Audrey Mitchell nears 70-year mark as VBS teacher at Midfield church

The city of Birmingham has changed over the years. 
   
When urban sprawl began to redefine metropolitan Birmingham more in terms of Inverness, Cahaba Heights, Mountain Brook and Hoover, younger generations followed the strip malls as far as “still technically Birmingham” ZIP codes allowed. 
   
The west Birmingham community of Fairfield Highlands is a perfect example. Now officially incorporated into Midfield — a Birmingham suburb — Fairfield Highlands has witnessed for itself a slow shift in demography. Its children and grandchildren have traded the schools of old “Billy Goat Hill” for those of new “Vestavia Hills,” creating a near-youthless vacuum in Fairfield Highlands — especially in its churches. For Audrey Mitchell, it’s been a pensive transition.
   
Mitchell’s late father and husband both worked in old Birmingham’s steel mills. Her husband, Joe, was with U.S. Steel for 40 years and was a deacon at Fairfield Highlands Baptist Church, Midfield, for much of that time. 
   
Mitchell said she has attended Fairfield Highlands Baptist her entire life. But since the church is only 79 years old and she’s 85, she changed that claim slightly to “since I can remember.” 
   
She was saved there when she was 15, thanks in large part to Ina Kennedy, wife of one of the church’s first pastors, Nolan Kennedy. 
   
“She came to my house and prayed with me,” Mitchell recalled. “I was 15 and in what they used to call ‘Training Union.’ She was our leader and just had a big influence on me.” 
   
It’s likely the same will be said of her — if it hasn’t been said already. 
   
Mitchell taught kindergarten at the church’s Christian school for 18 years, but what she’s best known for is her Vacation Bible School (VBS) tenure. She has taught the kindergarten class at Fairfield Highlands’ VBS for 68 years in a row. 
   
“A man at our church told me I’d been teaching long enough to be principal,” Mitchell said with a laugh. 
   
Though she once taught fellow teenagers early in her career, Mitchell quickly developed a passion for kindergartners. “I just had a heart for 5 year olds,” she said. “They’re very inquisitive and very eager to learn. They’re all I’ve ever really taught.” And she has a knack for it, according to those around her.
   
“Audrey is a great storyteller,” said Richard Mark Lee, Mitchell’s grandson. “Even in this age of high-tech stuff, she can still keep a child spellbound with her stories.”
   
Lee, pastor of First Baptist Church, Sugar Hill, Ga., has nothing but positive things to say about his grandmother. “I wish I had more faithful senior adults like Audrey Mitchell,” he said.
   
Though a natural-born yarn-spinner with children, Mitchell is reserved when it comes to talking about herself. 
   
“(Lee) has just never heard of someone so old teaching Bible school,” she said about her grandson’s compliments. “I don’t feel like I’ve done anything special.”
   
Harry Sims, minister of evangelism and education for Fairfield Highlands, said Mitchell is one of the most dedicated people he’s known. Sims has had Mitchell at his disposal for 56 years. “She’s one of my favorite people,” he said, “but, of course, she’s been here a lot longer than I have.”
   
She was there in the ’40s, in the ’50s, and on into the present. In the glory days, Fairfield Highlands would draw 500 or more area youth for seven days of VBS or longer.
   
But this year, Mitchell often found near-empty classrooms. On days no kindergartners showed, she  assisted other teachers with other grade levels.
   
“Years ago, we would go longer than five or seven days. Bible school would last longer,” Mitchell recalled. “We just don’t have that many kids now. Our community has just changed, so people have just moved out.” Although discouraged, she does plan to continue teaching.
   
And her grandson hopes others follow her lead. “We need others to stay the course and leave a legacy worthy of following like Audrey Mitchell has left for her family and church family,” Lee said.