As a child, Annie Kate Revert’s goal was to play piano at her church. In 10th grade, she achieved that and devoted the next 65 years to playing piano or organ for her church’s worship services, children’s choir, youth choir, adult choir and other occasions. During many of those years, she played a grand piano purchased in memory of her son Roy Martin. In addition to her musical contributions across the decades, Revert taught Sunday School to various age groups, Vacation Bible School and Bible Drill. At 60, she took her first job outside the home, serving 13 years as a senior center director. For that work, she was named to the Alabama Senior Citizens Hall of Fame. Revert is 81.
Ministry description: “To serve others in any way that is available … and it changes with age.”
Church name: Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, Enterprise, in Coffee Baptist Association
Life verse: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart: and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.” (Prov. 3:5–6)
Describe where you focus your greatest ministry efforts. Playing piano and organ; doing something extra for someone each week.
Who was one of the most influential people in your faith life? Why?
I have had a lot of people who have been an influence on my spiritual life, but my daddy was the most influential. He was a very quiet man and didn’t say much. He was not one who did the visible things that people could see. My daddy was a farmer. Even though he was very tired during the week, he was very faithful to be at church and make sure his children were there. His faithfulness made an impression on me that I wanted to emulate.
Tell about a turning point in your life and how God was involved.
I was a child when I accepted Christ as my personal Savior, and I always tried to do all that I could in serving the Lord. But in 1986, our middle son (Roy Martin) passed away, and this was a difficult time for our family. He was almost 24 years old and had felt called into the ministry and was so excited about serving the Lord. We almost lost him at childbirth, and his dad and I had always felt that he was spared for some special reason. Now he was almost 24 and was such a great witness. All the while that he was in the hospital, I believed with all my heart he was going to be all right. But after two and a half weeks, the Lord took him home. I then realized that for whatever reason he was spared at birth, that plan had been accomplished through his life or even perhaps through his death. This made me very conscious of the fact that we don’t know how long our time here on earth is going to be, and we need to be sharing the gospel every day. Since then, I have shared my testimony much more freely than I did before his death.
What has God been teaching you lately?
It makes no difference how old you are: There are places of service for you in God’s house. We need to be in prayer. Every Tuesday, we have a group of ladies who meet for prayer. We also need to find ways we can be a witness outside the church doors doing something for someone — a card, a phone call, a visit, a plate of cookies — anything that enables you to share what God has done for you.
Does your church have any special traditions that mean a lot to you?
Every year at Easter, we have sunrise services at our church with breakfast afterward. This has been going on since I was a child. After all, it’s at Easter that we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord. We should never forget the sacrifice that was made for us.
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