Shared vision

Christian women unite in goal of blurring lines between black and white

By Stefanie Lewallen, Special to Faith & Values

Saturday, April 25, 2009

The magic between the four women is evident.

The good friends  knock on each others' doors regularly and feel like they can be themselves.  They share   joys and sorrows.

Two are black and two are white, but  they do not see color.

The four -- Norma Egbert, Joyce Stephens, Olive Gamble and Patricia Glass -- are members of  Ladies in Fellowship Transition (LIFT), a group that meets monthly for prayer.

Stephens, Gamble and Glass all live in Slayden, Miss. Egbert lives across the state line in Fayette County, Tenn.

Their mission is to transition from typical segregated communities, to grow as a racially mixed group that prays together and bonds as friends. They say color does not matter, especially in the eyes of God.

Egbert said she is excited about what LIFT is doing in her the community.

Egbert was also  the area coordinator for Redemption2009,   a multicultural Christian revival for woman held last month at the Cook Convention Center.

Redemption2009 was a bigger version of what LIFT was already doing -- a racially diverse group of women worshipping and praying together.

Both LIFT and much larger scale Redemption2009 had the common goal of racial unity.

"It is in progress," said Glass, daughter of LIFT founding member Mary Walker Penilton. "We want blacks and whites to be comfortable with each other." Glass would like to see other people just as comfortable together as they are.

Penilton, a black woman, started the program with her white friend, LaNita Boone.

"You invite your white friends, and I'll invite my black friends," Glass remembers her mother saying.

The first LIFT meeting consisted of 10 people, six black and four whites who met in Boone's home.

Glass remembers her mother saying that she no longer had black or white friends. Everyone was just friends.

LIFT co-chairmen Stephens and Gamble want to carry on the same sentiment as the group's founders.

Stephens is black and Gamble is white, but they say they do not see color.

"I grew up as an Army brat," said Gamble. "My dad was a chaplain, and you just don't see color barriers in the Army."

The group started out meeting in homes, but  after one year became too large. They meet at different churches.

So far six churches are involved with LIFT: Slayden Baptist Church, Hudsonville CME Church in Holly Springs, Concord Missionary Baptist Church in Slayden, Kimbrough Chapel  Church in Lamar, Adolphus Chapel CME Church in Holly Springs and BridgeWay Baptist Church in Mt. Pleasant.

Egbert believes having gone to  the Redemption revival and getting involved with LIFT will  build relationships with Christian women of all backgrounds.

"We intend to make it work," said Egbert. "God said it. We need to do it. He didn't say only talk to people who look like you. He said 'Go, ye.' "

"Preconceived notions are never factual." Egbert points out. "God can do His best work with scraps."

Gamble agrees, "We are proof God can use everybody."

Stefanie Lewallen is a freelance writer.

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