I Want to Be You at 82!

Last weekend, I spent a wonderful time with the women of Keeping the Festival Retreat. This group began a friends' retreat three years ago, and Rachel Olsen was their speaker for the first two years. I had really big shoes to fill, but Barbara and her friends welcomed me with open arms. It was truly a blessings to seek the Lord through I Thessalonians with them.

One of my favorites (and I know that none of them will mind me naming her since she's one of everybody's favorites) was a woman named Miss Anne. What a remarkable woman! At 82, she is one of the most lively and encouraging people that I've ever met. She is a drummer, and her rendition of "When the Saints Come Marching In" on the spoons kept everybody clapping, smiling and singing. From the moment I walked into the room, she greeted me with encouragement and made me feel right at home. Usually I'm a little nervous at the beginning of a retreat weekend, but this time I just couldn't wait to get started!

One other thing that Miss Anne is known for is her passion for distributing tracts. She had story after story of lives changed by reading the gospel in her little booklets. In one story, she described being thrown out of Belks because of passing out tracts. She tried to evoke the First Ammendment, but it fell on deaf ears! It didn't stop her, though, and she gave me a gift of a whole stack to distribute myself. Miss Anne, I'll be faithful!

Her final gift to me was a "praise ball". Each year the group throws the ball from person to person. The woman who catches it, shares a praise with the group. This year each woman shared another woman's name who had "spread the light"and made a difference in her life. I'll carry the praise ball with me as I speak and carry on the tradition where I can. I think, though, that Miss Anne is truly a living praise ball. Wherever she goes, praise abounds both from her lips and from those whose fire is fanned through her life. Miss Anne, I want to be just like you when I grow up!