The Red Tabby Kitten

My Call
My name is Phyllis Solomon and I am 39 years old. I live in southeast Georgia in the U.S. with my amazing husband of 14 1/2 years and our three children. I am blessed to live in a country where I can openly share my devotion to Christ with whomever I want. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always mean they reciprocate the offering of love. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that Christians are judgmental hypocrites. My call is to depict before my peers, family, and loved ones the true life of a believer—someone whose not perfect, but has experienced the grace and favor of Jesus Christ through no merit of my own.

My Story
My first encounter with Christ occurred when I was 6 or 7 years old. I was a very shy child and grew up in a very poor neighborhood with my mom and 5 siblings. Around age 5, my father and mother divorced. Nothing special, since 50% of marriages fail. But my father was a pastor of several churches. He also had 3 different families. My siblings and I represented the third. After divorcing, my mom moved us into my grandmother’s home. It had 2 bedrooms and a kitchen. That was it! No bathroom, indoor plumbing, heat, or air conditioner! We were super poor.
We lived in those conditions for a long time. When I turned 7, I went to the library where I picked up a book about cats. On the front cover sat a perfect little red-tabby kitten. I fell in love on the spot. I ran all the way home to tell my mom that I wanted that kitten. And as you may have guessed, she told me she didn’t have to money to purchase one.
My heart sank. And then something amazing happened. My mom turned back to me and said, “I can’t buy that kitten for you, but if you pray and ask the lord, he will bless you with it.” And I did just that. For two weeks I marched around my little home crying and praying for a red-tabby kitten. Two weeks from that day, one showed up on my back step. He looked exactly like the picture I saw in the book I read.

In that moment, God sewed a seed in my heart that He was real, His Word was real, and He was mindful of me. I gave my life to him at age 13 and have been on this Christian journey since.

My Dream
My dream is to become a minister of the Gospel and to share the love of the Gospel with people through my home church and our outreach ministries. Especially young people. Currently, I lead praise and worship during service, work in the nursery, am a women’s ministry leader, work on the technology team, youth ministry team, young adult ministry team, and am the vice president of our non-profit out reach program. A full plate! But, I love it. I am definitely a youth leader.

Preparation
Recently, I felt the Lord’s call to become a minister. Just as 2 Tim, 2:15 tells us, I want to study to show myself approved. My first thought was to go to seminary. But with 3 pre-teens and debt from my previous degree, seminary was not an option. Thanks to CLI, I have another option.

Ministry
I live in a college town and my church is getting ready to start a college ministry. This is very important to me since I’ve been praying for a chance to encourage young adults in the same way I was encouraged at that age. After working in an HIV clinic and reaching HIV victims, I learned that everyone has a story. Some have been hurt, betrayed, and taken advantage of at a very young age. Everyone needs love and Christ is the ultimate love. Please pray fro me and my co-laborers as we set out to do the work of the Lord.