“I love children and how they express their thoughts,” said Joy Brewer, 76, of Athens. “One child asked me if I was living when the disciples were here. Another said, ‘They took my mother’s gallbladder out, and I am not sure if they will put it back in.'” Brewer taught in children’s Sunday School for 25 years and now is co-director of her church’s backpack ministry. She also worked for 15 years in lunchrooms in Limestone County Schools. Her quilting and crafting skills produce items for babies and other people who need them and spur others to do the same. Married 56 years, she and her husband, Tony, have three daughters, seven grandsons and a great-granddaughter.
Ministry description: Director of Secret Friends, an endeavor in which younger women in her church “adopt” older women
Church name: Sardis Springs Baptist Church, Athens, in Limestone Baptist Association
Life verse: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” (Prov. 3:5).
Describe where you focus your greatest ministry efforts. Secret Friends; backpack ministry; outreach of sending cards and delivering flowers to homebound individuals; projects that provide quilts and other items for babies in neonatal intensive care, for people in need and for missions
Q: Who was or is one of the most influential people in your faith life? Why?
A: It had to be my parents, who raised seven of us to be faithful to God and to our family, to help our neighbor, to work for what we have and to love our country.
Q: What has God been teaching you lately?
A: God has really been working with me lately. One of my prayers I have been praying is being answered, not exactly in the time frame or how I wanted it answered, but I am so very thankful and will continue to pray.
Q: If there were one thing you could tell your younger self about faith, what would it be?
A: Pray about who you will marry, remembering life is better when your spouse is a Christian and you work together to raise your family in a Christian environment.
Q: Have you ever read a book or heard a song that changed the way you think about God and faith? What was it, and what did you learn from it?
A: Many songs speak to me. I couldn’t name just one; so many have helped me. I also see how music has helped Isaac (my grandson, who has autism). He is not verbal, but he was able to witness to someone by typing on his iPad, “Everyone needs to know Jesus.” That just blessed my soul.
Q: Does your church have any special traditions that mean a lot to you? What are they?
A: We started a program in the late ’80s called Secret Friends. The younger ladies of the church take the older ladies’ Sunday School class as “secret friends.” The older ladies don’t purchase gifts, but the younger ladies send cards and gifts two times a month and remember their secret friend in prayer daily. At the end of six months, we have lunch for the older ladies and reveal our secret friends. The older secret friends bring a thank-you gift to the meal.
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