The Rev. Charles Redden Butler, Jr.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=112450525

Charles Butler grew up in Lynchburg, VA, the son of a pharmacist and a schoolteacher. He lived in a wealthy neighborhood and his sisters were all the society rage and were part of the country club set.

When he grew up, he found himself drawn to ministry. From visions as a child, he knew he had to follow them, and so began a lifetime of ministry through many titles for all of his life. He was trained at Columbia Seminary and had several pastorates all over the United States before going to Brazil as a missionary for the West Brazil mission of the Presbyterian Church.

While in seminary, Sarah Jean was born to his wife Ruth in Wilmington, NC (where her mother lived at the time).

His first pastorate out of seminary was in Mobile, Alabama, where Georgia was born.

A year and a half later he was transferred to a small church in Dermott, Arkansas, where Nancy was born.

Three years later, the whole family moved to Brazil for a five year mission with the West Brazil mission of the Presbyterian Church. During that time, Charles III (they use Neto in Brazil) was born (in the home of the doctor, by midwife, before the doctor arrived).

The family came home on furlough in 1955, and while in mission housing, the time came for Betsy's birth. She was born at Emory Hospital, in Atlanta, GA.

Five children, five different states, five different jobs, this was just the beginning of the family adventure.

Daddy was restless and felt the call of God on his life in many ways. He was dissatisfied with the Presbyterian church, and asked for a transfer to the church of his childhood (Methodist) and was given a supply pastor job in Airport Gardens, Kentucky, a mining town that was slowly folding up.

We then moved to Hazard, the year of the great Hazard flood, and shortly thereafter to Burgess, VA. In Burgess, he was one of the few Caucasian ministers to have no prejudices about people of color, and he was ostracized from his congregation because of it, and left the ministry for a time.

The family moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where he worked in various jobs, everything from selling Bibles, to making plaster of paris handmolds (called Little Hands). Mother registered with the school system and was a 3rd grade schoolteacher for close to 14 years through the Georgia school system.

Daddy traveled back and forth to Brazil during this time, selling gemstones, selling animal hides, importing creatures for zoos, anything to get back to his beloved Brazil. We always had missionaries coming through Atlanta so we always welcomed them.