Lester Miles gave some drum lessons to my youngest grandson, but it was my youngest granddaughter who recommended I write about Lester and his wife Jaki, whom she knew because they help with the youth at Clarke-Venable Baptist Church and are the parents of her friend Lily.
Lester Sylvester Miles, III, was born June 22, 1982, in Hollandale, Mississippi, but grew up in Decatur. His parents, Lester S. Miles, Jr., and Susan McCool Miles, are both from Rolling Fork in the Delta. Lester’s siblings were three sisters. Lena Miles has three children, Leslie Cleveland is deceased, having left two children, and Lacretia Pierce, has two children. They all live in Newton County.
Lester’s father worked on a farm as a young man, was trained in HVAC, received his license and moved here in the late 80s to teach that vocation at East Central Community College. Lester’s mother was a stay-at-home mom for a few years and was later employed at ECCC at the child care center. The family attended Decatur Assembly of God for a few years before his father opened a church in Union called Trinity Worship Center.
After Lester was older, Rev. Miles taught at Delta Community College, pastored Greenville Church of God, and became a bishop for the Church of God. Later, he pastored Raleigh Church of God then Union Church of God, from which he retired in 2021 after over 40 years pastoring. Rev. and Mrs. Miles live in Decatur.
Young Lester had attended elementary school at Boler until they were moved into the new Newton County Elementary School building. He went on to play drums from sixth grade, when Mr. Tom Carson let him borrow a drum. He was Drumline Captain his senior year at Newton County High School, graduated in 2001, then attended ECCC 1½ years, where he was Bassline Captain.
Lester had worked at Wal-Mart since he was sixteen and became a manager by the time he was twenty. For the last seven years, his position was that of training managers and assistant managers for Wal-Mart, traveling over southwest Alabama, southeast Louisiana, southern Mississippi, and as far away as Texas and Denver Colorado. After a total of twenty years with the company, he left this past August to open his own business, The Carport Carpenter.
Lester builds furniture, decks, screened-in porches, cornhole boards, custom cabinetry and woodwork in homes, and even built the set for ECCC’s latest drama Sweeny Todd. He had done this on the side for six or seven years, but now he has a small sawmill and two employees, drives a schoolbus and substitute teaches. I asked if the change had been difficult, to which he answered, “God is our Source. I prayed and felt this was the right thing to do.” He took a leave, helped with Jaki’s mother when she was sick, then went back to Wal-Mart for a short time before leaving.
In 2002, at ECCC, Lester met Miss Jaki Veenstra. They began dating in October, were engaged in 2003, and married January 8, 2005. Lester’s father married them at the Hickory United Methodist Church, after which the young couple moved to Meridian. They now live in the Fellowship Community south of Hickory. Their daughter Lily Corinne Miles was born November 22, 2007, on Thanksgiving Day at noon. Lester and Jaki’s daughter Lily is now fourteen, a cheerleader who made the high school squad for next year. She plays the piano and sang in the Mississippi All-State Honor Choir this year.
Jaki Miles was born August 17, 1984, to Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Harmon and Jo Gilmore Veenstra. They had met in Jackson, married and lived there until 2004 when they moved back to Hickory. Her parents had been married 38 years when her mother passed away last June. Her father still lives on the property where her mother had been born in Hickory. Jaki has one sister, Beth Evans, married to Dr. Doug Evans and living in Madison. She has one daughter. Her brother, Jacob Veenstra, is married to Katie Kyle from the Delta and they have two children. He is an assistant principal at Clinton Middle School.
Jaki attended elementary school at Southside Assembly of God church school until fourth grade, when she then went to Oak Forest Elementary for fifth grade. Her sixth through eighth grades were done at Whitten Middle School, before the family moved to Byram, where she finished ninth through twelfth grades at Terry High School, graduating in 2002, with a 4.2 GPA, as #20 in her class.
Jaki graduated from ECCC in 2004, and worked for Dr. Harry Dayton, a cardiologist in Meridian from 2004-2009, before being employed by Dr. Robert Justus, DDS, from 2009-2020. In September 2020, Jaki began working for Dr. Nicole Harrison, DMD in Union. I asked how she liked working there, and she answered with a smile, “I love it!”
Growing up the son of a pastor, Lester thought he was saved, as he believed it all and lived the life of a Christian. However, when he was 25 years old, in the summer of 2007, on a trip to the Ramp, a youth ministry in Hamilton, Alabama, he realized he needed to be saved. He told me, “Jaki was pregnant. I prayed over her for the baby to come out perfect and beautiful and to learn to love Jesus. Knowing I needed to teach her that was something that helped push me to go up to be saved.” Lester was later baptized at Northview Assembly of God in Meridian. The Miles now attend Clarke-Venable, where Lester plays the drums and Jaki and Lily sing in the choir.
As for Jaki’s salvation story, she told me, “Jesus was always in my home from my birth. I was introduced to Jesus by Mom and her example of a Christian wife and mother was always prevalent.” When she was five or six, she reported, “I kept thinking about how Sunday School teachers and Mom had explained that Jesus would ‘knock on the door of your heart’ and you would know it was Him and to let Him in. That day it was like I could feel Him and I was ready to accept Him into my heart. I was baptized at the age of ten.”
She told of her struggles of faith growing up, seeing God as “an unreachable being sitting on top of a mountain and somehow I had to be strong enough, good enough to reach Him but I couldn’t be and would fall and try again. She said while attending Hickory Baptist Church, Dr. Rich told her that “God is on top of that mountain, but He has His hand reaching for us and all we have to do is take His hand and He will help us up the mountain. It was like a light went off in my head! God wants me, so He is reaching to help me. I don’t have to be good enough or strong.” What a beautiful illustration of the grace of God!
Live for Jesus! He’s coming soon! You may contact me at lagnesrussell@gmail.com or 601-635-3282.
