Reflections from a Storm Passing Over

By Horace Russell

Russell's early life followed the trajectory of other African American's who moved from the South to the North during the 1950s—his family moved from Birmingham, Alabama to Youngstown, Ohio. Unfortunately, the family's house burned down and was forced to move into a Red Cross shelter and then to a Youngstown housing project. It was through this experience that Horace's life started to change in major ways, when, while attending a Bible study at the housing project's community center, he experienced God's love through Christian songs and hymns.

Currently, even while he depends upon wheelchairs and walkers for mobility, Horace is planning a nationwide bike ride to be called "Ride with Me" designed to draw attention to and eradicate the devastating hunger and poverty that still exists in many areas of the United States, particularly the poverty that exists in many Indian Reservations and communities.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jan 1, 1900
• ISBN: 9781667858340

Book preview

Chapter 2

Friendship Matters

It took me a minute to write anything about friendship. What was it to me? I needed to clarify the answer in my mind . . . Was I ever truly a friend to someone? I searched my mind. I could honestly say I’ve never really been a friend to anyone including being a friend to myself. What does it mean to really be a good friend? I had to think about that. There are a lot of superficial things that I thought made me a good friend. 1) I could be counted on. 2) I was dependable. 3) I was honest and didn’t take advantage of a person just because I could. 4) I tried to be someone who would be there all the time when they needed me.

When I reflected on this definition of a friend, I realized I was only human. This requires more than what I had and only Father God, His Son Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, and His Holy Spirit can be everywhere all the time to provide that consistent powerful friendship. This is the wonderful Holy Trinity. They are one united God, and in that way, they show us how close friends can be. Our God is our friend who’s there all the time, working on our behalf, through thick and thin. They, the Holy Trinity, are a loving and the most attending friend. There is no request the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will not answer or grant!! But far more importantly, we must trust in our Father God through the tough times! It’s so easy to forget this. I know I forgot this and thought I was all alone until I read the Isaiah 41:10 scripture where our Father God states: Be not dismayed for I am your God. He promises never to leave us! Another very important scripture to remember is John 3:16, For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son and he that believes in him will have everlasting life. With this promise, Jesus our Lord and Savior will also place people in our lives. Sometimes for a very short season and other times for the rest of their lives—and mine!

My brothers and sisters, it is important that we understand the Holy Trinity. I am providing information that I received from an article that I am quoting:

THE TRINITY—THREE GODS OR ONE?

The Bible teaches that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. God is one Being who has existed eternally as three distinct, not separate, persons. As distinct persons, each functions in His own unique manner. The Father is the Originator, the Son is the Agent, and the Holy Spirit is the Applicator. Each person is self-conscious and self-directing. Yet one person never acts independently or in opposition to the others.

All three persons were involved in creation. It was in him, Jesus Christ, that God created all things (COLOSSIANS 1:16), and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters (GENESIS 1:2).

In salvation, God [the Father] loved the world and gave His only Son (JOHN 3:16). After Christ’s resurrection and ascension to heaven, both He and the Father sent the Holy Spirit (14:16; 16:7). Jesus affirmed the Trinity when He commanded His disciples to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (MATTHEW 28:19).

One God in three persons! In this God we have a heavenly Father who loves us and sent His Son to die for our salvation. In this God we have Jesus Christ, who became one of us to take the punishment we deserved. In this God we have the person of the Holy Spirit, our Helper and divine Comforter, who lives in us to give us victory over sin.

This triune God hears us when we pray, understands us when we suffer, and will see us safely home.¹

Even though I didn’t consider myself a good friend to myself or others, there were people who became my friends—Carmela, Jim Varga, Phil Friedman, Craig O’Connor, and others. Some friends I gained as part of the churches I joined myself to. Of all my friends, Carmela Moore was the one who really turned my life around. In the chapters that follow, you will learn about Carmela and the other friends who helped mold my life.

Chapter 3

My Family, Friends, and the Church

and the Strength that I Received

from Them

My family, friends, and church and the strength that I received from them! It’s so important to tell you how they really helped me through the rough times! Further in this chapter, you will meet my family and trace my path through life as I grew from a child to an adult. You will see what events molded my life and what decisions I made and the way those decisions affected my life. You will also see how Father God was there with me in good times and not so good times. As I had stated earlier, my life can be viewed as a series of sometimes tough endings followed by new beneficial beginnings. In later chapters, you’ll know about those endings and beginnings. In those chapters, you will also meet my friends and those people that became part of a new wider family that I was adopted into—my dear church families.

My Family and Life Directions

I must of course start my life story with my family’s story. My father Horace Russell was a U.S. Army veteran. He was a very hardworking man who could not read or write. After leaving the army, he had the foresight to move his family from the Jim Crowe South to the northern state of Ohio. He moved my mother Lillian and my sister Linda and me to Youngstown. There he prospered. Even with his limited education, he was able to acquire land; own a car wash, parking lots, and a trucking business; and work in the steel mill in Youngstown, Ohio. Later on in life, he learned to read and write and became a minister!

His brother Kelly Russell followed him to Youngstown with a wife and six children (five are still living today), and they lived on the same street as our family did. Our street was on the east side of Youngstown next to Sharon, Pennsylvania. This is where a major life-changing event struck our family. Our family home caught fire. We were helped by the Red Cross, staying in a Red Cross shelter for a week where they helped us get resettled into Kimbel Brooks, an east-side Youngstown housing project. There I was introduced to Jesus Christ by a White church group that conducted a Bible study at the housing project recreation center. Through that experience, I learned how to sing songs and stanzas like He has the whole world in His hands and He loves all the little children in the world, and my personal favorite, Yes! Jesus loves me; the Bible tells me so. I also learned the Lord’s prayer there!

However, my family didn’t attend church during this time. Added to this, my mother and father broke up because of my father’s abuse. (A short note about this situation. I am not trying to justify my father’s behavior, but as a youth, his uncle and aunt abused him. Because his mother couldn’t take care of him and his brother, they were sent to live with their uncle and aunt. There, just because he was the oldest, my father was beaten for the mistakes made by his brother and cousin. How fragile we are!). My mother left my father and took my sister Linda and me away with her. We moved into an apartment on Woodland Avenue on the lower south side. We lived there with my mother’s brother Johnny Payne. Our uncle Jim also came with us into the projects as he had been part of the household when we moved to Youngstown from Alabama and while we lived on Woodland Avenue. My mother and her brother Johnny were very close. My mother would hold up dinner until my uncle finished watching his sports. I guess that’s the reason why I don’t like watching sports on TV till this very