“The Testimony of Ann Faggart.” by James Beller
Posted on June 8, 1999 on the Pastor’s Desk
To our Friends:
On May 23, 1999, I shared with our church the wonderful trip to New England.
Along with our host — Pastor Jeff Faggart of Harvest Bible Distributors we heard some great teaching from a layman from Kannapolis, North Carolina: Mitch Canupp. We also heard outstanding Bible preaching from a mountain preacher: Daniel Buchanan.
I shared with our church the tremendous tour we took through the New England states of Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. As I mentioned last week, by faith, Bro. Faggart’s church paid the way for fifty preachers, (yes-FIFTY) to tour New England.
I met Brother Jeff Faggart through Dr. William Grady, who introduced me to Harvest Bible Distributors as a possible outlet for my book, The Soul of St. Louis. Bro. Faggart then graciously invited me on this preachers retreat. I called Bro. Faggart to accept the offer and asked where I might send the money for the trip. He replied there was no charge except we needed to pay for our own meals. I was astounded. And I wondered what the “angle” was. Sad to say, but some preachers have an “angle”. They want you in their back pocket, or they want something.
I soon realized how “real” my new found friend was. About eight weeks before the trip we called to finalize some plans. Bro. Faggart informed us that his wife, Ann, had passed away and gone to Heaven. Such sorrow I have not known in my life. I would have imagined him canceling the trip, however, Bro. Faggart, knowing how much his wife had worked on the retreat, for the express purpose of being an encouragement to the preachers, pressed forward for the completion of the last work he and his wife had done together.
When we returned from our tour, after visiting the graves of Obadiah Holmes, David Brainard, George Whitefield, D.L. Moody and others we stopped at Ann’s resting place and thanked God for her sacrifice. Words cannot describe the prayer meeting a group of poor preachers had on the grave of that little lady somewhere near Kannapolis, North Carolina.jbeller