She was a child of the Great Depression.
But as a daughter of a Baptist pastor, the now 95-year-old Evelyn Howell Sapp recalls distant memories of her childhood with fondness as well as memories of the friends she has made along the way in Baptist life.
Sapp’s father, Malcolm E. Howell, began preaching when he was just a teenager.
“He wanted to help educate young men who were … called to preach,” Sapp noted. “When young men would say they were called to preach, my daddy would go and have prayer with them and always give them a book that he felt would help them.”
Sapp recalled how she and her siblings were given Bible verses to memorize at home. “If I didn’t know the memory verse for next Sunday, the next day I knew it,” she said with a chuckle.
Her father, who also worked as a mail carrier, served as the pastor of several Alabama Baptist churches including Arkadelphia Baptist Church in Cullman County, New Union Baptist Church in Cullman County and Blount Springs Baptist Church in Blount County, among others. He also served as director of missions for Sulphur Springs Baptist Association later in his ministry.
According to Sapp, Arkadelphia Baptist was the same church Hudson Baggett grew up attending. Baggett, a familiar name in Alabama Baptist life who would serve a 28-year tenure as editor of The Alabama Baptist, was one of Sapp’s favorite childhood playmates.
Childhood friend
“We must have been 8 to 10 years old when I first began to know Hudson,” she recalled. “[We] would get outside and play … ball. I’d pitch and we’d bat when we were kids. Hudson just seemed like he was a close kin to me in a way.”
Later in life, Sapp would sometimes go to hear her childhood friend preach.
“Hudson had such a good sense of humor,” she noted. “When he died (in 1994) I felt like I had lost one of my very best friends.”
Sapp, who was 12 years old when she accepted Christ as her Savior during a revival at Blount Springs Baptist, also went on to become very involved in Alabama Baptist life. Within the church setting she served as a pianist and church clerk and focused much of her ministry efforts as a Sunday School teacher.
70 years of teaching
Sapp taught mostly teenagers and, later in life, taught a class for senior adult ladies. Before resigning recently after about 70 years of teaching Sunday School classes, she taught couples.
Sapp noted she always referred to the Sunday School lessons printed in The Alabama Baptist and used quotes from those lessons in her teaching material.
“I’ve known about The Alabama Baptist all my life. And I still read The Alabama Baptist. … [It] is a wonderful paper,” she said.
Sapp’s calling to teach also extended into teaching elementary school for 27 years.
“I enjoyed teaching, period. I think I was born to teach. … I enjoyed knowing that I was adding to the child’s knowledge either in school or in Sunday School,” she said.
Sapp, currently a member of East Side Baptist Church, Cullman, has been widowed for 33 years and has two children, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
She noted she has formed many lasting friendships as a result of her years of teaching, and former students will still take the time to stop by and visit with her.
Nedra Green, a member of Seventh Street Baptist Church, Cullman, is just one of many whose life has been touched by Sapp and her ministry. Sapp was serving as a Sunday School teacher at First Baptist Church, Hanceville, when Green first met her years ago.
“She was super nice to me,” Green recalled of that first meeting, adding Sapp is a trusted friend and has been like a “second mama” to her.
“I just feel like she’s my family,” Green said. “She’s a very special lady.”
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