Sharing Joy

Do you remember when you learned how to do something for the first time…something you really wanted to learn how to do?  Did someone teach you?  Take you by the hand and help you?  Say encouraging words so that you could overcome any fears you might have?  Do you remember how you felt when you finally learned?  Do you remember the joy and sense of accomplishment?  Aren’t you glad there was someone to help you learn so that you could finally do it on your own? 

The person in today’s story has made many people glad in the way I’ve just described.  She has helped many learn how to do something for the first time.  She has taken them by the hand and helped.  She has said encouraging words so that fears are diminished.  She has spread the joy and generated the sense of accomplishment.  And when I think about writing about her, one word keeps coming to mind that connects to all I’ve just written.  That word is joy, and the person is Kate Hall.

Bobby and Kate Hall met with me together to talk about Hayes Barton Baptist Church.  Being married 41 years means that they probably do a lot of things together.  They are a couple that has great rapport.  I noticed that when I watched the 75^th anniversary video for Hayes Barton Baptist Church because they were interviewed together for that ten years ago.  They haven’t changed in ten years.  Bobby still looks at Kate with love-filled eyes, and Kate’s return gaze is one of admiration and love.

Yet, enough about the two of them as I want to write about Kate in this story; Bobby will be in a different posting.  I think the first time I heard about Kate Hall was when I heard that she taught swimming on the missions in Helena, Arkansas.  Eventually the missions to Helena came up in our conversation when Bobby said, “Kate won’t tell you this so I will.”  I was all ears at that point, and Bobby said, “They named the swimming pavilion after Kate.”  

Kate modestly acknowledged that this was true but quickly noted that the sign had been taken from the building shortly after the opening.  That might tell you something about the area in which the swimming pool is located.  It is an area of great need.

Kate recalled that she first went to Helena she “didn’t have a clue she was going to teach swimming.”  Teaching swimming was something she had done since she was a teenager, and when she saw the pool in Helena, she realized why she was called on that mission.  “When a need is identified,” says Kate, “people respond.  That is how missions work.”

Kate has responded to needs all her life.  Born in Morganton, North Carolina, Kate attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and earned a degree in speech pathology as well as a teaching certificate.  Kate became director of the Hayes Barton Baptist Preschool in 1982.  She was asked to take on the role as she contemplated God’s call during a lay renewal weekend.  “There are times in our lives when we have to ask, ‘How is it that God’s made me and how does that play into what I can do in the church?’” says Kate.

With regard to her preschool days as well as her many other efforts that involve children, mothers, and young married couples, Kate shares, “I love children, and I love taking care of children and mothers. I love helping people and seeing if they can get from point A to point B.  I see the joy when people learn.”

Kate also experiences the joy of learning and loves to learn. “I know I haven’t arrived yet,” says Kate with certainty.  “I know that I will always have something new to learn.”

One other thing Kate knows with certainty is to “always keep Christ as the cornerstone in my life.”  Kate does that through her actions which are reflective of His teachings as well as through keeping His teachings in mind. When asked about her favorite Bible verse, many came to mind but one, Jeremiah 29:11-13, rose to the top for her:  ^“’For I know the plans I have for you,’” declares the LORD, “’plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart’” (NIV).

There is a joy that emanates from Kate Hall when you talk with her.  Whether she is talking about swimming, her marriage to Bobby, her sons, teaching two-year-olds and teaching the young couples in the Genesis Class, or the mission trips she’s taken to Arkansas, Guatemala, the Kennedy Home in Kinston, and, most recently, Haiti, Kate radiates a joy that comes with her beliefs.  She knows with certainty that Christ is her cornerstone, and she knows that God has a plan for her.  What a great way to live life.  It enables her to share the joy that is in her heart with others in ways that make them more joyful and more aware that God has a plan for them, too.