A Tribute to Joann Petersen by Tim Smith
My name is Tim Smith. I am currently ministering in a church near Bruce South Dakota. My former congregation is in Concord Minnesota. It was there I met Joann. The year we met I has started a church program called "Family Style". The program involved getting families the spend at least 15 minutes 5 nights per week in Bible study and devotion. I am convinced that learning together as a family is very important for the transmission of the gospel message. For the first year of this program I set out to supply all of the devotional material for the congregation. This would keep us all on the same page in the first year and I was hoping that this would help families share the experience together. The only problem was that I bit off more than I could chew!
A few months into the program I started to fall behind in writing devotional material. Writing is not my gift. Each day I fell behind meant that families would be waiting. Either this would cause them to bail out of the program or the more committed would be scurrying to find their own stuff. The program was falling apart because I was crunched for time and lacked the daily discipline to catch up on devotional writing.
The day came that I was more than a week behind and on top of that I had a funeral to do. Long before the service was set to begin someone was already at the church. It was Joann and she had gotten some wrong information about when things were to begin. I invited her to wait at the parsonage and have some coffee. We sat at my dining room table and I got to know Joann. We spoke of her history in the area and the church. In sharing a bit more about herself she spoke of her love for writing. At one point she said the words "I have boxes of devotions that no one has ever seen. I just enjoy writing them". At those words I had one of those moments where the hairs on the back of my neck stand up because It dawned on me that God had orchestrated this meeting. I have absolutely no doubt to this day that Joann was a Godsend to me and my congregation. I hope that meeting our need was also a Godsend to her! We made plans that day and for the rest of the year Joann sent devotion after devotion after devotion. They were perfect for our needs! I got to enjoy getting to know Joann and later we both went along on a mission trip to New Orleans and worked for Habitat for Humanity.
I write this at Joann's passing just to share with all of you one more story about how God used His servant whom He had gifted for the glory of His Kingdom. Next Fall I will kick off a new program at Preston Christian Church called "Family Style" and Joann's work will strengthen even more families and bring more people closer to God. I am thankful that God brought such a person into my life and the life of His Church.
A few months into the program I started to fall behind in writing devotional material. Writing is not my gift. Each day I fell behind meant that families would be waiting. Either this would cause them to bail out of the program or the more committed would be scurrying to find their own stuff. The program was falling apart because I was crunched for time and lacked the daily discipline to catch up on devotional writing.
The day came that I was more than a week behind and on top of that I had a funeral to do. Long before the service was set to begin someone was already at the church. It was Joann and she had gotten some wrong information about when things were to begin. I invited her to wait at the parsonage and have some coffee. We sat at my dining room table and I got to know Joann. We spoke of her history in the area and the church. In sharing a bit more about herself she spoke of her love for writing. At one point she said the words "I have boxes of devotions that no one has ever seen. I just enjoy writing them". At those words I had one of those moments where the hairs on the back of my neck stand up because It dawned on me that God had orchestrated this meeting. I have absolutely no doubt to this day that Joann was a Godsend to me and my congregation. I hope that meeting our need was also a Godsend to her! We made plans that day and for the rest of the year Joann sent devotion after devotion after devotion. They were perfect for our needs! I got to enjoy getting to know Joann and later we both went along on a mission trip to New Orleans and worked for Habitat for Humanity.
I write this at Joann's passing just to share with all of you one more story about how God used His servant whom He had gifted for the glory of His Kingdom. Next Fall I will kick off a new program at Preston Christian Church called "Family Style" and Joann's work will strengthen even more families and bring more people closer to God. I am thankful that God brought such a person into my life and the life of His Church.