The person in today’s story has been a member of Hayes Barton Baptist Church for less than one year having joined April 3, 2011, yet her story conveys much about the church. It is a story of a faith journey, a story of family, a story of service, and a story of prayer. I came to know her when we trained together in Stephen Ministry. Anyone who goes through the fifty hours of Stephen Ministry training gets to know classmates well as much of the training involves role playing about real-life situations. Although not a big fan of role playing, I always liked to role play with this person because she approached it with a seriousness that meant we would truly gain from our interaction. That’s not to say we didn’t have fun, too; it just means that this person is someone who cares about what she does in a way that makes other people care, and I think, when you read her story, you’ll see that. The person in today’s story is Suzanne Nalon.
One of the first things I learned about Suzanne Nalon is that she is the mother of Alice Moore. I suspect most people may have learned about the family connection the other way around; that they knew Alice, a long time member, and met Suzanne who started attending Hayes Barton Baptist Church regularly in 2009. For me, though, it was the other way around. Also starting to attend regularly in 2009, I met Suzanne at a Stephen Ministry information meeting. I found out in our conversation for the Heritage Hope Home Blog that she was surprised at that meeting to see Alice in attendance as they independently decided to become involved in Stephen Ministry.
Suzanne had actually attended Hayes Barton Baptist Church on several occasions through the years preceding her move to North Carolina in 2009 when she and her husband Don visited Alice and her family. With Don’s passing, Suzanne moved from Terre Haute, Indiana, and lived with Alice and Chris and the children for almost six months until finding her own home in Morrisville. She had lived in Terre Haute for eighteen years although her life with Don was one that saw fourteen moves to nine different states through the years. “The moves were all transfers given his work was in plastics,” Suzanne explains.
Raised as a Catholic, Suzanne remembers a Bible study she attended while living in New Jersey in the mid 1970s. “It was very meaningful. It was a neighborhood Bible study,” she shares. “And I loved studying the Bible in that group. I also started listening to Christian radio at that time and still do today. It keeps me on my toes.”
After New Jersey, the next transfer took Suzanne and Don to Arizona where she looked around for another study to attend. Twelve years in New York and another move, to Indiana, and, eventually, Suzanne was baptized in a Baptist church in Terre Haute. “I remember the feeling afterwards,” says Suzanne. “I remember being on a spiritual high.” Suzanne also remembers calling Alice to tell her she had been baptized. “’Well, you’re a Baptist now,’ Alice teased,” says Suzanne with a laugh.
Joining Hayes Barton was an easy decision for Suzanne. “It fits like a glove,” she shares. “I love the music. I love the preaching. It has been easy for me to fit in.” Suzanne was “easily absorbed” into the Danielson class after attending several classes per Alice’s guidance to see where she fit best. And she heard Julia Ledford, then associate pastor, briefly discuss Stephen Ministry on a Wednesday night and decided she would check her fit with that, too.
In fact, regardless of the location or the denomination, Suzanne has always been active in her home church. At Hayes Barton Baptist Church, her relatively brief membership has seen her involved in Wednesday night kitchen duty, Operation InAsMuch, the consignment sale, Vacation Bible School, the Support Circle, the Danielson Sunday School Class, and Stephen Ministry. And, when you take into account “the rest of the story,” her level of involvement is even more impressive.
Those of you who know “the rest of the story” know that Suzanne became extremely ill in late summer 2010. Eventual diagnosis, which took some time, honed in on a slow growing non aggressive cancer known as Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. “The lymphoma was in my right lung and affected every area of my body,” Suzanne recalls. Sepsis and chemotherapy treatments made recovery challenging, but “the power of prayer,” says Suzanne, “saved me. Here and from other churches, from relatives, and from friends. People from this church came and visited me. They prayed with me.”
Coming to the Baptist faith later in life, Suzanne expresses a special appreciation for the opportunities that are given to learn about our Baptist heritage at Hayes Barton Baptist Church. “I remember the Wednesday night classes that Larry High taught in the Fellowship Hall,” says Suzanne. “They were about being Baptists. They focused on the freedom and autonomy of Baptist churches and Baptists as a priesthood of believers.”
The hope of Hayes Barton, per Suzanne, is in its people and their prayers and prayerfulness. “Given what I’ve seen in my brief time here, I only see good days ahead,” she shares. “If we continue to do what we have done, we can’t go wrong.”
As to Hayes Barton Baptist Church being her church home, Suzanne says, “Yes. It is. It feels like a second home to me. I’ve been made to feel welcome, and I know that this church family has made a big difference for me.”
Suzanne has a perspective that is unique given the health crisis she experienced over the past year. Just as she has reached out to care for others through her service, she has received the help of others through their care and prayer. Her life offers an example of what it means to come to Christ and to serve Christ by serving others. “I am a Christian. I know that,” Suzanne strongly stated at the end of our conversation. Wouldn’t it be great if we each could so strongly state and know the same after talking about our life journey?
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