Milk Shake Miracle Anecdotal / By for Pastor Butch
Hello again folks,
I thought maybe I would put a short talk out today. We are picking up our oldest son and two grandsons today who will be staying with us for a week, so this may be the my last contact for a few days. I’m certain everyone knows that I want to spend a little time with family.
I was recently asked how I was called to become a pastor and preacher and so I’d like to share that with you in this blog. Let’s start at the beginning if you don’t mind.
In April of 1971 I received an honorable discharge from the Air Force and returned home to Nettie, WV where I have been ever since. In that same month I contacted Marsha Jean Dotson, a young lady I had met through a girl I was dating earlier. I asked Marsha if she would like to go get a milkshake. Since she was a still in high school she had to wait until her Mom got home to ask permission. Her Dad worked the evening shift at a coal mining tipple so he wasn’t there to ask. Well, here Mom said it was okay, so we out for a milkshake, and 7 months later we were married. That has been over 48 years ago. I guess it has worked out okay.
Anyway, Marsha and her family were devout Christians and they immediately started praying for me. On the last Wednesday night in June I was saved and born again in a prayer meeting service of Olive Branch Baptist Church. On November 20th. we were married at the same church. Little did I know that Marsha had started praying that she would marry a preacher when she was only 5 years old.
So to make a long story short, I came under conviction to surrender to God to preach. For two years I ran just as hard as I could from that calling. I was miserable!! In a VERY real dream one night I was given a warning about the consequences of ignoring His calling. I finally said yes to the calling on the stipulation that I would NOT become a pastor. God has such a wonderful sense of humor…
Within two years I was pastoring two churches, and God was greatly blessing both of them (me, too, by the way). I was then called to do a once a week radio broadcast, not on Sundays as most preachers did then, but on Thursday evenngs on a secular station.
That caused quite a stir. If it weren’t for the fact that the gentleman that owned the station was such a strong Christian, the program surely wouldn’t have aired for very long. But he saw the need of a plain-spoken hillbilly that wasn’t afraid to tackle any issue from a Christian perspective. So we stayed through death threats, threats to burn down the station, and more — even to the point of having wheels fall of our car, and both tie rod ends coming lose at the same time while driving down an interstate. We serve and awesome God who will watch over His children. We have been on the radio for over 26 years now with no end in sight yet.
So there you go. A brief review on how this all got started. I’ll be back in touch again very soon.
