‘God started opening some doors’

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Cordell couple thankful to be leading church in Sentinel

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  • Ron and Cheryl Putnam have been married since 2012. Ron was recently named pulpit minister at Northeast Church of Christ in Sentinel. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO / CHERYL PUTNAM
    Ron and Cheryl Putnam have been married since 2012. Ron was recently named pulpit minister at Northeast Church of Christ in Sentinel. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO / CHERYL PUTNAM
  • Ron Putnam was recently named pulpit minister at Northeast Church of Christ in Sentinel. “We love God and we love people. What more do you need?” Ron’s wife, Cheryl, said. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO / CHERYL PUTNAM
    Ron Putnam was recently named pulpit minister at Northeast Church of Christ in Sentinel. “We love God and we love people. What more do you need?” Ron’s wife, Cheryl, said. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO / CHERYL PUTNAM
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Ron Putnam’s voice is raspy, and at times, you can barely hear him.

For a preacher, it’s not always the ideal situation.

Then again, cancer isn’t ideal, either, and it’s Ron’s battle with cancer that left him with the raspy delivery.

In 2003, Ron was diagnosed with stage-four throat cancer; the doctors told him he had 90 days to live.

“I had a tumor in my throat,” Ron said, simply.

Ron was living in Austin, Texas, at the time of the diagnosis. “I’ve got three boys, so I told them, let’s go on a vacation. And so we did.”

He also endured the usual agony cancer brings in treatment: radiation, chemotherapy, all the procedures “a normal person goes through” with stage-four cancer.

Three months passed, and the doctor asked him how he was.

“I’m feeling pretty good,” he answered.

Same story at six months, a year, and every year after that.

After five years, the doctor said he was essentially cancer free.

“God had a plan for Ron,” his wife, Cheryl, said. “Ron is always worried about speaking because of the throat cancer.”

Ron, and Cheryl by extension, recently started as the pulpit minister, or preacher, at the Northeast Church of Christ in Sentinel.

A preacher needs a voice, obviously, to deliver sermons and preach the word of God.

“He never thought God could use him because of his voice,” Cheryl said.

Certain times of the year can affect his voice more, he said, like during wheat and cotton harvests.

“I have to strain to project it out,” he said. “But if I’ve got a microphone, I’m all right.”

Ron recalls his fight against cancer, and said he never felt like he was going to die

“I really didn’t,” he said.

The diagnosis was something that forced him to examine his life and change his thinking about how he should live his life.

“I wasn’t in the right environment in Austin,” he said. “That’s why I moved back here. Life teaches us a lot of things.”

The road to ministry

Ron didn’t always know he would be a preacher.

In fact, he was a lot of things first. Oilfield worker, restaurant owner, golf enthusiast.

But he was raised in the church, thanks to the strong guidance of his grandmother.

“She had me there every Sunday, every Wednesday night, every time there was a kids deal, no matter what,” he said.

He would sing to the ladies’ group with his nice soprano voice. “I was a decent singer,” he said.

After high school, he attended Oklahoma Christian for a year. That was a good environment for him because kids there weren’t drinking, doing drugs or chasing girls, he said.

“You were in the right situation,” he said “Well, I didn’t last very long there, because you had to be pretty smart, and I barely got through high school.”

He tells the story of the time he had to get his high school transcripts and remembers looking at them.

“You can definitely look at it and tell that I wasn’t someone who took school very seriously,” he added.

But you don’t accomplish the things that Ron has without being smart.

After spending time in the oilfields, Ron opened a New York style submarine sandwich restaurant in Oklahoma City.

Over about 13 years, that one restaurant became 20.

He sold those and thought he would retire.

Then that little fight against cancer happened.

Ron left Cordell when he was 21. He was gone for 40 years before he returned.

“I always had my own company, my own businesses,” he said.

When he returned, he started Shorty’s.

“I told Cheryl, when we started dating, I’ve got something to ask you. I told her I wanted to start a fried onion hamburger place, and I wanted her to run the register for me,” he said. “I asked her to quit her job and work for me.”

Cheryl agreed.

“And three years later, almost every day, she said ‘Honey, I’m leaving if you don’t get rid of this restaurant,’ ” he said.

They sold the restaurant. Cheryl started working at the hospital, and Ron worked flipping houses.

Along his journey, Ron kind of had an ah-ha moment.

“God taught me something when I had those 20 restaurants,” he said. “I was really, really fortunate. I made a lot of money. More money than a high school graduate would ever have thought he would make. But when I got to a certain number in the checking account and savings account, when my income reached a certain number, it was like all of sudden, all my brains had leaked out.”

Ron thought he was the one creating his good fortune.

“I didn’t realize there were so many things that could have happened to me. I started going to church. Started tithing the way I was supposed to tithe, not 10 percent according to what I had earned. But you couldn’t believe the difference in the way that you felt every day when you got up vs. the way you felt before when you were out throwing your money around, gambling and drinking and all that.”

He made a decision, he said, and left it in God’s hands. He changed his focus.

“I was going to do everything I could do to help my community, my church,” he said.

Finding a church

Ron remembers studying preachers when he attended different rallies or churches.

“I just always said to myself, I’d listen to someone and they would have a great sermon, and I said I can do that,” he said “I’m thinking just like they’re thinking. I know it’s true. So if you believe it, you can preach it. That’s what kind of got me on the road to doing it.”

“God started opening some doors,” Cheryl added.

When Ron lived in Austin, his church asked him to handle the youth class. He did that for two or three years.

“And every now and then, they would let me get in the pulpit and preach,” he said. “And then people would tell me, I really enjoyed your lesson today. It just gave me confidence. It’s what every one of us needs today, encouragement. If we can just give encouragement to people, they wouldn’t see their problems being so great.” Ron spent time

Ron spent time preaching at four or five churches in the area that didn’t have preachers. He did the jail ministry at Washita County, too. He also held Sunday services at the Cordell Christian Home.

That gave him time to continue to hone his skills.

“It’s something that you’d be smart enough not to ask to stand there in front of people and talk,” he said. “Everyone says, when you look at surveys and stuff, that the scariest thing for most people is to do that. Well, it is for me too. My wife does it, and she acts like she’s not scared at all, but she’s been doing that for a long time.”

“I am a preacher’s kid,” Cheryl added. “They make you do it from the get-go.”

Sometimes Ron lacks confidence or wonders whether his sermons hit the mark

“She always knows the first question that I’m going to ask. How was that today? Of course, she never tells me the truth, she just always says it good,” Ron said, with a chuckle.

When Northeast Church of Christ came calling, the Putnams knew it was time.

“We prayed a lot about it, we hoped that something would happen,” Ron said. “But we’ve been praying a long time. And God’s been saying a long time, he ain’t ready. I still don’t know that I’m ready.”

Here’s what they do know, Cheryl said. “We love God and we

“We love God and we love people. What more do you need?” she said.

Feeling at home

Ron and Cheryl met in 2012 and got married in 2013.

They teach each other lessons all the time.

“When Cheryl and I met, she was going to a different church. We don’t think alike on every single thing in the bible,” Ron said. “We go in and we read it, and we try to see what it’s actually saying, and what in common sense it means. And she’ll tell you we’ve been through a few of those conversations.”

One of the first and biggest lessons Cheryl taught Ron is who should be No. 1 in your life.

“I knew that she loved God more than she loved me. I could see that in her daily walk,” he said. “And I knew that’s the way that I should be and I wasn’t afraid to be like that with her. Where before, I’d always felt like I needed to show someone they were No. 1. They would say ‘I should be No. 1 in your life.’ No you shouldn’t be. You should be No. 2.”

Ron and Cheryl really like their new church in Sentinel.

“The church is just so sweet, just a beautiful congregation,” she said. “They’ve got some new families coming in. We’re just so excited.”

Sentinel kind of feels like a second home to Cheryl. Her dad was a preacher in the town for about 12 years, she said. Not at the same church, but a different one.

“So it’s fun, it’s like going home for me,” she said.

Ron said their first week, they had 14 people attend service. After a little publicity in the local newspaper, they had 22 the second week, then 29.

“A lot of people had left because they felt like the church was going to quit, just going to die out,” Ron said “Now, we want them to know – no, that’s not what’s going to happen. We’re going to trying to get things going again. The COVID-19 thing, it’s a tough deal to try and get people interacting.”

As they build up the congregation, they can’t have any pretenses, Cheryl said.

“People need you to be real. And I think that’s what we are. We are the least perfect people you’re going to meet. And that’s OK,” she said. “That doesn’t bother me at all. God can still use you. And that’s what people need to understand. That’s my big thing. You have to love the people.”

And leave the judgment at home, Ron said.

“I try to treat people the same way I would want them to treat me. I know that’s a cliché and everybody says that. But not everybody does that,” he said. “What’s important is the way you love each other. God tells us in all the scripture there’s two things that hinge, and that is loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, and loving your neighbor as yourself. If you get those two things right, everything else will be good.”

They aren’t going to Sentinel to try something that hasn’t been done before, Cheryl said.

“We’re not. Ron isn’t going to preach a sermon that hasn’t been preached somewhere. There’s nothing we’re going to do that’s different than what churches already do,” she said. “But we’re going to go and love those people. That’s what makes all the difference. If we ever leave there, they are going to know they’ve been loved, and that’s all I care about. Nothing matters but loving God and loving people.”