BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

OK, OK, Barry thought, unable to even speak. I’ll receive You. The Presence vanished, along with the vision. Barry lay awake, enveloped in a cocoon of divine peace the likes of which he had never experienced. In an instant, he had been changed from a hardened agnostic to a trembling believer. But he still couldn’t move. “I wondered if I was going to be paralyzed for the rest of my life,” Barry recalls. “Sometime the next day, the muscle spasms stopped and I could move again. I’ve always called Wilra my mother-in-love because there was no question how much she loved me. When I could move again, I called her and told her what had happened. A Blank Slate “I was a newborn in Christ, but my mind hadn’t been renewed. My thinking hadn’t changed. Sue and her family had received a lot of wrong teaching about the Holy Spirit, but I was a blank slate. There was nothing for me to unlearn.” Wilra took Barry to a Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship meeting. “The first thing I noticed was that there were a lot of very successful businessmen,” Barry remembers. “They said I needed to be filled with the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues. I really wanted to succeed financially. My motivation wasn’t quite right, but I did it anyway. When I came home filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues, Sue wasn’t happy. But no one could deny the change in my life.” Sometime later, Wilra took Barry to another meeting—this time in Little Rock, Ark. “It was in a small room with only about 20 to 30 people present,” Barry said. “I didn’t really like sermons because they were too theological. But this preacher, Kenneth Copeland, was different. He didn’t sermonize so much as he said straight out what God would do for us. He also said something that I had never heard in my life. He said you could be a Christian and prosper. “Sue eventually came around and received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. During that time, I listened to tapes, read the Bible and attended meetings. I grew up spiritually in the wonderful era of the Charismatic Renewal, listening to young ministers who would someday become generals in the faith. I studied the Word of God under Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, John Osteen, Charles Capps and Hilton Sutton. I also grew up under the ministry of Happy Caldwell. Before becoming born again while at the Grand Ole Opry, Happy had been in the wholesale liquor business, and I was one of his best customers. Happy pastored the church we attended in Little Rock.” Financial Breakthrough Despite their newfound life with the Lord, Barry and Sue endured financial struggles. Pregnant with their first child, Barry Jr., Sue lived with her parents while Barry drove a catering truck in Memphis and lived with an aunt. One day, the thought occurred to Barry that if he needed more money he should get into the money business. He went to a mortgage company and applied for a job. After being trained, they sent him back to Arkansas where his job was to make loans on single-family residences. For the first time in his life, Barry was finally making decent money—lots of it! Barry and Sue bought a house. Then, they began buying rental properties. Along the way they began to partner with several ministries, but the primary one was Kenneth Copeland Ministries. Everything was going great until a hard recession hit in the 1970s. With interest rates rising to 20 percent, no one was borrowing money. The Lord directed Barry and Sue to leave Little Rock and move to Tulsa, Okla. Two years later, He called Barry out of business and into ministry as crusade director for Bill Basansky, an evangelist from Ukraine. The job paid only $1,000 a month, considerably less than Barry and Sue’s house payment. Suddenly, the financial problems had resurfaced. Barry and Sue sold their house. Then they sold their rental properties. Barry even sold his pride and joy: a 1965 Austin-Healey he had bought and restored. The Work of the Ministry “It was a lot of fun, but hard work,” Barry says of his time working with Basansky. “When I showed up for work and asked to meet my staff, someone said to me, ‘Look in the mirror.’ I had no clue about how a ministry worked. It was a culture shock—a learning experience! I arranged Bill’s schedule and drove to the meetings with books and tapes. I set up the venue. The only help I had was through local volunteers. Bill and his wife, Bea, were wonderful people. The best part was that Sue and I knew we were right where we were supposed to be.” In 1983, Bill and Bea moved to Florida. Barry and Sue sensed that Florida was not part of God’s plan for them. “We weren’t sure what was next, but we were positive about one thing: We weren’t supposed to go back into business,” said Barry. * * * article continues on next page * * * ********************************************** Join us in teaching believers how to use their faith. Partner with KCM KCM/ORG/PARTNERNOW 1-800-600-7395 U.S. only ********************************************* 18 : BVOV

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