From my earliest years, by watching my mother’s life, listening to her words and teachings from the Scriptures, I learned that God is faithful. In my later years, I thought of my mother, Lois June Catholos, as my mentor. I wanted a double portion of the communion she had with the living Lord, though it came from a life of fiery trials in which she came to know and trust Him in the face of her circumstances. I wanted to surpass her in her absolute desire to tell everyone she met of Jesus Christ and His love for each person. The simplicity of her response to any situation was a ministry to all of those around her.
My mother’s childhood during The Great Depression was devoid of any knowledge of God. As a young girl barely out of high school she married my father after a six-week courtship. Quickly, within about nine years, she had seven little daughters, one severely disabled, and a husband who rarely came home to their house upon a hill in Malcolm, Nebraska. It was when the doctor told my mother that her daughters—Jamey, Jackie, Joy, and Jill (severely disabled), four, three, two, and one—were going to die and there was nothing he could do, that she, in her desperation, knew the lady to turn to: Margie Smith.
Margie was a neighbor lady who talked to her about the Lord, and my mother went to her that terrible, great day and told Margie what the doctor said. Margie so reassuringly said, “Well, let’s see what the Bible says about that,” and she opened the Scriptures to Psalm 91:15-16 (NIV), “He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.” Margie led my mother to saving faith in Christ that day.
From that moment on, my mother began to read the Bible and call on the name of the Lord for everything, and her life became a fountain, a ministry in everything she did. My sisters did not die—they recovered from whatever they had, but my mother was never the same again.
After that, even though we were penniless, she went wherever the Lord sent her and trusted Him for the means to get there. She loaded us girls up in the car, and we started going to White Hall in Lincoln, Nebraska, where she used her flannel-board Bible stories to tell the children of the love of Christ—that Christ died for them. She told the children, “If you want to know if God is real, just ask Him. He will answer.” When we moved to Grand Island, Nebraska, she began an after-school Bible story hour at our house, and she was always involved with Vacation Bible School.
Later, she became involved in a jail ministry at Hall County jail as a friend of hers had a son who was incarcerated. Her friend, Joanne, saw the great sadness and spiritual death in the jail, so Joanne asked about starting a Bible study for the female inmates. The two took the gospel to them. When Joanne couldn’t go anymore, I joined my mother and we took the gospel together for around 16 years. I continue this ministry today.
During these years of the jail ministry with my mother, she saw all the immigrants coming into Grand Island and wept over them. She started volunteering and teaching English as a Second Language. She and I met together every week to pray for our family, immigrants, and other people and ministries—the things that God had placed on our hearts.
She also belonged to a prayer ministry at her church: five white-haired ladies that believed God and prayed with fervency. I called them the Powerhouse Prayer Warriors.
In her late 60s, when her health began to fail and she began to go blind, she had to stop participating in the ministries she was involved with (these are just a few).
I look back with so much appreciation on my time with my mother. She has been dead now for 15 years, and I am so grateful to have had a mother who really believed God, loved His Word, lived her life for Him, and fulfilled the great commission to go and make disciples of all nations. I have carried on without her, knowing right where she is and that one day, we will serve Jesus together in His presence.
