A Whole Different Life For The Daughter Of a Gangster - Lynda Randle

Linda Randall was born and raised in the inner city of Washington DC the details of some of those early chapters are shocking to say the least especially as we are getting to know her beautiful family her music ministry Linda was here on June 6th and she is back for three days as excited it's gonna take us every minute absolutely this interview I think you'd live to be a hundred and and just so many special chapters yes absolutely yeah it's so good to be back it was fun coming you're welcome now I you say Washington DC and I think of historic places and politics and very pristine things yes America the Beautiful yes and most people do that's not where you grew up right no tell us about those early years you were the middle of 777 I grew up in the inner city of DC it's probably the place where people don't like to go when they come to the city they want to see the nice things they want to see the White House the Capitol all that other kind of stuff but for a long time let me say this I had kind of regrets I thought of all the places to raise a kid why in the world would God allow me to see all the stuff that I saw the city and all but now as I look back over my life I'm so grateful because it helped to shape me and mold me and I'm still becoming the woman of God that I am becoming because of that the way I was raised but you and your husband the old fogey was an inner city in this city that's right has been marching yes absolutely and you know but it's a cool thing though and I always love saying this I'm Warner that I'm not a hero there so many of my sisters and brothers that have survived the inner city and I love it because God is the God of the cities he's a god of the suburbs they're like that car yeah yeah so so that's so cool you know but but for me as a kid seeing some of the things you know we lived across the street from pimp and prostitutes and saw live that you know the drugs and things that that people see today and it happened still today but sometimes people like to pull us out is the big hoop to deal or whatever but it's just kind of the way life was it was what it was and God was still who he is and who he is now and so it's all good so it could have been much worse absolutely if God hadn't got ahold of your yes dad yes oh my Lance yeah yeah my dad and I didn't even know this father I know of him because Moody broadcasted a story on unshackled and he was uh what I'd say like a gangster like a yeah a gambler a racketeer just I mean just nuts and he had a violent temper and he was packing a gun yeah a lot of times and that's what's custom my father had a temper my dad was the most patient understanding loving man just I just get just swelled up with with tears and and I can't even describe the relationship that I have with my father picture oh yeah recent picture yeah yeah oh he's with Jesus now but I love him so much I love him but he was so but eaten to see if he was so jovial and so peaceful and he just wasn't this mean angry man but he was driving his taxicab he was a cab driver and he was on a Maryland Highway and he heard Oliver be green and old preacher from the South in the United States preaching a clear message of salvation he pulls over his cab on the side of the Maryland Highway accept Christ as his Savior my mother was somewhere and my brother was somewhere they were separated God put that family back together now my brother was 15 years old they had one kid 15 years then when God put them back together six more kids were born and I was in that in that 16 percent next yes so so it if that hadn't changed in my mother was nuts to I mean she pulled a gun on my dad and I this is my first time saying this on television mommy I love you but this is way before Christ said if you leave the house tonight uh if you're planning on doing what you're doing you're not going to do it because I'm not gonna let you so they were they were just a volatile couple but I didn't know that those parents the parents God gave me were parents of hope parents of peace you know it was just a totally different yeah yeah we have the parents thank you yeah knew they they don't look violent at all do the devil and you know when you were here last mrs. you just so many pearls of wisdom slipped out yeah as you were remembering things your dad your pastor yes he became a pastor yes absolutely aired with you as she's growing it he had a fourth-grade education which was unbelievable in the Lord just kind of taught him through the scripture he took some little satellite Bible courses and things like that but it was amazing and we take something that's even more amazing and I and I tell this to my kids and I said I want you guys to know when I share this I'm not at all bragging but this is this is Jesus this is how my parents raised us I was listening to someone read the King James some of the King James Version of the Bible on the radio of the other day it's a like a audiobook and almost not exaggerating on almost every Scripture that they read I could tell you the reference and not because I'm such a good great Bible student but we just had Bible growing up we had Bible studies whether we wanted to or not we had family devotions around the table a lot of dads weren't even home nonetheless sit there and have devotions with your family so I said kids look I said mommy knows these things because that was planted in me by my parents Webster transformed home yeah and your dad led you to the Lord yes at the age of 12 the kitchen - yes yes and it all sounds idyllic but I dig a little deeper yeah yes and I read about sexual abuse yes yes I read about 32f in the ninth grade 89 yeah yeah and you leaving home yes for time yeah I ran away from home at least four times and you know when I look back I honestly think I was acting out now I hadn't said anything to anybody four until I was almost 26 20 I was getting I was getting married preparing to get married and went to the doctor for check-ups and things and stuff just started coming out and I broke down at the doctor's office as I was exposing all he was a Christian doctor that attended our church and I was like it just blew me away because all of this time you know I just had suppressed things and people just don't want to talk about it so I never talked about it parents had any no no no idea no idea close family member female and no idea but even in that I thought about the person that did that what happened to them that's how God kind of gave me a take on this whole thing not just somebody woke up and said I'm gonna do this to you but what happened to the and so while I may have been a victim for a while I'm a victor now I am just walking in complete victory he'll miss wholeness all the all of the above and I just and I'm able to meet people on top of people and God used me that zero in like I kind of know where you are because the things I've gone through so it's pretty it's pretty cool that God's using that's like you you have a special heart God gave you a highroad perspective I you know you say you always wanted Big Sisters yes you had sisters yeah but they were sisters who were not good models for you and must have given your parents heartache yeah yeah well you know none of us are perfect and so I always say this is a kid that was filling the ninth grade and running away from home and it's so easy more for people to go oh okay I want to just get this out in the open they see somebody that are on drugs or somebody that's pregnant a team that's pregnant or homosexual and and it's so easy to point fingers cuz you can see the visible saying well my sin was rebellion the Bible says rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft so I had great sin but more the visible sin my one of my sisters got pregnant at age 14 15 I became a mother myself at about 1415 because she wasn't there she was strung out on crack for about ten years crack cocaine and it was hard because I wanted to follow my sisters I wanted Big Sisters more than you just have no idea how much I wanted to pay around with my sisters but God had another plan so that's why he's allowed me to be a big sister to so many little sisters all across this country and I mentioned Genie Tucker earlier in the when we were here June 6 she has been a great sister and let me say God has restored my relationship with my sisters I did lose a sister to AIDS at 37 we had a broken relationship but God restored that relationship as well and but it's it's been an amazing journey and and and I'm so thankful that God didn't allow my parents to give up on any of us that they loved us right through all the hell they loved us through the hell and so that's why I'm here today to say hey but for the grace of God who knows where any of us would be yeah and that's why Linda can sing from her heart I'm free and doesn't mean so much to learn some of her journey as you probably already love a lot of her songs and if you don't you're going to we're so thankful to be able to make her CD our offer to you for your support of crossroads in just these few days that we have with her and I'm glad we have two more days yes exactly we didn't know you it's a long aging journey oh thank you so much it's been great

Channel: 100huntley

Views: 255,983

Rating: 4.8201394 out of 5

Keywords: interview, huntleystreet, jun-21-11, HS8874, 100huntley, christian, gaither, homecoming, friends, inner, city, washington, dc, pimps, prostitutes, drugs, gangster, father, violence, anger, family, separation, volatile, couple, sexual, abuse, running, away, breaking, down, sisters, young, pregnancy, crack, addict

Id: cY85ED_NZVQ

Length: 9min 16sec (556 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 21 2011