June 10, 2002
LAYMAN'S INFLUENCE CARRIES ON: A shining witness
___By John Hall
___Texas Baptist Communications
___DALLAS--From deep inside a business case on the floor of his office at the Baptist Building in Dallas, Roy Cotton pulls out a book titled "The Tipping Point: Little Things Can Make a Big Difference." A large smile comes to his face. To him, it's not just a title. It's a fact of life.
___In 1967, Cotton, who describes himself as coming from a family "poor on the poor side of town," was shining shoes in North Dallas when a man walked in who changed his life.
Omar Harvey surprises Roy Cotton with a shoe shine at the Baptist Building in Dallas.
___That man was Omar Harvey, who was a branch manager at IBM at the time. In a simple conversation, Cotton amazed Harvey with his knowledge of various topics, including history and current events. It marked the beginning of a relationship that has lasted more than 30 years and used both men in ways unseen to them until after the fact.
___"God uses ordinary people," Harvey said. "God uses people without them knowing. I know I never did."
___Harvey, who said he had become adept at forming quick impressions of people while traveling the country interviewing applicants for IBM, quickly became enamored with the young African-American shoe shiner working in a largely Caucasian area. Harvey helped Cotton land a job at IBM to get him through school.
___"You'll get to college," Cotton recalled Harvey telling him. "I'll make sure of that."
___Cotton also remembers Harvey calling the barbershop where he worked and telling the stylist to send him to IBM to complete an employment application. Still in the jeans and T-shirt he wore while shining shoes, Cotton immediately went to the company and made application.
___Although he was only 16, he was quickly hired and worked at IBM for nine years. He worked daily to help his parents pay for his high school education and then for his education at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Harvey presented two checks to the BGCT and its Texas Baptist Missions Foundation on behalf of the Church Starting Center. He presented the checks to Bill Arnold and Cotton.
___When Harvey discovered Cotton wanted to attend Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, he used his influence through his Sunday School class at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas to provide a scholarship for Cotton's first year.
___Today, Cotton serves as a consultant in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex for the Church Starting Center of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. He has kept in touch with Harvey over the years, but they had not seen each other in about 30 years.
___In an unexpected move, a meeting Cotton was attending June 3 moved to the atrium of the third floor of the Baptist Building, where he was surprised to see Harvey.
___Harvey asked Cotton to sit down and then began to shine his shoes as Cotton once had done for him.
___"I was thinking about humility" while shining his shoes, Harvey said. "I would have washed his feet if he would have liked me to. He's just such a great example."
___Harvey then gave two checks to the BGCT and its Texas Baptist Missions Foundation on behalf of the Church Starting Center. One was in his name and one in the name Albert and Ruth Galvan, and they were presented in honor of Cotton's accomplishments and ministry. Emotions ran high as they embraced and Cotton thanked Harvey, telling him, "You mean the world to me."
___Having come full circle, Cotton, who called himself "the most blessed man in the world," still points to the day he first met Harvey as a "tipping point" in his life.
___"God blessed my life through a man of a different age group, different ethnicity, different everything," Cotton said.
___"He's just an amazing man of God who lived his Christian beliefs and whose walk matched his talk. He wasn't hoping to change a life; he was being an ordinary Christian."
___
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