From Small Town Texas To Ministering To Millions: The Story of Cindy Cruse Ratcliff

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Here Cindy with her story. The very first time I ever sang in church.

I was three years old and agreed to come to my dad's church to scene. I can remember sitting in the church that night thinking I want to do that.

And so after the concert if I could sing in church the next Sunday morning and he said yes and so I did.

I was born into a preacher's family in West Texas course.

We lived in a very small West Texas town we were living in Stanton Texas which if you're a real Texas native you know where that is. It's in between Midland and Odessa where there is absolutely nothing but tumbleweeds and dust and and pump jacks and if you don't know what that is because of those things that look like hammers going up and down pump oil out of the ground and that's where I grew a lot of my earliest memories were in church you like I can remember sitting in church with my two brothers in front in the in the row in front of us and he sitting in my mom's lap and my two sisters on either side of her and can't remember when my brothers would act up in church, my mom would march all five of us out you know and then bring us all back and it was really so humiliating. You're like I'm not doing that in church ever again.

You know those are just part of being in a pastor's family. My dad when I was five my dad got invited to preach at a friends church for a revival which was a series of meetings every night of the week and so on. He said I don't we get together and learn a song each day and will sing that song at night and so that's what we did and so you know, we learned five songs and on the last night we had a little concert of all the five songs that we learned and that's kind of how we got started. So when I was about nine years old, my dad decided that he go into what is called full-time evangelism people would invite my dad to come preach and we would come and sing in these little churches in you know I can remember my dad bought a bus. This is 1972. My dad bought a bus and we got on that bus and started traveling around the state of Texas singing in churches he would preach and we would sing and my siblings really became my best friends because you know you are in a different place every week and we spent a lot of our time when we were on the road. Learning new music we would harmonize on the bus and we really developed our ear for harmony and music.

I don't play an instrument, which is one of my big regrets in life, but I haven't unbelievable ear for music and it was developed in those moments in those weeks and months and years that we spent on the bus, learning music and it was really exciting because all of my siblings and I we did school by what they called correspondence back then they didn't have homeschooled. He had to go through one of a couple of schools that were out of Chicago and all of the child television and movie stars went through these schools, the Jacksons and the Osmonds and you know all of these young kids who are performers, they all went to the same school that we went to out of Chicago and we traveled the first probably 10 years we traveled. I I know my mom my mom still has the calendars. I helped her move recently after my dad's death and we found a box where she had kept the calendars of our bookings and we were on the road for probably the first 10 years, about 320 Daisy here just staggering not even know how we did it, and there was not one church that we went into that. My dad didn't say listen they're not here to serve us. We are here to serve them. I think we recorded 32 albums together. We won a couple of double words and most of the music that was being released back then was like southern gospel quartet music that you know my family.

We sang contemporary music and we were all young, we were teenagers, so even with my family. We were kind of pioneers in Christian music at the time and some of the earliest really big contemporary Christian artists were inspired to go into contemporary music because of my family groups like point of grace and Steven Curtis Chapman and so we traveled in saying and we did that for about 13 years and then I got married at 22 to another Christian music artist and set up house in Dallas Texas and built a studio with my husband we began to produce music and we begin to write songs for other artist and we had a very successful production company very successful music writing career. We wrote number one singles for a lot of different Christian artist and produced some secular artist as well. Paula Abdul and Gladys Knight and Steve Perry and Al Green numbingly. We were just in very diverse which I left at about the kind of music that we wrote and produced, so we did that for about nine years and then I went through a very difficult unwanted divorce. He came from a very broken dysfunctional family.

There were signs in the beginning of difficulty in trouble and I thought you know I can love and encourage and support him to where we can get to a healthy place you know there were there were seasons of it being healthy and then there were seasons when it wasn't healthy and he chose infidelity and he chose alcohol and I don't know what else I just know there was alcohol involved. I really hate to put him in this position because I hear he was a well-known artist and it's on my Wikipedia page, but he chose he chose to walk away.

I did everything I needed to to try to save my marriage and it was really difficult because you know in the church world, especially in the denomination that I grew up in. You know, first of all, there aren't a lot of female ministers, certainly not one who was divorced. In fact, most men who were divorced were kicked out of ministry as well so you know, in my mind I thought this could be the end of it for me and you're most interested in the red Cliff sure her story growing up in West Texas were talking West Texas were pump jacks architecture and from there, growing up a preacher's daughter just traveling from church to church 320 days a year like what Willie Nelson would do is living out of a bus amendment marriage amended divorce. What happens next will will find out Cindy Ratcliff story, the story of faith here on our American store just around the corner of it all read the material level in a family-friendly section of modern sofa outside and enjoy the crisp air. The new fire pit conversations that overhaul usually has the essentials to make your home phone, functional and fabulous in-store Ashley.com today need life insurance but have diabetes, high blood pressure or on anxiety meds. If you're a 50-year-old male even 40 or with type II diabetes oh million dollars of life insurance may only cost you about 200 bucks a month for affordable term life insurance called term provider and speak with Big Blue data hundred 700 6890 800-700-6898 or visit Big Blue.com.

Remember big lose like you these on meds to 800 768, 98 for 10 years, Verizon has provided technology curriculum and connectivity. Students like Christopher Christopher always loved creating thing so we learn about the Verizon innovative learning program will making things move like paper models move with engines and regulate robust in his confidence in himself. Like I couldn't have written a greater story get the full story learning.com. We continue with our American stories we been listening to Sunni crews. Ratcliff sure her story was left off with her husband choosing to walk away from their marriage that he felt her life in Christian ministry was over, but she was divorced woman and there were no option but to return to Cindy the rest of her store in the early months of my separation from my first husband.

My best friend gave me a book called the eight of Satan and it really just talks about how the enemy wants to cookie with unforgiveness and how that can drag you down the path. Thankfully, I read that book and it changed my world. I decided I was not gonna walk in unforgiveness and I was going to let go and allow God to do whatever he wanted to do with me in my future and not have tethered to the past. I can remember driving up to an intersection in Dallas Texas. The exact intersection where I had seen my then husband with the woman in the car with him and I remember sitting in that intersection having that memory and feeling no pain from that memory, and I know it's because I just decided in my heart that I was not going to allow the enemy to ruin my life to destroy my life with unforgiveness pretty much lost everything that was familiar to me. My has been moved to California. It just I was left with pretty much nothing. And a friend of mine Bebe Winans is a very well-known Christian artist invited me to come to Nashville to work for him and really very subtly God began to put my life back together and while I was in Nashville, a friend of mine from Oklahoma City who was a pastor. He called me and he said Cindy he said I don't know if you would be interested. He said I feel like if you will come to Oklahoma City and lead worship for my church. He said I feel like this might be the doorway to what God has for you this next season of your life. You know, I just stepped out in faith and decided I'm going to try this. We really ended up with something special here and I got a call from my brother about 18 months later and he said I really need some help building our music department at the church in Tampa which you come and help me build their and so I did and I was there for a little right right about here and down. I decided to go home and so I went back to Dallas and pastor's wife where I had attended church in Dallas. She said were starting a Saturday night service. Would you help us build a team for Saturday night service. She said is going to be like a younger audience more contemporary.

So that's what I did and down one day while I was leading worship. I know this is going to say how crazy one day while I was leading worship. I saw this young man standing in the back of the auditorium and he was dressed in a suit and he looked like he had just come from work. It was on a Wednesday night and he had his hands lifted in worship and I just thought well this is businessman back there just really worshiping while he's in church you know, a few weeks later I met him after the Saturday night service.

He introduced himself and I introduce myself and and and his name was Marcus Radcliffe and we met in March at church and eight months later we got married and just before we got married. I got a phone call from a gentleman in Houston, Texas by the name of Joel posting and Joel said he said my dad passed away earlier this year and I just become the pastor of the church and I would like for you to come down and just visit the church and see what you think about coming to lead worship for us and you know there weren't very many female worship leaders at the time so Joel called me and said, would you come down. It's crazy because I was literally sitting at sonic drive-in and get a phone call in and that you know famous Texas accent seemed to almost any that I was like wow okay and then he asked me to come down to Houston and just check out the church and when I got there I could see that the music department really needed development. It had not been a focus of the church. So we sat down to talk about it and I told him what my vision was.

He began to say what his vision was an they just lined up perfectly and Marcus was a mortgage broker and very successful in Dallas and we were literally just weeks away from getting married and so I was talking with Marcus about it.

Marcus was just so generous and he said you know I can do mortgage brokering from anywhere in the United States as long as I have a computer and he said I really feel like this is what God has for us and so we moved to Houston we got married, went on our honeymoon, came back to Dallas packed our stuff up and moved to Houston began this journey 20 almost 23 years ago little be 23 years.

In October that we began this journey with Joel.

It's been fun because I don't have all of the duties of of running the department anymore which is nothing but I don't have to do all of that and so I've been able to venture out into some other areas that I've been excited to venture into and one of those is I've been writing the screenplay. You know I had been writing music I've written music since I was nine years old was a published writer. At nine years old had been riding for quite a while and my dad when I was 18 brought me this book called and it's was one of a trilogy called the singer the song the finale written by Calvin Miller and he wrote he brought this book to me and he said you've got to read this book and he would began to read passages out of this book literally cry while he was reading these passages because they were so powerful, just it's an allegory on the life of Christ, but it's written around the theme apology music and about seven years ago I came across the film rights for purchased the film rights and began to write the screenplay, so I've worked on the screenplay for seven years. I would write something and I would sit down and and read what I'd written to my dad and we would both sit and cry together.

It was just beautiful and I didn't finish the screenplay until last year and my dad went to heaven before I finished it but I know that I know he's proud of what I've done and he encouraged me along the way of how I had To come the soul of the book To you know the real message of the book and it was just so sweet to get to share so much of it with him as I went to this journey. I just think God take a little less Texas girl, do you know was born out in the middle of a bunch tumbleweeds and you know put me in front of very influential people.

Millions of people to encourage them and uplift them and lead them into God's presence through worship and it's been an absolute joy even along the hard places even in the tough spots, my constant has been the gift that God's given me bringing me closer to him, a terrific job on the production by faith. Buchanan and a special thanks to Cindy Ratcliff for sharing her story you have decided to children or wife, whether to forgive X, I decided I was not going to walk in unforgiveness not be covered by the past.

The biggest and best decision she made in her life.

I lost everything that was familiar to me and she said when she was invited by BB Winans for commercial worship leadership letter to Oklahoma City but to Tampa but to Dallas where she meets her husband when she gets the call control and 23 years later, leading worship there and then writing the screenplay. Her dad always wanted her to write and we love telling me stories about people of faith is like the military daily lives that include a lot of movement in worship leaders.

By the way, if you don't know what a worship leader is if the person leaves the band story should be Ratcliff dear on our American store to have it all read the material level in a family-friendly section of modern sofa outside and enjoy the crisp air. The new fire pit conversations that overhauled the essentials to make your home phone, functional and fabulous in-store Ashley.com today attention Medicare beneficiaries getting all the benefit you need.

If you have Medicare you may now be able to get new benefits may include eyeglasses, wellness visits, gym membership, meal delivery of your engagement will go. You may find plans with zero monthly plan premiums zero co-pays on many services and zero deductible calling hundred 832-7597. That's 800-832-7597 808 three 275 seven for 10 years. Verizon is provided technology curriculum connectivity.

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