TRIBUTE TO MY MOTHER

Pastor Art Watkins of Coden Bible Church (Coden, Alabama)

May 6, 2016

This Mother’s Day I have great memories of my mother, Mrs. Stella Watkins. My mother is very special to me for I saw in her what a real genuine Christian was supposed to be like. She was saved in a Billy Sunday crusade in Mobile, Alabama in the 1930’s. After she was saved, she became a very active Christian. She was a doer of the word and not just a hearer. She and another lady (Mrs. Fern Brewer) preached to the women in the woman’s jail in Mobile, Alabama every Thursday for 17 years. Many women were saved and when they got out of jail wrote her letters thanking her for leading them to Christ.

If someone in church was put in the hospital she would be the first to visit them. I remember as a boy going with my mother to help her carry groceries to poor people who did not have one can of food in their house. (This was back in the days before food stamps and I can still see the tears and faces of those people when we walked into their house with those bags full of groceries.) My mother was very active in the Mobile Rescue Mission. She gave much of her time and money helping men get saved and get off drugs and alcohol.

She was what they called a “Grey Lady” who worked for free in the military hospital at Brookley Air Force Base and waited on and witnessed to soldiers returning from WW2 and Korea. She was a volunteer for Red Cross and for many years her doctor, Dr. Leon McVay, called her “Red Cross”. She served in the women’s auxiliary in the old and new Mobile Infirmary hospitals and used it as an opportunity to witness.

She was a soul winner. She always carried a supply of gospel tracts in her purse. She was instrumental in my wife’s salvation along with my brother Joe. I could go on and on, but I believe her greatest legacy was her two sons who became preachers; I know, for I am one of them and my brother Joe who was a missionary to the Philippines for many years. One of the lasting memories I have of my mother in my minds eye is seeing and hearing her praying for me. I thank God that he gave me such a wonderful mother and wife too. God could not have given me a better mother or wife. I hope your memories of your mother are as fond as mine.