No Where To Hide (A Personal Testimony)

[Bishop Everett James, Th.D.]

I came to Saint Louis in 1988, because of a change in duty assignment while serving in the army. I had just recently been saved and also called to preach. Before leaving Italy I began to look for Bible Colleges in the Saint Louis area to attend. Immediately upon my arrival to Saint Louis, I joined a local church which was headed by my friend and mentor namely Rev. Cleveland Tyler. This humble man of God not only licensed and ordained me to preach but he also allowed me to preach every other Sunday for over seven years. This really allowed me to improve and grow stronger in the Lord. I will always be thankful to this man of God who has recently gone home to be with the Lord.

When I was growing up my mother would always remind me of a visitation that she had from an angel before becoming pregnant with me. This praying woman of God told me that a man walked up to her one day while she was sitting on a bench and told her that her next child would be a preacher. A few seconds later this man was completely out of her sight. She further told me that it was an open area and if he had been walking away she would have been able to see him walking for many blocks, but it was as if he just disappeared. My mother and father were living in Saint Louis at the time and I was born a few years later in another state. I never thought that I would ever live in Saint Louis.

However, in an attempt to keep this story reasonably short I will just briefly cover some things that took place in my life prior to receiving the gift of salvation. When I was around five or six years old in the early sixties, I got very sick and I had a very high fever. In fact, my mother was told that I would probably not live by the family doctor.

This woman of God simply done what she knew how to do best. She continued to intercede and pray. At one point, during this time my mother had went into the kitchen to wash dishes. I did not see any face, but a person with a bright white robe entered my room and told me to get up and go tell my mother that I had been healed. I was not sick anymore and I ran and told my mother that Jesus had healed me.

As I became a teenager, I became very rebellious and by the time that I turned fifteen, I was smoking cigarettes and had already become a chronic alcoholic. Growing up in Oakland California, I avoided being drafted by gangs because I had a reputation of being pretty tough and none of the gangs would attempt to force me or my friends to join. One night in Nineteen-Seventy three, two of my friends and I decided to pull some robberies in order to pick up some fast cash. “(Alcohol Money)” We pulled three armed robberies that night, but the third did not work out to well. The police were informed with the description of the vehicle that we were in and tried to stop us. Since we were considered armed and dangerous and would not stop they began to shoot at us.

Finally after crashing into a house we were taken into custody. Of course the police made sure that each of us were wearing bandage head dressing after a short trip to the hospital before going to juvenile detention. The crash happen about 3am; my mother, again being the prayer warrior that she was told me that God woke her from a deep sleep around 3am and told her to began to pray for her son and that he was in trouble. It was because of her prayer that I was given a second chance and not sent away. My friends and I were the only juveniles that had committed armed robberies and not sentence to spend time in the California Youth Authority. My record was sealed by the State of California in nineteen-seventy six.

Even years later, I would still have a problem with alcohol. I have been involved in seven alcohol related accidents. My life was changed after I was responsible for a seven car accident in Italy. Before leaving for Italy my mother and sister told me that I would be saved and preaching before returning to the United States. I had gotten in so much trouble until the only thing I could do was to pray. I could not leave the country without military papers or a passport. There was no place to hide. The Colonel had a file that he was building up on me and my behavior. His intentions were to eventually get rid of me with a bad conduct discharge. The army sent me to a recovery program. What they did not know is that I had been saved, sealed and delivered. When I return to my unit, the Colonel had been replaced. “(LOOK AT GOD)” When I reported to my new Colonel I saw that he had my file on his desk. I said “SGT. James reporting, but I want you to know that I am a saved and changed man sir.” This Colonel smiled, he was saved also. He said SGT. James, If God can give you a second chance, I can give you a second chance also. He threw the file in his garbage can. He also became a spiritual mentor to me for the rest of the time that I was in Italy. You can run, but you cannot hide.

Good Samaritan Bible Institute