Janna Faith: Hello, I’m Jana Faith, and welcome to episode 27 of Faith Talks.

And I’m excited today, actually out in California, to interview Mrs.

Weaver.

And we’ve been talking about different relationships.

That’s kind of been our theme this year.

And just been talking to her, she has had quite an experience with all sorts of relationships in her life.

She’s obviously been a wife and a mother and a grandmother and a teacher for how many years did you say that was? 46 years total. 46 years and a pastor’s wife and a dean of women. for many years.

So that’s been a lot of experience.

So I’m really excited to have her here.

And we’re out here in California.

And I asked my dad, I said, who should we interview?

We’re here at West Coast.

And I said, who should we interview?

He’s like, Mrs.

Weaver, you got to do her.

So she actually was a pastor’s wife when my parents came to their church in Florida and another place, I believe, Michigan.

So they’ve had some interaction there and now she’s here.

So why don’t you just tell us a little bit about what you’re doing now and then we’ll get into your Okay.

Thanks, Janet.

Anna Faith: I do want to say on record that I highly respect your mom and dad.

They’re fantastic.

But the Lord has had us here at our college, West Coast Baptist College, for the last 22 years.

And my husband and I both teach here.

And for 11, 12, 13 years, we were man, dean of women.

Right now, our lot in life is to be part-time teachers.

So he teaches three classes.

I teach two.

We do quite a bit of counseling because we’re in our offices the other hours of the day.

And then every summer we take a ministry team with us, a singing group.

And we have done this now for 24 summers and for 19 winters, like in the month of January.

And then right now I’m also a substitute teacher for ladies Sunday school classes here in the church.

That keeps me quite busy.

Janna Faith: I would say so.

Wow.

And then do you want to just tell us a little bit about your family?

Anna Faith: Yes.

My mom and dad.

Are you talking about my present family now or mine?

Yes, we have two adopted sons.

We adopted them at birth.

They were just a blessing from the Lord.

And we have seven grandchildren.

Janna Faith: Oh, that’s exciting.

And we were talking before just about what she does.

And I said, you know, if you’re retired, and she’s like, no, I’m not retired.

From hearing that list of what you said, I don’t think you are.

Definitely not yet.

Well, that’s neat.

Why don’t you just tell us a little bit about your growing up years and your salvation and just start right into that.

Anna Faith: You know, I was so blessed to have a Christian mom and dad.

I’m the oldest of six children.

And my dad was a pastor the whole time I was at home until I went to college.

And then my mother, the whole time at home, she always had a positive approach to all of us kids.

For instance, it’s time to get ready for church, you know, always with a lift in her voice. guess what kids were going to a revival tonight over 30 miles away it was always positive and so that had an impact on my life you know never was she negative we gotta go you know it was never that so I’m so thankful for that my parents did go to a Bible college in Chattanooga Tennessee in the 1950s and then their last year there in 1955 Dr.

Lee Robertson had a tent revival with Lester Roloff preaching and I remember going into that tent revival.

I thought it was fun.

The sawdust was on the ground, the benches, and then I did not probably listen much to the sermon, but my parents had been going through telling me about the plan of salvation.

But as the invitation came, I stood up on the bench and I whispered in my dad’s ear, I want to be saved.

So he said, oh, great.

Right after church we’ll talk about it.

So we went to our housing project where my parents were living.

We had a piano there with a round piano stool.

That’s how long ago it was.

It was in 1955.

And I specifically remember my daddy going through the plan of salvation again.

And I knelt by there and asked Christ to save me.

There was only one time in my life in the 10th grade when I sort of doubted my salvation.

But my mother gave me this statement.

She said, Rita, the blood of Christ makes us safe.

And the word of God makes us sure. and so when the bible says if you call upon the name of the lord asking him to save you he will so after that i never have doubted my salvation i’m so thankful for my mother teaching me that fact then my parents also encouraged all six of us to work at a christian camp in the summer and i started when i was in when i was 16 years old and honestly that working at a christian camp it was fun it was hard work but that set a direction for my life ministry was wonderful and i did it every summer and that that just set me i wanted to do that for my life and so we’ve been married 53 years and we’ve been in ministry the whole time and has it been perfect no because life is hard life is unfair but that is life but it has been a wonderful life serving the Lord.

In our 53 years of marriage, my husband has worked with the youth like your dad does.

He worked with music.

That’s another thing.

I’m so thankful my mother made sure that all six of us kids learned how to play the piano from the hymn book.

And it’s amazing.

I encourage all Christian teenagers, college age to learn how to play the piano.

You can just be a blessing in different areas as you grow older.

And all six of us have used the ability to play from the hymn book in ministry at various times in our life then high school english teacher that was fun because that was my college degree and then oh my favorite job however was to be a pastor’s wife and i hope that many of you teenagers college-aged young ladies listening to this will have the privilege of being a pastor’s wife it was just i loved it just helping your husband and just working with the women of the church it was just a blessing then the Lord brought us here to West Coast in 2002 and we became the Dean of the Deans and the Dean of Women job it was wonderful it was hard at times but it was just the privilege of trying to influence these young women

Janna Faith: would you say like the biggest difference was between pastor’s wife and dean

Anna Faith: okay you want me to be honest sure and tell their mother their side of a story, you know, and not the whole thing.

Janna Faith: And so dealing with that versus when your pastor’s wife, you’re more talking to the actual and the older.

Anna Faith: Yes, right.

But I love both of them.

And then now these 22 years here at West Coast teaching at college, you know, they choose to come to your class.

And so they’re just precious young ladies.

So the Lord has been good to me.

My husband has gone through cancer twice.

He’s a cancer survivor.

And watching him go through that was such a blessing because he came from a broken home.

I came from a Christian home.

And this man, Toby Weaver, has not ever complained about what he went through as a child and a teenager.

He’s just used it as a stepping stone into the ministry.

So no matter what happens in our life, don’t despair.

God can use us.

Janna Faith: I think that’s so key because you could look at your story and say, well, she had a good home situation.

Yes, right.

That’s why she’s serving the Lord.

But really, I mean, your husband had the opposite.

Oh, the opposite.

But yet he made decisions in really whatever kind of home you’re in, it’s up to you the decisions you’re going to make whether you’re going to follow the Lord.

Anna Faith: That’s exactly true.

Even at age 70, my husband had full-bodied chicken pox.

And an infection got into his head, and his head swelled up twice the size.

And we thought we were going to lose him or that it would affect his brain or his eyes.

But God brought him through that.

And once again, he did not complain.

He had to stay home for a month and miss all of his college activities and classes.

But he never complained to me.

And watching him was amazing.

Janna Faith: Now, did you catch it too?

Anna Faith: I did not.

I had had chickenpox as a child, and he thought he had also.

But I guess he hadn’t, unless you can get it twice.

Janna Faith: I don’t know, but he was in a bad way.

The head swelling, I haven’t heard of that before.

Well, actually, the worst infection is MRSA,

Anna Faith: but he had the next to the worst, which is MSSA, and that got in his head there, which had a correlation with the chickenpox.

It was weird.

But isolation in the hospital and isolation at home, It was quite the thing, but the Lord brought him through it.

He still has a white splotch on his forehead.

But it’s just a reminder that God is in control of everything.

We trust the Lord, and we keep going serving the Lord no matter what happens.

So I just would like to encourage the young ladies listening to this broadcast about the verse in Galatians 6, Janet and I were talking about it earlier, that we reap what we sow. and I just encourage the girls here at college.

I’m always telling them, girls, plant the right kind of seeds and let me help you with those kind of seeds you should plant because I want you to like your harvest because what we plant, what we sow, we will reap and we can sow good seeds and reap good things in our life.

But if we are crazy and not smart and we plant bad seeds, that’s going to reveal itself and usually it’s later, the harvest comes later and so just encourage you young ladies to plant the right kind of seeds and there’s some specifications about that, even strict things you know but just obey the Bible because young ladies I want you to like your harvest and I’m so thankful for God’s blessing in my life, I’m so appreciative.

My verse I would like to share was Isaiah 4110 listen to it fear thou not don’t fear i know this world is crazy fear thou not because god says i am with thee i will help thee yay i will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness there’s other parts of that verse but all that verse is just fantastic that’s god’s word and he will help us with life and he’s with us he never leaves us or forsakes us and so praise the lord for that

Janna Faith: I was just blessed by thinking about the reaping and sowing even in your life, how what you reaped when you were younger has really or what you sowed when you were younger has really reaped as you’ve gotten older.

Even thinking of just how your mom was positive about ministry opportunities and even girls listening out there might not be your mom, but it could be you being positive about going to church and about just different opportunities to serve in your local church or even just in your family. just being appreciative for that opportunity and then even serving at camp I think that’s a great if you’re a 16 year old, 17 year old out there pray about ministering at a camp or just being able to give of yourself because really that did set you on that path of just serving and you’re going to reap really what you’ve sown you already have and are going to continue to and I just think of over your life all the different people you’ve been able to influence really just because of your faith perspective of trusting the Lord.

And I know you would say, it’s not me, it’s him.

Yes, exactly.

He’s been able to flow through you just being that willing vessel.

So girls, just remember this week and this month as you go throughout whatever you’re doing, just remember that you will reap what you sow.

And remember, faith doesn’t just talk, faith walks.

Rita Weaver: Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Thee Generation Podcast.

If you have an issue you need help with, we have a resource that can help you.

The Battle Plan for Victory is an online resource designed to help young people deal with personal sin issues through the Word of God and ultimately to find victory in the Lord Jesus Christ.

To view the Battle Plan, please visit thegeneration.org. slash victory.