The Pillar Series: The Sorahs

This blog post is part of a series dedicated to honoring godly men and women in our lives. For this post, I had the opportunity to speak with Evangelist Bro. Rusty Sorah and his lovely wife, Sis. Lisa Sorah.

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Brother and Sister Sorah, thank you for taking the time to talk with us today. How long have you been evangelizing for?

Bro. & Sis. Sorah: We have been evangelizing for 11 years.

Was it an adjustment when you first began to evangelize?

Sis. Sorah: When we first started evangelizing, I was not very flexible because I was used to the same schedule and routine, just like everyone else. I was very routine-oriented so evangelizing just really threw me for a loop. Evangelizing has taught me to be more flexible and to go with the flow. I have learned to manage everything because we do not have the same schedule or routine everyday. So everywhere we go, our routine shifts, but we will fall into a new pattern. It was an adjustment, but I was so excited. It didn’t bother me to live in a trailer. It was probably more of an adjustment for me though, because my husband evangelized with his parents for 10 years.

Bro. Sorah: Yes, I evangelized as a kid from age one to eleven with my parents.

What is one of the greatest miracles you have witnessed while visiting a church?

Bro. & Sis. Sorah: The greatest miracle was during three weeks of revival in Garden City, Kansas in 2015. During the revival around 30 received the Holy Ghost and 27 of them are still in the church today.

What is your favorite scripture and why?

Sis. Sorah: I have always liked Acts 2:39, “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” Because it confirms to me that the Apostolic heritage is going to live on. It is a promise.

Bro. Sorah: Whenever someone asks me to sign their Bible, I sign Proverbs 4:23, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” I feel like one of the most important things is the issues of the heart. As Apostolic Pentecostals, we have a lot of outward things such as our modesty and holiness. But I like Proverbs 4:23 because it drives in the seriousness of the heart, the internal, the inside.

Do you have any book recommendations?

Bro. Sorah: I like to read survival stories that deal with the human will. I’ll preach about stories like the human will to live. One of the books I talked about during a preaching here was, The Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival. I am drawn to those types of books, I read other types, but I am drawn to those. I feel like it impacts me, and I get messages out of them.

Sis. Sorah: The Journey of a Lifetime by Larry Booker. This book is awesome, it really gets into his personal life, and it is very impacting.

What is your favorite city or state you have visited thus far?

Sis. Sorah: I always like California. And we love San Diego, CA. We also liked Florida.

Bro. Sorah: We liked Atlanta, GA, Phoenix, AZ, San Antonio, TX.

Sis. Sorah: So far, we have been to 22-24 different states.

How do you balance your family life, ministry, home school, etc?

Sis. Sorah: We have a scheduled routine to help. A lot of times I’ll have dinner in the crockpot. I am stretched very thin at times with home school, cleaning, etc. It can be a challenge. Some people think evangelizing is just a fun life. But it can be hard and a sacrifice. And you cannot do it unless you’re called because it is not easy. But somehow we figure out ways to get the job done.

What do you believe is the greatest need in the church body today?

Bro. Sorah: The altar of consecration. I feel that the altar of consecration is the foundation of our life, our convictions, the strength of our walk with God.

Sis. Sorah: And through the altar of consecration comes unity. Feeling that network of camaraderie.

Bro. Sorah: Yes, we actually have talked about this. It is our opinion that camaraderie is one of the most important things in the church. Because it feels like churches that don’t have camaraderie are lacking energy in their worship. Camaraderie is unity. I feel like there is revival in that.

How do you go about finding the will of God in your life, and how would you recommend navigating through that?

Sis. Sorah: I think it is important to pray about it and ask God’s will and pray for Him to guide you and lead you. And to surrender your will and your plans. And be willing to allow them to change. That can be harder than you think.

Bro. Sorah: Sometimes it can be confusing. I have heard a pastor describe the will of God like walking through a fog. But when God reveals His will then the fog will clear. The scripture comes to my mind, “Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. -Psalm 27:14.”

Sis: Sorah: When I was a late teenager, my pastor preached a message about how there’s peace that comes along with God’s will. And that has always stuck with me. You’ll just know, this is it. And for marriage, it is definitely good to have your Pastor’s blessing, there is peace in that. There’s also fasting, we fasted when we were praying for God’s will in our relationship when we wanted to get married. Even now, we still pray for God’s will. You never ever stop because life has different things, and you have to pray for God’s will. Stay faithful, keep doing what you’re doing and try not to get discouraged. A lot of times while waiting, we can lose hope. But I feel like it is important to put your hope in Him and to try and keep yourself encouraged. I find strength in clinging to those who have been through difficult situations. Like those who have gone through some hard, deep situations. It makes me realize that I can wait and get through this.

Bro. Sorah: There’s another scripture, Lamentations 3:25-26 that says, “The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.” I feel like that factors into the will of God. We can’t force things, so we just quietly hope and wait for clarity. A lot of people get busy and active and put their hand to things and sometimes we just need to patiently wait.

Any advice for the young people reading this blog?

Sis. Sorah: Do not give into peer pressure. You can go against the flow of society. Don’t be afraid to stand up against it and say no.

Bro. Sorah: Establish a closet of prayer. A closet can be anything, any place, anywhere. The church property outside my church growing up had sidewalks around the perimeter of the property. The church had five acres, it was a large area. And I don’t know how it started or why but it just kind of started out of nowhere. I think I was about 16 or 17 years old. I just felt a desire to get alone with God. So I would drive to the church at night and walk those sidewalks and pray. It started out that way. I am a night owl so I would go out there about 10 or 11 o’clock at night and go pray. Even when I had school in the morning, it was my spot out there to go and pray. That became my closet and it became an everyday deal.

When you establish a closet, it gets easier and easier to go to. It takes some effort establishing it, but once you establish it, the closet will start pulling on you. It becomes a part of your routine. That is where I felt the call to the ministry, out walking those sidewalks at night. After all these years, when I go home to visit, I get excited to get back out into my closet. It’s special. I feel that is crucial and key for a young person, with all of the pressures of life. That closet of prayer will help build a foundation to stand on and build a relationship with God.

Sis. Sorah: I also think it is good to make a habit, of praying throughout the day. Even if it is a quick prayer while you are getting ready for work or doing your hair. I like to pray, “Use me Lord, take my hands and my feet. Use me for Your Glory and consecrate me.” And I also wanted to mention to the young people, learn how to find security in God as your rock and not a boyfriend, girlfriend, or your family. Those are all great sources of security in a sense, but in the long run, they’re going to let you down. And you need to learn to stand on Him as your rock, because He is a firm foundation.

How did you know you were called to be an evangelist?

Bro. Sorah: So, I was in my first year of college. That first year of college the call to the ministry got really heavy and strong. And coupled with that call was also this clear understanding and desire that I was going to evangelize. A call to ministry is its own thing but it was coupled along with this absolutely clear understanding and peace that I was supposed to evangelize. Some preachers share of a single powerful moment in their lives, where the call just hit them. But for me it was a process. It was a little nudge here and a little nudge there. A lot of that was in my prayer closet alone, building that relationship with God. It was the still small voice. So I can’t take anybody to a certain spot and say on this day, this call happened. But it was a process.

Lastly, could you share some words of wisdom/advice with us?

Bro. Sorah: This comes to my mind, fighting for and protecting the innocence of our children. I don’t want to be critical, but we see so much, even in Pentecost. It feels like there’s a disconnect of the realities of influence. I see that technology is taking away the innocence of children. And I feel that the innocence of our children is something that we need to fight for and protect. It troubles me when I see 9, 10, 11-year-olds with technology and their singing lyrics to a well-known secular song. It scares me when I see the world’s influence coming on kids with young, tender minds through technology. Let’s fight for our little children.

Also, I do feel as kids grow up, when they see mom and dad in love with God, there’s an impact on them. Even if they go astray, there’s an impact on them. I think it’s important that parents make Apostolic Pentecost not just seem like a big sacrifice, but to make church fun and exemplify that they love it because that will impact their child’s perspective of church.

Sis. Sorah: I also think it is important as parents to make sure our kids know about Bible stories and principles. Because sometimes we depend on Sunday school, or the church to teach them all of that. When really, they are learning most at home. Parents are the number one influence on their kids.

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I just want to say a great, big thank you to the Sorah family. For those who don’t attend my church, the Sorahs were with us for revival from May of this year to the beginning of October. They were such a blessing to our church and I am grateful for the opportunity to have sat down with them to do this blog post. And I am excited to see the Lord continue to use them to bless others. Thank you for reading, God bless you 🙂