Chapter Three – Banking with Jesus (cont)
Even in the face of persecution, I was promoted continuously in the bank. I went from head teller to assistant operations officer, and later, I was offered full operations officer in my career. Through it all, I continued sharing Christ and winning souls to Jesus. I would have experiences with people because I was just bubbling about Jesus and they would say, “why are you so happy?” and I would be happy to tell them. Now I’m going to show a little secret about banks. They store their extra money in the vaults, in something like safe deposit boxes. At the end of the day, as the operations officer, I would have to pull out everyone and count the bundles of money. Another teller and I were sitting, (you always had to do it in twos); on the carpeted floor inside the vault and (the bank doors were locked at this point) we were counting down all the currency. As we were sitting there surrounded by 3 or 4 million dollars this young woman with me blurts out, “Kitty, how can you know if you are living for the good guys or the bad guys?” I opened my mouth and for 15 minutes shared the plan of salvation and who the enemy was, the thief coming to kill, steal and destroy, and Jesus came that we might have life and that more abundantly, she was then in tears and accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior.
I had many moments like that in odd situations, but it was always God in the midst, giving opportunity for me to boldly give my testimony for Christ. What I noticed was it bothered me being in a public arena like that and some people didn’t want to hear about God, and other people would hear it as an overflow of me talking and witnessing to somebody, and they would tell the supervisor, and say please, stop all that (blah blah blah). I was telling my family one night (because I was then married, and had two little kids) at a certain point, I said, one of these days, you guys, I’m going to have my own business, I don’t know what it is, but I’m going to have my own business, and I’m going to get to share Jesus, and nobody is going to stop me. The day came that this happened which I will continue with in another chapter.
While I was a banker, about five years in, we could take extra banking classes to learn more skills and so I was allowed to go to Los Angeles, about an hour from my home in Ventura. I would drive to LA, spend the night and go to a seminar that evening and all the next day and then drive back home. The first one I went to was on Thursday morning, and it was about public speaking. The attendees would listen to someone teach you how to do very polished public speaking. I had never had anything like that, so the lady gets up and is instructing about 200-250 women. I’m about three-quarters of the way back. I’m in my early 20s and just in love with Jesus and ready for what God had next in my life. I’m learning and wanting to be teachable always, and the instructor shares with us how to do public speaking. “You start your conversation, and I’m going to show you a one-minute example, I’m going to start my conversation on the right side of the room and as I am speaking to the public I would move my head gently, gradually, across the crowd, all the way to the left side.” The instructor continues, calling for at least ten volunteers and give us an example of your pubic speaking.
My hand went straight up in the air, I didn’t plan it, it just went straight up in the air, and I hear this in my spirit, “tell them about Noah’s ark…” It was the Father speaking. “You know about Noah’s ark, tell them…” My turn came, and I opened my mouth, and I did precisely what the lady (and the Spirit of God) instructed. I started talking about Noah and how he was found faithful in the eyes of the Lord, and this happened, and the flood came, and his sons were saved, their wives and his wife, and by the time I got my head to the left side of the room, it was time. And she said, “I have to tell you, in all my experience, I have never seen a first-timer do that well. You knocked it out of the park, so to speak”. Walking back to my seat, a lady calls out from the crowd, “Hey, I want to hear the rest of the story.” I immediately said, “Meet me out in the hall after the meeting.” Then everybody laughed. That was my first sermon, and it was only 60 seconds.
I was still attending a Missionary Baptist Church in Ventura, but I knew, something inside me was stirring, and I know it is the Holy Spirit now, told me there was so much more than what I had been experiencing. I just had a hunger and a thirst; I absolutely was emaciated wanting to know more about God. I attended church three times a week back then, twice on Sunday and once on Wednesday night and I loved it, but I still had this empty place that I wanted to be filled. It wouldn’t be long before the Father would send His Holy Spirit crashing into My life, bringing about change and transformation far beyond my wildest expectations
