BIG SANDY, Texas--If you will just hand me that stack of dirty dishes, we will get started on how I met a real prophet. It was 1960 and I had decided to make a commitment to God. So I talked with a minister in the Church of God who told me first to count the cost, second to repent and third to be baptized. I thought about being martyred for Christ. I imagined myself hanging on a stake and people passing by and looking up with admiration. (These were brave thoughts for someone like me, who at that time of my life would scream bloody murder over a splinter in my finger.) Then I remembered that the Bible said somewhere that we were to become a living sacrifice. So much for my visions of grandeur. That's when my prophet gave me the news. The minister asked if I was willing to spend the rest of my life doing dishes in Big Sandy, Texas. Why did he mention doing dishes in Big Sandy? At the time I was living in California. Many in the Church of God would travel to Big Sandy to observe the Feast of Tabernacles. The site in East Texas was a pretty tough place to observe the Feast in those years. It seemed that washing dishes in Big Sandy was the worst thing humanly possible that the minister could envision. I said, "Sure." I was willing to help out at the Feast. Guess what. My husband and I moved to Big Sandy in July 1969. Now it is February 2010. My prophet friend didn't realize how right he was. I have washed a lot of dishes in Big Sandy. Let's take a coffee break and I will finish these dirty dishes later. After all, I will be doing them until death do us part. | 
