In early October 1957, on the fifth date of a two week tour of Australia, Penniman was flying from Melbourne to appear in front of 40,000 fans in concert in Sydney. Shocked by the red hot appearance of the engines against the night sky, he envisioned angels holding up the plane. Then, while he performed at the stadium, he was shaken by the sight of a ball of fire that he watched streak across the sky overhead. He took what was actually the Russian satellite Sputnik as another sign to quit show business and follow God. The following day he departed Sydney on a ferry and threw his $8,000 ring in the water to show his band members that he was serious about quitting. The plane that he was originally scheduled to fly back home on ended up crashing in the Pacific Ocean, which he took as confirmation that he was doing what God wanted him to do.
The news of him quitting at the height of his career had broken all over the world by the time he returned to the United States. He attended one more recording session for Specialty on October 18, 1957, and, at the request of DJ Alan Freed, performed a farewell concert at theApollo Theatre in New York. He then had his roadies drive his Cadillacs across the United States to a property he bought for his mother inCalifornia and gave her the keys. He formed the Little Richard Evangelistic Team, travelling across the country preaching, and helped people locally through a ministry on skid row in Los Angeles.[59]
From October 1957 to 1962, Penniman recorded gospel music for Goldner, Little Star, Mercury, and Atlantic Records. He also enrolledin the Seventh-day Adventist Oakwood College (now Oakwood University), in Hunstville, Alabama, where he planned to take a three year course which was to culminate in ordination. In November 1957, he met Ernestine Campbell at an evangelistic meeting in Washington, D.C.. They were married on July 11, 1959. They'd divorce less than two years later.
