The Foundation for Evangelism partners with Annual Conferences to present The Harry Denman Evangelism Awards in recognition of clergy, laity and youth who faithfully practice the Great Commission by carrying out the mission of “making disciples of Jesus Christ”.  We welcome the opportunity to share some of their personal faith journeys with our readers.

“This young lady – did I mention that she’s only 89 years old? – embodies Matthew 28:19: ‘Go therefore and make disciples’……her greatest evangelistic witness has been the life she has lived day by day.”  The presenter of The Harry Denman Evangelism Laity Award during the 2010 Alabama-West Florida Annual Conference was speaking of Mrs. Frances Snell.

In the 1960’s Mrs. Snell had the privilege of meeting Dr. Harry Denman and Dr. Helen Kim while attending the International Prayer Fellowship at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina.  She and her husband were part of a sharing group that included Dr. Denman.

We want to share Mrs. Snell’s faith journey in her own words:

I heard a statement years ago that made an impact on my life.  It was “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

I was blessed to be a mentor to an elementary student in our school.  I wanted her to know there was a better way to live than her family situation.  On weekends I would bring her to my house, where she could take a shower and wash her hair, because they had no running water.  We would go fishing, or walking in the woods and I taught her to embroider.  She became a Christian, married a fine Christian man and they reared 3 children of their own.  They also raised 4 children that had been taken from their home due to sexual molestation.

It is wonderful to see the results of my witnessing, however that is not always the case.  Like the young boy I visited in jail.  We played checkers while we talked about Jesus.  He left and I never knew where he went.

My witnessing has not always been one on one, but in church activities.  A young woman in my Sunday School class made a statement last week that I had made in U. M. W.  She grew up in a church that taught that when you are born you are destined to go to Heaven or Hell and there was nothing you could do about it.  She grew up in fear.  But she said that Miss Frances said that God spreads a table for us and we can choose to partake or not.  She lost her fear because she realized she could choose.Frances Snell

Another philosophy of mine is that when God gives a person a talent, He expects us to use it for some of His other children.  I am blessed with the talent to sew.  I enjoy making little girls dresses for the House of Ruth (battered women).

I enjoy going to the nursing homes and taking a nice lap robe or a bag to go on their walkers.  I make caps for women who have lost their hair due to chemo and children in the Children’s Hospital in Birmingham.

I visit the newcomers in our community and take a vegetable from our garden to welcome them and invite them to church.