Chapter Eight – Resurrected and Translated a 100 Miles
Russ:
After pastoring in south and central Louisiana for many years, I was offered a position with a small denomination headquartered in southeast Missouri. While there I worked as head of the evangelism department and was also responsible for the publishing work, producing many titles for the founder of our organization and also writing Christian education resources for use in this group’s youth programs and bible school. It was during my time here that I initially met Kitty while she was pastoring one of the churches (in Seymour, Missouri) associated with our parent organization. Shortly after preaching for Kitty, the Lord began to prepare me to make an exit from denominational work. Initially, I saw working for this group as a promotion to greater ministry but found to my disappointment it was no more than a bureaucratic office with no meaningful outlet for the call of God I felt upon my life. I prayed long and hard for God to open a door of escape for me, and one day, my answer came in the form of a prophetic word.
My eldest brother was living in the Kansas City area at the time, and he visited a church were a prophet friend of mine by the name of Gene Bacon was ministering. He called him up to the front and holding a cassette recorder in his hand gave a word that was not intended for my brother but myself. The declaration was that my time working for the denomination was drawing to a close and a door of opportunity was about to open. My brother received the word and called me up to play the recording over the phone. I was relieved and blessed to know that something was about to shift. That very next day a minister by the name of Floyd Achord called me up. Floyd was credentialled as an evangelist with our organization, but he had a strong prophetic anointing on his life. As we spoke on the phone that day, Floyd repeated almost word for word what Gene Bacon had prophesied. Not only did Bro. Achord prophesy that I would be leaving the position I was in with the denomination, he also put his money where his mouth was and pledged $2500 to help me make the move to wherever God would send me. Shortly after that, I made the move to Windsor, Missouri.
My natural father had retired from active ministry after 38 years as a pastor. He moved to this little town of Windsor and opened a business and bought several investment properties. When God released me from the denomination, He instructed me to relocate where my parents were now retired and to assist them in anything, they needed help with. This was in the mid-’90s, and for the first time in many years I was moving from full-time ministry after pastoring two churches and working as a denominational leader, I would now foray into the business world in order to care for my family and fulfill the mandate of the Father to be a support to my dad. I went into the computer business, and after a rocky start God really opened the doors of blessing up to me, and I continued in this work through the 1990s until 2010 when I turned the business over to my eldest son who still runs it today.
While working in the business world, my father helped me buy an older Victorian home on Main street in Windsor. It was a 15-room structure that was built in the mid-1800s with high ceilings and the unique character of a house that was over 100 years old. It sat on a one-acre lot in the middle of town and after settling in my near neighbor down the street named Billy came for a visit. Billy was a disabled diesel mechanic suffering from a myriad of illnesses arising from a life of dissipation and alcoholism. His liver was failing. Diabetes was ravaging his body. His heart was compromised, as well. He was in and out of the doctor’s care yet all this time he continual sought us out as his neighbor to be a blessing to us in any way he could.
Billy was illiterate and very simple-minded, yet he loved us with all his heart. He was ten years older than I was, but he still chose to call me “Dad,” and there wasn’t a chore or handyman task around our house that Billy wasn’t quick to identify the need and take care of things all the while refusing any payment for doing so. I was touched by Billy’s love for the family and shared Jesus with him many times to no avail. I would give him the gospel, and he would just hang his head and say, “well, you know Dad, I’m just not a religious fellow…” I was frustrated by his continual rebuffs all the while his love for my family and servants’ heart just continued on unabated.
