Lois Jodie Jamieson Perkins, “Mottie” as her family called her, closed her eyes and peacefully slipped into eternity last week at the age of 97.
For most of the world, she was a “nobody.” To my mother-in-law and the rest of her family, and the people who knew her, she was definitely somebody. In fact, she was everything. She was the matriarch of a family that included three children, eight grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren and three great-great grandchildren with one on the way. Her influence while alive cast a lasting legacy across generations.
She never lived outside of Cross County, Ark., and spent a significant amount of her long life in Vanndale, a farming community that isn’t much bigger than the buildings you can crowd around a curve in the road. But she (and husband, Vance), were faithful members of Vanndale Baptist Church. She served the Lord by working with children, Acteens, youth, and WMU. She taught various Sunday School classes and Vacation Bible School and worked at the Tri-County Youth Camp.
But by the world’s standards, none of that qualified Mottie to be a “somebody.”
My father-in-law’s mother, Jessie Ethelia Blaylock Crockett Armstrong, was the same kind of “nobody” and lived to be 100. The family called her Grandmother and Gigi. She fell in love with Jesus in her mid-teens and immediately became a missionary of sorts. She and her older sister sat in the backseat of a hot car traveling the dusty roads of Eastern Arkansas with their pastor and his wife going to communities like Twist, and Stamps, and Marked Tree leading Vacation Bible Schools. She was forever active in her churches, for years prayed for the salvation of her husband before he came to Christ, and for decades read the Bible through every year. She taught Sunday School into her mid-90s. She nearly hemorrhaged to death giving birth to my father-in-law, and the last thing she remembered praying before passing out was committing her son to the Lord’s service if God would at least spare his life. By God’s grace they both survived.
Two ladies who for years lived just miles apart in rural Arkansas, both faithfully serving Jesus, their families, churches and others. Neither of them sought recognition or pursued becoming “somebodies.” In fact, the idea of becoming “somebodies” would have been utterly absurd to each of them.
But they were somebodies where it most mattered.
Mottie always prayed that God would raise up a missionary from among the Acteens group she taught at tiny Vanndale Baptist Church, never thinking for a minute God would call her own daughter; my mother-in-law, Annette. Gigi never forgot that dedication prayer, but never told my father-in-law, Robert, of the claim the Lord had on his life. She wanted to be sure it was God who saved and called him and not her. The Lord did save and call him to ministry at age 20, and that ministry calling was to foreign missions.
Obviously, Robert and Annette met and married, went to seminary and never wavered in the Great Commission call to go overseas. They spent the next 30 years sharing the gospel and planting churches in Argentina. Along the way, Robert led a bunch of men to the Lord and trained them to become pastors. Annette spiritually influenced their wives and taught them what it means to be Proverbs 31 women, and just as practical, how to be pastors’ wives. Many of those couples went on to be prominent leaders in the Argentine Baptist Convention and influenced a nation for Jesus.
Two ladies, living ordinary lives, never dreaming that their faithful service to the Lord they each loved would result in a direct influence in the lives of thousands of people living thousands of miles away hearing the gospel and coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ.
Too often in our denominational bubble we become infatuated with the latest “somebodies.” Sometimes it borders on idol worship. Unfortunately, the “somebodies” begin to really see themselves as “Somebodies.” Meanwhile, there are thousands of faithful Motties and Gigis scattered throughout our churches who would be classified as “nobodies,” but they are far from it.
And just like Mottie and Gigi, they will pass into eternity, be welcomed home by Jesus and hear him turn to the gathered saints and say, “Everyone, here come My Somebodies.”
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