Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday to the best mom and Mimi! To know my mom is to love my mom. If you have the privilege of knowing my mom then you know she is the queen of Southern hospitality! I can’t tell you how many times I have watched her cook enough food to feed an army just in case we have extra guests to stop by. Or how many extra children spent holidays with us and my mom always had extra gifts in her closet “just in case”. I thought it was normal to work all day and then cook dinner for 30 college students every Wednesday night. The Lord has blessed my dad’s ministries, but my mom is the one behind the scenes making everything look flawless.

And yet after 40 years in the ministry and being a successful business woman she is finally slowing down. Nope! It is nothing for her to be making a pound cake at 4:00 am because she just wants to bless someone. On Sunday she will cook enough food to feed 25 people just in case a few extras stop by the house. She will host a Sunday school party and make it look easy. We laugh as she always tells us about her new friends that she met. (She is the only person who can go to Presley’s campground and already know all of the other campers within the first week.). She is the personality in the family!!!

She does it with joy! Not one complaint. Never expecting anything in return. Pure Joy!

So how has watching her hospitality and serving heart impacted our ministry in Guatemala? A few weeks ago, we only had an extra 12 people stop by our house at dinner time. No problem, we just cooked a little extra. Last week, about 4 youth stopped by for dinner at 8:00 pm. No problem! The other morning 2 men traveled over an hour to come visit us. It was 6:30 am! No problem! This past Friday there were 20 men and young boys working at the school at 6:00 am. I knew that my mom would serve them breakfast so I started cracking eggs and mixing pancake batter. I always have extra gifts “just in case”. A few weeks ago I was walking through a local community. A woman yelled, “Deidra, how is Lisa doing? When is she returning?” I had to laugh as the woman did not care to see me, but is anticipating another visit from my mom.

Happy Birthday to the one person who serves the Lord with pure joy, who truly believes her business is simply an extension of showing the Lord’s love, who always puts her family as a priority, who loves life, who loves people, and who is faithful in her walk with the Lord.