Her Journey of Faith

Anne Neyland is a gentle warrior and a hero to all who know her. Members of the Greater Nashville Church, Anne and her husband, Bob, are active in the leadership of the Pacesetters, a group for older disciples who minister not only to each other but to many others in and outside the church.

Anne recently spoke to the women of the church, sharing about her “Journey of Faith.” More than 110 busy women found time to come and sit at her feet, eager to hear what she had to impart.

The Bible calls older women to teach the younger (Titus 2:3-5), and we were all grateful that Anne obeyed this command and poured out her heart to us. She is a real person who does not sugar coat her sins and who seeks daily to grow more and more into the image of her Savior.

Anne is an example of humility, evidenced by the fact that she was baptized as a disciple in her late 50s, after having been originally immersed as a 13-year-old who did not understand her sin. She says, “I didn’t know what sins were in my life, and I realized that I have sinned a lot more since then than I did before then. I got in touch with my sinful nature, and although I was baptized, I still fight it daily.”

Anne and Bob were introduced to a deeper walk with God through their two sons, Reese and Blake, who as college students became part of the Crossroads Church in Gainesville, Florida.

In sharing her journey or 78 years with us, she spoke of health challenges and of disappointments. But mostly she spoke of faith, of receiving from God the gifts he sends—both the pleasant ones and the difficult ones—and learning from each.

What about the difficulties that come as we age? What about losing vision in one eye because of an infection? What about losing a breast to cancer? Anne says with a strong voice and deep conviction: “I have a theory that anything that happens to me between now and the grave, happens for a reason…that there’s something in my character that needs to be refined so I can be more like Jesus.”

To hear Anne’s talk “My Journey of Faith” on the Greater Nashville Church Web site, Click Here>>