Cailin: Welcome everyone to Faith and Purpose podcast.
Each episode of this podcast contains the personal testimony of an ordinary person
transformed by an extraordinary God.
My name is Caitlin and I'm here to introduce this podcast
for my friend Jesse Duke.
Jesse is a husband, father, author, life recovery guide, lay counselor,
and small group leader, but his most important role is disciple.
As a disciple of Jesus.
Jesse created this podcast to help other believers tell their faith stories.
We'll be hearing the personal testimonies of all sorts of people
who have one thing in common, Jesus has transformed their lives.
Jesus used parables because he created us to learn best through story.
And as we listen to how God has worked in others lives, we find encouragement
and inspiration for our own faith walk.
Whether you are already a believer, or just a curious seeker, we believe that
as you listen to these stories, you will be encouraged on your own faith journey.
We are sure that God can speak to you through one of these episodes, and that
you will see that our Heavenly Father truly works all things together for
our good, When we simply love and trust him if you are currently going through
a trial We believe that you will come to see that your troubles Heartbreaks
and failures are not gravestones, but stepping stones into new life in Christ.
Here's Jesse with today's guest
Welcome to Faith and Purpose Podcast.
Today, in our very first episode, we have Dr.
Lindsey Powell of Chesterfield, South Carolina.
Lindsey's doctorate is in evangelism, and he's been a Christian for half a
century and a pastor for many years.
It was actually one of his sermons that he, God used to
motivate me to start this podcast.
So thank you for that, Lindsey, and thank you for being here and being willing
to tell your faith story and being a guinea pig on my very first episode.
So tell us about your faith story and your purpose.
Well, great.
I, I really appreciate you inviting me to do this, Jesse.
It's been a lot of fun preparing for it.
And, uh, it's, uh, first time I've ever actually.
I've never done a podcast like this, so I do appreciate the invitation.
I was born almost 75 years ago, and I feel very fortunate, first of all, to
have had God give me that length of time.
It hasn't been without its ups and downs.
I've had heart issues and things like that, but I've also had a tremendous
number of good times as well.
So as I look back on my life, I'm just thankful to God, thankful to Jesus Christ.
For what he has done in my life.
So I'd like to tell you a little bit about that.
I was born on November the 2nd, 1948 in Atlanta, Georgia.
After a couple of days in the hospital, I, to my hometown where
I grew up, little town South of Atlanta called Jackson, Georgia.
My father and mother were Morrell Powell and Louise Powell, and they
raised me there in Jackson, Georgia.
On third street, and I was also taken to church most every Sunday of my life.
And so I grew up in Jackson, Georgia, and also in the first
Baptist church of Jackson.
My dad owned a hardware store and later on in life, he sold insurance and.
Dabbled in real estate, buying and selling real estate.
It's kind of funny for him because he was a Christian all his life
and he depended on the Lord.
He was a hard worker and he actually made more money after he.
Retired than he did, uh, in his early days, God blessed him tremendously.
He lived to be almost a hundred years old.
My mother was an elementary school teacher and a great mother.
So I grew up in Jackson, Georgia.
It was a small town at the time I was there.
Not many people moved in and not many people moved out.
So I had a lot of constant friends, but very few new friends, just an old friend.
And we grew up together there.
In those years, I knew about God, but I didn't know him personally.
And I don't know if you can really understand the difference between
that, but I would listen to sermons and I would go to Sunday school
and I would be told about God.
I would read about God in the Bible, but there's a great
difference in knowing about God.
And knowing God, I attended Jackson Elementary School and
Jackson High School, graduated from Jackson High School in 1966.
During those growing up years, as I mentioned earlier, I attended church
most every Sunday, Sunday morning, usually a Sunday night, Wednesday night.
I was also taught to do things that were right, do the proper thing.
I wasn't taught so much.
About God's direction in that it was more like, this is
something that I ought to do.
This is the way I ought to behave.
And so it wasn't really related to the Bible all that much.
Like I try to be today.
My father suggested that I be a boy scout.
So I started out in the cub scouts and.
Then went on to be a, a Boy Scout and I have never forgotten the Boy Scout oath.
It says this, on my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and
my country to obey the Scout law, to help other people at all times,
to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.
And I just thought that was very interesting for the Boy Scouts
considering what they are today and how they've incorporated.
gay, homosexual people into that organization.
Big difference between what it was and what it is.
The Boy Scout law is also interesting.
It says that a Boy Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly,
courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.
That's right.
I got to memorize too.
And so you begin to think about how things like that, the boy.
Boy Scout Oath relates to Jesus Christ.
And of course, if you know about Jesus, you can see some relationship
there, but if you have no clue about who Jesus is or who God is, then
when you say, do my duty to God in my country, God could be Allah, God could
be any idol, God could be anything.
And so there's really a difference in the Boy Scout Oath, as good
as that is, and Christian faith.
Boy Scout motto, though, is be prepared.
And so I've always tried to be prepared.
And now looking at it from a Christian point of view, I'm preparing myself, not
just for heaven, but for the life that God wants me to live down here on earth.
I, as I said, I attended First Baptist Church Jackson regularly.
Most of my friends also attended church there.
Some, though, were other denominations who were Catholic, not too many,
but a good number were Methodist.
And Presbyterian also, and in the Baptist church, as I was growing
up, I was a royal ambassador.
I don't know if, uh, many non Baptists would know what a royal ambassador is,
but you can kind of imagine you put the two words together, royal and ambassador.
It means that you're an ambassador for Christ and second Corinthians 520.
Talks about that.
It says we are ambassadors for Christ.
So we go out and we share Christ with other people.
And we do mission work and we help other people.
So the Royal Ambassador Pledge is a little more, a lot more actually Christian
oriented than the Boy Scout oath was.
The Royal Ambassador Pledge says this.
As a Royal Ambassador, I will do my best to become a well informed,
responsible follower of Christ.
So it's a big difference there, doing what's right.
Doing the right thing and being a follower of Christ.
Some people tend to want to, uh, say those are the same things.
They're definitely not, but to be a responsible follower of Christ, to have
a Christ like concern for all people, to learn how the message of Christ is carried
around the world, to work with others in sharing Christ, and to keep myself clean
and healthy in mind and body with Jesus.
He changes your life with the Boy Scout oath and the Boy Scout motto and all that.
It, the focus is on you and what you do and what you can do and what you should
do, but with Christ, it's different because when Christ comes into your
life, would you repent of your sin, acknowledge the fact that you're sinful
and acknowledge the truth that you need a savior, somebody to, to change
you to come into your life Pardon those sins, to forgive those sins,
and to make you a different person.
That's what Christ does.
And so to become a follower of him does not really focus so much on you as it
is on what Christ can do through you.
Even though I was baptized as a church member when I was eight years old, made
a profession of faith in Jesus Christ, there comes a time in church lives where
your pastor, your Sunday school teacher.
It's gonna begin to tell you about your need for what we call salvation.
Salvation means to be not just saved for heaven, as I mentioned earlier,
but to be saved for what God wants you to do in your life as you follow him.
And so part of that salvation experience requires repentance of
your sin, knowledge that your sinful went and repent of those sins and
turn to Christ for his forgiveness.
And for his power.
And so when we do that, what happens if we're serious about what we are
doing, if we really believe that Jesus is who he says he is, and we commit
our life to him, acknowledging our own sinfulness and his sinlessness.
Then what he does through his Holy Spirit, he fills us with
himself and he begins to change us.
He changes us in so many ways, almost every way, but he changes our physical
desires, our likes, our dislikes.
He changes our purpose in life, the way we see life, the way we understand
life, and he makes us basically a new creature, a different person.
We're typically focused on ourselves, but when we become a believer in
Jesus Christ, That focus tends to change from ourselves to Jesus Christ.
It's interesting, too, when we read the Bible, for instance, most of us, just to
be honest, myself included, we tend to look at the Bible, how can this affect me?
What's in here for me?
What does this tell me about me?
What does it tell me about what I should do, or where I
should go, or what I should say?
But really, as we study the Bible, what we really Need to do is to focus on God
because the Bible is primarily about God, not about me and in telling us about God,
who God is, what he's like, we know that we're supposed to be that way as well.
And that's what God, as he works through us through the, uh, the Holy
Spirit of God, he makes us that way.
And of course, it's not an overnight thing, but it's a process.
Process that theologians call sanctification, which means we become
more and more like Jesus Christ.
As I grew up, I graduated from high school in 1966.
And for those of you who might remember, or for those of us who really are
too young to remember, a Vietnam War was going on at that particular time.
And I decided what I would do is go to college instead of going to Vietnam.
And at that particular time, if you went to college, you had a draft deferment.
There was a draft process going on in America at that time.
If you became eligible for the draft, then you were likely to be called
up, to go into the military and perhaps ultimately go to Vietnam.
And so I went to Georgia Tech and, and while I was there, I,
Wanted to go into the military.
That was my long term goal.
Hadn't been for years since I was a boy, to be a pilot, Air Force pilot.
And so while I was at Georgia Tech, I enrolled into the Air Force ROTC
program and was in it for two years, two of the four years that I was there.
At the end of those first two years, I just, I don't know what
happened, but I lost my focus.
I don't know.
I just became so unenamored with the military that I.
Didn't really care for it anymore for some reason.
But anyway, I got out of the Air Force ROTC program and then when I
was just about to graduate in 1970, they changed the draft rules and they
came up with this draft number thing.
And it was all based on when you were born.
I was born on November the 2nd of the year I was born and each birthday, it's
366 days counting February the 29th.
And.
You had a draft number and the lower your number, the more
likely you were to be called up.
Well, my number happened to be 69, which out of 366, that's a low number.
And so I knew that I was about to be called up.
And so I went ahead and I joined the air force and I wasn't interested in
studying for the officer qualifying exam.
I didn't do well on the exam.
And so I wasn't accepted into the officer training program, even
though I was a college graduate.
So I went ahead and enlisted, hoping I could become an officer
somewhere later on in the process.
Now, by that time, I was living far from God.
As I mentioned, I had been baptized when I was eight years old, but when I hit
about 14, I just, I quit living for God.
I mean, I was a secular person.
Living for myself, living for the world, living for fun.
And that's the way I remained up through my college career
and a few years beyond that.
So when I enlisted in the air force, they sent me to Travis Air Force Base,
California to be in aircraft maintenance.
And I worked there for a few months.
And one day I was passing by the general's office there, wing commander.
It was a general at the time.
And, uh, his name, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, his name was
Brigadier General Grimmelrod.
And I passed by his office and it was, I can look back on it now and
I can see it was God leading me.
But at the time I just thought I had this idea.
Maybe I ought to go talk to this guy.
If there's anybody who'd give me a good recommendation, it
would be the wing commander.
And so I just went into his office.
I was just a one stripe airman, you know, and walked into his office.
And I told his first sergeant what I wanted.
And I guess I expected him to just usher me right into the
office to talk to the general.
But of course he didn't do that.
He said, well, you go on about your way and we'll call you if you've
got an appointment with the general.
Well, I left the office and then it, again, it was like an understanding
came into my mind and say, I think I've just made a mistake.
I think I've bypassed a whole lot of people and going straight to the general.
And that may make somebody mad.
And so I went to my commander, my.
Lieutenant commander, and then he went to his squadron commander.
I didn't know this at the time, but he of course went to his squadron
commander and began to work up the chain.
And I had retaken the air force officer qualifying test and did really well on it.
And so I didn't know whether I was going to be accepted in this program or not.
And I got a call from the first sergeant.
He said, you've got a report with the general tomorrow at 10 o'clock.
And so I thank God.
And I said, God, you've, you're really helping me out.
And for so often during this period of time, I would thank
God and pray to God for help.
Thank him for the help that he gave me.
And many times when it was a really serious issue, I would promise
him that I would do this if.
He would help me and lo and behold, Jesse, every time that I would ask
for help, he would help me in some way, shape or form to accomplish
what it was that I was trying to do.
He never failed at that.
Now I failed and I didn't do what I promised him, but he did what he
promised me or what I had asked for.
So the next morning at 10 o'clock, I walked into the general's office
and I had thought all night.
About what I could tell him and why I should get this particular recommendation
for officer candidate school.
And I walked in there and I saluted him and told him what I wanted.
And he said, airman Fowley said, my secretary is mapping up
your recommendation right now.
Who?
Because what, what he, what he had done is he had gone and he had checked with
the squadron commander and he had checked.
On me and everything.
And so that's what God does for us.
And Jesse, that's what he does.
He does it in strange ways.
He does it.
He works these things out, even when you don't realize it, when
you don't realize what's going on.
Sometimes even when you have the furthest thoughts in your mind about
God, he is working, standing in the shadows, you might say, working out.
And so I was accepted and.
Went to pilot training at Webb Air Force Tech, Texas, graduated from
pilot training, selected, uh, Uh, C 130 aircraft when you, when you graduate,
you can select whatever aircraft you want that's available at the time.
And there was a C 130, which is a tactical airlift aircraft.
And it was on its way to actually stationed in Taiwan.
And, and then of course we would fly from there into Southeast Asia, into Vietnam
and Thailand and other, other areas there.
So I went there and got involved in the Vietnam war as it began to be phased out.
I actually got there in early 73, and in early 73 was, was when the
war was, was winding down, the prisons of war were returning home.
As I was coming through Travis at the time, I got to see them actually come.
And then I went over there to survival school in the Philippines and then on
into Taiwan and then on into Vietnam.
Where there was still war going on in that area and particularly
in Cambodia, we would be stationed out of Thailand and we'd fly into
Vietnam and Cambodia quite often.
And we even fly up to Hanoi and North Vietnam to have some talks up there,
like the Americans and the South Vietnamese and North Vietnamese and
the Viet Cong talk on these talks.
So we got to do a lot of traveling over there during that particular time.
I returned back to the United States in 1974, and when I got
back, I was just in a, in turmoil.
I think perhaps some of our listeners can understand this, but sometimes
in your life, for various reasons, you're just totally unsatisfied.
You might be ashamed.
You might feel guilty.
You might have desires that are unfulfilled, or you might have
desires that have been fulfilled that you realize were the wrong desires.
But whatever the reason may be, you're just totally unhappy.
And I knew that I needed something.
I knew I needed some help.
And I was in there, my quarters, at Little Rock Air Force Base where I had
come back to continue flying C 130s out of Little Rock Air Force Base.
I've turned on the TV and interestingly enough, Billy
Graham was preaching a sermon.
He was having a crusade in Tempe, Arizona, and he preached a sermon on the devil.
I don't remember.
I remember it was about the devil, but that wasn't my big interest.
I just knew I needed Jesus Christ.
So I don't remember anything particular about his message, except for the title
or the subject, but I got down on my knees right there, watching Billy Graham on TV.
And I asked Jesus to save me, you know, asking me to come into my life.
I repented of my sin and I just asked him and he changed my life, Jesse.
And it wasn't really an overnight thing.
I wasn't that dramatic.
But something did happen overnight, there was a relief, there was a peace
that came over me that very first night.
And then as time went on, a greater sense of peace, a greater sense of
Jesus presence all around me, a greater understanding of how he was working
and what he was doing in my life.
And, uh, I've always.
I wondered when I was actually saved, was I saved at eight when
I made a profession of faith?
Was I saved at, that time I was, I guess I was about 24.
And I, I would, if it were me saying, I would say at 24 because that was
when I was really serious and have been serious about it ever since.
God is, is a graceful God.
And God will do great and mighty things if we give him an opportunity.
So whenever he worked in my, began to work in my life, whether it was at
eight or 24, he certainly did it at 24.
And just, I'd like to share with you just a few things that he did at that
time that was so meaningful to me.
I hope it's meaningful to you.
I was there in my, my squadron there at Little Rock, and I decided
to go see the chaplain one day.
And I don't know you, I know you're a military, have a military background.
I don't know what you think about chaplains, but I've never been
particularly impressed with the strength of a chaplain as far as
this Christian faith is concerned.
Maybe I shouldn't say that, but that's the truth.
And I'm sure there are plenty that are strong in the faith.
And I know, especially doing combat, I know that they provide
a lot of assistance to people.
But I went to the chaplain and I asked him what I should do
to walk closer to the Lord.
And you know what he told me?
He said, you need to become a big brother.
Now there's a program.
I don't know if it's, I don't know if it's still in existence or not, but
it's called the Big Brothers of America.
And I said, I'd like to become a big brother.
And so I did.
And I became a big brother to a young African American boy, great kid.
And he taught me a lot.
It's amazing.
He taught me, I said, we talked about church and everything, and
I said, he said he went to church and I said, what songs do you like?
And he said, well, my favorite song is Jesus on the main line.
Yeah.
I said, wow.
I'd never heard of that before.
I said, what's, what's that like?
And he said, Jesus song, the main line.
Tell him what you want.
Oh, Jesus.
On the main line, tell him what you want.
Jesus on the main line, tell him what you want.
Tell him what you want right now.
And so he, he, he was just a great kid and, and he taught me a lot.
It's just amazing.
This is not this kid doing it, Jesse.
This is Jesus doing it through this kid.
Correct.
And I hope I was able to.
To do something for him through Jesus Christ and Jesus do it
for him through me as well.
One day I was in my squadron.
Again, I was duty officer that day and I was studying my Bible.
I had taken a position as junior high leader at the junior high group in the
chapel there, Little Rock Air Force Base.
And I was studying my Bible and a squadron mate of mine came by
and he said, Hey, what you doing?
And I said, well, I'm studying my Bible.
I'm doing this with my junior high school group.
He said, well, that's great.
He said, are you a Christian?
I said, yes, I am.
He said, well, I am too.
And I'd like to invite you to come to my Sunday school class at
First Baptist Church, Little Rock.
And I said, well, I'd like to do that.
And so, because this junior high group is on Sunday evenings.
Sunday mornings for free.
And so I did, and God led me there through my friend, Randy Andrus.
And I've never been in a class as dynamic as that was before or since.
I was told by an older lady that was just the most wonderful thing.
Teacher was excellent.
The beginning to understand more and more about Christianity.
And, uh, it was a wonderful thing for me.
And while I was there, I learned about seminary and I talked to our
youth pastor there who had been to seminary and went to Southwestern
Seminary, where the youth pastor went.
And so I said, I'd like to do that.
But I was in the air force at the time.
And so I made arrangements to, as I was approaching the end of my
commitment to the air force, made arrangements to, to go that seminary.
But before I left the air force, I got a call one morning and it was
from the duty officer that day, and he said, we've just had a, one
of our load masters on the C 130.
He was head of the position of load master and responsible for
loading and unloading the aircraft.
He was an alcoholic, really bad alcoholic, and he had drowned.
And the duty officer said on the phone, he said, we're going to have a service
for him at two o'clock this afternoon.
And I said, well, of course I'll be there.
Well, I hung up the phone, Jesse.
And as I hung up the phone, the Lord spoke to me.
That's the only reason I could only answer.
I can give you was the Lord speaking to me.
And here's what he said.
He said, what if they call upon you to pray?
What if they call on you to pray?
And I thought, where did that come from?
That didn't come from my head.
It, it, it's, is that God speaking to me?
And so I said, well, if they call on me to pray at this funeral, which of
course I didn't expect them to, because I didn't even know that many people
in Esquire knew I was a Christian.
And I don't know why they would ask me, of all people.
And so I said, but if they do, I would like to say something that
would be helpful to the widow.
And I would also like to say something that would be.
Meaningful to my squadron mates that would draw them to Christ.
And so two o'clock was approaching and I parked my car there in the parking lot at,
uh, squadron building, got out of my car.
And I noticed that one of the navigators there in the squadron
was walking across the parking lot.
I spoke to him and then I, we walked together.
We walked through the door of the squadron building.
Well, as I walked through the door, there was my squadron commander standing there.
And he said, Lindsey, he said, they've asked me to pray.
And I don't pray, would, would, would you pray?
I, you can imagine I was totally shocked.
And I said, that was God speaking to me.
That was God speaking to me.
He is going to do something wonderful today.
And so I said, yes, sir, I would.
And so I walked back to a room that was unoccupied and prayed.
I thank God for this experience.
And I thanked him for what he was going to do and went on into the service.
Well, we had the service and.
At the end of it, it was my time to pray.
And so I got up with full confidence that God was going to do something
wonderful, and I began to pray.
And Jesse, the moment the first word came out of my mouth, the widow began to cry.
And I don't mean just boo boo, I mean, hollering, crying, screaming, crying.
And it, it unearthed.
All this faith, all this promise that I had going into that thing.
Once that started, it just faded away.
And I did my prayer a whole lot sooner than I would have otherwise, and left
the service downhearted, confused.
What in the world is going on?
And I got home and that evening went to bed, I don't know, maybe
10 o'clock or so that evening.
And it was that navigator that I had seen walking across the parking
lot and walked into the building.
And he said, Lindsey, he said, I was impressed with his prayer.
And I want to know more about Jesus Christ.
And I was able to lead him to faith in Jesus Christ over
the telephone that night.
And I hung up the phone, and a few minutes later, it rang again.
And picked up the phone, and it was my friend, John.
And John said, Lindsay, I was impressed with your prayer.
And I'd like to know more about Jesus Christ.
And so I wasn't able to lead him to faith in Jesus Christ, but since then,
he's come to faith in Jesus Christ.
And I thought to myself, I said, well, that's, that is God at work.
What could he have done through my prayer, if I had been more faithful
and had continued praying that prayer, believing that God was really in charge
and believing that God is, is at work, even if the widow was crying like she was.
So I, I still believe that God must have used that prayer to,
to bless the widow as well.
So anyway, that's just a one story of things that God has done through
my life that are just amazing to me.
At that particular time, I was just about ready to leave the air force.
I was able to go and I felt the Lord calling me to preach.
I had preached my first sermon on an Indian reservation in Oklahoma.
And it was in 1974, it was with the First Baptist Church of Little Rock.
We went on a, on a mission trip there to help them with one of their buildings.
And so while I was there, they asked me to preach.
And so I did.
That was my first, my first sermon.
It wasn't recorded, thank goodness, but one of the Native Americans there was
telling me about, I know what you like.
I said, what, what do you think I like?
He said, well, you like chicken.
I said, well, why do you think that?
He said, because that's the gospel burger and all the preachers like chicken.
So I said, yeah, you're right.
I do like chicken.
I remember that.
So anyway, that was my first sermon.
And then, then I felt the Lord calling me to, not, not really sure exactly where to,
to go, but to go to the seminary, maybe be a preacher, maybe be an evangelist,
something in relation to the church.
And so I went to Southwestern Seminary, started there in.
Kind of off track a little bit.
Usually you start in the fall, but I started in the spring.
The spring semester.
This was in Texas?
Texas.
It was in Fort Worth, Texas.
Yeah.
And enjoyed that.
Guam.
Particularly enjoyed visiting around the different churches.
I was at University Baptist Church in Fort Worth one Sunday evening.
And, uh, they had a service that night and enjoyed the service a lot.
And then after the service, they said, that's all you young adults,
particularly those that are single, we have, uh, another program for
you is upstairs and like you to go up there and join us if you would.
So I said, sure, I'd like to do that.
So my roommate and I were there together and we decided
that we'd go up and do that.
So on the way up the, uh, staircase going up with this upper room, so to speak, I
saw this girl, man, she was beautiful.
She had long black hair, thought it was black.
It's actually brown, but it looked black at the time.
I had on a, kind of a orange and brown jumper and man, she was great.
I said to myself, I said, I sure hope we get to sit with that girl.
Turned out that girl was with her roommate and they sat down at the
table and they left two empty chairs.
Can you imagine that?
And so our roommate and I, we sat down at those chairs and I got
to know this girl named Frankie.
Her name was Frances, but.
Everybody called her Frankie Renfro.
And about, I guess about four months later, probably a little bit more than
that, but about five months later, we were married in August of 1976.
And so August 14th, as a matter of fact, so that's coming up Monday.
So anyway, we got married and we bought a house there in Fort Worth, 1976.
Well, believe it or not, 14, 000.
Yeah, that house today would just see there's a small house, of course, but it
probably run 100, 000 a day on badges.
I don't know, but Frank and I went to seminary.
She, she, Oh, here's the thing too.
This is how God worked.
Back in those days, seminary.
It didn't cost hardly anything.
It cost me a hundred dollars a semester to go to seminary, believe it or not.
And it cost Frankie, since she was my wife, 50 a semester to go to seminary.
Of course, you had to have food costs and living expenses like,
like you would anywhere, but.
But it was cheap.
It's not that way anymore, but God did that for me and for everybody
else who was there at the time.
So anyway, when I got out of the air force, they gave me this program
that they call Alice furlough.
And they, not, not to sound too prideful, but they gave it to people
that they felt like they would, they would want back people who were
getting out, changed their mind.
And so they gave me that.
And I said, well, I don't have intention of coming back, but.
You know, I'll take it just in case.
And sure enough, as I completed seminary in 1978, I just felt led
to be a bi vocational whatever, particularly a bi vocational evangelist.
Yeah.
And so I spoke to the air force and see if they would want me back.
And they said, yeah, we, we would.
We'd like to send you back as a, as an instructor pilot in T 38s, which
is the supersonic trainer aircraft.
Pilot training at that time, and I said, yeah, I'd like to do that.
So they sent me to Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, which is Del Rio, Texas.
And you probably heard a lot about Del Rio recently.
Anyway, I was there for four years and went to the first Baptist church at Del
Rio, met a lot of Christian friends there in the training wing that I was in there
at Laughlin and just had a great Christian experience there outside of the air
force, as well as inside, because I met Christian friends there in the air force.
And while we were there, some very interesting things happened in Del Rio.
Our first child was born.
It's a girl.
We named her Mary.
And then our second child was born there.
Another girl, we named her Jenny, and then we left Little Rock.
And I was offered, uh, an assignment to Hope Air Force Base
in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
And it was very interesting there because I was flying C 130s again, and we were,
we did all kinds of things in the C 130, you drop paratroopers or you carry
cargo or whatever they want you to do.
So I was able to drop.
One of Frankie's brothers who happened to be in the army at the time, he
was stationed at Fort Bragg, which is next door to Pope Air Force Base.
And he was, uh, in the, uh, 82nd Airborne.
And so sure got, got, got to drop him out of my airplane.
If I had known more about him, I'd probably kicked him out.
That's not true.
But, uh, he's a great guy.
And as, as my tour at Pope Air Force ended, was, was about to end,
I got a call from the Air Force.
And they said, would you like to go to Bogota, Columbia, Columbia, South
America, and be an exchange pilot with the Columbian Air Force down there?
I said, sure, I'd like to do that.
So they said, well, we're going to send you to send you to Spanish language
school and help you to learn the Spanish language, and then you can go down there.
So I went out to Monterey, California to attend the Defense Language
Institute, Spanish school out there.
And so about, I guess, about halfway through that Spanish training program,
they called back and they said, we've just canceled all of our exchange programs
down to that area, because that at that time they were having a lot of trouble
with the cartels down there, the drug cartels, and they wouldn't let us go
down there at that particular time.
So I had to change assignment.
So they called me up Jesse, and they said, look, we've got a, another
assignment here that you might like.
It said Bulgaria of all places.
And they said, it's a defense attachÃ© position.
We'll let you finish up your Spanish language.
We'll send you over across the way to the Naval Postgraduate
School and give you a master's degree in international relations.
And then we'll send you to Bulgaria.
And I said, well, that sounds very interesting.
I'd like to do that.
They said, well, you've got one question for you.
I said, what's that?
Said, well, do you drink alcohol?
And I said, no, I don't.
And they said, well, that's okay.
As long as you're willing to serve it in your home, because this
defense attachÃ© business is a lot of socializing and what have you.
And it's important to be able to serve alcohol in your home.
And I said, well, I'm sorry.
I don't, I don't do that either.
And they said, they said, well.
We'll call you back.
I said, okay.
And so sure enough, they called me back and they said, well, look,
we've got another assignment for you.
I said, great.
What is that?
They said, it's an assignment to Liberia.
If you don't know where Liberia is, it's not a library.
It's a library and it's in Africa, of course.
And they're going to send me there.
And they said, it's, uh, we, we, we're sending you to learn French and it's,
uh, flying assignment and what have you.
And it's a Defense AttachÃ© assignment again.
And I said, well, that sounds good.
I, I'll, I'll take that.
And they said, well, we got one question for you.
I said, what's that?
Do you drink?
I said, no, still don't, you know, and they said, well, it's okay.
But would you be willing to serve it in your home?
And I said, no, I don't do that.
And they said, well, call us back if you change your mind.
And I said, well, call me back if you change the words.
So.
Didn't get a call back about that job, but I did get a call back about another one.
It was in Panama, the country of Panama down at the canal and
everything, and went down there.
That was finally wound up with that one.
And it was, it was a good job because I started out in one division, the exercise
division, and then they changed me over to be the general's executive officer.
And that was pretty interesting because from that position, I was called up
to be the Executive officer for the four star general, the commander of U.
S.
Southern command, which is responsible for all the military exercises, military
events in Central and South America.
And they sent me to the Pentagon for that, for that position.
So to make a long story short, Jesse, God has just been with me through
everything that I've done all through those experiences in North Carolina.
Where we had our, our third daughter born in Washington, DC, where our, let's see,
I guess, Panama, our fourth daughter was born, Washington, DC, where our fifth
and sixth daughters were born and just done all kinds of things for me in my
life, watched over me, taking care of me.
When I messed up, he was able to blind people's eyes to my mess
up and that's how God, God works.
That's always given me confidence to, to know that if, if God wants me noticed,
he'll call the attention of others to me.
And if God doesn't want my mess up noticed, he'll blind
others to that mess up.
And so that's, that's been a comfort and an encouragement to me.
Well, I always like to talk about my family.
We, we have 10 children now.
I mentioned several of them.
I think I, I think I messed up.
I think I said our sixth daughter was born in, in Washington DC, but she
was actually born in Charleston where I was sent down to Charleston to.
Be the professor of aerospace studies in air, Air Force ROTC back in ROTC.
But I was also the professor, an adjunct professor in Bible.
And while I was there as an adjunct professor, I was teaching Old Testament
class, survey of the Old Testament.
And I told the students, what, what were you going to study and all of that?
And one student came to me and said, listen, this is not what I signed up for.
I said.
What's, what's the matter?
He said, well, I just signed up for a survey class.
I didn't know this was going to be devotional, the
study of the Old Testament.
And I said, well, it is going to be devotion.
And at the end of that, that semester, one student came to me and said, I've
really been impressed with all I've learned from the Bible, and I'd like to
ask Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
And, uh, it was that particular student, the one who didn't,
didn't want devotional teaching.
But at any rate, when I was there, I got a chance to teach Bible, got
a chance to preach, I was an interim pastor at, at several churches there
and just enjoyed that particular time.
But all through my Air Force career and through that college teaching
experience, my family stood with me and was very much an encouragement to me.
And then when I left the Air Force, I became a pastor in Greenwood,
South Carolina, of a church there.
And while we were there, Frankie's brother called us up and said that we have this
situation in my, my company, this woman is about to have a baby, doesn't want
to keep the baby, looking for someone to adopt them, would you like to adopt?
And I said, sure would.
And so we adopted our first boy.
And then we became foster parents while we were there, uh, at that
first church in, in Greenwood.
And, uh, we, uh, went on to adopt two other boys and one girl.
And so right now we have 10 children and second boy, not the first one,
but the second boy just got married.
And so we have one boy at home.
That's the youngest boy.
And then the youngest girl at home.
We have two children still at home.
My wife, Frankie, has become the president of the foster parent
association here in Chesterfield County.
And she's been in that position for several years now.
And so we've really enjoyed that.
My wife is, uh, from a family that loves family and, and thank God for that.
So she's always loved children.
She's always worked with children.
She's had, uh, a whole bunch of her own.
And, and she just loves, loves doing it.
And I think it was from, from me, from my perspective, I felt like the Lord
was telling me that you need to do this.
You need to do this for the children.
You need to do this to support your wife.
And it's going to be a blessing for your family.
And I think it has been, it hasn't all been easy and, and we've had some
difficulties with some of our children.
And so we can't say that we'd like to say that everything's worked out just
perfectly, but it's really not true, but it has all worked out really as a
blessing to us and to those around us.
I think we've been able to encourage other people to foster and once you get involved
in, in foster care, you begin to realize more about the needs of people and how,
how they need food and shelter and love and all of that, but primarily how they
need a relationship with Jesus Christ.
And we were able to take these children that we fostered and at least for a
brief period of time, because we, we've had them anywhere from a day or two.
To several years as, as foster children.
And of course, some, as we said, we've adopted, so they're still with us even
now, and we've been able to introduce them to Jesus and introduce them to church
and to get them somewhat aware of Bible.
I've always thought of this, Jesse, I've always thought of a lady as
I was growing up, uh, she lived next door to us, an older lady.
And as I was older and after I became a believer, I went
over to her house one day.
And we had one of our children with us and she had a little toy xylophone.
You know what a xylophone is?
So a little tink, tink, tink, tink, beat on it.
And she said, I'm going to play a song for you talking to the child.
And I'm thinking in my mind, I'm not really thinking, but just figuring she's
going to play Mary Had a Little Lamb.
That's what we always play.
They play Mary Had a Little Lamb.
She played Jesus Loves Me.
And I'm thinking, that's the kind of person that I want to
be, how I want to be like that.
And I can't say that I've always been that way, but I've certainly
had in mind as I've lived my life.
So I think as far as family is concerned, we've got some
great kids and we've got it.
I've got a great wife and hopefully she's got an acceptable husband.
And, and we've just had a lot of fun together and we're still.
We're celebrating our 47th anniversary this coming Monday.
So hopefully we can keep on going for a while, keep on enjoying life.
Our, for those of you who are football fans, you may have, especially if you're
Clemson fans, you may remember Hunter Renfrow, that's, that's our nephew.
Well, of course, on my wife's side and her brother's son, Tony Renfrow, plays
for the Las Vegas Raiders right now.
So we're looking forward to this season.
I think everybody in South Carolina knows who the Renfrow is.
I'll tell you a funny story about that too, is talking about how God works.
I got a call one day and it asked me, this, this is Lindsey Powell, is it?
Yeah.
Your wife, Frankie Powell?
Yeah.
Are y'all the?
Okay.
Aunt and uncle of Hunter Renfrow.
Yeah.
He said, well, we would like you to come to our dinner meeting.
It's a lunch, lunch meeting on this particular day and wondered if you'd come.
I said, well, sure we'll come.
Now, what would you like me to speak on?
He said, well, I don't really want you to speak.
We've already got a speaker, but I just want to be able to introduce you
as Hunter Renfrow's aunt and uncle.
So that's how God works in your life too.
To take away a little bit of your pride every now and then.
So, yeah.
Well, what do you, you've had a, you've had a very long and productive ministry
for, and you've moved around a lot.
You've lived in, I can't count the number of places.
I, I think in my head it's around 10, 12 places that you've lived.
All these experiences, all these kids, all these ministries, churches, fellowship.
Oh, you are a, what I would call, a mature disciple, and you have a lot of
wisdom, or I would say at least you've learned to channel the wisdom of God.
What would you, what kind of, what would you like to pass on to, say,
fellow believers who are on the path?
What kind of encouragement would you give another believer that's
maybe going through some struggles?
I, I think the very best thing that I could advise anybody
is to believe the Bible.
It's all centered around this word, which claims to be the word of God, the
very word of God, the infallible, the inherent, and the trustworthy word of God.
That's what the Bible claims to be.
There's no proof, what we call really proof in the Bible that God exists.
It doesn't prove the existence of God, but neither does any secular philosophy.
Prove that there is no God.
And so both, both ways of looking at God, whether you're looking at it as
believing that he exists, or you're looking at believing that he does not
exist, is simply a matter of faith.
And it's the same way with the Bible.
I mean, I think you can approach the Bible critically and say,
well, I don't agree with that.
Or I do agree with that, but I don't agree with this on and on.
Or you can look at the Bible as a book that is what it claims to be.
The truth of God.
That the authors, these, these 40 plus authors that wrote this book
over 1, 500 years, they're not really the authors of the book.
They put pen to paper or parchment.
That's true.
But the author is God himself.
And so whether it's the Old Testament, book of Genesis, or whether it's the
New Testament to the book of Revelation, everything in between, I believe that
it's God's word and that it's true.
It's true.
And I believe that that's the best advice that I can pass on to anybody is study
the Bible and study it as a book that's true, not one that you're trying to be
critical of, whether it's true or not.
There's a lot of things that you can find that will corroborate
the fact that God exists.
I found that in the Bible.
There's some things you could find that would be possibly an
argument that he does not exist.
But, um, I can tell you from my life experience, all these 70, almost 75 years
that I've lived, that God does exist.
He's proven it time and time again.
He speaks to us.
He speaks to us through his word.
He speaks to us through the Bible.
He speaks to us through prayer.
He speaks to us through our brothers and sisters in Christ.
And he watches over us.
And he brings.
Blessings into our life, and he also brings trouble, but whether it's the
trouble or what we would consider a blessing, we begin to understand
in time that it's all a blessing.
Even the bad things that he brings are blessings in our life.
And it's hard to understand that until you actually go through it.
And when you do go through it, you'll see what I'm talking about.
So that would be my best advice.
Study the Bible.
Learn it and believe it that is the truth of God.
Yeah, I think what you're what you're saying is absolutely perfect
for anybody because We don't walk by feelings we walk by Faith.
And faith comes from knowing, well, faith comes from hearing and reading the Word.
So, you know, if I can just believe what God says, anything
that He says in His Word, I know everything's gonna be alright.
It doesn't really matter how I feel because I don't walk
by feelings, I walk by faith.
And, um, Anybody can apply that to their lives.
It's not easy.
If it was easy, everybody would do it.
But if we, anybody who does do it will find the truth of it.
Thank you.
I think you're absolutely right.
I think in this day and time that we're living, feelings seem to be so important.
We identify truth by how we feel about that particular truth.
It's not true unless we feel like it's true.
And that's how people look at it today.
But that's, that's not the way to look at it.
It's just like you said.
We believe it by faith.
We don't believe it because we feel like it's right.
So I would like to end our discussions today by asking you to pray for anybody
who might be listening, if anybody has been drawn to this, to listen
this far in the podcast is because it's the Holy Spirit directing them
and he has something for them, but I don't know what it is God does.
So with that, that in mind, would you pray for our listeners today?
I'll be glad to.
I'm glad to.
Let's pray together.
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the opportunity to do this podcast.
We know that in ourselves, we're unable to really make as strong an
impact as you would like us to make.
And thank you for working through us, empowering us.
That the words that we speak, the things that we talk about can be helpful,
spiritually helpful to other people.
And so, Lord, I pray for our listeners, whether it's one or a million or any
other number, we pray that you'll just bless them through this podcast and not
only this one, but those who, who will, that will be produced in the future.
And we thank you for your willingness to do that and your love for DeLaGrante.
Cause that's what you do.
You just work through things to draw people to you.
And we pray that through this podcast, we pray that you'll, uh,
use them to draw people to you.
Thank you for Jesse.
And thank you for his work in evangelism.
In Jesus name.
Amen.
We hope you've been blessed by today's story.
In case you haven't noticed, there are no advertisements on this podcast
and we hope to keep it that way.
So if you've heard something that you think could help someone you know, please
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You will probably never know how that small effort can make a big
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But our Heavenly Father knows.
Speaking of sharing, if you know a Jesus follower with a story to tell, please send
them a link to Faith and Purpose Podcast.
It may encourage them to tell their story.
That person may even be you.
Our only criteria is that Jesus be glorified.
Most Christians don't share their faith because they mistakenly think
their story is not interesting enough.
Or that it's self centered to talk about themselves.
Or that they are not competent to explain the gospel correctly.
But none of that is relevant.
If Jesus has changed your life, you have a story to tell.
All of our stories are completely unique.
No one has a story like yours, and you may be the only one who can reach someone
else through telling your experience.
All of our stories are completely unique.
No one has a story like yours, and you may be the only one who can reach someone
else through telling your experience.
So don't be intimidated.
A story is just that, a true account of your own experience.
And no one can disagree with your experience.
When we tell what Jesus has done in our lives, we are being obedient to his
command to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
It's not about theology, and it's not about how interesting or special you are.
It's all about Jesus.
So when you're ready to tell how Jesus has impacted your life, you can let Jesse
know at his ministry website, jesseduke.
net.
There you can download guidelines that will make it easy to
prepare to tell your story.
Thank you for listening today and Shalom.