Chapter One (cont)
One woman in our group was a Mary Kay lady. In the big lobby, before you go into the theater, she donated cosmetics, which we put into baskets with brand new makeup, pantyhose, all kinds of lovely things. Somebody donated a red rose for every woman, not just the 300 from the shelters, but a red, long stem rose for every woman who came. They were all amazed, saying, “What? What the heck is this?” Also, there was food supplied by local restaurants.
As we opened the Friday night session, we had beautiful pageantry, as you can imagine as this theater was all about the life of Christ, and there were lots of props, and all was just beautiful. We had a movie called “Two from Galilee,” which was about Mary, when she found out she was pregnant, and two angels came and rested behind her, where an impartation took place of Christ being formed in her. There were menorahs 12 feet tall, and beautiful pageantry. In the Promise part of the theater, we had an actor who played Jesus, who was a really good guy, a precious guy who loved the Lord.
We had our heart set on getting this other actor, and we did, who was a disciple who had long silky brown hair. We ordered him a white tuxedo, and we had been given this inspiration from God to bring him on. God gave me the words to the song, “Could I have this dance for the rest of my life?” He gave me God words, like, “I’ll always remember the first day I saw you when My Father said you’d be born, so I watched and waited and anticipated, this very moment in time. Could I have this dance for the rest of my life? Would you be my partner both day and night? Because when we are together, it seems so right, could I have this dance for the rest of my life?” Also, I had three or four more verses for this song.
When I got up to share, I told the women about the gospel according to Cinderella. It was really foreign to the ladies who hadn’t been around the things of God. So, I broke it down really simple. I talked about how, when Cinderella wanted to go to the ball; she was drawn by something; by a horse and a beautiful carriage, right? But when we want to come to Christ, we are drawn by His precious Holy Spirit. God gave me all these little scenarios that I could relate to these women who could understand the Cinderella story without quite getting the Jesus story. When I got to this point, I told my ashes to beauty story.
I had been, as a young wife and a young mom, seduced by my pastor, unfortunately, who was 22 years older than me. I didn’t do so good because back then, I wasn’t filled with the Holy Ghost. I was a little bit on the carnal side, and I was kind of liking the flattery, but as God is my witness, as soon as all of that started to culminate, I turned myself in. When you are full of Jesus, when you love Jesus more, that stuff can’t stay with you, it can’t stick to you. So, God told me to turn myself in, and I did. I told the girls. “I turned myself in.” I turned myself into the deacons and said, “If you’re not going to do something about it, I’m going to go stand up in front of the whole church and say, I have sinned, and the Pastor keeps doing inappropriate things. The deacons said, ok, we will do something.
I had to stand up in a church service on a Sunday morning and say what I had done, that I had been seduced. They asked him to speak, and he said, “Yes, it’s true. I was flattering sister Kitty, but I quit two weeks ago, and it’s over.” Well, two days before that, he had come to my bank and put flowers in the drive-thru window where I was working, so it was just a really sad situation. The fact is that I had fallen, I was in ashes, but after confessing what happened and Jesus loving me so much, He said, “yeah, I’m good, I’m cool.” The elder, who was the moderator, stood up and said, “We’ll take a vote to vacate the pulpit at this moment.” So, they voted and took him out of the pulpit so that he wouldn’t hurt any other women.
When I did that, the next day, I was so relieved, but felt convicted at the same time. It was not easy, I was just 22 or 23 years old, but God used that strength that was in me because He knew I was going somewhere with Him one day. I’m in my 60s now, so it’s been a few years. At that time, I had responsibilities in the church that I had to keep. I was a leader of young people, and because I was a banker, I did the books. The next day was Monday, and that pastor was gone, and the church was empty, so I took my keys, went in the church, and all I can tell you is that I fell on my face at the altar and I didn’t get up from there for about an hour. I cried out to God.
If I could have gotten any lower into that carpet, I would have done it because that’s how serious I was with Him. I mean, I did business with God, and I was so, so sorry. I never meant to hurt Him. So, I was forgiven. I got up, washed and clean. I mean spankin clean, like a brand-new baby. You don’t have to carry that stuff on you when you believe that when you confess your sin, He is faithful and just to forgive you. So, I was free, I was so free that some of the people were mad at me because they were still trying to get over it, but I was free. I started preaching Jesus. I mean, I just started, and I went on with God. I was telling the ladies that I had a little downfall, but God raised me up. He washed me clean. I just shared more of my testimony with them
