Real Friends Podcast
Real Friends Podcast
Real Friends Interview | Tommie and Connie Still
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Tommy and Connie Steele share their powerful testimonies of faith, from childhood conversions to surviving medical crises through divine intervention. Their story reveals God's faithfulness through life's darkest moments.
• Tommy, raised in church, resisted salvation until hearing God's voice during a revival saying "Now is the time"
• Connie found faith at age 10 through a bus ministry, secretly getting baptized in a creek without her parents' knowledge
• The couple adopted Joseph, a foster child who had experienced severe trauma
• Joseph, now 17, is deeply committed to church and hopes his biological siblings will find faith
• Tommy survived a life-threatening situation when his sternum broke and cut into his heart after bypass surgery
• Connie prayed fervently during Tommy's crisis and the Lord came through
• The couple met after Tommy prayed specifically for a wife who would love his daughter and share his ministry passion
• They spent 22 years in music ministry together, singing and ministering across Kentucky
• Tommy testifies: "I've had hard times and ups and downs like everybody else, but I've always had Him to hold on to"
We'd love to hear your story too! Email info@myrealchurch.org if you'd like to be a guest on a future episode of the Real Friends Podcast.
They was giving a call to come to the altar and it was just about over and I thought, man, I've got it made again. That's when I heard a voice. It wasn't a hollering voice, it was a voice in here and it spoke my name. It said now is the time. I don't know how I got to the altar, but when I came to myself, that's where I was and I gave my heart to the time. I don't know how I got to the altar, but when I came to myself, that's where I was and I gave my heart to the Lord and I've tried my best to live for Him ever since. I've had hard times and ups and downs, like everybody else all along, but I've always had Him to hold on to and I can sit here today and say honestly he's never once forsaken me.
Speaker 2:He's never once forsaken me Thinking about this good life, Cause we know what matters being together, Forever friends. Oh, oh friends, oh, oh friends, oh friends. Well, hello everybody and welcome to the Real Friends Podcast. We are here, Matthew and I, with Connie and Tommy Steele, and it is you probably guessed it by the intro Derby Day.
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. While we normally want to make a bunch of Jesus, and we still will throughout this podcast, the main theme is going to be gambling tips for all of the horses that you need to be betting in every single race. Do you all have your? Do they call it tip sheets? I don't even know, because I'm making this up. That's race. Do you all have your? Do they call it tip sheets? I don't even know, because I'm making this up. That's not what we're going to be doing. Yeah, make for an interesting episode, wouldn't it indeed?
Speaker 2:yeah, I'd probably lose my credentials, but it'd be okay worth it.
Speaker 4:I wanted to say and we're off, yeah oh there you go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we.
Speaker 3:That might have been a much better introduction, yeah who would win a race between the four of us if we went down to the?
Speaker 2:Yeah everybody's putting a pastor in.
Speaker 3:I think, I think that's probably a pretty good call.
Speaker 2:This is one I won't disagree on.
Speaker 3:When it would come to place or show or fourth place. I think it would probably be pretty even between the rest of the three of us.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, Connie and Tommy, welcome. Thank you, so grateful to have you with us today. How long have you been attending Real Life? I know you guys were here for a while and then you went to be with some family and came back.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we were here like nine, ten months and then off to venture out to spend some time with Tommy's family at another church, which we were miserable, missing our people here. At least I was and Joseph was Joseph was wasn't he? Joseph was, yeah, he was the saddest kid I'd ever seen. Yeah, yeah, he says I love my church Mom. So then we came back and we've been here what nine more months.
Speaker 2:Has it been that long? Yeah, it probably has. Wow, so two years altogether. Time flies when you're having fun. Huh Indeed.
Speaker 3:And I'm sorry you guys weren't as happy over there. You know, given enough time, any church that's, you know, really making much of Jesus and of course, be your home. But when you're settled one place and then move, no matter what the reason is, you know I can understand where you kind of have that longing to be, you know, back where you feel like maybe God wants you most. But you all clearly needed to be there for that time For some reason.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so the service of the Lord was there, but our son Joseph was so miserable. When we leave here and Tommy in the car, he'll say I love my church every Sunday and Wednesday night.
Speaker 1:We was when I was out sick and we wouldn't come. He'd come to me one day and he said he said, dad, I've missed church for three Sundays. And it was a Wednesday night and I promised him. I said, joseph, I will get you to church and get you home some way. Well, little did I know that that was going to be one of the nights that I ended up in the hospital.
Speaker 2:Jerry picked him up, so you kept your promise, I kept my promise and we went last weekend, Then we'll get off our little tangent here.
Speaker 4:But we went last weekend to Tennessee and he thought we was going down Friday night and Saturday night and be back for church Sunday morning. And I said, Joseph, when we're going back? I said Sunday, we're out at 11 o'clock. Well, he in the back seat said, and we had his little friend with him, oh my goodness, you didn't tell me we was missing church. We missed so much church. I didn't want to miss church or I wouldn't have came down here and he's not driving to make the decisions but he was so upset he thought we should have packed up and come home so he wouldn't miss church by the way this whole thing is going to be tangents.
Speaker 3:You can go off on a lovely tangent like that the whole time. That's the whole point, really Making much of Jesus number one and then number B. I don't like saying number two Exactly. It's just to get to know you guys and about your families and whatnot. So how about we lead off a little bit with that? Tell us a little bit about your families. I know Joseph is in. He's still youth group age, correct? He?
Speaker 4:is how old is he? He just turned 17.
Speaker 1:Going on 40.
Speaker 4:He just turned 17. He's going to conquer the world.
Speaker 1:An old soul, as some would say. He's got the answer to everything. The only problem he don't know the questions.
Speaker 3:Pastor, you don't know anybody like that. Don't look at me that way. Don't look at me that way, be nice. So you know, tell us about the rest of your family.
Speaker 1:You've got, you know, kids and grandkids, and I think beyond We've got a daughter, Nisha Harden, and I've got five grandkids and two great grandkids and I love them all dearly.
Speaker 4:One of them. I laid my hand on her belly because Tommy had red curly hair. If his hair grows out it's really curly. And he had red curly hair and I laid my hand on her belly and I said, in the name of Jesus, have a red curly headed girl. And she did, and I was just teasing. She said you cursed me with that. She looks like the Steeles. She has the red curly hair so pretty.
Speaker 2:Kind of an Annie yeah.
Speaker 1:Orphan.
Speaker 4:Annie. Yeah, she does. She looks like a little Annie and she's got the attitude too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she does. Hopefully she's not having a hard-knock life. There you go. Theater fans yeah.
Speaker 2:So tell us a little bit about Joseph and how he came, came into your family.
Speaker 4:Okay, well, I took early retirement because Tommy had been so sick with his heart, the heart condition he had and so I came to him one day. I said, tommy, I have a burden to do foster care. And he's like nope, that was it. And I said, tommy, I really feel it in my heart, a burden, we need to do foster care. He said we're too old, we I feel it in my heart a burden, we need to do foster care. He said we're too old, we've got grandkids. And no, I said, well, pray about it. Well, I'd forgot about it, I'd already prayed about it and let it go.
Speaker 4:And he come back about two months later and said, okay, let's do it. And I said let's do what? And he said let's do foster care. I said we have a boy for you. And what it was? He was in a foster home and he was being abused by the foster parent and they took him and he didn't have a home. So I said, yes, we'll take him.
Speaker 4:And immediately when I saw him, that burden left my heart and we didn't take any more children. We adopted him. We kept our home open to adopt him and then we closed our home because that's what God wanted us to do. And I tell, we remind him, I remind him that, joseph, you're very special in God's eyes. He knew where you were, he knew your name, he knew that you needed us and he knew you need this church. And I said you're very special and God has planned for you. It wasn't easy when we first got him because he had all these behaviors and the state had him medicated so bad and he didn't, couldn't eat, he couldn't swallow mashed potatoes, anything, mac cheese, and I couldn't get him off all that medication until we adopted him because the state had control. So when we adopted him, me and a doctor we slowly, gradually took him. He's not on any medication now. He does great, makes good grades.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what you're saying right now is a shock to me, because, knowing him, I would have never known he had any issues, I mean, he's just a lovely teenager.
Speaker 4:Well, as lovely as a teenager can be. I love the way you go ahead, but we had him. We had him in counseling and all kinds of stuff. So Joseph's come a long way.
Speaker 3:He really has yeah, I'm really glad to use a phrase like that. You know with him, you know God knew where you are, know you know, you know, you know his name and obviously you know, you know I even had a voice from the lord. I don't, you know, particularly know him, yet I I know him by sight. My daughter probably knows him a little bit better, being in youth group, but you know all those things that he went through. I think there's very little chance that you know. Part of the reason for that won't be because he'll be able to relate his story as he shares the gospel with other people who might have gone through certain similar traumas or other things. He's going to be somebody that people will listen to. That maybe other people who haven't been through that would have a harder time connecting with the Lord can use anything. He's not the author of chaos, but he does things in mysterious ways and I really think that that could be something that really helps him. The Spirit can use him through that to bring people to Christ.
Speaker 4:And the first time we took him on vacation with us because he was homeless. He lived on the streets with his mom and he saw a lot, and so he lived under bridges. She kept him out of school for a year. He should be a junior but he's a lot and so he lived under bridges and she kept him out of school for a year. He should be a junior but he's a sophomore, which I told him. That's great, you know, this gives you time to catch up. And I had homeschooled him for a year and we got him to get him called up to the grade level he's at. Tommy, what did he say the first time we took him on vacation in Tennessee when we pulled up under that? Honey, I've slept since then. Oh no, he said a homeless person could really live here under that car park. Remember Concrete slab? That's right.
Speaker 1:When we backed because it was underground parking and we got out of it and he looked around and he said homeless person could really live here.
Speaker 4:And I thought well, how strange for a little boy to say that, but I wouldn't take him in where he had come from.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't even think of that right because, when I grew up. I didn't grow up in that situation.
Speaker 2:I didn't that would have never crossed your mind.
Speaker 3:He's able to evaluate that just instinctually because, right you probably, if you're in that situation, you're looking for particular things and wow, he's just barely eight years old, but you know it's just like what you said.
Speaker 1:God has a plan and you don't go through nothing or anything in this life unless God has already ordained it and approved it and he's going to use that to touch somebody else's life. I've always said you can't help somebody else with what they're walking through if you've never walked through it yourself because you don't understand what they're going through.
Speaker 2:And to springboard off that Tommy, was it his biological mother that was in church on Easter and came to the altar.
Speaker 4:She did and he went and prayed with her and I was like, oh my gosh, I was standing there because I'd had prayer. I got prayed for and for Tommy. Yeah, she went up and prayed and of course we haven't heard from her since. I've been sending her messages, but she prayed and when we got in the car, Joseph's like I love my church, I hope my whole family comes here and they all get saved.
Speaker 4:all my brothers and sisters there's like eight of them. They have different dads but he's hoping they all start coming. But I haven't heard from her.
Speaker 2:Right. Well, I think whatever happened to her that day was real. I got to talk with her quite a bit and have prayer with her and, yeah, only God.
Speaker 3:Only God. That's right. And what will happen will happen on his time. Of course that's right. And what will happen will happen on his time. Of course that's right. But I think he probably forgives us if we get maybe a tiny bit impatient now and then because we're so excited for the good things. Yeah.
Speaker 4:And she said Connie, do you care if I take Joseph out to eat? And I said well, I'm going to go with you. I'm hungry because I want to get to know her a little bit, you know. So we went out to eat and then she said can I take him to Lexington, me and my friend? Her friend came and picked her up just to see my apartment where I live and I said have him back here by 530 this afternoon, see us get ready for school. And I was kind of hesitant about it, but I thought that's his mother. She took him and I texted him. He texted me when he got there, he texted me on the way back and she had him back at my house in my driveway at 525.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, but now we've tried to keep Joseph connected to all of his family the whole time we've had him.
Speaker 4:Well with Emma and my his brother and sister. I live in Barbersville and I told him when we adopted him. I said, Joseph, I will always let you visit your brother and sister. Of course, the ones that adopted his other brother and sister were Baptist pastors and his wife and they didn't want Joseph to have anything to do with them. It's like these are my children. I adopted them, you don't have anything to do with them. Ownership. So I told Joseph when we adopted him. I said, joseph, they pastor a church. We can go to church anywhere we want to in the United States.
Speaker 4:If they won't let you see them. We'll show up and they can't do anything about it.
Speaker 1:And we did, and we did several times.
Speaker 4:My pastor and his wife got so mad. They were so mad over that. Well, hopefully he got over it.
Speaker 3:They did. Yeah, and it is what it is. So we've learned a lot about Joseph and your experiences with him and getting to adopt him and God's role in all this. Let's learn a little bit about your spiritual backgrounds, Connie. Why don't we start with you?
Speaker 4:Okay, I was born and raised in Floyd County up ahead of a holler called Steel Street, Collar, way back in the sticks. I'm not a country girl, I'm a mountain girl. So it's back in the mountains and you had to drive three miles down to the coal mining camp and all the men there worked in the coal mines.
Speaker 3:What's the difference between a country girl and a mountain girl? I'm curious.
Speaker 4:Country girl, you could probably. You have stores and more people around you. Mountain girl, we were in the mountains. You know they put the homes in the mountains, like they did at the Smoky Mountains.
Speaker 4:Those cabins were in the mountain and our house was on the side of the mountain and we had a dirt yard and a creek that went by and we had like, does that make it a holler? Yeah, it's a holler. I lived in a holler, so my mom and dad weren't christians there's nine of us kids but there was a bus driver, mr bentley, that drove the bus and he'd go up and down these hollers and he'd yell out Sunday school tomorrow and he'd throw out suckers and candy and he picked up all of us. That's the only entertainment we had outside of school was getting together. There's a local church called Martin Branch, free Will Baptist Church, and they had a big youth group. All of us kids went to it. So he'd have to make two or three routes to come and get us all.
Speaker 4:That's where I first got to know the Lord. Like I was telling the pastor, we had a small house so we slept two or three in a bedroom or four. So I was laying there with my older sister and Pat and there was a picture of Jesus on the wall and he had long hair and stuff and I said who is that man? I was little and she said that's Jesus and I said Well, he looks like a girl. He has long hair and she said You're going to go to hell, you better pray. You better pray right now. And I scared me to death and I started praying oh Jesus, please forgive me, please forgive me, so, please forgive me. So I didn't look at that picture anymore. I never commented on that ever.
Speaker 4:But we went to the local church and I guess I was 10 years old and the Lord really dealt with me. I mean, I was sobbing and the Lord dealt with me to go, come and pray, go pray, and it was during a revival. Some kids, teenagers, didn't get on the bus and go back for church services. I did and my siblings didn't, but I did, I loved it, something drew me there and so I always went back for the church service revivals I never missed. And so the Lord really dealt with me and I went to Alder and prayed and cried and gave my heart to the Lord. I was just sobbing and the pastor and them prayed with me. And then they had a baptizing in the creek across from the church and I couldn't tell my parents I was getting baptized because my dad was alcoholic and wouldn't let my mom go to church.
Speaker 4:He didn't, he wouldn't, but he never said anything to me.
Speaker 3:It's like he was afraid of me, or something he knew you had the Lord on your side somehow. Some way he would not.
Speaker 4:He would not say anything about me going to church. I didn't even ask. I didn't get ready. Bus picked me up. He never said a word. He'd just look at me and I'd read my Bible every day as a child.
Speaker 4:I'd sit on the front porch and the wind blowed it. I knew that was scripture the Lord wanted me to read and I read on there about faith. There's a grain of mustard seed and all that and the faith of our fathers. And so I wanted a bicycle. So I prayed so hard for a bicycle but in my childlike mind I thought it would just fall out of the sky. I did that. It was just going to fall down and there was my bike and I never got it. But I never blamed the Lord for that. I thought it was just something I wasn't praying right or something you know. So I learned to pray at a young age, not from my parents but from the church, and I got baptized. I took extra clothes and a towel and I never told them and I got baptized. And later on, a couple years later, I told my mom I was baptized. They didn't say anything, but I don't think they really cared, but at the time he probably would not let me, but I did.
Speaker 4:And after that I went to youth camps and Sunday schools and revivals and then I started singing. And there was this group of women that taught me how to do harmony on the stage, on the pulpit. So I started singing with them harmony. They liked the way I sang. So this little church bought their first microphone just one microphone and a speaker and sat up there and got a little stool, because I was always short and got a little stool for me to stand on and sing specials. So I got to sing. So I started singing everywhere. These real Baptist churches, everywhere when we'd go visit, would have me up singing and all that.
Speaker 3:All right. Well, I don't want to. I don't want to let this devolve into it. You know a music you know like the equivalent of a stage musical or something like that, but I'm playing a character in a play, right now yes. But he he sings a couple of verses of a song that I didn't know because I grew up a Lutheran, but I'm going to guess it's one you know and you could probably teach me the melody. Shall we Gather at the River.
Speaker 4:Yes, Look at her line up for that one. Yes, I know it. They sung that at Ever Baptism. Yeah, that's all they really sang that.
Speaker 3:Can you give me just the first two lines of that Shall?
Speaker 4:we gather at the river Beautiful, a beautiful river. Gather with the saints at the river that flows by the throne of God.
Speaker 3:I've still been getting it wrong. I thought I had it right after listening to it online and I've still been getting it wrong. That was lovely.
Speaker 4:So from there I grew up and then I started going to Pentecostal with my family. They went to Pentecostal holiness churches, so I started praying for my siblings. And then my brothers got saved. I have two that are pastors and one that's an evangelist. They started getting saved one after another. The hardest thing was getting my mom to accept salvation of the Lord, because she'd always say I'm good as the next one. She wouldn't go to church, but she'd say I'm good as the next one, leave me alone. And so we started fasting. When I told my brothers and sisters, I said there's like my sister-in-laws, we took one day each and fasted until our mom got saved. But it took about two months. I'd take one day, somebody would take, until my mom. She got saved at work and she's been going to church ever since.
Speaker 3:That is some serious persistence. Yeah, while we're at a stopping point here in this particular story, I'll let our listeners know that Pastor is going to take over more or less exclusively as producer. He may jump onto one of the mics with us as the Spirit moves him, but his microphone cord has been cutting in and out. So, pastor, it was nice knowing you Get out, get out. So, pastor, it was nice knowing you Get out, get out. No, I'm just kidding, but we'll be all right. So what was that All right? So, tommy, let's move on to you. If we may, tell us a little bit about your upbringing. You're going to have a hard time following up some of the things in this story, although maybe not. Let's find out.
Speaker 1:Well hard time following up some of the things in this story, although maybe not, let's find out. Well, you know I'm completely opposite from what connie was. I was what you call the hardest person ever to get saved, because I grew up in the church. If it was a wednesday, a sunday, whenever the doors were open, we were there, whether I wanted to be or not, and most of the time when I was a kid I didn't want to be. I enjoyed the things when they had a youth group, but you know, I guess you'd say I was a little bit of a rebel. It was okay, but you know it just wasn't my thing.
Speaker 1:But I grew up in the church, in the Nazarene Church up here on Aspen Avenue. Brother Gordon, I guess, was the first pastor that ever showed interest in me and he came to me one day and he said did you ever think about joining the church? And I looked at him and said not right now. No, and you know it's funny how God does things. He let me run on for a little while until I got in my teenage years and I went to a revival at Church of God, matter of fact, right down the street here, and I was sitting there with some of my buddies. You know how you are. You just go, because it was the crowd.
Speaker 4:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:And I, because it was a crowd and they was giving a call to come to the altar and it was just about over and I thought, man, I've got it made again. Well, that's when I heard a voice, and it wasn't a hollow voice, it was a voice in here and it spoke my name. It wasn't a hollow voice, it was a voice in here and it spoke my name. It said now is the time. I don't know how I got to the altar, but when I came to myself, that's where I was and I gave my heart to the Lord and I've tried my best to live for Him ever since Now. I've had hard times and ups and downs, like everybody else, all the while, but I've always had Him to hold on to and I can sit here today and say honestly, he's never once forsaken me. There's been times that I've had to go back to Him and say Lord, I'm sorry I failed you, but I can never say that he ever failed me.
Speaker 3:No, we serve a good, good God. And just like he's known your son Joseph's name, he's known both of your names. He's known, I believe, all of our names. I can't remember which of the two of you was I had in the notes here. You know that really talked about. You know we have a god who, uh, never, ever forsakes us. You know we, you know it. You know free. You know free will versus. You know you know things that are preordained. You know don't we don't need to go too far down that rabbit hole, but it seems like you know we are, we are allowed to go our way sometimes and you know just, but you know there, but there are lessons to be learned there and we end up getting reminded just how much we need the Lord. Exactly Everything ultimately does go to that plan. Let's transition here a little bit into your Christian lives now in Mysteries.
Speaker 4:The Mystery of the Holy Trinity. We're going to talk about.
Speaker 3:It's only been debated for about the last however many thousand years. Let's get into it. The word I meant was ministries here at the church. What sort of things are you involved in here, tommy, at this church?
Speaker 1:I pay my tithes and I come and listen to the preacher preach, and I might say that I really enjoy preaching yeah there is something good.
Speaker 2:Oh, he's grabbing a mic.
Speaker 3:He's grabbing a live mic. Go, pastor go.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to borrow the mic for this one. Just say, as long as you got that first one down, we love you and then, connie, how about you?
Speaker 3:I know you've got that in some uh specific, uh specific things as well that you've, uh the Lord has called you to do.
Speaker 4:I used to do children's ministry while I'm working with Pastor's wife Nikki, that I may do once a month. I've done bus ministry. When I was young, sung in choirs. I had a teenage choir once myself that I led, and just wherever I'm needed probably.
Speaker 1:Gotcha.
Speaker 3:And I know you've enjoyed the singing and we enjoyed your singing a short bit ago. Tommy, am I remembering right that you've got a background in music as well?
Speaker 1:Yes, Connie and I met married.
Speaker 4:No, tell your ministry, oh, my ministry. Before you met me.
Speaker 1:I was in a singing group and we were sung and traveled. Actually, before that I was chairman of the board at Church of God out at Fountain Park and I felt a calling to sing. I had never sung in my life but I felt this urge in my heart. To minister through song.
Speaker 4:My husband's a crybaby.
Speaker 1:I just prayed, lord, if that's really you, if that's what you really want, then open the door. Well, I was reading this little paper that we get locally and it said a singing group looking for a singer. So I said I just prayed, lord, if that's what you really want, and when I call them, you just say they want me. So I called them and it was like the lady had been sitting by the phone waiting for me to call. She talked to me for I an hour and it was like she was my best friend. I'd never experienced anything like that before.
Speaker 4:It wasn't me, I promise, and it wasn't.
Speaker 1:Connie and the name of the group was First Faith. So I sang with them for about a year, I sung lead for them for about a year and the group broke up. I still to this day don't know why. But then I've got a first cousin who's passed away. He's with the Lord, thank the Lord and he had a group called the Triniers. So they was needing someone to run sound and he said well, you don't need to sit at the house, you've got this calling and the only way you'll find another group is if you're out there. I said well, that makes sense to me, I guess. So he said won't you come and run sound for us? I run sound for them for, I guess, about four years, and then this other group called me says um, we want you. And I said what do you mean? You want me? I said you don't even know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:He said we don't care what you're saying, we want you then you have to audition with them any tommy well, I went to a practice with them and we sung two or three songs and then the next night they said well, we got a book and at certain certain church and be there at five o'clock so we can set up. And that started about a four or five year run where we was every weekend we was somewhere singing and I went to the I was still chairman of the board uh, at fountain park, and I went to the pastor and I told him. I said I want to resign. He said why? I said, well, I won't I. He said why.
Speaker 1:I said, well, I love this church and I want somebody to be able to take care of it and I can't and I'm not looking for a title If I can't do the job, I don't want it. So I recommended another guy and I went back to singing and I sung with four years for them. And then I met the love of my life. God put him right in my path, path, and that's a story in itself and I didn't even know at the time. She sung and then I heard her sing a special and she just won my heart over and from there we sang a travel and sung about 20 years together 22 years 22 years together until it got to the point where I couldn't sing anymore and set the equipment up.
Speaker 1:But we've seen a lot of people's lives change during that time. See, people come to the Lord not because of our singing or anything that we done, but because of what the Lord did.
Speaker 4:Well, Tommy won't tell you, but he'd always preach, he's a talker and he ministered. They'd have him minister and read scriptures and all that, and then we'd sing. So it was ministry more than just singing.
Speaker 3:Sure, and it is the Lord. But it's also the Lord. You know he uses natural means and we are part of those natural means. So you know the credit goes to the Lord. But we're all involved in what a blessing it is to be able to be the vessels, to be the instruments, the means through which he does those things. It's just one of the most glorious things in life. All right, want to transition a little bit now, because you two obviously married for so long and doing ministry together and best friends. Let's widen out our scope a little bit now, because you two obviously, you know, married for so long and doing ministry, you know, together, you know, and and best friends. Let's widen out our scope a little bit. Talk about what are some of the uh. Start with you, connie, having Christian friends. Talk to me about the importance of that being in church, being involved in church and having your social and friends through church. What's that like for you and why is that so important?
Speaker 4:That's important for me because I'm like a social butterfly. I'm out there in the public. I went to school. That's the reason I ended up here at EKU. I moved down here. I didn't have family or anything, I just jumped, came down here. The reason I wanted to be a social worker? Because from the time I was a child, after I got saved, the Lord started using me in the neighborhood. So if I heard someone was sick or something, I'd go visit them. And one lady was suicidal always suicidal. I didn't know her story then I do now and I'd hear ambulances go up and get her and when she'd come home I'd always make a trip up to see her, take her cookies or something. And the Lord started using me then. So the Lord's used me my whole life to do stuff like that and the Lord will use baked goods.
Speaker 3:Make no question about it. That is one thing. Extra-biblical or not, I'm a big believer in.
Speaker 4:Jesus fed people. That's how he got their attention so yeah, and. I started taking cookies or whatever I had at the time, candy, whatever and I'd go visit them and this one old guy, her dad. He'd say, well, it's coming to snow. They didn't meet in school. He said it's coming to snow. I knew you'd be here today. I told my wife Connie will be here today. I don't know if he liked it. He always went in his little room with a fireplace, though he never communicated with me.
Speaker 3:Maybe he was on a special diet and couldn't enjoy the baked goods. That's my best guess.
Speaker 4:No, I don't think he liked company. They'd take me around the kitchen with them and I'd take cookies, milk and cookies with them and that lady always laughed so hysterically. She had some issues but she always loved me coming to visit her. So I started visiting other neighbors and then, when I became a teenager and moved away, I started still visiting people and I still do that today. I feel like that's what the Lord's really called me to do. So I have to have people in my life to help and assist what the Lord's really called me to do. So I have to have people in my life to help and assist. But the church here, what I love the most, I love the women here, the Bible study we have on Sunday nights and the women's ministry.
Speaker 4:The women accept each other for who they are. Excuse me, there's no gossip, there's no judgment. We meet together to minister to each other and help each other, and Carol actually lets me help her plan things for the women's ministry which we're planning something for Mother's Day, but I just love them. They're just great and I have to have that in my life. If I go to a place where I don't have that a church or anywhere I'm miserable.
Speaker 3:It's absolutely important to be involved in a lot of those different things. That's really, you know, living life together, that is what we do, and then you know how about that? You know, I will repeat all the kind of the long winded way I did the question originally, but I'll kind of let you give any thoughts that you have on it too.
Speaker 1:Well, you know it's important to me to have good Christian friends, because you know I'm like anybody else, sometimes I get depressed, I get weak, and then to have a Christian friend, a brother in Christ, call you and talk to you just kind of lifts you up, gives you the reason to. You know, go on a little further.
Speaker 4:Now, Cheryl's husband does that for you a lot, doesn't he? Yeah, John.
Speaker 1:John's a good friend of mine, a good buddy, and he's called me a lot of times while I've been sick.
Speaker 4:Just calling to check on you, buddy, just calling to check on you.
Speaker 1:It gives you strength. Everybody's strength gets weak sooner or later, and he was asking me a while ago what I like to do in church. Well, just like the pastor knows, when I I was able, I love to work around the church yeah, can.
Speaker 2:Can I pause right there?
Speaker 1:so I'll jump in on the bike here again.
Speaker 3:So you built, uh, our backsliders jail yeah now called the cry room I had heard that it was called that before you know there's been churches that you built their whole bathrooms, the whole church.
Speaker 4:Fountain Park, you built their church.
Speaker 1:And wired the building.
Speaker 4:Wired it.
Speaker 1:Most of it anyway. I wired the whole basement and rebuilt the whole basement. But you know that was I was always able to do things, but in the last few years it seems like all my strength has been gone. Yeah, but in the last few years it seems like all my strength has been gone. And now, every day when I pray well, you all call it praying, I call it talking to a friend, because I talk to God, just like I'm talking to you, and the first thing I tell him I said Lord, my strength is gone. I need your strength today to make it, because without it I can't. And he's always come through. Even looking back over my life, I can look at the times where he was there, when I wasn't even aware of it, times where I've had doctors that said, well, he shouldn't be alive. Or told my mother he's not going to make it. Or a police officer after a wreck tell my mother he ought to be dead and I walk away with a scratch. God was there protecting me.
Speaker 1:He has never failed me, and the good news is he never will.
Speaker 2:Amen.
Speaker 3:And that actually leads in really well. I know that you have a particular har harrowing story about, uh, you know, a broken I don't want to give away too much, but a broken sternum, and you know some other things with your heart.
Speaker 4:Do you mind telling us a little bit about that story, because that's just powerful well, I can help him out with it, because he is in a coma for six weeks I don't know at all.
Speaker 3:That's a big break in the narrative.
Speaker 1:The story kind of started. Of course you already know that Connie and I sang. We was at a big convention in Somerset Kentucky, and we was scheduled to sing there and my heart doctor called me. I'd been into the heart doctor and had some tests and he said, well, we might have to put some stents in, no big deal, I'd had that done before. Well, I got a call while I was down there and it was his nurse. His nurse said Mr Steele, you've got to come in today. We've got to do open heart surgery on you or you could have a major heart attack and die. And I said do what he said. She said, yes, you could have a major heart attack and die.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we used to get receiver awards for number one duo of the year. So, Tommy's like I'm not leaving. I told her, ma'am, I cannot leave. I've worked too hard to get to this stage and I can't leave. And she said, Mr Steele, you don't understand, you could drop dead. You've got to come in today because the doctor is going on vacation for two weeks and he won't be back. And I said, ma'am, if the God I serve can't take care of me here, you ain't got enough doctors in Lexington to take care of me.
Speaker 1:Little did I know the challenge that I was going to face due to that remark, but my faith in my God has not failed, because he's never failed.
Speaker 4:Well, he had triple bypass. Tommy's a storyteller, so I have to cut in.
Speaker 3:I think you both have a little bit of an enemy, but you know what that's why we do this. I think you both have a little bit of an anemia, but you know what. That's why we do this.
Speaker 4:But Tommy had triple bypass and he was in the hospital for a little while and when they sent him home he had an awful cough and I told the nurses I said he's coughing too hard and they was like, oh, it's good for him, let him cough. Well, he came home in three days. The third day I was in the kitchen fixing breakfast and he yelled in, said, caught him in trouble, he.
Speaker 4:He took a coughing spelt and I walked in there and the sternum had broke and it was open blood spraying and the sternum had went, cut, went through his heart, and every time his heart beat he was cutting it more. So I had to pack it called. I don't want to hold towels on it until they got there. So they called another ambulance because they had to have people to hold him, pack him until they got him to Lexington. So I followed him down there and every 15 minutes his blood pressure was dropping. So they took him in for emergency surgery again, which took nine hours.
Speaker 4:And 24 units of blood 24 units of blood and the whole team. The doctor came out and told me the team said we're wasting valuable resources, stop. And he said I just one more stitch, one more stitch. And so that doctor really saved Tommy's life. But Tommy coded four times, both lungs filled up with clots. And they came out and told me and they said it's looking dire, it's not looking really good right now. The doctors want you to know that it could not make it. The situation is really bad. His daughter started screaming and I went into shock and I was like, oh my gosh, we didn't know what to do.
Speaker 1:You forgot to tell them that was on our anniversary tape.
Speaker 4:No, that wasn't, it wouldn't. No, it was the next day, two days later, on our anniversary. The doctor said Well, tommy, both lungs filled up with clots, the only thing that was working was Tommy's kidneys wouldn't quit working, so they couldn't give up on him. And so they said he's not going to make it. We're sorry, and it was our anniversary. We're going to open up the ICU and you can go stay with him. And I was crying, I said Not on our anniversary. All I can say is not on an anniversary, not on an anniversary.
Speaker 4:And I remember the scripture that says you come before the Lord boldly, grab and hold the horns of the altar and come before him boldly. That's what I did. I went to the bathroom in there and there was hooks in there, like three coat hooks. One of them was broken so it looked like horns. And I'd go in there and grab and hold those things and I'd say, lord, I'm grabbing all the horns of the altar, just like you told me to and in faith, and I'd go there ever, ever, so many minutes, and then I go back and be with him. And so I went in there once.
Speaker 4:They had him upside down, his feet up there, and they said it's the only way we can get blood back to his heart and his kidneys, only thing working. So we're going to send him to uk. There's a specialist over there might be able to help him. But he's out jogging and we've we've texted him. We're going to send him over there. So he may not make it en route over there because Tommy had tubes they had more tubes than I'd ever seen in my life and IVs. So they sent my ambulance.
Speaker 4:My baby brother was there at Pastors in London and the doctor said she's in shock because they can tell how I was acting, don't let her drive. So my baby brother drove me over to UK Hospital and the doctor came out and he had his jogging suit on. He said I'm going to try to help him. He said what it is? They missed a little hole in the back of his heart. The reason is blood pressure won't come up. So they took him. That doctor said I'm going to go in for a little umbrella Through his groin and go up there. If that umbrella opens and closes off that hole, his blood pressure come up. If not, he's gone. They took him down there and he wasn't gone an hour and the doctor come back and he said guess what it took? And his blood pressure was coming back up. Wow yeah. So Tommy was there and they had him in medically induced coma for about six weeks.
Speaker 4:I never left him and we didn't have Joseph at the time and people from all around the communities because they heard us on radio then came and they'd come by and they'd just give me handshake money or they'd buy my lunch. I never done without anything the whole time I was there and people I didn't know would come and just hand me money and say, here, here's your lunch, money, here's whatever. Wow yeah, they took care of me. And then in the icu they knew it was so bad, they let me stay with him at night in the recliner and they never let anybody. But I'd have to leave at five o'clock in the morning because before the doctors come around they get mad.
Speaker 4:So I'd have to go out in the waiting room five o'clock because they come around and uh, it's just at. Tommy started getting better and better and better and so they moved him to a room and then they moved him to Cardinal Hill for three weeks for therapy and then he came home in a wheelchair and about that time his aunt that raised him, they called, she was in assisted living. We took care of her. They called and said we're discharging her and she was in a wheelchair and I was like oh my gosh. So I had to bring aunt ruby home in a wheelchair and tommy in a wheelchair and I thought I was going to lose my mind. That's when I took off work for a while and I retired for a little bit.
Speaker 4:So we took care of her eight years till she passed away and tommy went from a wheelchair to a walker, to a cane and I said I went out the window and watch him and he'd try to cut grass a little bit or work in the yard and he'd sit down on him. He had little sitting places all over the yard where he could sit down and I'd see him out there praying and crying and he didn't know I was in there praying for him. But he's come a long way and the Lord just blessed him this last hospital stay. I didn't think he was going to make it back out. I really didn't. He was really bad His lung deflated, the same lung he had a problem with when he had all this surgery. But y'all prayed him through again and he's back home. Here he is in living color.
Speaker 1:You're not going anywhere until God's through with you.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. That's really powerful stuff. Just glory to God for everything that he's able to do. I know I'm sure you know your husband's got to be so grateful for having a willing vessel like you. And then you know we talked about christian friends earlier. You know you've got close friends coming by people you've never heard of the church. We've got our local church in the local body. But it's all always good to remember that the church is worldwide. It is all believers and just because we don't know each other personally doesn't mean Do you know what that reminds me of.
Speaker 4:I worked for the Lord my whole life and helped people, and when I needed it, the Lord sent people from everywhere to help me. All right.
Speaker 3:We've learned a lot about your lives. I want to know about when you two first met, because I'll bet you two have a good couple story. We do, we do.
Speaker 4:I was in not county. I got married at a young age and I married an abusive man and I didn't know he was abusive till I married him. So I had to get out of that to save my own life. So I went to live in a homeless shelter, a spouse abuse center, and so to get back here down down here that I didn't. I was in the spouse abuse center and they said we can only keep you so many days.
Speaker 4:Connie and I was going to college then too and they said there's a good college down there in Berea, kentucky. We can transfer you down there to that and get you out of this area. Because my ex-husband's family went on about getting my stuff shot at me and everything. So my life was in danger, yeah. So I had to lay laid down the floor of our double-wide to keep from getting killed and called the police. So I didn't go back there anymore to get anything. But they said we didn't get you out of this area because there's 13 of them in that family and they thought I was going to take the family property and I did not want any of that. So I got out of that area and they moved me to Berea and they didn't have an opening in the Spouse View Center so I had to go over to the homeless shelter that was next door and I met a lot of characters there. I stayed there. That homeless center bought me a typewriter. It was just a typewriter, it had a little screen, because they said we've never had anybody come through here that wants to go to college and all that Okay.
Speaker 4:And I got transferred to EKU. They accepted me and they put me in a family house and it was Brockton, and they tore it down now and so I was walking back and forth, going to my classes and just happy to be there, and the whole time I was in Knott County living. Before I moved there I dreamed of this man on an island and said come on, you can do it, you can do it. All the time I dreamed that you can do it, come on. So when I got down here at EKU I thought, well, I'm going to find me a church. So I went through the Yalla Pages. Those phones then didn't have the cell phones way back when I didn't have one anyway. So the only person to answer the phone was Owen Moody, richmond House of Prayer.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he answered. He said oh, we'd be glad to have you Come on out. I started going there and I went in and sat down beside Tommy's cousin. I sat behind her. She said come up here and sit with me. Her name was Brenda from the Trentiers, of course.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, yeah, that he traveled with. So they had women's Sunday school and meetings and all that. And I went, brenda, we got close and she said tell me a little bit about yourself, connie. And I did so. She went home and called Tommy and said Tommy, the woman you prayed for sits beside me every Sunday and every Wednesday night. You need to come meet her. And so I didn't know what. She didn't tell me that. So Tommy came to church. He said would you like to go and have lunch? I said no, because I don't want to ever go and marry again. I said no, sorry. He kept asking and asking. I said no, and then one night the Lord dealt with me and said you need to call him. So I called Brendan. I said Brendan, what's Tommy's phone number? And she gave it to me and I called him.
Speaker 4:We talked for a couple weeks on the phone and then he started picking me up, for he started putting notes on my car. That's what it was. I got love notes. I know Slick, I'd go out. I got me a car. Then they helped me Brenda and her husband helped me get a little car and I'd go out, and they'd be like, hey, hope your day was good. God bless you, whatever Scripture's on it. Be on my windshield and say, tommy and I'd be like God. He's driving me nuts, you know, but I really liked it but then I still drive her nuts.
Speaker 4:And then we then at Valentine's Day, once I went down to my mother's I came back and the whole door was decorated with balloons and stuffed animals and all kinds of stuff on it and card and my neighbor there was laughing sitting on his porch next to me in Brockton. He said some man, come and decorate your door. I guess you can tell it so and I still have that. I tell it and I still have that.
Speaker 2:I got it folded.
Speaker 4:I still have it in a briefcase. But after that we started going to church together and all that. But one thing led to another and Tommy can tell what he had prayed for.
Speaker 3:Sure, are you still waiting to get that lunch date? Does she still avoid eating that meal with you? Just on principle?
Speaker 1:No, actually I guess it was about two weeks later after that we actually went out and had dinner. And we've been having dinner ever since.
Speaker 4:What was it?
Speaker 1:Share with them, tommy, what you prayed for, I prayed for, after going through a real bad wife that ran off with another man, through a real bad wife that ran off with another man, I had prayed Lord, send me somebody that will love me and love my daughter, that will want to be with me and want to be interested in things I'm interested in, which was the ministry singing and going. And I tell you, you've got to be careful when you ask the Lord and you're specific because he listens and not only does he listen, he delivers and he gave me.
Speaker 1:I was telling Connie this morning. I said she said do you love me? I said yes, I do yeah, tell that.
Speaker 4:I ask that all the time.
Speaker 1:And I said you have been the best wife a man could have. I said you have proved your love for me more than once. You have been there when I was down and out and just about ready to step out of this world, but, yes, you wouldn't let go.
Speaker 4:And you prayed that, even if she was barefoot from the mountain.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I did. I said Lord, even if she's barefoot from the mountain, I don't care.
Speaker 4:And I hate shoes. I do not like wearing shoes, though.
Speaker 1:See, that's why I said you've got to be careful when you're talking to the Lord, cause even when you're just kinda joking, he says, okay, we'll do that but when I, when I went out after moving here and went out with Tommy, those dreams stopped of that man saying come on, you can do it.
Speaker 3:I quit dreaming those things did he look like Tommy, or did he have a specific look to him?
Speaker 4:this man, I don't remember maybe it was a silhouette, he probably was behind him, but we've been married 26 years, so we dated for a year or two and um, it's been the best years of my life. He's my best friend all right.
Speaker 3:well, if you ever if you are all over, uh, traveling or anything like that, you know go on vacation somewhere, don't take her anywhere where they're going to be, like if you're on the land and there's water and there's another island nearby, because apparently the guy starts waving at her.
Speaker 4:I'll say I'm coming, I'm coming honey.
Speaker 1:How about if I just say Lord, would you mind striking him?
Speaker 3:Yeah, just make sure. Maybe, if there's an island to the bridge, maybe burn the bridge. Maybe we can find happy media.
Speaker 4:But we have a peaceful home that's in harmony. It doesn't mean we don't disagree from time to time, but Joseph even sees it Sometimes. I jump up and say come here, tom, and give me this little dance. And I start singing and Joseph's like you're all crazy.
Speaker 3:Well, he's not wrong, but you, you know, crazy like a fox or something like that right.
Speaker 4:And if they embarrass his teenagers, you know he goes.
Speaker 3:He goes upstairs fussing yeah oh sure, well, that's part of the contractual obligation. I think when you're parents, you have to embarrass them. It builds character yeah everything's about building character.
Speaker 3:This will be, I think, a fun way to transition. I uh just I wasn't thinking of it, but talking about, uh, you know, making the joke about if you're vacationing somewhere. This is sort of semi-rapid fire. You don't have to stick to one or two words, but just kind of pepper you with a couple of fun questions that you guys had in advance. I'll start with you, tom what is your favorite kind of place to go on vacation? Gatlinburg, oh, very specific. Not like you know, a pastor likes to ask mountains versus beach or that sort of thing, but you love Gatlinburg.
Speaker 1:Tennessee. I love Gatlinburg.
Speaker 3:Tennessee. Do you stay in town or do you get a?
Speaker 1:cabin. Well, lately we just came back from a cabin out in God's country because it was so far out you had to pop in the sunlight.
Speaker 3:Wait, you were in a mine.
Speaker 1:No, we was in a beautiful cabin up on some hill. If it hadn't been for the GPS, you'd have never found it.
Speaker 4:I booked it.
Speaker 1:And she booked it. She's got here lately. She just books things and says we're going, and I'm saying where are we going?
Speaker 3:When the GPS, well before you get get there, says and now turn left off the paved road, then you know you are getting deep out into God's country.
Speaker 1:Talking about GPS, let me tell you a little story about when we were traveling singing. We were traveling somewhere in the upper part of Kentucky. I'd never been there before and we put it in the GPS and we was driving.
Speaker 1:Drove and drove and drove and drove, we'd actually been to Falmouth and sung at an outdoor singing and were supposed to sing at the pastor's church that had the outdoor singing the next morning, which was only supposedly about 22 miles from where we was at. So he gives us the key to the church. He said there's no sense in you standing around here waiting until we get through. You all just go to the church and set up. I said hey, that sounds great. So he said you got the address. I said yes. So, connie, put it in the GPS, we start driving and we drive. Now you've got to realize this is about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, mm-hmm, and we drive, and we drive, and we drive, and we drive some more. It's about 9 o'clock at night and it says you have arrived.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and it's an 9 o'clock at night and it says you have arrived, yeah, and it's an empty cornfield. With a pond, with a pond, with a big pond.
Speaker 1:So I don't think this is exactly where we're supposed to be. So Connie puts it in there and we finally, thank the good Lord, get to the church at 1130. We set up and go to bed. Then we had to go find a hotel, so we didn't get to bed until 1 o'clock. We had to be at the church at 8 o'clock the next morning and then we're seen and we were talking about it and I remember telling the people I said you know, there's two gps's. One will lie to you, one will tell you the truth. The one that'll lie to you is the one that man made. The other gps is the one that god made, god's plan.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's just GPS and you can. God's plan is salvation, oh, okay.
Speaker 1:And you can trust that one.
Speaker 3:Okay, Better use of the acronym than I made. That's very, very good. Now how about you, Connie? Is Gatlinburg a favorite for you, or do you have something?
Speaker 4:that supersedes that. It's not my favorite, no, not your very favorite. What's your favorite? What's your top? I'm odd to be on the female spectrum. I don't like shopping. I like to go get what I'm getting and get out.
Speaker 3:Oh, you've got a good woman, sir, easy on the bank account.
Speaker 4:So going down the strip, shopping and all that, even when our ladies go out for a treat. I'd rather sit there at that house on the porch, but my favorite place was Disney World. We've been there about five times I. My favorite place was Disney World.
Speaker 3:We've been there about five times. I love that place. Oh, are you a big roller coaster fan? No, or do you like to kind of go through the what's your favorite parts, because that's a place that's just, I mean.
Speaker 4:I love the Animal Kingdom and Epcot.
Speaker 3:There you go. Is Epcot still open? I don't know, why do I feel like they closed that? I don't know. I don't know. That would be a shame. I remember when I was a kid, going down there, you could see the structure of it. I was down there in the 80s when I was a little kid and they were building that. I didn't get back there until my honeymoon. I finally actually got to see it. But yeah, disney World is very commercial and yet it is such a treat.
Speaker 4:It's successful for a reason I love the fireworks at night, the food, the people. I just love it.
Speaker 3:So she doesn't like shopping, but she wants to be a Disney princess.
Speaker 1:No, I think that's what I'm catching.
Speaker 4:No, I don't want to be a princess. No princess, maybe a villain.
Speaker 3:Not the Disney princess, All right. Well, guys, whether you're heading home, heading to Disney World, heading to Gatlinburg, I think we're going to call it a podcast episode. Now We've had some really rich, rich stories. We've made a lot of Jesus and Jesus has made a lot of you and really used you and your lives to do so many wonderful things. It's really been a treat and an honor to have you both in.
Speaker 4:We love. We love this church, real life community. We love the people and uh look forward to sundays because our pastor and I'll give him a little uh pat on the back, but I know he studies richly and what he presents to us is just awesome and we. It just feeds your soul and the music and people would love each other.
Speaker 3:It's just a great place to be I've always found it's such a wonderful balance. As somebody who's came from a you know, a different, you know a lutheran background where the service style is very, very different you get. You get the expository preaching that I'm used to, which maybe isn't necessarily the style of every you know. You know, you know pentecostal, quote, unquote church, but then you also do get, you know, just the wonderful spiritual music and everything else. So, you know, for those of you who are out there listening, who helped make the church what it is, you're part of this story too. Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 3:If you would like to be on the podcast, by the way, just be sure to go ahead and you know, contact me or contact Pastor Chris. We're there on, you know, Wednesdays and Sundays and all sorts of other different times. We would love to get your story as well. We're living life together and this is one of the great ways I'm so glad Pastor Chris set it up, you know for us to all get to know each other a little bit better, both in this room and then everybody you know listening in. I know that they are blessed as well. Thank you two for coming in today.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having us Thinking about this good life, cause we know what matters being together, forever friends. Oh, oh friends, oh, oh friends.