For Barbara Adams, working at Marshall Baptist Association was never just a job. It was a calling.
“When I was a senior in high school, I felt called to missions,” Adams, 78, said. “I never did it and all my life felt like I should do missions. When the opportunity (to work at the association) came, that’s when I thought it was my calling.”
And when the time came to retire after 27 years as associational secretary, clerk and treasurer, she was sad to leave.
“I enjoyed meeting people and I got to know who was at what church,” Adams said.
She was the first person to take this position on a full-time basis. During her time at Marshall Association, Adams worked with four directors of missions, saw the number of churches in the association increase from 97 to 102 and helped the association move into a new office building in 2001.
Randall Stoner said Adams played a big part in helping him get acquainted with the association when he became director of missions eight years ago.
“She took me in when I first came,” Stoner said. “She became a good, close friend with the utmost integrity and grace.”
And he’s not the only one who came to rely upon her.
“Everybody in the association trusted Barbara Adams,” Stoner said.
On May 2, the association hosted a reception in Adams’ honor at Solitude Baptist Church, Albertville, where she is a member, and presented her with a monetary gift.
Adams plans to travel and volunteer more now that she is retired.
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