Then There Was Light

By Naomi Jean Ortiz

Is God still working miracles? He did for me, and He will for you.

Then There Was Light is a journal form book about the last ten years of my life and some before. It explains how God moved in many forms and miracles in my life. How you, too, can receive Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord and live in victory instead of

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Aug 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9781647731403

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Then...There Was Light

Naomi Ortiz

Trilogy Christian Publishers

TUSTIN, CA

Trilogy Christian Publishers

A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network

2442 Michelle Drive

Tustin, CA 92780

Copyright © 2020 by Naomi Ortiz

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (KJV) taken from The Holy Bible, King James Version. Cambridge Edition: 1769.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

For information, address Trilogy Christian Publishing

Rights Department, 2442 Michelle Drive, Tustin, Ca 92780.

Trilogy Christian Publishing/ TBN and colophon are trademarks of Trinity Broadcasting Network.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Trilogy Christian Publishing.

Manufactured in the United States of America

Trilogy Disclaimer: The views and content expressed in this book are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views and doctrine of Trilogy Christian Publishing or the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-64773-139-7

ISBN 978-1-64773-140-3

Contents

Dedication v

Chapter 1. 1

Chapter 2. 35

Chapter 3. 81

Chapter 4. 135

Chapter 5. 181

Chapter 6. 219

References 225

About the Author 231

This book is dedicated to my seven loving children; Ronald, Candace, James, David, Deborah, Thomas, and Marion. Each one is a wonderful blessing from our merciful Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

God’s Word says, Isaiah 46:10, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure (KJV). And that He chose us and planned our lives before time began, as in Psalm 139:13–18.

To every thing there is a season,

And a time for every purpose under heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die;

A time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal;

A time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep and a time to laugh;

A time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones;

A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to gain, and a time to lose;

A time to keep, and a time to throw away;

A time to tear, and a time to sew;

A time to keep silent, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate;

A time of war, and a time of peace.

—(Ecclesiastes 3:1–8 KJV)

CHAPTER 1

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Heritage

June 24, 2010

God planned all of our lives, long before time began. He took people from every walk of life all over the earth to make our families who they are today. There is no pure white race. Everyone has ancestors from other races and other cultures locked inside them, which makes them who they are.

Mother’s Family

My mother’s father came from a Greek island called Cypress. Everyone thought he was from Greece, but he was not. He came over on a boat when he was twenty-one-years old to make his life better. He originally intended to come to America, make a lot of money, and send for the rest of his family back in Cyprus. That never happened. He fell in love with my grandmother, Ruby Kounnas, and had seven children. Just supporting them was enough of an issue, and they settled in Crum Lynne, Pennsylvania. I never had the opportunity to know my father’s dad as he died very young at forty-eight.

My oldest relatives were Grampy and Granny Kounnas. Savas Constantine Kounnas and Ruby, as well as my dad’s mother, Agnes Radle. They were loving, giving, wonderful people who loved the Lord and as well as everyone else. Granny Radle raised twenty-one children because her oldest daughter, who was my dad’s sister, died giving birth to her sixth child. She died in my dad’s arms. Granny Radle had fifteen of her own and six of her grandchildren from her daughter. My granny Ruby Kounnas was born and raised in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Her maiden name was Williams. An interesting fact about her was that she never married until she was thirty-two. An interesting fact about my grampy Savas was that on Cypress Island where he grew up, he was a sponge diver. Grampy could hold his breath for longer than five minutes underwater while he was looking for sponges. One day, while he was diving, a storm brewed in the ocean, and he couldn’t find the surface and almost died. He said his lungs were ready to explode when he finally found the surface.

These people were a loving, understanding, and generous type of people. They were always trying to help my mom and dad with money or food whenever there was a need. My grandfather would take in strangers and feed them and help anyone he met. Sometimes at the expense of his own family. I guess when you come from being dirt poor, you want to help everyone else if you have the resources. He was Greek Orthodox, but he converted to Baptist and became saved through Jesus Christ. I am sure all my grandparents will be in Heaven with me.

Only God knows if I have inherited any of the characteristics of my mother’s parents. I can only think of one thing, which is I also love people, especially children. I think looking into the eyes of a child is the closest thing to Jesus we will ever see until we get to heaven.

I would rather have taken on characteristics of my Heavenly Father than any earthly parents. I am hoping that after I am gone, I will be remembered for being loving, kind, giving, and forgiving, like the parents and grandparents before me.

That last word is the hardest. Forgiving. But when you consider what God forgave us for, it becomes easier to forgive others, as He forgave me of so much. However, we come from a long line of the heritage of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and He is the example of forgiveness to all. That is why we are so blessed.

Our ancestors from Granny and Grampy, going way back, worshiped God and believed in His Word, the Bible. They were saved, born-again people of faith. My dad was raised in a Pentecostal church in Scranton, Pennsylvania, but continued to attend a Baptist church for the sake of my mother. They both lived as close to the standards laid out in the Bible as possible while still being human, of course. We always focused on their shortcomings but should have highlighted the good things they would do in life. Oh well, I suppose we are human too.

My mother’s parents, Savas and Ruby, were hard workers. My Grampy Savas worked for Baldwin Locomotive in Crum Lynne, PA, where he made steam locomotives. My Granny worked hard raising her seven children. They had no modern conveniences, such as washing machines and things we take for granted, so she washed clothes by hand, changed cloth diapers, and never even had a toaster in the kitchen. We would toast bread in the big oven. My granny’s work was hard. My grampy also had a wonderful garden and grew everything you could imagine, from onions and tomatoes to corn and radishes, and even grapes and blackberries.

It was always fun for us to visit them when we could. Especially when I went alone, that was the best. I was the oldest grandchild, and my parents allowed me to spend whole summers over their house. Even though my parents and siblings lived so close to them, I could walk home when I wanted to, but I chose to stay as long as possible.

Every afternoon we played 500 Rummy, just for fun. My grampy and granny played cards with me many times that I stayed over with them. Grampy also made homemade wines out of many things he grew, like grapes, blackberries, and even dandelion wine. He had a root cellar that had a dirt floor where he stored his wine. He also smoked cigars but only when he drank with his friend, George.

Father’s Family

My dad’s mother’s maiden name was Agnes Hollandback. She was born and raised in Moosic, PA, where she lived her whole life, as well as died there. Moosic is close to Scranton in the Pocono Mountains.

My dad’s father, George Washington Radle, was born and raised in South Dakota. He was a carpenter by trade. George had one sister named Dora, and she came to Moosic and married a Tucker, who was Russell Tucker’s brother, Russell married Aunt Sharlotte, who was dad’s sister.

Dad’s family all knew the Lord Jesus Christ as well, and all were kind and loving people. Granny Radle had fourteen kids with George Washington Radle, and Dora had seven and died giving birth to her seventh child. This is how Granny Radle had the opportunity to raise all twenty-one children. I will never know how, but she fed and clothed all those kids. That is how my father was raised in such a large family. They had a large oval table where ten of them could eat at a time, then the other eleven sat down and ate out of the same plates. My mom even ate with them while she was dating my dad. How they survived and had enough income was amazing. Everyone worked and gave all their money to Granny. She used to give my dad $.50 to take my mom to the movies.

July 10, 2010

I just came out of surgery for breast cancer yesterday, and thanks be to God again for carrying me through it. He always does over, and above all, I can think, or man can do. The breast cancer is gone, and once again, I am free. God is so loving and kind; He is faithful and patient with us. I don’t even have any pain, and I know that is my Lord’s doing. I also know He carried me through this surgery and my last three hernia surgeries with no pain too. Human words cannot express the goodness of our God.

I could write another book about the values, philosophy, and religious beliefs of my dad’s family, and hopefully, all of the characteristics I’ve inherited have come from my heavenly Father and not necessarily from Dad’s line. Our heritage is a golden one, of a long line of Christians who genuinely lived for and loved the Lord our God. Way, way back, we have grandparents and great grandparents who worshiped the Lord and were born-again saints of God. Some were Baptist, some were Pentecostal, and some were Methodists. No matter what they called themselves, they loved the Lord and lived clean, good lives. Their values were taken from God’s Word, the Bible. None of them were perfect, but they were saved.

My dad’s father was a machinist and a carpenter. I think for a short time, he worked with Grampy Kounnas at Baldwin’s Locomotive making trains. My dad’s mother, as far as I knew, never worked outside the home. Her work was home caring for twenty-one children, a huge house, and family needs. She worked though; you can bet on that!

July 12, 2010

I don’t have much more to say about my dad’s family, but I would like to say, praise the Lord! For He is good! His mercies are new every morning, and they endure through all generations (Lamentations 3:23; Psalm 100:5).

July 24, 2010

I woke up at 6:00 a.m. to hear a message from my son Ronald. He and Bethany were at the Lowes Cinema in Cherry Hill, NJ, when four men tried to hi-jack them and their Jeep. Praise God! They locked their doors and got away. We are definitely in the end times because my granddaughter Natalie’s baby drowned in my daughter Deborah’s pool, and Deborah revived him using CPR. Glory to God! And Angel’s son swallowed a quarter, which lodged in his throat, but he was also saved. We are the heritage of the mighty God, and He cares for His own.

My mother shared many stories with me about her own parent’s childhood. One story she told us was that Grampy Kounnas (Savas) was born in Cyprus, a Greek island, and how he worked diving for sponges in the sea, which I have already mentioned. Mom also told about Granny Kounnas and how she favored Joy, my sister, because her middle name was the same as her Ruby. Every time she came to our house, she had something for Joy, which broke my heart. I was too little to understand why she favored Joy. I don’t know too much about their childhood, except that they once lived in Atlantic City, before the casinos.

My mom’s maiden name was Kounnas. She was born on September 29, 1923, in Chester, PA, but she grew up in Atlantic City. They moved to Crum Lynne, PA, because the jobs were scarce in Atlantic City, and my grampy had gone to work at Baldwin’s, as I mentioned. She used to tell us a lot of stories about her childhood. One was when Grampy, her dad, caught her smoking. To punish her, he made her sit down and smoke a whole cigar. After she finished, she got so sick she never smoked again. Another story was when she and her friend ate some rock salt at a carnival and got awful sick.

Once she told us a story about some friends and herself went into a man’s garden to steal pumpkins on Halloween, and she got caught, but her friends got away. Of course, she tells us it wasn’t her fault because she was the youngest. Her dad gave her an awful spanking. Grampy had an actual woodshed, where he took his kids, and my mom to give them a spanking when they were bad. She keeps telling us a