Good-Time Cooter

By Cooter

This book is for those who are looking for more in the Lord than routine. The Lord always has more for those that are seeking him. In the pages in my book are some exciting experiences I have had the opportunity to live out. Many of them are humorous, and some are serious. Some will make you laugh, and some will bring a tear to your eyes. My prayer is that, as you read, you will find yourself in some of the same situations I have been in and watch the Lord show up and show out. I claim many souls in the name of Jesus as you expand your territory to serve him. My hope is that these stories will cause you to swim out into deeper waters.

As I come to the end of this chapter of my life, many more experiences are occurring even as I write. The Holy Spirit is always moving. There is no end to his adventure and no containing his glory. All we have to do is grab as much as we can as we go and do in Jesuss name. May you walk in the destiny God has set before you. Its a life that will never be disappointing because he gives us life and more abundantly. I am so thankful the Lord saved me and took some things away. I am more thankful for what he gave me instead. He is the only one who can bring joy and peace.

Most people will not submit to the Lord. It is because they dont want to give up something. Its not what youre going to give up, its what youre going to receive that makes the difference. You can be happy now. Not just when you get to heaven. Joy can be yours now!

May God richly bless you as these pages cause something to come alive inside of you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 27, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524554750

Book preview

GOOD TIME

COOTER

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Cooter

Copyright © 2016 by Cooter.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2016917933

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5245-5477-4

      Softcover      978-1-5245-5476-7

      eBook         978-1-5245-5475-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, King James Version. Cambridge Edition: 1769; King James Bible Online, 2016. www.kingjamesbibleonline.org.

Rev. date: 11/14/2016

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Contents

The Cooter Turtle

The Miraculous Dog

The Hunting Dog

Uncle Pee Wee

The Lady At The Gate

Ray The Millionaire

The Praying Boys

Ms. Little

The Bag Of Money

Melinda

Mr. Trotter

Ms. Franie

Conclusion With The Praying Boys

A New Baptism

Share Jesus Without Fear

Hidden Treasures In Secret Places

David, Goliath, And The Dishwasher

Jeff The Manager

Mom And The Nursery Girls

Soul Winning 101

The Fellow Electrician

The Blue Light Special

The Double Header

Cody At The Beach

Bad Bark Mark

James

Jamie

Spoon

The Mud Slide

Friends On The Streets

Troll

Darrell

New Beginnings

Randy

Steve And Glenda

Let me introduce myself. The name that is on my Social Security card is Randolph Smith Garland. However, people that know me from my childhood still call me Cooter. It is a name that was hung on me by my parents. A name that has played a huge part in who I am and why I am. I think back on my earlier school days and remember other kids shouting my name continuously at pep rallies, Cooter! Cooter! Cooter! I would always try to go without being noticed but wouldn’t succeed. I believe they were shouting my name because it was humorous and different to them. I often have thought that having such a colorful name was a great disadvantage. I appreciate my father and mother for giving the name Cooter to me. There just wasn’t room for blending in. Little did I know that the Lord was preparing me for a time such as this. Esther. 4:13-15.

My whole life I have wanted to have a good time. When I was younger, I played football, basketball, and baseball. I would go to skating rinks, tennis courts, and racquetball courts on a regular basis. I enjoyed lakes and swimming pools. I was on a swim team, a diving team, and was waterskiing at five years old. Having a good time was in my blood, and it followed me through my teenage years. I started drinking beer at fourteen, and when going into the United States Air Force at eighteen, I learned to smoke pot to have some more fun.

My service was a time that I will always remember. I learned a lot, but one thing that occurred while I was there really stuck out in my mind. It’s the thing that gave me the insight to name this book Good Time Cooter. I was stationed in Florida at Eglin Air Force Base. Some of my friends from home came to visit me for a three-day weekend. We had stayed up most of those days and nights with very little sleep. You might say we partied like a rock star. As my friends were leaving, one of them rolled the car window down and yelled, Good time, Cooter. Yeah! To me it was a compliment. It meant I had really showed my buddies a good time. A bit of pride swelled up inside of me that I was doing what I was meant to do—have a good time.

In October 1980, I was honorably discharged from the air force. I came home and continued to be a power drinker and a good time Charlie. I worked at a reed shop owned by my grandfather during the day and attended night school at Spartanburg Technical College. Upon attaining an associate’s degree in industrial electronics, I met a good friend. His name was Bob Holt. We probably spent more time at the pool hall and beer joints than in class. We got more of an education in barhopping than in electronics. One night, I woke him up as he was passed out on top of a pool table in a bar called Gooder and Gooder. He looked over at me as I was helping him up and said, Ole Good Time Cooter, you are killing me. I was killing myself. I thought I had the concept of having a good time figured out. Boy, was I confused. I would continue running and doing my thing until one night in October of 1995.

Another friend of mine, Eugene Skinner, showed up unannounced at my front door. My dad had told him he thought I was about ready for a change in my life. How my dad knew that is still a mystery to me. Eugene invited me to a little church located less than a mile from my house. They were in a full-blown revival and had a few nights left before it ended.

On the evening of October 29, 1995, I committed my life to Jesus, and so far, I have honored it. They immediately put me to work in that little church. My first job was the royal ambassador leader for boys between the ages of eight and ten. Later, I was a choir member, a Sunday school teacher, and an invitee to sit on numerous committees. In recent years, I’ve spoken in several churches to teach witnessing techniques and to encourage the saints to share their faith. You know, the Lord just isn’t satisfied with you just blending in—he wants to call you out. As he has called me out, he is calling you out. Along with the Lord’s inspiration and motivation from family members, I have printed some short stories that reveal how God can take somebody as ordinary as me and use them for his glory and his purpose. Even though I am just a plain ordinary man, I have learned to believe for more because the Lord has given me more reasons to believe for. The Lord has proven himself to me over and over. When things seem to be the most out of sorts, the most awkward to walk in, then is when God seems to show up and show out in my life. He can take the most ridiculous situation to glorify himself. You know, there isn’t a better feeling than to be involved in a circumstance that appears hopeless, because when you hear the Spirit tell you something, you pursue it, and the outcome turns out to be overwhelming.

If we could only see the last first, we wouldn’t be so cautious with every involvement concerning ourselves. We would gladly enter into these divine engagements that God has set up for us. The only problem then would be that it wouldn’t be called faith, and then he wouldn’t be using foolish folks like me to be used for his glory. 1 Corinthians 1:27 states God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. In this book I will be sharing some instances that have so impacted my life that I can only hope to find words to justify them. All glory goes to my Lord. He has chosen to use me in a few small things to bring honor to himself. As he is doing this for me, he is no respecter of persons. He will do it for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:24 states that faithful is he that called you and who also will do it. I would like to thank my family for standing with me as I pursue my dreams and being an encouragement to me. Most of all, I would like to thank Jesus Christ for giving me a great and adventurous life that has never been boring. You know Jesus was never boring.

THE COOTER TURTLE

I was in third grade and I came home from school one afternoon to play with a new little pet my mother and father bought for me over the weekend, a green turtle. We were at K-Mart, and they had it in a little glass aquarium, and I just had a fit over it. I put the turtle in a little round aquarium in my room and named him Scooter. I just loved this turtle, and he was kind of named after me. Boy, Scooter and I spent the whole weekend together, and I spent a great deal of time with him. During that Monday at school, I missed him. I could not even concentrate on my studies—I really missed him! I was in such a hurry to get home that day, and when I did, I picked him up and took him outside as I wanted to put him in the sun. I put him on the picnic table in the backyard.

I got a little sidetracked after a while and was looking across the street at some of my friends playing. A few minutes passed, and when I turned around to look for Scooter on top of the table, there was no Scooter! Man, my heart jumped up in my throat; I thought, well, surely I will be able to find him. I got on my hands and knees, but the grass was about six inches tall and I couldn’t find him. The grass was green and Scooter was green and all I could see was green! I didn’t know which end of the table he had fallen off, so I was really at a great disadvantage. I didn’t know how far he had traveled on those little legs or if he dug a hole and was hiding in it. Man, I was really talking to myself, saying, Where are you at Scooter? I just couldn’t find him. Then I started blaming myself. Why didn’t I watch him better? What in the world was I thinking? What are Daddy and Mother going to say when they get home?

About a half an hour passed, and I had been frantically searching for him on my hands and knees. Man, my heart got heavy. I was thinking about him and how that Saturday night we were playing on the floor and everything. Boy, what a good time we had. Then a big goose bubble tear rolled down my cheek. My heart was broken. It was all my fault. I folded my hands, closed my eyes, bowed my head, and I began to do something I had never done before: I started praying to God. I remember saying something like, God, I need Scooter back. I miss him, and I don’t want to lose him like this. I will watch him better next time, God. Please bring him back. And for some reason, I concluded the prayer by saying thank you. What was interesting here is that I had never prayed before in my life, and to my knowledge, no one had ever told me about the Lord or taught me to pray. Yet it just came out.

I opened my eyes and stared right between my knees as my head was already positioned downward. I first saw the tall grass, but I continued to stare. Then, looking deeper, my eyes focused on the fine articulate curvy line fixed on the back of Scooter’s shell, and there he was. My head was looking absolutely straight at him. His little head was looking straight at me as if to say, What are you waiting for? Pick me up! Boy, I was so happy. I picked him up and held him close. I was thanking God, and I was more than just happy … I was elated. I ran around that picnic table about a dozen times just praising the Lord for what he has done. And as you can see, I have still not forgotten about that. For the first time in my life, I realized that God was real.

THE MIRACULOUS DOG

N ot many days after my turtle story, my friends and I were playing dodgeball on the road. That is something that is unheard of now. My friend Benny yelled out, There is a car coming! so we cleared the road. This automobile did not slow down very much. It came speeding by us, and as it did, a yellow collie came from out of nowhere. The driver didn’t have time to stop, and the car rammed the animal. As the bumper of the car made contact with the dog, you could hear a loud thump and a single yelp coming from under the vehicle. The dog was helplessly being rolled over and mangled by the tires, axles, chassis, and frame. The young girl who was the dog owner was screaming and crying. It was quite a scene. I was in shock because the driver, instead of slowing down, sped up to avoid any confrontation. My friends and I stood around this devastated animal. It wasn’t gasping for breath and its tongue was hanging out. My friend said, It isn’t breathing.

Another friend said, He is dead.

As we were standing around him, I knelt down and put my hand on the dog’s side. I didn’t say much, but it was something to the effect of Lord, please let this dog live. Amazingly, in about five seconds, the dog gasped a quick breath and took off running! My friends and I were all astonished! It was never brought up again—maybe because no one would believe it. Well, this instance created a new thing between me and the Lord. I believed he was really listening to me. John 14:13 says that, And whatever you shall ask in my name I shall do; that the Father be glorified in the Son. My faith was on a rapid increase over the past two back-to-back instances and it had woken something in me to seek him more.

THE HUNTING DOG

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O ne Saturday, my dad and I were putting a tin roof on a shed. Well, I couldn’t help but notice that Daddy was being way too quiet. He always had something going on, and he was notorious for cutting up, laughing, and just having a good time. About mid-morning, I asked him if everything was alright and he said, No, not really. Then he proceeded to tell me about his problem. He had lost his billfold. It had about $840 cash, two checks, his driver’s license, and his credit cards. The kicker was that his house payment was due on Monday and he had been stashing this money back to pay it. He also had some taxes and insurance to pay. I simply said, Dad, lets pray and ask the Lord to return your billfold. Daddy just kept on hammering. Some time passed, and I said, Let’s pray that you have your billfold come back to you. He looked at me with a funny expression, and this time he said, OK. I prayed that his billfold would show up and that all his money and belongings would be in it, and then we just went on back to work.

Well, it was getting close to dark, and Daddy looked up and saw our black Labrador dog, Bo, coming out of the woods headed right toward us. Daddy said, It looks like ole Bo has done killed another field rat. Bo had a rat in his mouth. He had a bad habit of going down that field heading toward the woods behind our house and killing these rats. Then he would bring them up and lay them right on the doormat. We would have to step over it to go in. Boy, he really did think we were proud of him. Both of us were studying that dog trotting toward us and I said, Daddy, that’s no rat. Bo brought what he had in his mouth closer and closer until we could both clearly see that it was a billfold in his mouth. He came right up to the shed and set the billfold right on the ground as if he was the UPS delivery service. He just sat there looking up at both of us as if to say, Well, did you guys ring?

Daddy was just overwhelmed, and he said, Do you think the money is in there? I responded with a yeah. He ran down that ladder hitting every other step; I thought he was going to break his neck. He ran around the side of the building, picked up the billfold off the ground, and quickly opened it to find every bill, check, card, and license all in tack just like he had left it. What he had done was lose it when he was operating a bulldozer in the woods a few days prior. It must have fallen out of his rear pocket. But nevertheless, the Lord showed out here. It was nothing less than a miracle for God to use an untrained animal to make this happen. Daddy ran around the shed several times. He was laughing and skipping like a six-year-old kid kicking a can. He was the happiest man in the