Kathleen Oswalt
Eastmont Baptist Church, Montgomery
Montgomery Baptist Association
Favorite Verses: Hebrews 13:5, Genesis 1:26
Favorite Hymn: “Out of Ivory Palaces into This World of Woe”
Hobbies: Studying the Bible and gardening
Family Status: Widowed for 31 years after 47 years of marriage to husband, David Parrish Oswalt Sr.; sons, the late David Parrish Oswalt Jr. and Don Lee Oswalt; daughter, Barbara Ann Pouncy; six grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; two great-great-grandchildren
Kathleen Oswalt, 94, of Wetumpka, has been teaching Sunday School for 74 years — 31 years at Eastmont Baptist Church, Montgomery. Teaching the Bible “is where I get more satisfaction than anything I do,” she said. Currently she teaches the Hope Sunday School class, a large class of senior ladies dubbed “the Go-Go Girls” because they are “on the go.” They focus on helping prepare others for eternity, she said. In 2002 an injury paralyzed Oswalt and she was told she would not walk again. Miraculously within three months she was walking and has not slowed since.
Q: What influences in your life pointed you to Christ at the beginning of your faith journey?
A: When I was seven years old, we used to have what they would call protracted meetings, where visiting preachers would set up tents and have intense teaching morning and night. I walked the aisle during a meeting at night. My mother’s songs and the things around me made Christ the most important thing. My parents did not attend church. I attended by myself.
Q: When and how were you led into your ministry work?
A: I think it was when my baby, David, was born and I was carrying him to church and they needed someone to keep the nursery. From that, I just grew. I started out with the little ones, to the high school, to the singles, the young married couples. … I’ve been studying the Bible all my life and I still don’t know it (completely). It is a joy and illumination to my life.
Q: What does your ministry work demand?
A: I never thought of demand, but what I get out of it. It demands consistency of belief. I have to live what I teach. It is a pleasure. It is not a job to me. It is a privilege, an opportunity and a blessing to me. It is not something I have to do; it’s something I want to do.
Q: What do you get from your ministry work?
A: The joy of the Lord. It feeds me with joy and satisfaction and a hunger to know more and do more.
Q: How do family members support you?
A: Every day they feed me with love. We love one another because God is love.
Q: How do you see yourself involved in this in the future?
A: As long as God lets me live, I will do what I’m doing and try to do it better.
Q: What difference will this ministry work make for you in the future?
A: Just to spread God’s joy and God’s love. More importantly, we have to be saved before we can enter eternity with Jesus, which isn’t very far for me. The best things on earth are nothing compared to being with Jesus.
Q: What difference has Jesus Christ made in your life?
A: My security, my strength, my joy — Jesus means everything to me. … I want to reflect the joy and the love of God.
—By Leigh Pritchett, Correspondent, The Alabama Baptist
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