A Flashback Father’s Day
Papa Carl
A prominent religious leader once said: “Let us remember the past with gratitude, live the present with enthusiasm, and look forward to the future with confidence.”
The following story encompasses all that; it is the kind of story everyone loves to hear, especially when the saving grace of Jesus rescued a soul that came to experience His greatness in ways not imagined.
Church of God evangelist for many years and former World Missions Board member, Carl Richardson came from humble beginnings, yet God placed His hand on this great man of God and mighty events happened throughout the course of his ministry, as the one you are about to read …
In the early 1990s, Carl was instrumental in conducting large crusades in the country of Russia, which is now even more difficult to enter with the Gospel. At the time, a Russian university-age translator, Tatiana (known as “Tanya”), was wonderfully born-again as she translated, and prayed, the sinner’s prayer to a jampacked cinema with hundreds overflowing the lobby and streets beyond. While in Moscow, she, along with “New Jerusalem” contemporary band, helped plant new churches that later became a fast-growing movement throughout Russia and the other 14 nations of the former USSR. One of Carl’s recent books (2011), Second Wind,relates the amazing phenomena that happened in those years of ministry in Russia.
Tatiana, a few years later, moved from Moscow to Dubai, UAE, at the invitation of, and to work with, the royal family in this world-class city. She has a high-level position with their government airline.
After all those years ago, Carl recently received a Father’s Day gift from Tatiana, addressed to “Papa Carl.” Carl is ever so proud to be her spiritual Papa and grateful she is eternally his spiritual daughter!
