Second Baptist Church of Monrovia

Elder Robert Craig was born in Columbia, South Carolina on December 4, 1933. He is the youngest of ten siblings. Elder Craig, along with his siblings, faithfully attended church every Sunday, and again during the week for Bible Study and choir rehearsals, which is where he may have tapped into his love for the drums.

 

Elder Craig vowed that once he was old enough, he would never go to church again. But his parents knew something that he did not know, that if you, “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

 

Elder Craig served in the US Army where he had the opportunity to travel all over the world. It was in Fort Ord, California 2,736 miles away from home that his life was changed forever. This is where he met the love of his life, Arlethia. She lived 150 miles from Elder Craig’s hometown. However, they both had to travel across the United States to find each other in Fort Ord while Arlethia was there taking care of her sick sister. The two became inseparable and were later married, and stayed married for sixty-two years and had four children. The legacy of Elder Craig continues with three grandchildren whom he loves dearly.

 

While taking care of his family, Elder Craig spent thirty-four years working for General Motors and became a deacon at Second Baptist church where he served in this position for more than fifteen years and was later appointed to Elder, which he has held this position for over twenty years. Under the tutelage of Bishop Dr. Wm. LaRue Dillard, he was appointed head of the Hospitality Outreach Ministry where he has spent more than thirty years traveling all over Southern California doing the Lord’s work of visiting the sick and shut-ins, and praying with and for his brothers and sisters in Christ.