Last but not Least

 

  One of the most significant women in my history is a woman whose name I did not know for over forty years.  She was speaking at an Assemblies of God kids camp when I was ten years old.    

 “Sister Wise” placed a 24x36 flannel board on an easel behind six hay bales. She used flannel pictures to depict a straight and narrow road leading to a place of light in a beautiful blue sky. Another picture showed a  winding, rocky path leading to a circle of flames. They both originated from a church positioned at the bottom of the board.  I had no problem choosing the straight and narrow.  At a hay bale altar with women I thought were “old”  (probably late thirties), I trusted in Jesus as my Savior.

  Years later in a book called Like A Prairie Fire by Bob Burke (https://www.amazon.com/Like-Prairie-Fire-Assemblies-Oklahoma/dp/0964132508) I learned that a woman named Katie Wise had been a missionary in China in 1936.  During WWII, she was interned in a Japanese prison camp in the Philippines for three years.  She came back to the states and ministered in churches and camps.  In 1962, she spoke at an Oklahoma youth camp. I had always known the woman with the flannel board was named “Sister Wise”.    

      It would be surprising if any of my  readers had ever heard of Katie Wise. I never saw her again.  She never knew me.  She didn’t know who or what I became. The number of souls saved through her ministry probably number in the hundreds.  She doesn’t remember me, but I remember her.   She holds a place of honor in my history. 

   Was a woman instrumental in your salvation?  Comment about her on this post.

Women in Tonya's History

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     Angeline Tucker is not a name most of you will recognize.  I never knew her well although I did meet her in my early twenties. Her daughter and I taught together my first year of teaching. I knew her story, but  we spoke of it only once.

In the early 60’s, Sister Tucker, her husband and her two children were missionaries to the Congo.  In 1965,  Angeline Tucker’s book called He is in Heaven  was passed among my mom and her friends. It garnered much discussion. I was thirteen. I read the book later while in high school.

     The Tucker family was ministering in the Congo when a revolt took place.  Reverend Tucker was taken prisoner. The insurgents took over a convent several miles away for the prison. The nuns were  also captive but allowed to give minimal care to the prisoners.  Sister Tucker knew one of the nuns and the two of them were able to talk by phone briefly each day. Sister Tucker would start the conversation with “How is my husband?”  After many mornings of “fine, okay,”  the morning came when the nun answered, “He is in Heaven.” 

    Within a few days, Sister Tucker and her children were running across a field to a hovering US Army helicopter to be evacuated. Her daughter shared with me that she was nine years old .  She knew the helicopter occupants were friendly and there to rescue her family. However,  she ran across the field with AK 47’s pointing at her.

    Angeline Tucker and her family returned to the United States where she worked at the National Assemblies of God headquarters. She wrote and developed the first girl’s ministry curriculum known as Missionettes. The program that would become a passion for me. I would spend 25+ years serving the local church and my district as sponsor, teacher  and leadership trainer. It would be my privilege to plan many  events for our entire state, city, and local church.  Over 100 girls would cross my path during this ministry.  Most of them are counted today among my friends.

   Angeline Tucker was the catalyst for my understanding of missionaries. In her story,  I saw the sacrifice of these extraordinary women. As an adult, missionary women would command my respect and gifts. Dee McNeil, Peggy Sims, Loretta Wideman, Joni Middleton,  Linda Stamps Dissmore, and Tina Morrow to name a few. 

  Angeline Tucker  will never be in a history book, but God knows her name. He knows how   her impact on a thirteen year old girl made a difference  in Tonya’s world.  

Tonya's Women's History Month

 

     March is National Women’s History Month. Talk shows and news reports will feature women whom society considers worth of remembrance. They will feature artists who have produced great works of all kinds of arts. They will report on the “first women”,  first woman in congress, on supreme court, attend ivy league colleges,  and so forth. Social media influencers will share about  the “politically correct” women of history.

     I am not a news reporter, not a social media influencer, not a talk show host. I invite you to join me during March for Tonya Ann’s  Women’s History Month. I want to share stories of women most people never have nor ever will hear about. These are women from my history who made me who I am today.

    Opal Ruth McLaughlin Claxton was born in 1910,  she married my mom’s older brother in 1926. My grandmother passed away when my mom was twelve  years old and three years later,  she moved to the “city” with her brother and Ruth. Virgil and Ruth were pastors, so my mother’s spiritual heritage began and grew in their home. Ruth already had a twelve  year old daughter but she took on a teenager who’d been living on a farm with the boys.

     Ruth Claxton,  by all accounts was the quintessential pastor’s wife: played the piano, served the congregation,  opened her home to any and all and was a woman of God. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1964. This was early in the discovery and treatment of breast cancer and  Ruth readily volunteered to subject herself to experimental treatments. Her selfless actions made a difference for countless cancer survivors. She went to Heaven when I was eleven. Ruth Claxton left a legacy thru every woman whose life she touched in her fifty-six years on earth. She may not have changed the world,  but she changed my world.

    How about you? I challenge you to make a list of  “women of history”  who impacted your life? Comment on my website or Facebook page!