A Life Changed By Faith: How Sam Butcher Found His Calling

In the fall of 1958, a scholarship arrived for Samuel J. Butcher — an invitation to attend the College of Arts and Crafts in Berkeley, California. It was the kind of moment that turns a quiet dream into something real. Sam accepted, and his life began to open in ways he hadn't yet imagined.

He was 19 years old, full of hope, and about to meet the woman he would love for the rest of his life.

Katie Cushman had moved to Sam's area during his senior year of high school, and the two had built a warm friendship that carried right into college. They hadn't dated before he left, but distance has a way of clarifying things. Sam wrote to Katie and asked her to go steady. She said yes. He sent his class ring in the mail. That winter of his first college year — on New Year's Eve, the same calendar date that had announced his arrival into the world — Sam and Katie became engaged.

They married in 1959. Katie's father sold a cow to pay for the wedding. The newlyweds moved into a small apartment near campus, within walking distance of the hospital where Sam worked in the kitchen to keep them afloat. They lived frugally, joyfully, on almost nothing — occasionally splurging on a small package of Oreo cookies if company was coming. Art found its way into every corner of their simple life. Sam would bring home wallpaper samples from a store where he worked, cover the floor with them, and draw designs that Katie would cut out and shade with paint. It didn't matter what room he was standing in — beauty had a way of following Sam wherever he went.

When Life Redirected

In March of 1962, their first son, Jon, was born. Katie had moved home to her parents during the pregnancy because they couldn't afford a doctor, and when Sam came to be with her for the birth, he stayed — and never went back to school. The dream of becoming a professor of fine arts quietly folded into something else. Sam found work where he could: at a hospital, then a restaurant, always finding small ways to weave creativity into whatever he was doing. Over time, Sam began to sense that God had other plans for him, and it was then that things began to change.

 A New Beginning

Sam had grown up with a fondness for faith — fond memories of his grandmother telling him Bible stories, Sunday school trips with his sister Dawn — but he had been spiritual in a quiet, undefined way rather than rooted in any particular practice.

That changed on a Sunday that seemed, at first, entirely ordinary.

When his wife Katie suggested they visit a Baptist church near their home, Sam came along with their young sons, Jon and Phillip, who had joined the family in 1963. Being a shy man, and with everything about the experience so new to him, Sam accidentally walked away with a hymnal after the service. He was genuinely mortified. He fretted about it the entire week — until the following Sunday, when he could finally return it.

It was on that return visit — hymnal in hand, a little embarrassed, showing up anyway — that Sam Butcher gave his life to the Lord.

Early in his new Christian life, Sam felt the Lord Jesus leading him onto the path of fruitfulness and blessing. Before, Sam had struggled at times with certain words and their meanings; after his transformation, he had a new capacity to memorize and study. With the Word alive in him, Sam read the Gospels, memorizing verses, then whole chapters. It wasn't long before his days were shaped by work and the Word — a rhythm that would carry him forward for the rest of his life.

His pastor noticed the depth of devotion in the young Butcher family. In time, he offered Sam a position in the shipping department at the international offices of Child Evangelism Fellowship in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Sam accepted and moved his growing family back to his home state. His talent was recognized quickly, and before long he was promoted to the art department — the place where, at last, his calling and his work could exist in the same room.

The Butcher family grew beautifully during their years in Michigan. Tammy arrived in 1964, Debbie in 1966, Timmy in 1967, Don in 1969, and the family also lovingly welcomed an adopted daughter, Heather. Seven children. A household overflowing with life and love — and, increasingly, with financial pressure that Sam met head-on. To supplement his income, he took on the work of cleaning office buildings in the evenings, then came home to continue his CEF work late into the night.

The demands grew impossible for one person. Sam asked his supervisor if he could bring someone on to help. Instead, he was told the organization was already looking for a replacement — someone who could handle the full workload alone.

Sam was shaken. He was honest about that. But even in that moment of hurt and uncertainty, he asked God for something quietly remarkable: the grace to be genuinely kind to whoever took his place.

On his final day at CEF, he met that person. The man had, Sam later said, the kindest eyes he had ever seen.

His name was Bill Biel. And from that unlikely ending, an extraordinary new beginning was about to unfold.

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