Dot Morris, a member of Mount Zion Baptist Church, Huntsville, in Madison Baptist Association, appreciates James 1:27 from a unique perspective.
After her husband, J.B. "Bill" Morris — who served as Mount Zion Baptist’s pastor from 1969 until 1974 — died in an automobile accident in April 2005, she took to heart the famous verse concerning orphans and widows when she decided to start a widows support group in her church.
Morris asked Mount Zion’s then-minister of education Ernest Hill about the need for such a group. But her plans broadened when she received a phone call just a few days later from the Madison Association office asking her about the possibility of starting a similar group.
"The secretary there (at the association) said she had just gotten a call from a former preacher’s wife, Jo Wood, asking if there was a group for preacher’s widows," she said. "I just felt like it was a God thing."
After meeting, Morris and Wood quickly found three other women in their association in similar situations and with similar needs.
Though presently without a name, the group has met twice since its inception in July "just to support each other," according to Morris.
"We don’t have much direction and we didn’t have any other group to pattern our activities by, but we said that one thing we wanted to do was support each other with our prayers and calls and have a time of fellowship together, maybe once a month," she said.
Though illness has stunted its schedule, the group’s commitment to the cause is flourishing.
"We haven’t been able to meet once a month, but another thing that we wanted to do was to support not just widows but pastor’s wives. A lot of the time, they are under a lot stress and they just need someone talk to," Morris said. "They can’t always talk to the people in their church, [so] each of us wanted to make ourselves available to them."
The group plans on presenting the book "90 Minutes in Heaven," a best-selling true story of a Baptist preacher’s near-death experience, to ladies who feel led to join the group. According to Morris, membership is open to anyone whose husband has been in the ministry. It doesn’t have to be a pastorate or only those in Madison Association.
For more information, call Morris at 256-721-7564 or e-mail her at preachermo@knology.net. (TAB)
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