Written by Carolyn Acosta

My name is Carolyn Acosta. It is my privilege to come weekly from my hometown to serve and love the people at the Dallas International Street Church. How grateful I am for this opportunity, and for this ministry! I would like to share my story. I was raised in a liberal denominational church. The scriptures were certainly not presented as the inspired word of God, but rather as myths and legends. The miraculous stories of the bible were downplayed, undermined and explained away. The scriptures were interpreted only symbolically, including concepts of heaven and hell. Everyone after death would go to some sort of heaven no matter what they believed, or how they had lived.

By Dr. Chas Brothers

I don't have many fond memories of my childhood. My mother was and is a practicing alcoholic, while my stepfather was a practitioner of 5 out of the 6 known forms of child abuse. You see, growing up, I thought my stepfather was my real father. It wasn't until I was 16 years old that I found out differently. That's when everything started to make sense.

After I married my wife, Quyen, in 1998, I visited Hong Kong again to introduce her to my father. When Quyen and I had kids, I heard through my mom that he wanted to see our children. So I invited him to the U.S., told him I would pay for his plane ticket and that he could stay with us. But I never received a response. I didn't think he cared. So I went about my life.

May Olusola: Thank you Mr. Butler for agreeing to let me interview you.

Jonathan Butler:  The pleasure is mine

May Olusola: What got you started in the gospel arena?