CHAPTER 8
I don't want you to think the Pittman children were not told about the Gospel when they were young. They were told many, many times about Christ dying on the cross for them and that they must accept, if they want to have eternal life in Heaven.
The children did get to go to church and VBS anytime they wanted to go. Gene never told the children they were not allowed to go to church. That was definitely a point in his favor. However, since children learn by what they see, those limited sights of Christian life were not enough to make a difference in his children’s lives. The children learned to say and do the right things in front of some people and whatever they pleased the rest of the time.
For instance, when they went to VBS, they sang the songs and listened to the stories politely. They said they enjoyed the time with their friends. It was something to do and they did learn a lot. Even if they didn’t believe most of the stories they heard, they were interesting to listen to. Each day an invitation was given and each day, Gene’s children rejected.
Sometimes the children would ask Mike’s kids about some of the stories and if they were true. Of course, they would say, “Yes.”
Sometimes they would even ask their dad. He would always discourage them from believing what they had heard at church. He would always tell them they were fine and, “You don’t need that religious stuff anymore than I did.”
They always enjoyed being with Mike’s kids and at their house, because they knew they would not get into serious trouble and they were fun. They didn’t yell at each other, nor did the parents. That was a pleasant difference from their home. It always seemed so peaceful at the Fisher’s house. That is not to say Mike’s kids never disagreed or argued. They did, but it was different. There was love in their house and this love was totally different. It was the type of love that makes you want to love the person in return. Also, the love that Mike showed Mary Jane and the children was the kind of love that the Pittman children had never seen before. It was the kind of love that they never saw in their own house.
One day while all of the children were in the family room eating, Gene Jr. asked Mike about the love that he always showed for his family and for him and his brothers and sisters. After they were through eating, Mike stood up in the middle of the room and explained to all the children the type of love he was attempting to show.
He said, “First , I want everyone to know that God the Father shows His love to us through Jesus Christ and the only way a child can see the love of God is through their earthly father. If the earthly father does not show a genuine love to his family and friends, then how can unbelievers believe in a heavenly father that loves them?”
As Mike continued to explain the type of love he had for his family and friends, he explained the three different types of love the Bible speaks about.
“First you have the Greek word, “Agape.” This is the word that means it is a self sacrificing type of love. We can see that type of love when we look to the cross. Christ was willing to offer Himself as a sacrifice for us because He loves us that much. It is an unconditional type of love. That is the type of love I am trying to show to each and every one of you in this room. If you can see that kind of love in me, then you have an idea of the love that God has for all of us.
“The second kind of love is called, “Phileo” in the Greek. This kind of love is the affection that you would have for friends or family. It is also called, “Brotherly Love.” The word phileo is where we get our English word Philadelphia which means the city of Brotherly Love.
“The third kind of love is the kind that gets people into trouble. The word in the Greek is “Eros.” This word has a meaning of desire towards someone that you find attractive. This word has nothing to do with a sacrificing love or a brotherly love."
When Gene’s children asked Mike about the love that he showed them and his own children, they did not realize they were going to get the answer they received. Remember, Gene Jr. and Joe Dan (the shortened form of Joseph Daniel, which was his nick name) were the oldest of all the children. Gene Jr. and Joe Dan were both twelve and the youngest children were six. Even though the youngest probably did not understand what Mike was saying, the oldest of the children did understand about the love that Mike was talking about and showing.
Mike and Gene only lived two miles from each other, so when their kids started school, they all went to the same grade school. Once in school, their kids became as close as Mike and Gene were at that age. Gene Jr. and Joe Dan did everything together.
Joe Dan was like his father in that he witnessed to Gene Jr. Joe Dan told him all about Heaven and Hell. And, just like his father, Gene Jr. would tell Joe Dan that when you die, you cease to exist.
One day, a friend of theirs was in a car accident. Both boys were very upset and asked to go to the hospital. As they saw the boy lying in the bed, bandaged, they both were a little frightened about the reality of him dying. The parents of the boy were there and very concerned, also. The older brother, who had been driving, had died at the scene. Now, they could only wait to see if their only remaining child would live.
Mike had taken the boys to the hospital and had an opportunity to share with the parents and to pray for their son’s healing. Before Mike left, the parents gave their lives to Christ. This meant they were also leaving their only child in HIS hands. Gene Jr. listened to all that was said and had an opportunity to believe then, but chose not to.
When the boy got well and the parents gave all the glory to God, Gene Jr. would just comment that, “It was not a miracle, he just had good doctors.”
Don Clarence was the second oldest of Gene’s boys. He was always in trouble in school and away from school. Jonathan Jeremiah was Mike’s second son. He and Don were just as close as Gene Jr. and Joe Dan. They played together all the time, and they also ate lunch together.
When Don wanted John to do the same bad things that he was doing, John drew the line. He always said that it was sin and he would not sin against God. Don spoke just like his dad. He said, “There is no God and there is nothing called sin. Sin is only in the mind of a person that is insecure.” The boys grew further apart as time went on. It seemed they had less and less in common and John did not want to be a bad witness.
The next three children that Gene and Roxann had were two girls and a boy. The first was Daphne, the second was Regina and the boy was Butch. Both girls were very beautiful when they were babies. As they grew, their beauty increased, which even surprised their parents. Some people said the girls were more beautiful than movie stars. With their beauty, it did not take long for the boys to notice that both sisters were knockouts.
Real problems did not occur when the girls first started to school, but by the second grade, the boys, especially the older boys, were already casting their eyes upon them. When the girls started the sixth grade, boys were calling every night. Also, Mother Nature started to work on the girls and by the time they were in the eighth grade, they were developed better than most teens and most women.
As the children grew older and could do things on their own, they started straying further from Mike’s kids. Their “groups” were not the same anymore. They then began to look for “exciting” things to get away with or do and spent less and less time at each other’s homes, as well as their own home.
When Daphne was in the ninth grade, the problems started to get very serious. The high school boys were calling and taking her out every weekend. Sometimes, if she had her home work finished, she was allowed to go out on the weekdays. She would always rush to complete things whether it was right or not. She wanted to be the most popular girl in the school and to do that, she must be seen with the “cool” guys.
One night, the telephone rang. Gene and Daphne picked the phone up at the same time. When he heard Daphne say hello, he was going to put the receiver down, but something told him not to.
“Oh, hi, Jerry! It is so go
od to hear from you. I miss you so much!”
“Daphne, we were just at school together a while ago.”
“I know, but Jerry, I just love being with you. You are so cool and I would do anything to be with you all the time.”
“Anything, Daphne? How about we take a drive down to the park or if your parents are going to be gone, maybe we could just stay at your house, and.”
After he listened to the boy on the line talking, and he heard Daphne tell him that she would do anything, if he would take her out. Anything. Gene’s stomach dropped to the floor. The very same thing she was telling the boys was the same thing that girls had said to him when he was in high school. He thought back about what they were saying and the things that he would always get from the girls who said that to him. The Lord put a thought into his mind, “Just as you were taking advantage of young naive girls in high school, now it is time for you to see what it is like when the boys do the same thing to your daughters.”
The first boy that took her from being a girl to a woman was a senior. He had taken her out four other times and, each and every time, he said he was in love with her. On the fifth date, they had parked and started to “make out” for just a little while. As you can guess, the making out went further and further. When the date was over, she was not a virgin. After three more dates, she’d had her fill of this boy that was so childish. She wanted to date real men.
The kind of guys she was looking for were those that could show a girl a real good time, at least two or three times a night. In other words, she wanted sex, but sex was not satisfying the void in her life. She could never put her finger on that void, so she thought the more sex she had, sooner or later, the void would leave.
She recalled the speech Mike had given about all the different types of love. The love that only wants sex was the kind of love that she was having. She told herself that was the kind of love that she wanted right now. “I don’t want the other two types of love. I want sex and I want to be popular in school. The only way I can be popular is to let the boys have what they want,” she thought.
Many times after she had sex with a guy, she would think of the things Mike had said about sin. When she thought about sin and the things she was doing, the void started to come back. She never could figure out what the void in her life was. All she knew was that she had a desire for something other than sin and sex. All through her life, until the time she died, the void that she felt was always there. If she would have asked Mike or one of Mike’s children, they would have explained to her what that void was and how to take care of the problem. But, she never asked and her sin and the desire for sex finally resulted in a really big problem.
Three months later, Daphne told her mother that she was pregnant and she was going to get an abortion. The parents were glad she had made that decision; they had no idea what they would do if the word got out that she was going to have a baby. Daphne had told her best friend and asked that she not let her parents know. “If your parents know that I’m pregnant, they will hate me or, what might be worse, they won’t let you associate with me again.” Her friend had tried to convince her to have the baby and then put it up for adoption because it was murder to have an abortion. However, Daphne did not even mention that to her parents, because she knew what they would say, if they knew that she had shared the information with her friend.
To double the heartache, Regina saw how popular her sister was with the boys, so she started doing the same thing. If they couldn’t get what they wanted from one sister, they would get it from of the other sister. Before they had graduated from high school, they had been to bed with every football player and basketball player that wanted to do that sort of thing. They would also go to bed with any other boy that wanted to have a good time.
Both girls had two abortions before they were out of high school, with the approval of their parents. Gene and Roxann agreed with the secular thinking of a fetus. They believed it was just a blob or just tissue that had to be removed. It was never a living, breathing human.
Whenever Mike’s girls had the opportunity, they told Daphne and Regina that upon conception, a baby is a human being with a soul and that the Bible says so in Jeremiah 1:5 - 'Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.' However, the girls were looking for the easy way out, or so they thought. They did not realize the damage they were doing to their bodies or their souls.
Most boys thought that because Mike’s girls, Rachel Elisabeth and Sarah Elaine, were very close friends with Daphne and Regina, they would also do anything for a date. The first boys to try were in for a very big surprise. Rachel and Sarah both informed the boys that they were going to be virgins until the day that they were married. “If you want to take us out for only one thing, then don’t even ask.” The word got around quickly.
Rachel and Sarah were popular in a different crowd and in a different way. The boys knew these girls were honest with them and they could have a good time without getting serious. Everyone enjoyed being with the girls and respected them greatly.
Yes, all four girls were very close friends, and yes, Rachel and Sarah had told Daphne and Regina about the Lord dying on the cross for the sins of the world many, many times. But just like their father, they were not interested in anything that had to do with Jesus Christ. They thought they would miss out on all the fun they could have.
Rachel and Sarah often invited Daphne and Regina to Youth For Christ meetings and church activities, but the girls were always too busy with their boyfriends. As you can see, the girls were growing apart, also. Rachel and Sarah always had time for Gene’s girls, but his girls didn’t always have time for them.
Butch Lee was the baby in the Pittman family. When he started school, his name proved what type of personality he would have for the rest of his life. Most people, when they would hear the name Butch, assumed him to be a real tough guy. Butch Lee was not going to let his name’s reputation down. He was the toughest kid in school from grade school until he graduated from high school.
On the other hand, James Matthew was the complete opposite of Butch. James was never looking for a fight and he would always go completely out of his way to help anyone with a problem. He had many chances to tell Butch about the love of Christ for him. The story was the same for Butch as it was with all the other Pittman children. He did not believe. One good thing about Butch was that he never let any of the boys pick on James. He let every boy in school know that if they wanted to keep all their teeth, they had better leave James alone. Even though Butch did not agree with James, he respected him and thought he was by far the best kid around. Butch saw the difference in James, but just could not seem to understand what made him like he was.
Butch was the meanest boy in school and the one that everyone said would end up in prison or would probably be killed by the police. One of those prophesies did come true. Butch would end up just like his uncle, Steven Lynn, Gene’s brother.
In his junior year, he found out that it was easy for him to get money by selling protection to some of the younger boys. After high school, he wasn’t satisfied with just pocket money. He was more interested in the big take. He went from selling protection to holding up banks.
After his fifth bank robbery, he was arrested and sentenced to forty years in prison. Year after year, in all the Pittman family up to Butch, there had not been one person saved in that family, with the exception of Thelma, and she married into the family.
Once a person is in prison and they find there is no way out, they will either enhance the type of person they are, or they change. With Butch, he did not like the person he had become and he knew he had to change. Although James would come to the prison and talk to him, Butch felt that James could not really understand what he felt or what he was going through.
He tried one thing after a
nother until he met another inmate that was doing a life term. He noticed that there was something different about this man. Knowing that he was doing a life term should have made him more rebellious and bitter, but his life was exactly the opposite. He had a peace about him. Butch thought he had seen this type of peace somewhere before.
When Butch asked, the inmate told him about Jesus Christ and how he was led to the Lord by another inmate. Within thirty days, Butch accepted Christ as his personal Savior. Now he understood what James had been trying to explain to him all these years. What rejoicing took place when James’ family found out about Butch’s conversion!
Out of the entire Pittman clan, Butch was the only one that accepted and ended up in heaven.
Upon graduation from high school, all of the Fisher children went to college and received their degrees. They became model citizens and they also were devout Christians. Yes, they had problems in their lives, but they went to God for the answers. They all raised their children with the knowledge of God, and they were the ones that led their children into the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
“NOW YOU KNOW WHICH OF YOUR CHILDREN WILL BECOME A CHRISTIAN. THE ONE CHILD THAT EVERYONE THOUGHT WAS WORTHLESS AND WOULD BE USELESS TO SOCIETY BECAME A MODEL PRISONER. WHILE IN PRISON, HE STUDIED THE BIBLE AND LED MANY OTHER PRISONERS INTO THE SAVING KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST. MANY OF THE MEN HE LED TO ME WERE RELEASED AND THEY LED THOUSANDS TO ME AND TO ETERNAL LIFE.
BUTCH WAS RELEASED EARLY FOR GOOD BEHAVIOR AND STARTED A SMALL CHURCH THAT GREW AND GREW UNTIL IT WAS THE LARGEST CHURCH IN SEATTLE. BECAUSE THERE WAS ONLY ONE PITTMAN SAVED IN THE ENTIRE FAMILY, I WAS GOING TO LET THAT PITTMAN, BUTCH, BECOME A SOUL WINNER OF HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF LIVES. NOW YOU SEE WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED IF MORE OF YOUR ANCESTORS WOULD HAVE BECOME CHRISTIANS AND THEY WOULD HAVE TOLD THEIR CHILDREN ABOUT ME.”