” he said of the Lord. “God has really blessed us.”
Desmond is one of only twelve people who have been with Lexus since the company established itself in the U.S. in 1989. He is approaching his thirtieth year with the company. And he is consistently ranked as one of the company’s top producers in the nation, earning a top twenty ranking in sales production and customer satisfaction out of thousands of sales associates.
Before Lexus, Desmond was in real estate sales for eleven years, but with sales down in 1988, he put in an application at Lexus, thinking he would do car sales part-time, but car sales won out.
Here’s one of the lessons Desmond said he has learned from serving at the church: “When you’re serving in helps ministry it translates into your life. That attitude of service goes beyond helps ministry and becomes a part of everything you do.”
Deirdre’s attendance and church service has been broken twice by lengthy times away as she took on the care of Desmond’s mother for almost four years until she passed in 2015 at age 92.
Almost two years later Deirdre had to leave Desmond and the ministry for five to six weeks at a time to care for her dad who lived in Sacramento. She was her father’s care-giver for seventeen months until he passed away at age 90.
Both Desmond and Deirdre are well-educated.
Desmond has a degree in business administration with a minor in marketing from Loyola Marymount University. Deirdre has a bachelor’s degree in human biology from Pitzer College, which is one of the Claremont Colleges, and a master’s in public health from UCLA.
Retired since 2006, Deirdre was formerly the director of the Area Health Education Center at the Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science in South Los Angeles. The program was a collaboration between UCLA and the King-Drew Medical Center. It focused on graduate medical education, providing a comprehensive approach that included clinical nutrition and geriatric medicine in residency training.
After the program ended in 1985, she became a part of a project with Aetna Life and Health to establish one of the first maintenance organizations for all branches of the military. In later years, she worked for the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, developing after-school programs for youth residing in public housing and adjacent elementary schools, and conducting academic research in positive youth development.
Since her retirement, she has pursued mostly volunteer work with the church.
The couple maintain busy lives, but both are notably generous with both their time and their giving.
Desmond sums it up this way:
“We love serving Apostle Price, Pastor Fred Jr. and the Crenshaw Christian family, and will continue to do so until God tells us to pursue another assignment.”
