Phyllis & youngest grandchild, Ethan

     Chicago, desiring a warmer climate, I wanted to move to a warm climate. Especially after being stuck in a blizzard on the way home from work which was only a ten-minute drive from home. And, after nine hours, during which I trudged to a farmhouse for refuge and then a friend rescued me, we arrived at my home on his snow mobile. As I was the only family member to arrive home at all that night, I arrived at 1:00 AM to find the front storm door locked. Then, I had to dig in a mountain of snow to open the back yard gate and attempt to locate the hidden key for the back door to let me in to our house. It was my decision to move to a warmer climate even if I had to go alone! After all, I was an Italian and my ancestors lived in a warm climate. Thus, it was inherent for me to live in a warm climate! So, we prayed to see if God wanted us to sell and move. The first person who looked at our house bought it.

     At the time I was working for Continental airlines and I put in for a transfer. Most employees could not get a transfer to a warm climate location, but I immediately got a transfer to DFW (Dallas Ft. Worth, TX airport). Maybe that was because the airline was going to close that operation eventually, and the job was for 6 hours instead of 8 hours a day.  At any rate, I was thrilled with the idea of not shoveling snow anymore. In the last six months I had just been stuck in a blizzard (in April 1979), and driven thru a flash flood (in May of ‘79) to get home at the end of my workday. (We had a moving/garage sale and sold our snow shovel. (Oh Happy Day!)

     Now it was June, and I had to start my job at DFW. My husband and I were staying in a motel while I worked and we looked around for a house. He found us a house and the price and location seemed good, but for some unknown reason, I was not crazy about it. To this day I remember telling the Lord that I was willing to live there, and if it was not His will, I asked him to put his hand in and stop the deal. As I sat there praying, it was as if I were watching a movie or TV show. The whole deal fell apart before my eyes. God spoke! Thrilling, but now it was back to the drawing board.

      Since my husband had talked to someone about a business venture, and it was going to be in Denton, TX he drove me out there. Now I was raised in Chicago, and I considered myself a city slicker. The big city and all it has to offer, is exciting to me. Dallas would be fine, but a small town! Basically I was not willing to live out there. So, God had to do an attitude adjustment on me.

     My husband drove us to the nearest real estate office and the Realtor drove us through a lovely neighborhood and showed us houses. We drove up in front of what I called a one story (with dormers) southern mansion, set in the woods in a lovely neighborhood with small hills and winding streets. Since I had always wanted to be a Southern Belle, this was my dream house. When we walked out of the house my husband said, “What do you think about this one?” “I love it! And, I want it!” was my reply! He was shocked, thought it was a mess, and needed a lot of work inside and out, plus he did not like the asking price. We decided to pray, think more about the house, and keep looking. The Realtor was in the car when we had this discussion. When we left the Realtor at the end of our tour, she in passing asked us our phone number. We did not know the motel number so I gave her the unpublished number for the ticket counter. The public never used that phone; employees within the company only used it!

     That night the situation was hanging heavy on us. We had to have a place to live and get out of our house in Illinois in two weeks. We prayed about it. That night I had a dream. In the dream I got a phone call at work and the voice told me “the house is yours!” That morning I told my husband about the strange dream. We chuckled (neither of us believed in dreams) plus we could not even agree on a house. We had not made an offer on any house. But, maybe God was giving us the assurance that He would take care of us.

     My husband went out to look around, and I went off to work. Sometime during the course of the day the phone rang on the ticket counter. Since I was the only one there, I answered it. The lady on the phone said, “Phyllis, the house is yours.” That sentence was a shock to me.  But, when I got my senses back, I asked, “Who is this?" It was the Realtor from the day before, who showed us the house I liked. Then I reminded her that we had not made an offer on any house. Plus, my husband really did not like the only house I liked. She explained that the owner saw us talking as we stood on his sidewalk. He told her he wanted to sell the house to us. He would be agreeable to our best offer.

     Now, remember the dream? We had not even made an offer! My husband did not even want that house! Being in a state of surprise I told the Realtor we would call her back. Then, almost immediately after that phone call, my husband phoned me. My question to him was why he phoned me. He had been out driving around trying to figure out what to do. When I told him what had just happened he was silent. We agreed God was giving us that house.

     So, we bought the house, phoned a moving company and had them pack up our household and move us down south. My husband flew home to get our children and drive another car to our new home. Next we had to trust God for a job for my husband. We had to trust God for a good adjustment, including friends for our children. When all was in order, I asked God for a friend. About a day or two later a neighbor rang my doorbell, introduced herself, invited me to a Bible study at her house, which was two doors down from us. She became, and still is, a dear friend. God had given me my hearts desires! We now lived in a warm climate, and after some redecorating and landscaping, had a house we loved. God is good, and it is good for us to look back at our lives and remember how God has taken care of us.

Under God’s Love and Blessing

By Charles Herbert Cass

Charles Herbert & Faith Evangeline Cass

I first saw the light of day on March 8, 1913 at a farm south of Bozeman, Montana. I was the first of ten children of Charles and Julia Cass.

In the summer of 1920, my family moved from Montana to Oregon. My parents, grandparents with several aunts and uncles had several cars and one truck as they caravanned their way westward. We settled in Westport, Oregon.

I left home after graduating from grammar school, with my parent’s permission and blessing, to attend Benson Polytechnic School in Portland. In 1932, my sophomore year, I received a phone call from my aunt inviting me to dinner because my grandfather was in town visiting. It was a Sunday evening and granddad asked me to go to the evening church service with him.

Jesus said, “Go out…and compel them to come in.” (John 14:23) If anyone was ever compelled to be saved, I was. However, I have never been sorry for that night in Portland, Oregon.

Granddad Cass and I walked several blocks and saw a neon sign that read, “Foursquare Church.”  We went in and I noticed a few empty seats near the back where I wanted to sit. However, because my granddad was a former circuit-riding Methodist preacher from Iowa, we sat four rows from the front. As pastor Harold Jeffries finished his sermon, he asked everyone to bow their heads and those who wanted to become Christians to raise their hands. I did not raise my hand because I felt that I was already a Christian. After all, I was born in America; I had a bible, even though I didn’t read it very much; and I didn’t smoke, drink or swear. My grandfather nudged me and whispered the command to raise my hand. Of course, I complied and raised my hand along with others. When the pastor came from the platform and stretched out his hand to greet me, I felt important that he was interested in me, just a youth. Little did I know what was coming next when the pastor gently tugged on my hand and my grandfather pushed from behind. Soon I was at the altar and with my grandfather on one side and the pastor on the other and an altar worker who was praying for me, I was led through the scriptures regarding being “Born-again.” There was no lightning, thunder or anything else but something happened in my life that night that has lasted to this present day and I am still singing “Sweeter as the Years Go By.”

Two years later, Ray Birkland and I hitchhiked to Los Angeles to attend Life (Lighthouse of International Foursquare Evangelism) Bible College. It was there that I met Faith Evangeline Kopp and it was love at first sight for me. Faith Evangeline was called Vangie. She and I were in the same classes because I had attended branch classes in Portland that were equivalent to one year and Vangie had already completed her first year. Because Evangeline was editor of the school paper called, “Carry On,” I was appointed business manager. Our relationship grew from true friendship to courtship, when we graduated together in the class of 1935 called, Builder’s Class. Evangeline was one of the speakers at graduation and she spoke about the Holy Spirit.

We were married June, 21, 1936, by Evangeline’s father, Leroy M. Kopp. Two weeks later we arrived by train in New York City to begin our ministry. For three years we lived in the back of the mission where we ministered on Surf Avenue in Coney Island.

We moved back to California where I taught in a small Bible school and preached in several churches. Evangeline developed monthly youth rallies. On July 26, 1940, our son Charles Wayne was born and two years later Constance Naomi was born on July 28, 1942. Our children gave us such joy.

In 1945, I experienced a great change in the direction of my ministry, when I was challenged to visit Evangeline’s sister Naomi and her husband Eddie Farrel as they served as missionaries in Columbia, South America. I sailed from New Orleans on the Rio Jachel and ministered for three weeks in Bogota, Columbia. Then, I rode on a mule for two days to reach my sister and brother-in-law’s mission station located in the interior of Columbia at El Secreto.

When I returned, I had a renewed zeal for evangelism and our family of four traveled throughout the United States; most of the time living in and pulling a small trailer. However, In 1952, I accepted the pastorate of Calvary Temple in downtown Los Angeles.

We were ministering at the church when an opportunity opened for us to go to Chile and deliver some equipment to Naomi and Eddie, where they had been transferred. My daughter, twelve year old Connie, had saved $12 because she wanted to go to Chile and visit her Aunt Naomi and her cousins, Shirley and Sharon. I was surprised and overjoyed when a man from our church called and offered to give us $2500.00, he received as part of an inheritance. He said I should go to Chile and preach and personally bring the equipment and barrels that we had collected for Naomi and Eddie’s mission. Connie and all of us were overjoyed and considered Connie’s $12 as seed faith for the trip.

We boarded a freighter called the Santa Leonor on October 30, 1955 that took 28 days to get to Chile because the ship made many stops along the way. We arrived and were greeted by Naomi, her daughters and others at Valparaiso, Chile on November 28. We spent six months in Chile and I had opportunities to preach while Naomi interpreted. Evangeline, Connie and Wayne presented music to many churches, schools and stadiums. Vangie and Wayne played the trumpet while little Connie played the clarinet. On the way home, we ministered in Bolivia, Cuba and Puerto Rico.

In 1958, Connie went to Bible College in Springfield, Missouri where she met Ronn Haus. They were married September 23, 1961 in San Bernardino, California where Leroy Kopp and my father, Charles H. Cass, performed the ceremony. Connie and Ronn became youth pastors at the Carlsbad Full gospel Assembly, which is now known as the Carlsbad Christian Assembly.

With both of our children out of the nest, Vangie and I went to eleven republics; ministering for fifteen months. When we returned, we went to Oregon to officiate at son, Charles Wayne’s wedding to Kathleen Stanton on April 8, 1966. (If you haven’t noticed, our family often uses their second names.)

Since then, we have been evangelists and ministered in 27 nations. We have conducted revival campaigns in nearly half of the States plus visits to Israel, South Africa and Botswana. We were in Israel in 1974, 1980 and 1990. We stayed several months ministering in churches, private homes and schools.

We had a television program on KFCB-TV in Concord, California for a while. Now, we are retired and living in Oceanside, California and attending the Carlsbad Christian Assembly. In 2003, my daughter Connie and son Wayne and their spouses, children and grandchildren; gave me a 90^th birthday party at the Carlsbad church. This testimony was written for that occasion.