Prayer is more than words for Audrey Foreman; it’s a lifestyle.
The writer of Baptist Churches of South Australia’s prayer column – wherever it could be found – since 1979, Audrey let us know in March that she would be finishing up in her efforts this year. It was a fair innings for Audrey, who started working for the Baptist Union of South Australia in the 70s, when Bill McFarlane was the General Superintendent!
Now 93 years of age, Audrey regularly attends Rostrevor Baptist Church, where she continues to serve on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays, when she leads an inspiring seniors group.
“I go every week to the early service. Sometimes I’m on the welcoming committee, and I have to be there at half past eight!
“Tuesdays we have a lunch and a service, which is really for the older type of people. And I play the keyboard. I’ve played the piano since I was nine. I always lower the pitch, because sometimes the hymn will go up to F, and that’s a bit much, even E’s a bit much.
“The other day we had to meet in the hall, and I had a different keyboard, and I couldn’t lower the pitch, so we didn’t have many high hymns!”
An academic dux at Adelaide Technical High School in the 1940s, Audrey was baptised after she left school, but experienced God in a new way at about 30 when she was born again – “a most wonderful experience! I knew Jesus died for me and I was forgiven.”
Audrey came in to visit the Baptist Centre in March, and all enjoyed her polite and cheerful nature. Her favourite hymn, How Deep the Father’s Love, deeply reflects a heart in awe of God, and in speaking to Audrey it’s evident that the Father sits stoic on the throne of her heart.
“I often have something to thank God for. The other day I was washing up and there was a black mark on the wall. I washed it off, and then up further there was another one, so I thought, ‘oh gosh, I‘ll wash that off too’.
“So I got a chair and thought “I’ll climb on this”, and I only [went and] fell off this chair!
“It hurts me a little bit to sit down, and my leg’s bruised, but I thank God that many times that nothing worse happened, I should have got my steps, shouldn’t I have?”
Absolutely committed to daily prayer routines, Audrey talks of prayer as a necessary part of her day.
“How [would I] encourage others to pray more? I’d tell them what I do.
“Every morning I read the Bible and have daily devotions every morning using a booklet of Bible readings.
“Then I’ve got a heap of papers that thick that I pray about! They’re in a little cloth bag, I get them out and do one each day. Then I’ve got people I pray for every day. I just pray the same things each day.”
“I’ve been a Christian for a long time, I think it’s my duty – I want to be close to Jesus.”
Together in Mission and Baptist Churches of South Australia are deeply thankful for Audrey Foreman’s contributions over the years, and her faithful servant heart in everything she has done and still does.
