Reflections from a Storm Passing Over (eBook)

Chapter 3
My Family, Friends, and the Church
and the Strength that I Received
from Them

My family, friends, and church and the strength that I received from them! It’s so important to tell you how they really helped me through the rough times! Further in this chapter, you will meet my family and trace my path through life as I grew from a child to an adult. You will see what events molded my life and what decisions I made and the way those decisions affected my life. You will also see how Father God was there with me in good times and not so good times. As I had stated earlier, my life can be viewed as a series of sometimes tough endings followed by new beneficial beginnings. In later chapters, you’ll know about those endings and beginnings. In those chapters, you will also meet my friends and those people that became part of a new wider family that I was adopted into—my dear church families.

My Family and Life Directions

I must of course start my life story with my family’s story. My father Horace Russell was a U.S. Army veteran. He was a very hardworking man who could not read or write. After leaving the army, he had the foresight to move his family from the Jim Crowe South to the northern state of Ohio. He moved my mother Lillian and my sister Linda and me to Youngstown. There he prospered. Even with his limited education, he was able to acquire land; own a car wash, parking lots, and a trucking business; and work in the steel mill in Youngstown, Ohio. Later on in life, he learned to read and write and became a minister!

His brother Kelly Russell followed him to Youngstown with a wife and six children (five are still living today), and they lived on the same street as our family did. Our street was on the east side of Youngstown next to Sharon, Pennsylvania. This is where a major life-changing event struck our family. Our family home caught fire. We were helped by the Red Cross, staying in a Red Cross shelter for a week where they helped us get resettled into Kimbel Brooks, an east-side Youngstown housing project. There I was introduced to Jesus Christ by a White church group that conducted a Bible study at the housing project recreation center. Through that experience, I learned how to sing songs and stanzas like “He has the whole world in His hands” and “He loves all the little children in the world,” and my personal favorite, “Yes! Jesus loves me; the Bible tells me so.” I also learned the Lord’s prayer there!

However, my family didn’t attend church during this time. Added to this, my mother and father broke up because of my father’s abuse. (A short note about this situation. I am not trying to justify my father’s behavior, but as a youth, his uncle and aunt abused him. Because his mother couldn’t take care of him and his brother, they were sent to live with their uncle and aunt. There, just because he was the oldest, my father was beaten for the mistakes made by his brother and cousin. How fragile we are!). My mother left my father and took my sister Linda and me away with her. We moved into an apartment on Woodland Avenue on the lower south side. We lived there with my mother’s brother Johnny Payne. Our uncle Jim also came with us into the projects as he had been part of the household when we moved to Youngstown from Alabama and while we lived on Woodland Avenue. My mother and her brother Johnny were very close. My mother would hold up dinner until my uncle finished watching his sports. I guess that’s the reason why I don’t like watching sports on TV till this very day.

My uncle was a real disciplinarian. He would punish us for the smallest infraction. In contrast, I always enjoyed it when my sister Linda watched us. I especially liked the winter months. This was when Linda would take vanilla extract and would make ice cream from the snow. Linda would always tell me “June Bug, don’t bring any yellow snow!” It took me awhile to figure that one out! I would always bring Linda white snow! I would stay away from fire hydrants and telephone poles.

Linda was three years older than me. She was so smart. Linda was an honor roll student. Linda excelled at everything she did. She was very popular and had many friends at school and later at church. While living in our Woodland Avenue apartment, we would lay in the bunk bed at night, and Linda would say the full name of her classmates. She would then ask me, “Are they short or tall?” “What color do you think the name suggests?” My sister used this technique to remember each of them. This exercise helped me to remember my classmates as well. I still use that technique today! Unfortunately, this is practically all I received from my sister about being a great student in school. Unlike my sister, I had behavioral problems and was the class clown all through elementary and high school. I wasn’t the ideal student. I did however excel in history, art, and sculpturing.

I was also a problem at home. I would not stay in the house. I was always going on some adventure, and subsequently, there were consequences. I would get severely punished for disobeying my mother and uncle. You see they had been raised in Alabama at a time when Black folks were in danger of being lynched so they were concerned for me. But in a northern state like Ohio where we had moved to, this fear was not real. Later in life, I learned from a doctor that FEAR is “False Evidence Appearing Real.” I am also thankful for the teaching in scripture that says: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7. My mother’s and uncle’s punishments, however, did not stop me from getting away from home. They tried everything to keep me from leaving the house, from hiding my shoes to hiding my pants! It still didn’t stop me. I would just hide a pair of shoes and pants outdoors. Looking back, I realize that it is not right for children to disobey. But in my case, some good came from it. I now consider that at least this trait of being fearless is a kind of gift. It stayed with me and followed me into my adult life. This was one of the reasons I was able to travel the world and live in different countries. I was able to go to Australia—on the other side of the world—to be a part of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney not knowing anyone there! Actually, this amazing trip was part of a period in my life I call “The Olympic Years” which started when I attended the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and ended when I attended the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. In each of these Olympic games, I traveled to cites where I knew no one. I just put fear aside and went with an assurance that God would be there. I will now relay a little about my experiences in Australia.

Getting to Australia for the Sydney Olympics was an example of acting fearlessly. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get there. I knew no one in Sydney or in Australia! How was I going to get there? I prayed on it. The next day, the following things happened that can only be explained by the grace of Father God! That day I was going to the VA hospital in Cleveland, Ohio on a visit. I met a Black VA driver who told me that his daughter was living in Sydney, Australia. He offered this knowledge after I told him I would like to go to the Olympics in Sydney, Australia, and that I didn’t know anyone there. I asked him what his daughter was doing there, and he explained to me that she was an attorney working in Sydney. He also told me that he had a friend who was working at a federal facility run by the VA, which was also in Sydney. This friend would work in the city of Sydney during the week and stay in a boarding house. On the weekends, he would live outside the city in another residence with his wife. There was now the possibility of calling him and the driver’s daughter to see if maybe between the two of them they could find me a place to stay. I thought I could also sell Olympic memorabilia while I was there. I called and I spoke with the driver’s friend whose name was Bill. I explained to him my intentions of coming to Australia during the Olympics, and he told me that the boarding house where he was staying had a room for rent. What a blessing! I told him, “I’ll take it!” He said he would set it up for me. Now my room was secure, but how would I get to Sydney? I left the logistics up to my Father God. After praying, I called the airlines and was able to find a very reasonable fare for Australia. It was just amazing. How it all worked out! If God is for you, what could be against you!

I left for Australia at the end of that week. My room was located in the outer rural area of Sydney. The room was very large in size, but it had one interesting and unusual feature—the ceiling. When you turned out the lights, the total night sky filled with constellations was seen on the ceiling! This would have been very unusual in itself, but I had seen this same starry night sky when I was attending a summer program at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts (another fearless undertaking!). The room at Harvard that I stayed in also had the stars displayed on the ceiling. What are the chances of this same occurrence happening twice? Our Father God can do anything. Nothing is too big for him! Isaiah 46:11 says that “If God purposes something it will come to pass!” I believe Father God sanctioned my trip to Australia by showing me the constellation on the ceiling of that room in Australia. There have been many miracles like the one above that have occurred in my life, and I will discuss them...