Well, I knew I would never work for my father again, but I still longed to have a relationship with him. He came from a large family he had seven brothers and sisters! They all had several kids each and they all lived with in a mile of each other. They lived in Tateville, Kentucky behind the railroad tracks which at the time was a place that the police didn't even want to go. It was a very poor area full of real hillbilly types. People like you see in those shows that really try to over do the act. Well that is what this was only for real! They all heat with wood stove, burn their garbage, and have junk all in their yards. I heard a girl say one time and it really stuck with me that even the trees don't look healthy.
I kept visitng Bud after school started back because I really loved my grandmother and my uncle Vola (pronounced Volie) and aunt Pam seemed like they cared about me and I loved them and their kids and I swear this is true their son we called Buster and their daughter was called red sis cause their was already big sis and little sis but her real name is Queen Elizabeth! They all have weird nick name like Cooter, Buggy and Punchy. I wonder if they know punchy means stupid? Anyway my grandma her name was Lona (pronounced Lonie) was a real interesting woman. She and my grandpa Ola (you guess it pronounced Olie) married after only 6 weeks of courtship. and was married nearly fifty years until his death. She never dated after his death and she was a good Christian woman.I t killed her the way her kids acted. She couldn't read but she would open her Bible and get a few words together. I loved her I guess more than anybody because she was always nice to me and gave me compliments.
It was in the month of September that I was visiting them when there was a revival going on at Grandma's church which I had thought was actually closed. It was a one room structure that had not been painted in at least twenty years! The front doors were just boards that were nailed together. There were several holes in the floor where you could see the ground beneath you. There was no heat other than a wood stove and of course no bathrooms other than an outhouse. I tell you though it was an amazing place! In Tateville there is every kind of evil you can think of and it's a place where you can just feel the sinister when you go through, but that little church was a beacon of light and hope it was amazing! So on September 18th 1988 my grandma says she is going to go to church and I ask her if I could go with her I liked church but had only ever been to some big Baptist churches that had come and picked us up in the projects. My mother had always told me were holiness people but I had no clue as to what that meant, but I was about to find out! We walked to the little church that night and it was packed with about 30 to 40 people. Kyle and Alicia Shepherd were preaching and they were on fire for the Lord!
I sat there that night being so under conviction for my sins. God was dealing with me! I basically said something like God, don't you see who I am? Don't you know what I come from? You can't use me and I can't be a Christian. I am not good enough. Pick someone else. I can't go up there in front of these people. But by the time the altar call was given I looked up at grandma and I put my eternity in her hands when I asked her to go up there with me. I expected her to say no and that would be the end of it, but to my surprise and my good fortune she said yes. I went up to an old fashioned altar of prayer and I asked Jesus to come into my heart and wash me of my sins. And you know what he did! I knew he did! I felt a burden I didn't even know I had lift off of me and I felt light as a feather! I knew I had escaped Hell! I was so happy and so caught up in it all that when they asked me to testify I basically preached! I finally had a father a heavenly father that was the best father anyone could ever have.Now 21 years later I still have my heavenly father! Thank you Lord! So now that I was saved what new adventures would I face? Would my troubles be over or just beginning?
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