My mom, as a teenage Baptist girl, went off the Lord’s path. She had a one-night stand with a guy. I never knew who my biological father was until I was sixteen years old. Even my mom never told who my father was.
Seeking employment I moved from St.Vincent to the Virgin Islands to live. As I was walking in a 7-11 Store a Church of God missionary named Bob Cary walked into the store. When he saw me he said, “Young man, God has a call on your life. God wants you.” He was a Caucasian guy. He said, “What’s your story? Tell me who you are. The Lord just sent me here to tell me he wants to use you.” I looked at the guy as if he was crazy, thinking, “Who is this guy talking to me?”
I told him my story and he said, “I’m going to be the daddy you never had.” He then pointed to his wife and said, “This lady is going to be the mother that you never had.” Bob and Jeanette Cary literally took my life, as a young twenty-three-year-old man, and began to parent me, to mentor me as a young believer in Christ. He took me places with him. I carried his briefcase around. I served with him in ministry like a Timothy with the Apostle Paul. I called him dad. Jeanette Cary, who was like a mom, put my clothes in the same washing machine. She said, “You’re eating out of the same plates us we do. We have two children, but you’re the third one.”
No one ever said to me, “I love you” like Bob Cary has. One day he put his arms around me and said, “Anything you need in life that I am capable of acquiring I will do it for you. He is now seventy-five or seventy-six years old, and until this day if I walk into his house today he looks at me and says, “Son, do you need anything.” He performed my wedding. He blessed my two kids. He said, “I’m their grandpa. I’m your daddy. He would call other ministers and say, “My son is coming to Cleveland, TN. My son is coming to North Carolina. My son is coming to England. Take care or him.
I went to England in 1987. When I got up to preach and the music started. As I looked over at the girl that directed the choir and played the music, and the Holy Spirit said. “That’s your wife.” I said, “Lord, I don’t think so. I think I’m lusting. I repent, Lord. Help me.” Again, the Holy Spirit said, “That’s your wife.” 4:47
I leaned over to the lady next to me and said, “What’s the name of the girl who is playing the organ?” She said, “Why?” I said, “Because the Holy Ghost just told me that’s my wife.” She said to me, “That is my daughter.” The first person I sat with there was my mother in law. It was August 19. The same day in August 1988 I returned to England and became engaged to this girl. Six months later I married her after seeing her only once before our engagement. We never dated. We’ve now been married for twenty-five years. We have two beautiful children. I’ve preached the gospel all over the world.
I was going to school as a little boy and a lady stopped me and asked, “Are you the son of…, and she called her name. I said, “Yes.” She said, “Come here. I want to show you, somebody.” She then pointed and said, “I think that’s your daddy.” I looked just like him. He looked at me and said, “Yes, I think I’m your father.” I never did a DNA test but I just took him to be my dad.
One day I was holding a crusade as a young preacher. My biological father came to the crusade and gave his heart to the Lord. I accept him fully. I had never had anyone from a father’s perspective lift me up, buy things for me, or express love for me. But on my fiftieth birthday, I received a call. The voice on the other end said, “This is your daddy. I love you, son.” That just did it for me. He’s my daddy, but Bob Cary, the missionary, was used so uniquely and mightily of God. He brought me to the level of authentic ability to become what God really wanted me to become.
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