Bloom Where You’re Planted
by Melanie Hemry
Clyde Oliver circled the product tables inside the Tarrant County Convention Center in Fort Worth. As crusade sales director for Kenneth Copeland Ministries, he made sure all the tables were stocked and manned with personnel. Looking at his watch, Clyde realized the current session of the Southwest Believers’ Convention would soon end. Thousands of people would turn to the product tables to find what they needed to win the battles in their own lives.
Clyde loved his job. In truth, he’d loved all the jobs he’d held at KCM. Back when he started in 1979, he’d worked reproducing and shipping cassette tapes across the country. Those tapes might not have seemed very important to some people, but Clyde saw them as weapons—preparing the army of God for the spiritual battles ahead.
Clyde heaved a deep sigh of contentment. Working and serving made him happy. He’d grown up in Crewe, Va., in the county of Nottoway. Jokingly, to some of the residents there, growing up in Nottoway meant there was “not-a-way” to succeed. Not Clyde. He’d been born again at age 5, filled with the Holy Spirit at 12, and heard God’s voice at 13. He preached his first sermon when he was 16.
Clyde chuckled at the memory.
He’d preached everything he knew in 10 minutes.
Following high school, Clyde had taken a job in a finance company. Within weeks, he got his first promotion. They promoted him again, again and again—with each promotion moving him to a new city. While he was working in Petersburg, Va., and living in Richmond, he heard the Lord ask a question:
10 : BVOV
