Latest / Called to Serve / Virginia DeAdder

Transcript

Virginia DeAdder · Called to Serve

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome. This is Called To Serve, a
• 0:05
  podcast where we share stories from women who have been
• 0:07
  ordained by the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada.
• 0:11
  We have spoken with almost 100 pastors, chaplains, missionaries
• 0:15
  and community leaders as we learn what it's like to be a
• 0:17
  woman in ministry. For our last episode of Season
• 0:21
  6, you will hear from Virginia de Adder.
• 0:24
  Virginia was ordained in 2007 at Hansport Baptist Church in Nova
• 0:28
  Scotia. After retiring from a long
• 0:31
  career in telecommunications. She went on to pastor several
• 0:34
  rural Baptist churches and continues to provide pulpit
• 0:37
  supply today. Virginia describes wrestling
• 0:40
  with a call to ministry because of her gender.
• 0:43
  Although her faith began with an emphasis on fear, she shares how
• 0:46
  God has walked with her into becoming unafraid.
• 0:52
  My name is Virginia. I was born in Cambridge, Kings
• 0:56
  County, Nova Scotia. My mother got involved in a
• 1:01
  religion that wasn't Christian, that was at age 5 until grade 7
• 1:07
  and that began a life of extreme fear, fear of God and I knew his
• 1:15
  power and authority, but I didn't get the concept how much
• 1:19
  he loved me. When my mother got out of that,
• 1:22
  praise God, the Lord brought her to him and she became a born
• 1:26
  again believer. I started walking to a church,
• 1:30
  which was a Baptist Church, and there they accepted me and they
• 1:35
  put me in a choir, which doesn't mean I can sing, but they put me
• 1:38
  in a choir, sent me to Kingswood Camp.
• 1:41
  I was 15 years old. I think God had his hand on me
• 1:44
  even then. I almost drowned and I was saved
• 1:48
  at camp and from there we went on to a legalistic religion and
• 1:56
  faithfully become a very deep religious person without a
• 2:00
  personal knowledge of Jesus Christ.
• 2:03
  Again. I still didn't feel God's love.
• 2:06
  I still feared him and that went on for another 33 years until
• 2:12
  the Lord got a hold of me at a woman's Bible study and I became
• 2:15
  born again and Holy Spirit just grabbed me and the rest became
• 2:19
  history at that point. After I became born again, my
• 2:24
  dad and I got baptized the Baptist Church in Cambridge,
• 2:29
  Kings County. And the awesome part of this is
• 2:32
  that he was fearful of water. And it was an experience that is
• 2:38
  very hard to explain, but when you come up out of the water, it
• 2:41
  was just like, whoa. I retired in 1995 after 29 years
• 2:47
  with a telephone company, and my husband and I had plans of
• 2:51
  travel. But the Lord started tugging at
• 2:54
  my heart and friends went to the Deer College at Acadia, and I
• 2:59
  thought, wouldn't that be nice to do?
• 3:01
  And then other people started recognizing I was being called
• 3:05
  into ministry and the church we were attending, they recognized
• 3:08
  it too. So I questioned the Lord and I
• 3:12
  said, Lord, are you really calling me in the ministry?
• 3:15
  Because I was bought up to believe that women did not go
• 3:18
  into the ministry. And that was instilled in my
• 3:21
  heart. So I questioned it and I said,
• 3:24
  well, if you're calling me, I need three things.
• 3:27
  And the first thing I needed a desk.
• 3:29
  Within two days someone called me, said I'm giving away a desk,
• 3:33
  would you like to have it? Another two days I said, well
• 3:36
  Lord, I need a computer. Friends called and said we got a
• 3:40
  new computer, would you like to have it?
• 3:42
  No one knew what was going on in my mind and heart.
• 3:46
  The last one was a little harder.
• 3:48
  I said Lord, my husband needs to come alongside completely.
• 3:52
  That took a couple months after lots of her.
• 3:55
  We were driving a car and he didn't know.
• 3:57
  I'm still struggling with this. And he said out the blue, I
• 4:00
  think the Lord's calling you into ministry.
• 4:02
  So I still questioned. And I was outside hanging
• 4:07
  clothes out. And I said, Lord, are you really
• 4:10
  calling me in the ministry? I am a woman.
• 4:13
  And suddenly there was a deep male voice that said my name,
• 4:16
  Virginia. And I turned around and no one's
• 4:18
  there. I started weeping and said, I'm
• 4:20
  so sorry, Lord. I questioned you.
• 4:23
  So I felt, yeah, I think he's calling me in the ministry.
• 4:28
  I think the old school was taught that only men are called
• 4:32
  in the ministry. And a lot of books that I've
• 4:35
  read that are very powerful Holy Spirit books, they still refer
• 4:40
  to men in the ministry without even knowing at the time.
• 4:45
  And these are powerful theologians and the whole bit.
• 4:49
  And I don't think they even realized what they were writing
• 4:52
  because if you were to ask him outright, they would say no.
• 4:56
  God can call any anyone. And that's what it says in the
• 4:59
  Bible. I will prophecy and give visions
• 5:02
  to men and women. That was the old school.
• 5:06
  Like I said, I heard that in my home from my dad because that's
• 5:09
  what he was led to believe, that only men go into ministry and
• 5:14
  that's not from the Lord. I mean, Satan does this.
• 5:18
  He attacks our minds and and puts these thoughts in it.
• 5:22
  I was 54 years old at the time that I went into Katie and
• 5:28
  Divinity College and I never had anyone against me.
• 5:32
  I had never had anyone talk me out of it.
• 5:36
  I'm sure that they thought about it.
• 5:39
  I'm sure there was things, but they backed me and, and my
• 5:42
  parents were very supportive. I think they were excited that
• 5:46
  this was happening. And on the other side of it, I
• 5:49
  think that maybe it was wrong thinking for some, but to think,
• 5:53
  oh, we got somebody in the family that's going to become a
• 5:56
  minister. So it was prideful, but I was
• 6:01
  supported. I still went in ankle B and in
• 6:06
  November of 2002 I only took two courses thinking OK I'm just
• 6:13
  going to try this out at 1st and I still wasn't 100% surrendered
• 6:18
  to the Lord when the first of the year came in January.
• 6:22
  Then I went deeper and took more courses.
• 6:25
  I didn't have my undergrad so at the time I did my undergrad at
• 6:29
  the same time I did my divindi courses.
• 6:33
  Was it a struggle? Yes, because it's been quite a
• 6:36
  few years since I was in school, but I never felt like giving up.
• 6:41
  And I can say that the Lord never left my side.
• 6:44
  And I did a lot of reaching out and a lot of prayer and a lot of
• 6:48
  late nights. And it's not about Marks and I
• 6:53
  know that it's about your spiritual growth, but my marks
• 6:57
  was up high and that is only because of the Lord, his
• 7:02
  anointing. When I was first going there, it
• 7:06
  was 2 ladies and they were ministers and they recognized
• 7:10
  that there was an issue from my childhood that needed to be
• 7:14
  dealt with. And I never even realized that.
• 7:17
  And I got the counsel that I need it and was completely set
• 7:21
  free from that. And, and so I'm saying that that
• 7:24
  was a powerful thing that happened.
• 7:27
  So then when I graduated and commissioning, that is an
• 7:31
  awesome, awesome event. And then at the end I met with a
• 7:35
  board and I remember someone saying to me, you are a woman,
• 7:41
  you will not get a church right away.
• 7:44
  And I just thought, no, Lord, this is not right.
• 7:47
  So I looked at that board and I said God has not called me,
• 7:52
  equipped me and not have a church prepared for me.
• 7:57
  And afterwards outside the room, Reverend Elias Matelli came up
• 8:01
  to me and he said God will be with you.
• 8:05
  And I've never forgot that. And I praise God to the highest.
• 8:10
  Within a week or two, three churches called for me for an
• 8:14
  interview and I prayed. Which one Lord?
• 8:17
  And the one the Lord drew me to the first one, Mount Genson in
• 8:22
  Hans County was the one that said, when you come to the
• 8:24
  interview, will you bring your husband because he's part of
• 8:27
  your of the team. And that's the one I ended up
• 8:30
  going to 1st. I was ordained a year later in
• 8:35
  the Hansport Baptist Church because it was larger.
• 8:39
  Harry Gardner was a speaker and my mom, who I've lost both my
• 8:43
  parents now, but my mom was there and where she was part of
• 8:47
  my journey. She was my my major prayer
• 8:50
  warrior, literally on her knees physically and spiritually.
• 8:55
  And my husband was there supportive.
• 8:58
  We had two children and they were supportive too.
• 9:01
  They took part in my ordination and to me that's the special
• 9:05
  part, that God doesn't just bring one person.
• 9:09
  When you're called in the ministry, it's your family
• 9:12
  that's with you, and if they're not, the struggle can get a
• 9:15
  little harder. The first church, the challenge
• 9:19
  was I didn't give 100%, I give 200%.
• 9:24
  It was like the Lord was first, but I left my family behind and
• 9:30
  I put so much into the church and I learned the hard way.
• 9:34
  That's how I got burned out. Family suffer.
• 9:38
  You need to keep them in your lives.
• 9:41
  I remember a preacher one time at convention, he said the the
• 9:44
  right way is our Lord God Almighty is first, Second he's
• 9:49
  gave us the family and 3rd the church.
• 9:53
  And my mom died while I was there and the day she died I had
• 9:58
  a baptism and they wanted to cancel it and I said no, my mom
• 10:02
  would want me to go through with this.
• 10:05
  I actually did her service later on, three days later.
• 10:09
  But a woman is like many hats, right?
• 10:13
  Your wife, your mother, your grandmother, you're a friend and
• 10:18
  you become a minister. I didn't balance well at first,
• 10:23
  I have to say that. And I was told raped by my first
• 10:28
  supervisor. Take time, take that one day a
• 10:32
  week and do something. And I had got into quilting, she
• 10:35
  said. It's important to try to do this
• 10:38
  one thing outside the ministry as a hobby.
• 10:42
  Take that time. That is very important and to
• 10:45
  balance it, we went through things and and if a church isn't
• 10:50
  attacked or something, then we need to question what's
• 10:53
  happening with this church because Satan doesn't like it.
• 10:56
  When you're powerful on the Lord, when the Holy Spirit's
• 10:59
  working, the devil's going to attack you.
• 11:02
  So the only thing I really had run into was a man that had been
• 11:07
  a Deacon in the past and very strong, powerful leader in the
• 11:11
  church, beautiful Christian man. But come to find out, one of his
• 11:16
  thinking was not godly. And so we addressed it, deacons
• 11:21
  and I, he accepted it and he weeped and repented.
• 11:26
  But I'm saying that yes, there's always issues and before,
• 11:30
  during, after, never stop taking that time to pray, just to go
• 11:36
  quiet off by yourself with you and the Lord, Lionel Maurier
• 11:41
  said. It's not about doing, it's about
• 11:45
  being in Christ, and he brings about the doing after.
• 11:50
  The hardest thing as a pastor I found is when God calls you out
• 11:54
  of a church, you have to follow him.
• 11:58
  But you love the people so much. And in the first church, because
• 12:02
  I wouldn't listen to the Lord's calling, it's time now to leave.
• 12:06
  And when I stayed even a few months longer, I burn out and it
• 12:11
  was about less than a year and and I recovered well through the
• 12:16
  Lord and I and Bible studies and just going and meeting with
• 12:20
  Christians and lots of prayer. I was strengthened and church
• 12:25
  nearby us asked me to do a Sunday.
• 12:28
  So I said OK. So then I did a month and then
• 12:31
  they asked me do interim and the rest was history.
• 12:34
  I end up their pastor. To me, when I went into that
• 12:38
  church, it was like the Israelites when they have gone
• 12:43
  astray or maybe a few wrong thinkings, but I found they were
• 12:48
  in a season of wanting to make things right with the Lord.
• 12:53
  They were really good to both my husband Marvin and I.
• 12:57
  They respected us. They they respected me.
• 13:00
  As a pastor, there's always joys and challenges and your heart
• 13:06
  breaks if there's unforgiveness. But in every church you can find
• 13:11
  this some unforgiveness and that's got to be dealt with. 29
• 13:17
  years at the telephone company, why I learned is you don't put
• 13:21
  things under the rug. You have to bring it to the
• 13:24
  front, address it, always address it with love.
• 13:28
  And that's what I learned from work.
• 13:30
  If there was something that had to be dealt with, don't put it
• 13:34
  aside. You deal face on.
• 13:36
  And and the good thing is we have to be disciplined.
• 13:40
  We can't just go to a ministry and do things my way, right?
• 13:45
  And so when I was interviewed, I've always said as long as
• 13:49
  Jesus is Lord, I will be here to shepherd your people.
• 13:54
  But when he's not Lord anymore or the Lord calls me out, then
• 13:58
  that'll be my end of my ministry in that church.
• 14:02
  And I just retired from there for two years in December, and I
• 14:07
  did not put my name out. I said, Lord, you are totally in
• 14:10
  control of me. I'm leaving it up to you what
• 14:13
  you want. So people's been calling
• 14:15
  different churches when they found out I was retired.
• 14:19
  So I've done some pulpit supplies.
• 14:21
  And the awesome thing is one or two weeks before a church calls
• 14:27
  me to do a pulpit supply, the Lord gives me scripture and a
• 14:31
  message. And I'm thinking, OK, somebody's
• 14:34
  going to ask me this week. My husband are involved in a
• 14:38
  vacation Bible school. So if you want joy be involved
• 14:42
  in a children's ministry. I do know God has called me.
• 14:47
  I have listened to people that have addressed that women should
• 14:51
  be in in the pastor. But I know I was called because
• 14:56
  God had really hit me side to head quite a few times to
• 15:00
  address it because of that thinking.
• 15:02
  And I have to say truthfully and not cried.
• 15:06
  I went before the ordination board and I wasn't afraid and
• 15:11
  all these horror stars and I said, Lord, I don't feel afraid.
• 15:15
  I don't know what's happening, but you have really taken away
• 15:18
  any fear for me to go before them.
• 15:21
  I wasn't scared of the question. I kept telling myself, these
• 15:26
  people have been called by the Lord, They've gone through their
• 15:31
  own spiritual journey, so why should I be afraid?
• 15:36
  Because this is the final step. You're going out into the
• 15:39
  ministry to shepherd people. You need to go through this.
• 15:44
  If you are in tune, aligned with God's will, there's nothing to
• 15:49
  be fearful. Do not even fear persecution of
• 15:53
  being a woman to be called in the ministry.
• 15:57
  Hang on to God's Word. The Holy Spirit will lead you
• 16:00
  every step of the way, whether you hear God's voice audibly or
• 16:06
  given to you internally. If there and take the advice,
• 16:11
  Find a good Christian friend, find a mentor that is strong in
• 16:16
  the Lord, and they will be led by the Holy Spirit too to lead
• 16:20
  you through every challenge, through the mountain tops and
• 16:24
  through the valleys. Hang on to that strength.
• 16:27
  My favorite verse is Philippians 413.
• 16:30
  Through Christ, He gives us strength.
• 16:35
  Thanks to Virginia for sharing her story with this podcast.
• 16:39
  If you would like to be entered into a draw for a free copy of
• 16:42
  our upcoming book, send us an e-mail by March 31st with the
• 16:45
  subject line Free Book. Our e-mail address is called to
• 16:49
  serve at acadiau.ca, which you can find in the show notes as
• 16:53
  well. Everyone who emails in will
• 16:55
  receive notification when the book comes out and be entered
• 16:58
  into that draw. You can follow Called to Serve
• 17:00
  on Facebook and Instagram and keep up to date with our latest
• 17:03
  news at Called to serve.ca. We'll see you again in January
• 17:08
  with Season 7 as we share more stories of women called to
• 17:11
  serve.