Episode 41 - Lamon Thomas Part 2

Lamon is the daughter of Odell McCallum.  Lamon was conceived while her parents were still in high school and she wasn't in her father's life until she was well into adulthood.   Lamon's story is a beautiful story of God's grace.  His grace was evident in her life even before she surrendered her life to the Lord.  Be sure to listen to Odell's story in Episode 40.  

Transcript

Becki 0:10

Hello, I'm Becky Dowd, and this is The Journey to Salvation. Join me as we walk alongside real people and hear the unique journeys that led them to faith in Jesus. Today my guest is Lamon Thomas. Hello, Lamon. Hello. How are you, Sister Becky? How are you today? Good. I'm doing good. So Lamon, I just met you the last few in the last few days because you are the daughter of Mr. Odella McCallum. I am, yes. And I was surprised to hear that he had a daughter. And uh, but that's just a really neat story that uh you're gonna share with us. But let's just start out. Uh just let us know how it was uh maybe when you were born growing up, uh maybe through your teenage years.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

Uh we'll do that. Um hoping this would encourage others. Well, um, as Beth, you just said my dad and I um didn't we weren't in each other's life until I was well until my adulthood. So my father and my mother were teenagers. My mom was 16 when she gave birth to me, and my dad was just finishing high school, he was 18. From what I've come to understand is that he did not have um any knowledge of my birth, of course. He is so humble himself, he would tell the story and say that it was a time that they both were young teenagers and sinning, but it's because not any of us know Jesus during that time, and we both always have to get there. So in my childhood, I when I was born, from an understanding, my mom didn't tell her mother, my grandmother or my great-grandmother until later on today started noticing that she was pregnant. And that's how they found out. So she decided she wanted to keep me. Um there were family members now that was offering to adopt me, that was in better positions. Some of them were married and had families, but she wanted to keep me. So um she decided to, I was may have been uh a few months old, and she decided that she was gonna go to New York to live with some relatives and work to be able to provide for me. So I stayed with my grandmother in North Carolina. And my grandmother took care of me up until I may have been about nine, and she ended up uh because things got kind of tough for her in North Carolina, moving to New York also. So I ended up staying with a great-grandmother until um I may have been about 10 years old when she passed away, and and then I ended up staying with an aunt and uncle. At that point, um, my mom and stepdad came to um get me in North Carolina and took me to live with them in New York prior to me going to New York. Now I want to just say that during my time as a child in New York, North Carolina, I did have a good life with my grandmother, my great-grandmother, and my aunt and uncle, my relatives. My mom did provide and she came to visit as often as she could. Uh, but the fact that we weren't in each other's life from that, I guess, that nurturing time of a child or baby's life, we didn't bond together as a mother and a daughter. So she provided, but we weren't close in that sense because she didn't have that um she didn't have the opportunity to spend time with me and nurture and bond with me as a baby for a period of time.

Becki 3:46

So were you when you moved to New York with your mom and stepdad?

SPEAKER_02 3:51

Um, I actually was just had just turned 11 because my birthday comes in April and they came and got me in June so that I could go and they could get me enrolled in school. So when I went to live with them, um my mom at that time was already um carrying my sister that's next to me. There's she had three other children, so there's the 11 years difference between the child she was carrying at that time, and then there's 12 years difference between my brother and then the younger sibling from her, it's 20 years difference. And of course, as my father, I'm sure everyone that's listening that knows my father, know my brother Sanford. So there's about seven or eight years difference between him, he and I. So those are my siblings in that order. So as I live with them and um grew up there. And you said that was in Brooklyn, New York? Brooklyn, New York. That's where I went to live with them. And I lived in Brooklyn, New York with them until I became 19 years old, and then I moved out on my own after I finished high school, and then um two years of community college, and I moved out with out of their home and started living in my own place and started my own life. Um, that's where things started to take a different turn for me.

Becki 5:11

Okay, let me interrupt you just one second. So at that point, did you know anything about uh your biological father, Mr. McCallum?

SPEAKER_02 5:21

I knew that he was my biological father because um he has a sister that her and my mom grew up together and they were kind of close. So they kept contact with each other. So and my mom told me who my father was from a from a small child. I knew who my father was because my father's mother lived in North Carolina, so my grandmother, my mother's mother, always they were they were friends, so she always took me to visit her. So I did know her and I did know a cousin that she she was actually raising this friend, my dad's sister's son, so because she had had a son also, so she was actually raising him, my grandmother from my father. So we were close. So I knew them. I knew those two. I didn't know any of my other relatives or to remember them according to my mom. I probably did see some of my uncles while I live down there, but I was so young I didn't remember them. So I didn't know any of my other relatives and all like that, other than this particular cousin and my aunt that was close to my mother, you know. So I knew those two and my grandmother, but I didn't know any other relatives, you know, until I actually came back into contact with my father and started going to family reunions.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:37

So those are the only two relatives. But yes, at that time I knew who my father was, always knew who he was. I just had never physically met him. According to my mom, he did come at some point when I was like a small child, because she tells a funny story about how he came to see me and she turned her back. She had just finished giving me a bath and everything and got me ready, and I stood in the tub of water with all my clothes and stuff in it. He thought it was hilarious. And she was like, That's not funny. She said, you know, and she had to get me dressed all over again. So she did. I remember her telling me that story, which I haven't had a chance to ask him about it. He may not remember because he probably was a teenager himself, you know, a young man brother. But and he may have come to visit at that time and came to see me. So I do remember that story, but I was so young, I don't remember having that interaction with him, you know.

Becki 7:32

Right. Because he wasn't at that time, he was not living in North Carolina. No, he had already he had already moved with his sister and brother-in-law.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

Exactly. And that was the point, the reason that um from our from her understanding, not just from him, but from his sister, because she's like the go-to person for everything you want to know. She's um I'll I'll make sure that we can go and ask anything. So he was actually um my grandfather had already, since his older sister and my dad came a family from a family of 14 siblings. So his older sister was old enough to have been married and moved, was moving out with her husband. And uh from what I understood, my grandfather had asked my um, I don't say my uncle, because that was my aunt's husband, to when my father finished high school, if he could go with him wherever he goes and try to, and he would like him to finish c go to college and all of that, because the norm in North Carolina was once you finished high school, a lot of the young people either if they didn't go to college or get work, they had to work in the fields. And my father always suffered as a child with breathing situations and chronic asthma, as they now found out today, you know, in this time frame. But at that time, he had was always sick, getting sick with different breathing issues. And um, my grandfather was concerned about that and didn't want him to work in the fields with at that time was either tobacco or cotton, from what I understand. So he wouldn't have been able to deal with that. So, and also he wanted him to complete his education because from what I understand, even for my mom, he was always very intelligent. So they saw that in him, and they saw some other things in him in the spiritual level. So my grandfather always wanted him to finish that career and to try to pursue getting his education. So he had had my uncle promise him that that would take place, and from my understanding, my grandfather was very sick or getting sick himself, and he was um passing on, and that was what he asked him on his deathbed at that time. I I had not even been conceived at all. So this had already taken place before all this happened with me, you know. And so once that happened, of course, my dad was on his way to leave North Carolina, and uh I think from what I understand from my aunt, they all decided to go out to celebrate. And this is actually the time I got conceived by my my mom and my dad, you know. Um, so he was they were doing like a celebration, the graduation celebration. His him, his friends, my uncles, my aunt, my mother went with them, and this is when this all took place. Okay. So um just to go back and say how the conception happened, it the plan for my dad to leave had already been put into action before the season took place.

Becki 10:23

Okay. All right, so let's go back to uh you graduating, moving out on your own.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

Yes. So um graduating, moving out on my own. Um my foundation, and and this is often the place because I want to know once I tell my story that when you're not in the umbrella, the carbon of Jesus Christ, how you can make those choices and decisions as a young person in your life when you don't have and a lot of people say, okay, that father connection, which I'm not trying to paint my father in the in a daylight because we are so wonderful in each other's life now. But I didn't grow up, my stepdad didn't connect with me as a father because I wasn't his biologically, and that he didn't know how to, I guess. You know, I can't say anything negative about him because he gave me food on the table and the roof over my head, and I thank God for that, you know. But we didn't come up in a household of knowing Jesus Christ, of having a relationship with him, of knowing God. And when I came up from 11 years old to 19, I didn't come up in that kind of household at that time, you know. So as I moved on in my life, of course, I was in my spirit trying to find someone to love me and someone that I felt I could get a love connection from. And I chose to do it in relationships. So my first relationship was with my children's father, and I do have two sons now. Um one is 45, going to be 46 in about a week, and the other one is 43, and um ended up having them from um someone I met that was a very educated man, working, had a good career and all of that, but just ended up couldn't make couldn't make a commitment as a father and a husband in my life. So we were engaged, but he never chose to marry me. So I ended up having two children from him. But he wasn't my bad relationship. That was just a choice I made. As a matter of fact, he was actually 10 years older than me. It was a choice I made, thinking that that's someone I could build a life with. Um as I was talking earlier to you, Becky, and you said we make decisions when we don't know Jesus and our sin for nature. And that was my flesh making that decision based on someone that I saw attributes and that I thought would be someone in my life. And I have nothing negative to say about him because he never treated me harmfully in any kind of way. He just could not make a commitment to me and his children.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

Right.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

And he struggled in his life with some of his demons, and he ended up using, starting to dabble in drugs. And one day I saw him doing that, and I decided I couldn't raise my children around that. So I made a decision to leave. And from there, I still, because I wasn't in a relationship with Jesus Christ, I knew about God because, like I said earlier, my foundation from growing up in North Carolina, my grandparents, my grandmother and we went to church. I knew about God. I did all the things the child would do in the church, the play, the little plays and all like that, Sunday school and all of that, but I didn't have that relationship. I didn't know anything about it. I knew about God. So that was in me all the time that I was always, I want to know about God. Even when I was growing up in my household and with my mother and my stepdad, I would try to find a church to go to. I would try to read the Bible, but I could never understand it. And I would put it down to pick it up, put it down to pick it up. And then I would get, as I went on moving out, and I was go back to when I was um out on my own and their father, and after we broke up, then um waited a few years and I met someone else from a company I was working in, a larger organization, corporation I was working in in New York. So I was working and I was 22 years old or 21 when I met him. And I just uh because he worked in the company also and had a pretty good position in that company as a manager, and he was pursuing me, but I just didn't see something in him. But after a few years, um after breaking up with my children's father, he was still com pursuing me, and I was like, no, no, but then um he started to take me out and treat me nice as someone I like, oh, I think he's we can have a relationship. And this is when you don't choose relationships that God blesses, you know. Got into relationship with him also, and this is where I'm gonna go for where my um abuse started, because that's where this story is all about that I did have two abusive relationships in my life during that time frame before my dad and I even came back into each other's life. One of them was pretty much the second one, this one he and I finally connected again. This first one we hadn't yet. So this gentleman was eight years older than me and treated me nice, treated me great, treated my children great, and all like that. Um, I happened to work in the human resource department and that organization, that corporation, it was one of one of the largest corporations in New York, one of them. And we were responsible for records, personnel records. And I used to not see something in his, but I did not know that he had actually reformed his life, but reformed it because he had been in prison for five years because he were used to rob banks.

Becki 16:01

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

Yeah. And he actually, ironically, it's a funny story. People laughing and said he worked in the personnel department, or I mean, worked in the payroll department rather, around money. And he was the manager in that payroll department that he was responsible for getting everybody's paychecks out every week. And they robbed banks. And he used to rob banks. He was a reform bank robber that robbed banks, and he was in prison, had been in prison for five years. And on top of that, he also had alcohol, you know, he had alcohol addiction, but he had cleaned himself up from there. And this company was so huge they could send their employees to this place called the farm if they had drug addiction problems or alcohol addiction problems and get them, if they would fall back off the wagon, they would send them there to get them back. This is how huge this company was that I worked for. And I started there when I was like in 20, 21, 22, out that time, yeah. Because so he kept pursuing me. So like I said, I finally, and this was after he was pursuing me before I met my children's father. And um he I wouldn't give him the time and date, but I guess I seem to have had more clarity then, but when I had my children, because he came in and he was like a father figure to them and took care of us and all like that, yeah. So I ended up living with him for probably about six or seven years. Um, and after a while, things started turning with him because um he had gotten into a bad car accident and they had to put him on different medications, and then the job kind of got hard for him to go through, so he ended up going on disability. So he ended up starting using drugs and going back on his alcohol. And he wasn't physically abusive for me, it was just verbal because he was just possessive and jealous of anybody that looked at me. It's his mind told him things was some, it was me pursuing them or them pursuing me. So I lived in that situation with him. It was emotional, and this is where the God part came in. I had that foundation of God. So there was times he would come in at night, and I would be like, oh God, please, even though I now I would, like I said, I would find churches to go to, even when my children were babies, because I was still seeking and searching. And I I try to find my scripture that I always have that when you seek God, he will find you. So I was seeking him, even though he was there and didn't know anything about me. So when he would come in sometimes at night, I would have the Bible under my pillow saying, Please don't let him come in. Because he wouldn't come in and put his hands on me, but he would come in and just continuously, and I would just be verbal throughout the night. And I had to get up the next day to get the children ready to go to school, and we had to ride. At that time, he lived in a part of New York called Queens. So you had to get on two trains. I had to get them to school and then go back and get on the train and go to my job. So being kept up late at night, physical abuse is one thing, but sometimes when someone's verbally going at you and keeping you up all night, that's that's stressing too. So that's a part of an abusive, more emotional and more verbal, and more things he would say to me that try to make me feel down because he didn't want anybody looking at me or try to make me feel like I wasn't attractive, no, like that, you know. So it was a verbal abusive, and then there was this alcoholism and the combination, he got depressed, and then he went on depressive depression medication. He combined that with cocaine and alcohol, and his mind would tell him different things. And eventually I got to a point I was like, I can't stay in this. I left. He he I left for a while. I would take my children by then I would stay with in like kindergarten and like second grade. I would take them to my mom's house on the weekend sometime and all like that. And then I started making my mind, okay, you gotta get a plan to get out of this because you can't stay in this verbal abuse anymore and all like that, and he's not gonna change and all like that. So um one night I decided that I was just gonna leave. And from this experience, I would say to anyone, when you're with someone that is in that state of mind, and they are either you drinking alcohol and they're using drugs and they're using a depression medication, any type of combination of drugs and alcohol. You should not be so straightforward with them or verbal about what you're gonna do, especially if they're trying to hold you back from leaving them. So this particular night, um, now since he had this history of being a bank robber, of course he knew how to use weapons. So he always had a couple of weapons in the household that were legal weapons because you know, he had them in the household. He had like a saw-off shotgun, he had like a 45, and he had like a small caliber that he carried around with him. Um so I knew about the other two, and I had removed those from the household because I knew I was gonna leave and I knew his mental state, and I'd taken them out and taken them to a friend's house. But I didn't know about the third one till later. So I um this particular night I started getting stuff packed up and is sort of moving stuff out a little bit and sent my children to my mom's house. And he came in and I was telling him that we needed to end, that I couldn't take this anymore. And he was like, Oh, so you want to leave? I was like, Yes, he said, No, you're not. I was like, Yeah, I plan to listen to everyone. Don't ever let some. I mean, I was I was young, I was probably about 26 at the time, but I was just speaking my mind and verbally telling him what I was gonna do, and I didn't care at the time, not realizing he is in mental state, and I'm sitting on the side of the bed, he's standing in. Of me. And I guess his first plan was to try to scare me up, prevent me from leaving. So he took the weapon out and he pointed it at me. And I was like, okay, where did he get that one from? Because I knew about all the others. I didn't know he had this one that he carried around with him all the time. And he starts to empty the the bullets out on the floor. And I didn't know enough about guns and know that there's six in this one that I saw he had, and I didn't know about the one in the chamber though. So he's unloading them and saying, Oh, you think you're gonna leave? And all that I'm like, yes, I am. And I don't even he says, so you don't love me anymore? No, this is over. And he points it at me, and before I knew it, he fired it. And I have my hand sitting in front of my head, and I'm sitting on the side of the bed, and we couldn't have been, I don't even think we were like ten feet away from each other. And when he fired it, I didn't even realize it. So this is how I know that Jesus was in this. When he fired it, it went into my hand. And I didn't realize it. He realized I was shot because now, of course, he's intoxicated under all this influence, and that snapped him into place. He was like, and I'm like, I looked at my hand, it was swollen up, and the bullet was in my hand. And at that point, I was like, Oh my god, you shot me. And he was like, I did, I'm so sorry. He's apologizing because now he realizes what he's done. Oh wow. So at that point, of course, we gotta go to the hospital. And he had a friend who had retired from being a detective. He called him and he told him what happened. He was really angry at him and all like that. He came, but he went with us to the hospital, you know. And I think because he was with us, because normally when it's a good when it's a gunshot, they gotta report it. The police did come, you know, and because he was there. And I was at a point I just wanted out of that relationship and actually covered for him because I knew I felt that so many things I'm crazy, but I felt at that time I just want to be out of this relationship. He was intoxicated, he was under the influence of everything. I don't want to see him go back to jail. I just want to be left alone by him, but I'm also gonna get order protection, you know, which is what I did also, you know. So I left and the police detectives kept coming in because they had a feeling that the story that we told that I fabricated to them saying that we were out together that night and we got robbed, they didn't believe it completely. Yeah. So I didn't think they could believe it because they kept calling me back down to the police department when he wasn't around, and I kept sticking with the same story, you know. Um and um today when I think about it, I'm sorry, because I felt that this is someone that needed help. And I just wanted to start my life over and get away from him. So I did go and get an order of protection to make sure that he didn't come back because he did try to, you know, he wanted to convince me to come back and all like that. And I didn't. So at that point, since I said, no, I'm not coming back, so I said, Okay, you're gonna force me. So I did. I got an order of protection so he wouldn't keep, you know, pursuing me. But my story about this is since I can't physically show everybody how the distance was between us and how close we were, and how the difference of that bullet could have gone through my hand into my head, because it's actually what the doctor said, because my hand was so swollen, they couldn't remove the bullet right away. They had to wait a couple of days until the swelling went down before they could do surgery on my hand. So all the doctors could do was bandage it up and keep it. He said, and then like in a couple of days, they sent me to the surgeon, and the surgeon removed the bullet from my hand, but it shattered the bones in my left hand. So it's still like a little little well, you can see it now. Uh-huh. But what he's the doctor said is that it's amazing that that bullet didn't go through your hands and into your head. Oh, right. The bullet went into.

Becki 26:07

Yeah, you would have thought that it would have gone through your hand.

SPEAKER_02 26:12

And I'm not a big I'm I was never a big person. I'm a batite person. I've always been, you know. So um, and that was another thing that amazed. And they said, considering how small you are, you're a very boutique person. And that's why I would tell anyone, you cannot tell me that God doesn't exist, that Jesus is not real. You know, because even that time when I did not have a relationship yet, like I do now, I did not have that closeness, knowing what I know, he still was looking over me. And I had think that all had to do with my dad and I coming back into Jesus' life and what the purpose he had for me in my life now. So um fast forwarding. Next relationship, I was a few years later, I was a little bit older because at that time I'm I was into my 30s. So um next with this is when my dad and I came into Justin's life. I was about 34. And this no, let's say uh 36 because dad came in. My brother Sanford was searching once he found out he had a sister. He contacted my aunt and asked my aunt if she knew, since he knows she's been in contact with my mom, did she know where I was? My aunt contacted my mom at that time. I had moved into another place that's with me and my children at that time after I left the relationship I just finished telling you about. And uh we were living there, and my brother Sanford had contacted them, and my aunt lived in New Jersey at that time, and they were visiting her.

Becki 27:49

Was this the first time that Sanford knew that he had a sister? Um or had he known in the previous years?

SPEAKER_02 27:57

I think Sanford knew in the previous years. He knew in the previous years um him and um because family knew. So I'm sure my family, they weren't the type of family, even on my dad's side, the withhold information. So I'm sure my dad, when they were customer on the sand, they all would come down at that times for family reunions. So when I still was in North Carolina as a child, I wasn't at those family reunions because my dad was now married to my mom, my stepmom, which you all may know Ollie, who became like my mom too and embraced me in her life when she met me. And I mean, she didn't meet me until I was like late on in life. So I was a full-grown adult before she started embracing me, and she still embraced me as her daughter. But at that time, they all knew, but they hadn't actually met me. And my brother didn't meet me as a child either. So he knew later on. I think he told me he knew me as a teenager. That's what he told me now that I think about it. As a teenager, he found out he knew about he had a sister, you know. So um then at this time point, of course, because there's eight years difference between us, I was about 35 or 36 at the time before dad and I connected. And they came to um got my information, got my address, um, came to where I lived. At that time, I was still living in Brooklyn. I'd moved back to Brooklyn in my own apartment and all of that with my children. But at that time I was now in another relationship. And I will explain how I came to be in that one before I talk about because they came while I was with this person and knocked on the doors. You know, they called me first and they came and knocked on the door, and that's they came to visit. So this point, this person I met, um, still working in the same organization I was working in. Um we were just friends, but I used to be at that point where I said I used to always say, I want to know about the um about the Bible at this time. So I met him, we went out, and I used to tell him, and that's why I would say to anyone, what you put in the atmosphere, even the enemy hears. And I told my dad, and I was just having a conversation about that last week. I was like, it's uh funny how when I met this person and we were going out and we were asking and getting to know each other, and I was like, I want to know about the Bible, I want to know about the Bible. I didn't say I want to know about Jesus, I want to know about God because at that time I hadn't yet known about Jesus. I knew about that God. I always knew that it was God. I I knew that that's who I called on when I was in that previous relationship to keep the peace at night when he would come in and with my Bible. I knew that, but I hadn't gotten to the depth of learning the word and reading the word. So for this person, he used to say, What is it that you want to? I said, I really want to know about the Bible and understand about the Bible. So he took it upon himself to start having to sit down and have Bible readings and all like that. And that impressed me so much that it drew me into the relationship. Because at that time I wasn't interested in him having a relationship with them because he actually was a little bit younger than me. So I wasn't interested in having a relationship with them. I just wanted to have be friends. But once he started bringing the Bible, we sit down and have Bible studies and read things. But what he did, he only told me about read things about me in the Old Testament. And uh we were reading all like that, and he would use eventually started using the Old Testament as to justify what his lifestyle that he was going to bring to me. And I'm honest about this because I have to be transparent. This doesn't make me feel good about I've in the past I didn't feel good about it. I felt ashamed and all that that I let myself be duped into this relationship the way I was. But now I know it can help someone to uh when you get in relationships. I always tell young ladies now, even my nieces and all like that, when you get in relationships, don't tell the guy what you looking for, because they can use that on you. Tell them what you will not accept in your life, and all like that, what you will not put up with. But with this particular situation, is how I learned my lesson because I told him all the things I was looking for and I wanted, I want to learn about the Bible, I wanted this other. He made a point to be all those things. But then when he brought the Bible to me, he bought it only reading the Old Testament. And the reason he did that was to justify how he wanted to live his life because he was already going out with other women that I didn't know about and dating. So I would see him maybe every few weeks, and he would say it's because I have a mother and I have two children, and he didn't want to take that time away from me. And I thought that was so admirable. And I was like, wow, this guy really cares about my kids. So that was we went, we must have dated for about a year, a year and a half before he even met my children, you know, because we wouldn't see each other that often, but I always accepted his reasons for it was that he was giving me respect because I was a mom. But he also had other women that he was involved with. So he was setting his whole plan up to bring us all together to kind of have us like I don't want to say a cult, but it would pretty much almost end up being like that, but just women in his life. So he brought, he had a girlfriend he had been seeing for like years from college and all like that. He eventually, once he felt, I guess he was at a point where he could bring us all together, start to share this word with us about how Abraham had several wives, not knowing that Abraham didn't choose it that way, and God didn't tell Abraham to do it that way. That was Sarah's decision to bring Hagar into their relationship, you know. But he used that, he started with Abraham just to find how well he had two wives, and all like that. He went on to the other and had two wives, so he brought us all together that we were supposed to be his wives, and he was gonna be the priest and teach us the word and all this and that, you know. Oh wow. And yep. And then after about a year and a half, like I said, that's when um it was close to my youngest son's birthday. He must have been about nine, turning ten at the time. He took us out. I said, okay, I guess it's I will let you meet my sons. And we went out to the movies and he was so good with them. They connected to him. He was a great father, uh, he was a great mentor and all to them, and with them. He cared about them. We got into that relationship, and then he started drawing the other ladies into it, you know. And I accepted it. I was kind of one of the ones that are a little bit older than the others, they were a little bit younger than me, but I accepted it because to me, I guess I guess I thought it makes sense that he doesn't want to, these are people that was in his life that he had before, he don't want to just dump them and that he's so admirable and caring about them and bringing us all together, and this can work. But when you have several women in a relationship and they all care about the same person, that can't work. And especially when it has not been blessed by God, and God does not bless marriages like that or relationships like that, you know. Um so for him, we went on with that relationship and reading the words. After a while, I guess all the other ladies, and believe me, it was not peaceful. There was bickering and carrying on at the time, and that's what made me start seeing things. Well, this is not right. And then his attitude started changing. And then he had such a good job, and all that he decided he was gonna stop working and study the word to be able to teach us things. But if he stops working, who's gonna take care of him? So that was up for us to do it, you know, us ladies. So a lot of us started getting tired of that, you know. But then um, I had my own apartment and all like that, and he was living with me. So things started getting tough, and then I had to end up giving up that apartment, and he got an apartment, and then I mean my son lived in with him because he thought that was the best thing. That's what he presented to them. When she has children, she needs to come live with me because she has nowhere to go. So we went to live in the apartment that he got. So eventually they eventually started backing off or they started getting tired of the whole situation. So I was stuck there with him, with my children. But by then, they were teenagers, and my oldest one was finishing high school. So um, and I was still working for the same um by by then I ended up leaving that organization and started working for the housing authority in New York. So had good jobs, you know, like that. So, but this where we live now, this job was closer to where we work. So where I'm going, um, I just started reading the word for myself eventually and started getting into it. And um the spirit spoke to me. I just started reading the New Testament and started learning about Jesus. And I would go to work and he would come, I would come home, and just at this point now, it's just him and I, and maybe the girlfriend he had had the years, and she was kind of backing away to herself because she was a school teacher and she was kind of educated, and she was seeing that she was getting tired of this whole situation too. And we were seeing things that weren't in the spirit of the Lord because he had decided that he was a priest, he had decided that he was an Israelite, he had decided that he was um we didn't call Jesus Jesus. He made up, he had this name that he had called. Um, and I can't, I because it's in a past of my life, I refuse to even acknowledge it anymore. But um, he had a name that he had did his research and all like that and put in the Greek phonic and all that's what Jesus should be called, but he didn't refer to him as Jesus. And that's what we did call, that's the name that we used for so many years that we were in this situation with him. And so one day, like I said, I started reading my Bible instead of just reading the Old Testament. I started reading the complete Bible. And I would go to work and I would have my Bible there at work with me, and I would read different things, and I would come home and say, This doesn't sound right, and all like that. And I would tell him, um, we started getting to little arguments. I would tell him, I'm not reading this, no, like that. So one particular night we got into my son was um about 17, he was sitting in the room and we got into debate about it, and he went towards me like I thought he was gonna hit me. I fell and I hit my head on the side of the table and split kind of and because I because I was wasn't gonna let him hit me, I was ready to fight back. When I stumbled, I hit my head on the side of the table and then split my head open and it started bleeding. So I had to go get stitches in that. Um that wasn't a result of him putting his hands on me, it's just I was ready to fight too, you know. Um, so that particular situation is when I started telling him I wasn't gonna and read and go by what he had been presenting to us spiritually, I wasn't going to be under that kind of realm anymore. And I was like, oh, so because he was losing connection with all the other ladies he had in his life, of course, he I guess he felt he started losing his power. So of course I was his only focus and or his only person he had there, he thought left but financial, you know, taking care of it. So um, but took a time he did that, so and then um when he went to grab me, I think he must have scratched me or something, and we went to visit his sister, and his sister saw it, and she was like, pulled me in the room and asked me what happened. I told her, she said, and I told her what that he was talking to me about wanting to move to Israel and be an Israelite. She said, Are you ready for this relationship to be over? I said, I've been ready. I just, this is the only place I have to stay, though. I have nowhere to go. And I've put in for a place, but it's gonna take a while that he doesn't know about because like I said, I worked for the housing authority at that time, you know. And um, so she was like, Well, I'll tell you what, I'm gonna help you get him a ticket and get him get him out. She said, and you can pay me back whenever you feel like it. That was a blessing. This was his sister that did that.

Becki 39:30

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 39:31

So um we did that because he was talking about he wanted to move and then he wanted me to go with him. I was like, I'm not leaving my children. I know one is older and one's is a teenager, but I'm still not leaving them, you know, to go anywhere in another country with you. So we got into an argument one night, and I finally told him, I am not saying whatever that name is you gave us to say for so many years. He said, Well, what are you gonna say? I was like, I'm gonna say Jesus from now on going forward. And when I said that, he just started choking me. Oh you know, he started choking me, and I don't know when I passed out. I passed out, and I guess he thought that he had he had killed me and he must have started like like slapping me to try to get me to come back. And like I was telling Dad the other day when I was sharing with this with him again, I was like, even though he was slapping me to try to get me to come back, I believe it was the spirit of the Lord that brought me back because I did wake up, but he had been hitting me so hard till my whole face was like disfigured. And that the only reference I can say to people, if they've ever seen that movie Rocky, that's how my face looked. Because he had been hitting me so hard, trying to get the breath to come back at me. And I came back like with a like that. And he was like, Are you okay, are you okay? And I went to the mirror, I was like, Oh my god, look at my face. He was like, I thought you were dead, but he was like hitting me so hard to I just woke back up. You know, so that was the beginning of that relationship ending. And his like I said, his sister had gotten helped me get a ticket. I had already started plans which he didn't know prior to that. So moving out, I put in for application in another apartment. I said, had all my mail go to my mom's house, so he didn't know about it because I knew that he wanted to leave and that he was it was gonna take, and he didn't, and even though he wanted to leave and move, he had his own plan. He didn't want to just do it at that moment. He wanted to go two months later because I think he thought I would change my mind and go with him. So he refused to go sooner. He stayed, he had a particular time he wanted to leave and go. And this was gonna be, I had to go through the whole summer with him. This was, I think, about November, October, something, he wanted to leave and go there. So I guess he had done his research and Tel Aviv, that's where he was gonna go. So we had gotten his ticket and all like that. Of course, I gave, I didn't care. I said to the Lord, I don't care if I have to take my whole paycheck and give it to him, Lord, you will make a way for me to have the money for this apartment for me and my son, because now just my 17-year-old was in with me. The older one was already out, you know, and you'll make a way for me to move. And he did. But I gave him money to go, and uh this particular night he was leaving. Um, we were upstairs getting all his bags and stuff together, and my son, um, I think they rang the doorbell of the cab, and I told my son to go outstairs and make sure the cab was there and that he was coming. So we get on the elevator, and I only tell this funny part of the story because it doesn't make any sense, other than that Satan was trying to block him from leaving, and because it was a crazy story. We got on the elevator with all his stuff. Uh UPS lady gets on and she's putting the things on and she's holding the door open. And I'm saying, ma'am, he has a car outside to get on the plane. Because I was like, if this man don't get on this plane tonight and he missed that airline, he's gonna be here with me, and I'm getting ready to move in about a week or two, you know. Yeah so she's like refusing to listen, and he's like, Well, let me help you. And she pushed him and they started fighting right there, right there in the middle of the lobby floor, they're rolling around fighting, and I'm screaming, let him go. He has to get on that plane. I'm like, I'm like, Wow, I'll and I told my son, run out, run outside and tell the cab to wait, he's coming. And finally, some people coming and they pulled them apart. Okay. And now, now this guy is about six feet one. She had to be my, I'm five two. She had to be about my height, but she didn't care. She was like going toe to toe with him. And that's why I said, Lloyd, you had a plan. Yeah. Because how crazy is this that this woman should try to jump a man to six feet, about six feet one, and she only five two, you know. So she's like, take your hands off my packages. He's like, I'm trying to help you. So then um finally, like I said, some neighbors were coming in, the people were coming in, and they pulled him apart, and he was able to go get on that plane. And I tell you that was like the beginning of my life changing. And at that time, before that happened, my dad and Stanford had actually come into my life, but uh while we was living there, I was living there with him. They had come into prior to that. I could never, and dad would call, like he does, you know, the praying call for people, but I couldn't really talk to them because this guy was like right there and he would not give us any peace. So I kind of would, it wasn't my father's fault. I was kind of short with them when they were called, not rude, but short until eventually I guess dad just said, Let me leave it alone because she's in a bad place right now. We're just gonna pray for her. You know, they knew what was going on because Stanford and I kept it in touch, and when I could talk to him, I would tell him things and all like that, you know. So I know that they were in prayer. Him and mom, even though mom hadn't yet met me, they were all in prayer for me because I'd already met them prior to that before we moved in with him, you know. And when they would try to call me, like I said, they couldn't have a good conversation with me because I was the conversation, you know, you're talking to someone, they get they're talking with you, but everything is like you can tell another person's in the room. Everything is short. So they just left it alone for that time. So after he left, um, like I said, my son and I ended up moving into our new place, and that's where we started a whole new peace for life. And that was about in 1999, 2000.

Becki 45:33

So Lamon, we we just have to clarify that this man was not a man of God.

SPEAKER_02 45:39

He was not a man of God now.

Becki 45:41

Even though he was supposedly reading the Bible and trying to live his saying he's living his life a certain way, he's totally not. I don't want people that may not know God's word to hear that and think that he is, but he No, he was not.

SPEAKER_02 45:56

And and that's why I'm so careful now that all of these things put into place my learning and teaching because I am so in a place now that even when I'm under the leadership, it is so important to read your word for yourself, to get the word of God in you for yourself, because when you're under teaching that doesn't sound right, you will know yourself enough because the Holy Spirit will speak to you and let you know that doesn't sound right. It doesn't feel right. Because but but I didn't know. But I can't be even angry at him because I just said that it's like the revelation came now that I'm older and growing in my spirit. Christ said, I can't even be angry at those situations that happened in my life in the past and brought me to where I am today. I can't even be angry at him because if he had not brought it to me in a negative way, I would not have gone out there and started researching it. The Holy Spirit would not have given me the spirit. The Lord would not have given to me to go start researching and reading for myself and getting the word into myself. And also realizing for the young ladies, the young people that you worth more. Don't accept everything you hear when you meet relationships, when you greet someone. Don't let them tell you what they're gonna do for you. You tell them what you're not gonna accept in your life, what you want to allow to happen to you. You tell, don't tell them what you're looking for. Oh, I'm looking for this or that, tall, dark, handsome. Um, I'm looking for this.

Becki 47:12

And they'll make themselves that person, right?

SPEAKER_02 47:14

They'll make themselves that person. Just like the first relationship with me. Like I said, we he would treat me so nicely, took me out, whiny dimey, took care of my children, took care of us. We lived in a beautiful place in New York. I mean, he lived in the in a prestigious area in in New York and Queens. Nice place. My children got to go to the best schools. Yeah, he would, they would come to what they would be what you tell them, and they would treat you that way. Second one, oh, I want to know, I want to know about the Bible. Not I want to know about God, not I want to have a relationship with Jesus Christ because he taught none of that about Jesus Christ. So he brought the Bible to me the way he wanted to bring it to me and drew us into that relationship. Not only that, what hurt me most is that my youngest child became so close to him and so in awe by him that it broke his heart when he saw how he treated his mother. Because that day when I fell, I was telling you before I hit my head, my son jumped in the middle, but by then he was about 17. And this guy still was six feet something and knew martial arts. And that's what made me make my decision that that relationship had to be over. Because I was like, my child's getting older now, he's not gonna let anybody hurt his mother, and I don't want him to hurt my child. So what hurt me more out of that relationship was the fact that um I knew that this son in particular really admired him and he grew up with him from the time he was 10 years old and like had a close relationship with him and saw the way he started treating his mother and didn't like it, and also that he was a part of that religion thing and learning how, and that's what he thought at that time. And at this point in time in his life now, he struggles with understanding about God, and that's what we keep we all keep him in prayer for because he saw someone he admired and cared about bring spirituality negatively and use it not only for himself but use it on the females that was in his life and us too. So thank God my son is a good man, he's married with a wife and having children now, but he still is in his struggle spiritually, you know, and I feel that came from that relationship, you know. So um, but yeah, well, you were saying earlier, no, this man was not, and and when he was not representing the God that we know, right, or should know. He was not representing the Jesus that we know or should know. He was not representing the one that I know now in my heart and spirit. And I I just say to anyone, young lady, young man, whoever, old, young, old, whoever I'm speaking to on this podcast, to get to know Jesus for yourself. You know, read your word for yourself so that you will have no clarity and know that when someone is up on the false teaching, when you're in the word of God, when you come to know Jesus for yourself, you will know it. Yes, because our father in heaven will let you know it.

Becki 50:02

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 50:03

Yep. So, like I said, with Dad and um coming up to whenever I did get to go and meet him uh again face to face, like that first time was when they came to New York, you know. And from what I understand, my brother Sanford, he was gonna get his sister there to Arkansas no matter what. He got my ticket because we had been, I just came out of that relationship, so I was struggling, me and my son. I we moved into an apartment. I didn't have any furniture because I left everything there in that place. I didn't have nothing with mine. We didn't have anything but a mattress that m that I slept on the floor, and something like a futon, like an open up little thing that my son slept on. And we didn't have furniture. We had nothing but the clothes on our back, but I didn't care because this was the beginning of peace in my life and a decision that I was starting to make to not have anything come into my life that would destroy us. And I said to the Lord, to God at that time, Father, I'm in New York. I don't want to, because every time I'm on the train and stuff, I would get approached by guys and men and all like that. I don't want to meet anybody anymore in the street. I don't want to meet anybody on the train. I don't want to meet, I want the person that you bring into my life in the future, if that is going to happen, to be from you. And I was single for over three years before, not that I met this, my husband, now this is my life, but we worked at the housing authority where I told you I was working with at after that, you know. I met him working for the housing authority in New York. Uh, we were in the same department, but I met him and and started there in 1997 and the housing authority, and um we were just co-workers, you know, and never knew this person was going to become my husband because their heart is with the Lord also, truly and sincerely, you know. But we live we were just friends. But I also say the best way to have relationships is to get to know someone, is to become friends first, get to know where they are, get to know who they are. I never did that in my past. I just jumped in either because I thought I could help someone, because remember the people I talked to about were broken people themselves, because the the the last one, he grew up in an orphanish and his five brothers and sisters in foster care and was deserted by his mom and stuff and all like that. So he had his own demons and his own things he was struggling in. And when I would hear stories like that, oh I think I can help. Oh, I think I can, you know, be a part of their life and I can make a difference. Broken people can't fix broken people. I was broken myself, you know. So always that's something I've learned. Yes, right. Thank you. Yes, thank you for that. Yes. So um, yeah, so my dad and I um, like my said, my brother, he got that ticket that was in 2000. I went to Arkansas, he picked me up at the airport, and I got to meet uh see meet mom for the first time, Ollie. You know, and I got to see my dad again, and we got to bond that time because I followed him around wherever he went. If he went to church functions, I think he was the positive um impact that he was doing with the boys. I went to him with a meeting with dad. I went to church with him, I went to other meetings he went while I was there that week. He introduced me to people. So he and I got to spend that time to really bond together, riding around with them and like that. Of course, my brother and I, once I had moved out and was in my own place, we talked all the time. And we got to, you know, I got to finally share things with him that I had gone through and what I was going through. He was like, When we were calling you, we knew something was wrong and all that, because you just was always so short in the conversation when we was talking to you. I was like, because he was always there, like critiquing my conversations or watching me, you know. So he was like, Yeah, we knew something was wrong. So then my dad and I got to really bond and then we got to know mom. And from the time I walked in the house, the first thing she said was, Oh my goodness, you're just so pretty. You know. I was like, well, thank you. And then me and her got to talk, and from that day forward, she wasn't just my stepmom. She became my mom. And the oddest thing about it is I explained earlier because I didn't grow up with my biological mom until later. Mom, I could talk to her about things I couldn't even talk to about my biological mom about. I mean, she was just so empathetic with things and all like that, you know, and encouraged me and I would share with her going through and how I felt and some of the things that had happened to me in childhood that would have you know affected my life and you know, and how I felt that I wasn't loved, you know, and I didn't have someone that really loved me, even as a child, you know. And she would just we would go to family reunions. I went to several while mom was alive, and when she would introduce me to people, she would say, This is my daughter. If you didn't know she hadn't birthed me, you would have thought she had. And then they we were so close because I was all over her arms, all over her, hugging her and all like that. So she every and everybody would say, Oh, uh, Miss Ollie, you had a daughter, yes, this is my daughter.

Becki 55:14

You know, they're probably like thinking back, when did this happen?

SPEAKER_02 55:19

Yes, I mean, I never felt I wasn't her daughter in any way. And when I say this lady impacted my life so much because, as I said earlier, when we moved, me and my son, we didn't have anything, no furniture, no nothing. I did not know she had been saving up money. And next one day I got a check in the mail, Becky, for three thousand dollars. Oh well to help me get furniture and stuff in the house that came from her. Well I'll say from her and dad, because dad always says today he just let mom go ahead and bless people. He just brought the money in. So, but I'm sure she had conversations with him about it, you know, and he knew about it. But this is how she blessed my life, not just a financial butt, because she already started blessing me just by saying, This is my daughter, and and just call, let me call her whatever time I want to call her and bent and talk to her. And if I was going through stuff, I could call her and talk with her and throughout the day, and she would be there to listen and encourage and you know motivate. So that was my first experience and going to Arkansas and meeting everyone and meeting my dad's friends and um meeting mom and us spending time together. And I particularly remember one day we were sitting down and having dinner while I was there, it was myself, Stanford, and mom. And they asked me, Do you think that if you would have died today, you're going to heaven? And I was like, I don't know. I've done so many things, God can't be happy with me and all like that, you know. I would like to, but I don't know, you know. And they just started praying for me. And when I left there and got back home to New York, um uh me and my child who was by then, you know, he was finished going finishing high school and he was and just like my whole household just seemed different. And I had started going to church before I went there, but I got more strongly in it and started reading my word and just getting interconnected with the Lord. And I remember dad actually said to me one day while we were talking, he said, Do you want to know Jesus? And time I mean I said, I do. And he gave me a salvation prayer. I remember the not the specific date, but I know it was in the month of October. And from that day forward, me and my dad, from the time I went there, we have been close ever since. Ever since.

Becki 57:57

What a blessing for him to lead you in that in that conversation and in that prayer to salvation.

SPEAKER_02 58:06

Mm-hmm. And when I was in Arkansas with him, that's the part I left out that's so prevalent and important. He sat me down and talked to me about his life and shared when he left the house. He said to me, he was so transparent and so humble about he was a sinner, he was in sin, and that's how he was living his life. And he said he would it wasn't right that he shouldn't have neglected his child and not did what he was supposed to do. He said, but he went, you know, he and mom got married, you know, they went through some things and struggles and all like that, you know, not like that. And he was explaining all that to me. And the other day I was sharing with him how I said, Dad, I don't know if you remember one day I called you. I must have been about 18 years old. Uh, I was finishing high school and I went to get into modeling or take some pictures and I needed some photos, and I call you and shared that I went to get modeling school or go to school. And I share called you and I asked, you know, if you could help me, and you told me you didn't have it at the time. I said, You weren't rude anything about it. You just told me you didn't have it. And when he started explaining to me how at that time, that's when they were in their financial struggle and all like that, but of course, he didn't share all that with me. And he said, This is what he said to me too when I told him, and I just recently had this conversation with him. I said, I don't know if it was just the money, it wasn't that. I said, I think I just wanted to call you and see if my dad and I could buy it. I said, but because I was young, I took it as a how do you say it, as a rejection, you know, and and even though because you said you couldn't help me, but I think it was more that I wanted to reach out to you, you know, because my aunt had given my mother your number to give to me, you know, my yes, had given my your mother my mother the number to give to me. I said, and I just I think that that point I formed my own idea about you, but the fact when we sat down and talked now, that was then, and he was so transparent with me, and he was so honest about where he was in his life and who he was, and he called himself a sinner, you know, and I was like, like I do now, I was a sinner back then, and we all still can sin because that old self is still right there, and if the Holy Spirit is in us, it can come out anytime somebody can press a button, you know. If we don't stay strong and true, and I'll walk with the Lord. So he was like, um, yeah, he said, I he said, you know what? And when I was talking to him, it was just this week I was talking about it. He said, You know what, girl, my daughter, he said, I I said, he said, I probably, he said, I wasn't sin. I wasn't sin at that time too. He said, There probably was some struggles going on in my household. He said, and I didn't, I didn't do it for you. He said, I said, but it was more about, I think now when I think about it, that I want to see if my father was just show some concern and empathetic. And as a young person, I took that as a rejection. You know, so I can see it clearly differently now because remember, when we go through life, we all start out with times of struggles in our life. You know, we all have financial struggles, and this usually happens when we are young before we can get to a point in our life where things are better, you know. And they could have been going through it in that time. And I'm not saying that they wasn't, I believe my dad wasn't going through some struggle. He the way he is now, and the way I know him, he would have done everything he could. But for me, at this point in my life now, the financial part doesn't even matter because they covered me in prayers. Once they saw what I was in, once I went to see them in 2000, they knew that I was had just come out of a bad situation. But even before that, when my brother and my dad came to see me at my home at that time with this gentleman, this this guy in my life, they saw him. And I think my dad was smart enough to read him and see what kind of person he was, and my brother too. And I think that's when the Prius started, even more so. And with mom included in that, I think they were on their knees constantly when they went back to New York. I mean, went back to Arkansas from seeing me in New York living with him.

Becki 1:02:01

You know, and also God might have been using if it was a financial situation with your uh Mr. McCallum and Ollie, it could be God was just closing that door for whatever you were wanting to do at that time too.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:17

Exactly. Exactly. I didn't think about that at the time because I'm just fresh out of high school and I had someone approach me about modeling, and I was like, oh, you know, I think that's what I want to do, you know. So it could have been that. And and also I you and I had a conversation the other day when I was sharing this with you, and I was saying that I was in the world doing me, uh being sinful, and you said, Oh, getting your testimony together. I shared that with someone at church uh Sunday, and they was like, Wow. And one of the ladies that went through a whole relationship or thing, she said, Oh wow, that's enlightenment. She said, Working on your testimony together. Working on your testimony. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So that was that that touched my heart too when you said that because I never thought about it that way. So everything you go through is working on your testimony. Yeah, you know.

Becki 1:03:06

It's not God doesn't want us to waste any of that in our story.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:09

Exactly.

unknown 1:03:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:10

And fast forwarding forward, like, look at my dad today, like we're in each other's life. He's always come here to visit my husband and myself every summer. And he and my husband get along so well. Like, I met this man, I can explain to you at the job at a different job than I was working at before from the previous um relationship, but at this job, but he and I became friends. We were just co-workers, and we just used to talk and encourage each other and lift each other up and never knew we'd be in a relationship until I've known him since, like I said, 1997, but just as co-workers. And we just became friends, and then we decided to go on our first date in 2002, and um ended up getting married, you know, two years later, and ended up moving to North Carolina. Never knew I was gonna come back to North Carolina because when I left, it did not look the way it looked now. I was like, I am never going back there. But came back, but we didn't come, I didn't live in Charlotte. I lived in another part of North Carolina, which was more rural and more country, you know. So we came back, moved to Charlotte because my sister and my brother-in-law moved here because my brother-in-law got a teaching job, and we came to visit and fell in love with Charlotte. And then my dad started coming to visit us every summer. Um, and we started bonding that way. And he and my husband got away, got along from the very first time they met. He loved my husband. And when I say my husband takes care of him like he's his father, he prepares his breakfast for my dad. I do all the dinners and stuff like that. He brings his food up to him, I bring his food up to him. So we have a great relationship here in this household, and we came together. Of course, everybody knows because my brother, you know, had um a heart transplant. That's how dad ended up coming to live with us. But before that, in 2024, end of 2024, I was diagnosed with invasive stage two breast cancer that moved to my lentils, and they call it secretive. So I don't know how long I had had it. I don't know when it came, but I know that um I was on estrogen, and that's another thing I'm promoting to young to people that either have menopausal or whatever, ask questions about estrogen because I was on it longer than I should have been on it. So that was um what my cancer came from. It was estrogen related, and it moved into my lymphos, which means once it does that, it can move into other parts of your body. So they had to do aggressive chemo for me. And so I had one of the strongest chemo treatments starting in the whole year of 2025, and I had like 17 rounds of that, 37 rounds of radiation, two uh surgeries. And the reason I'm sharing this is because who bought me out of it? Jesus Christ. Through the whole time I was talking to the Lord, my dad's prayers, everyone's prayers, all the intercessor prayers. But When I started trusting him myself and giving it over to him, as I always tried to do everything in my life, he started my healing process. And I went through some struggles because chemo is is is something, you know, and it's nothing to mess with. I wanna one of my girlfriend's brother who had went through everything he called, he said that chemo is a bad boy, you know. So it it's it's and they gave says mine was the most one of the most strongest ones to the point where the the nickname they have for it is called Red Devil. So I have one of the strongest chemo regiments, and to it affected my heart and everything. But just to say, through all of that, my dad was in prayer. He still came here to visit and we still bonded and all like that. And now that he has actually come, he calls us back home. North Carolina, not necessarily my home, back home. But his, and I'm sure his story's been told that he says he took a whole full circle from leaving North Carolina as a sin for teenagers to coming back as a saved man and being in his daughter's household who we didn't even have a relationship at the time I was a baby to adult. And we have a strong bond and relationship now in this household.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:15

And we we love him being here. He my friends have met him. He's all their papa, all their daddy. They got names they call him grand either Papa Odell or Daddy Odell, but uh or just dad. He has children here too.

Becki 1:07:30

You know, you told me, I think, that he still continues his prayer ministry and he has a list of people that he calls and praise for.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:40

He has a list of people. He just added two on there this morning because my neighbor across the street, I was telling him that I don't think my neighbor knows Jesus, but he's going through some illnesses and all like that. And I said, I wanted to pray for him and I had to pray on it because my husband has said he has shared some things about with him about how he felt about religion that he said, you know. So my dad was like, Okay, he said, give me his number. So he just added two more people on his list, including my cousin who had just um had a heart attack last week. He's calling her. So upon those two, he just added, he probably has over about 200 or more people that he calls on a schedule each week, and then he reaches out to pray, reminds them of who they belong to, reminds them to be sleep ready, rapture ready, and heaven ready. Meaning, be ready in your word, know that you know, never know when Jesus is coming. Make sure you're ready and got the spirit of the Lord, the word in you, you know. So that's that's his whole purpose. Some people don't understand that, but we were talking about it this morning. I said, Dan, I think they don't understand. Maybe some people don't really don't know the word and know what God says in it. And I know what you're saying to them, that you're not saying, oh, you're gonna die today, you go you might lay down and die right now. Just, oh, you're gonna die humdrum. Stuff you mean it just stay ready because I think I said this to you the other day. We think about the ten virgins. They five of them weren't ready. So you have to stay ready with the word and the spirit of the Lord in you because you don't know when Jesus is coming back again, you know. So you wanna be ready and you wanna know that someone loved you so much that they gave their life up for you, and that's a better place coming than what we live in today.

Becki 1:09:16

Oh, yes, you know, yeah. You know, when we think we're gonna give up something, uh, we're gonna miss out if we give our life to the Lord now because we're not gonna have fun and all this but yes, you don't have any idea what you're getting. You're not giving up anything. You're not you're gaining everything.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:34

Yes. I love um one of my favorite one of my favorite pastors is Dr. David Jeremiah. Um, I love his messages because he's saying that people ask him, Well, well, it's gonna be boring in heaven. He said, No, it's not, because our God is not boring. That's right. You know, and that's what you it just for the lines of what you just said. People think, oh, you can't even laugh and have fun as a Christian. Do you know in this house? My husband and I are big jokes, and we love to have dad laugh, and like my husband will come up with some food that I made prepared or something like that, because we'd be giving my dad some good meals, and I'll like make something like sh fried chicken with gravy rice. Like, he'll come up, Dad. Boy, I'm about to eat this myself because she done just put her butt in it. And my dad will laugh. We just things like that. We just say he's my husband's good jokes or with things like that. I'm about to eat this sandwich myself, dad. I made a good sandwich. We just we laugh even as Christians. We can laugh and have fun, and that's when you have the most fun because you're at peace.

Becki 1:10:33

Well, yeah, you have joy that you can have outside of knowing him.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:38

Yes, everybody looks for happiness. And I always say happiness is a different definition for everyone. Happiness is somebody is, oh, I've got to get a lot of money. Happiness is, oh, if I'm if I'm I'm I'm thinner, if I'm heavy, if I'm this but once that happens, it you yearn for more when you say you want happiness. Because once that happiness goes, now you want another happiness. But once you got joy, you can't take that away.

Becki 1:11:01

And I think some people uh I think what they want is peace, and they think it comes through happiness, through things, through possessions, through you know, popularity, whatever that is, but it is not that's not how we have peace in the Lord. It's not through things.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:18

It's not. Yep, it's not. And I say that even when I was going through my treatments the last night, I always wake up in the middle of the night and I would be in such sometimes pain or distress, and I would be like, just call on the name of Jesus. And when I was to finish doing that, I'll just start praying for other people. And I tell everybody when you're going through something in your life, whether it's the illness or whatever, when you take your mind off yourself and start praying for others.

Becki 1:11:42

Yes, yes, I agree.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:44

That, yes, that, and when you actually start trusting in the Lord, in the Lord and praying to him to him for yourself.

Becki 1:11:51

How awesome for you to have your dad right there beside you, because he he is such a blessing to so many people here in Wynn and has been, and and you have him in your household to be uh for him to pour into you and you to pour into him every day.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:06

Mm-hmm. And and with my children, his grandchildren, because like I was explaining about my youngest son, they came to visit about uh last year, no, about maybe two, three years ago. And my son at that time hadn't got married yet to his now wife, and my dad sat down with him. Him and my older son had come and he brought my older son to the Lord that same time he was here. Oh wow. And the youngest one, he sat down and talked with him and his fiance at the time because they were engaged, and she already had a uh a young son, and my dad talked to him about because I had told him about it too, since I came from the school system. I talked about children, how they feel about when their parents are not married, you know, and all like that. And I and my dad brought it home. He was like, Yeah, he's watching y'all. And my now daughter-in-law started getting tears in her eyes. They took a walk that day when they came back, they announced to us the next day, yeah, we're gonna go ahead and get married, we're not gonna wait to do a a big wedding. And her family started planning it, and they end up getting married that next that same year. I was because my dad had a conversation about that and the Lord and all like that. Even though yet, like I said, my young son's my younger son is still in his struggle, but my dad had talked with him about it. And as I was telling dad, as I talk to him lately, and I say things like, son, have a blessed day, enjoy your day. He'll say, Yeah, you too, mom. But before he wouldn't respond at all. That's my dad's impact on people's life, even his own family, his own grandchildren.

Becki 1:13:33

Oh, yes. They're they're on the list too, aren't they?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:36

Yes, yes, yes.

Becki 1:13:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:39

Well, and my dad, and my dad had a conversation about sharing with me. He's so transparent. He told my son before they left, they came to visit just this year. He said, You know, I wasn't in your mom's life when she was a baby. He said, I'm looking, because we have a granddaughter, she's like 20 months old. He said, You see this little grandbaby right here? He said, You make sure you're a part of her life because I wasn't a part of your mom. He said, You do whatever you can, and now they're getting ready to have another baby too, you know. So he's like, he's like, You make sure you're a part of your life because he said, I was out there in the royal sin and he said, I know, like that. And I didn't make your mom in the right way. That's how honest my dad is.

Becki 1:14:13

Yes. You know, and that's what I like about your dad. He's not afraid. Like some people would be like going into a hospital and praying with somebody they really don't know. You know, your dad has done that in in our community for years and years and years. And I'm thinking a lot of people would go in and think, oh no, these people are gonna reject me, they're gonna tell me to go away, they don't know me, I don't know them. But none of that mattered to him. He just was in there trying to uh do what the Lord went in. Yeah, just doing what the Lord told him to told him to do without any fear because it wasn't really up to him. It was up to the to he was just doing what the Lord told him to do.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:51

Exactly.

Becki 1:14:52

So there was no fear, there's no fear in that.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:54

Exactly. He says that, and that's what I was saying, explain that about him with his children and his grandchildren. He he was transparent, he didn't tell care that they oh, because sometimes we want to like make our children think we were always perfect. My dad has never done that. That's why I think that we were able to come into each other's life, and I feel that how those things happened in my life to try to destroy me before he and I got together was a part of Satan's plan, not God's, you know, because my dad was going to be transparent when we did get together, and that was what was gonna draw us into each other's life. And he does it with his children, I mean his grandchildren, his children meaning me, his grandchildren too, because he opened himself up to his grandson and said who he was back then and how he was a sinner and how he wasn't taking care of his daughter, and he wanted to make sure that my son does what he's supposed to do with his daughter, you know, and he did it with his older grandson, my oldest son, and threw him into the Lord. And then my son believes in Jesus Christ, you know. The oldest one, you know, and we we we thanking the Lord that the youngest one is gonna still see it too, you know, because he is building a family, and I want it in my grandchildren, I want it in my great-grandchildren, and so forth and so on, you know. But we just leaving it up to the Lord because dad has we already planted the seed, you know, for them to see it and they watch us, you know.

Becki 1:16:06

Yes. Well, Lamon, it's been so nice to get to know you. I told your dad earlier when I talked to him that I'm gonna try to come out and visit in Hodge. Oh, sure. You're welcome. And uh he said that y'all would entertain me, but you don't have to entertain me, but I would love to.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:20

No, we will, but we will. We definitely will. Yes, you just have to let us know when, yes.

Becki 1:16:26

Um Lamon, do you have a favorite Bible verse that you really cling to?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:31

Jeremiah 29, 13 through 14. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I'll be found by you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back from captivity. Because I felt like when I was going through all those things in my life, that's where I was in captivity. But the Lord was covering me even then.

Becki 1:16:51

That's right. He was right there beside you. Yes, the hotel.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:55

That's what makes my heart like when I think about it, and I think about some of the things that I did in my past, and God was seeing all those things because he sees all, knows all. I was like, Lord, yet you still thought I was someone worth saving. And that's a good thing, that grace, that word grace, because we are shown it every day, but we were already shown it when Jesus went to the cross.

Becki 1:17:20

Thank you for joining us today. New episodes release every Wednesday, so be sure to subscribe and get notified when a new episode is available. You can listen on the Journey to Salvation website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. So, where are you on your journey to salvation?