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Amazing women of faith

By Doug Dezotell
Posted 3/26/22

Today is the last Saturday of Women’s History Month. I have enjoyed sharing about some amazing Women of Faith in my columns in March 2022.

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Amazing women of faith

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Today is the last Saturday of Women’s History Month.

I have enjoyed sharing about some amazing Women of Faith in my columns in March 2022.

First, I wrote about my friend, the recently departed, 115-year-old Native American matriarch, Irene Eskey, a quiet woman of faith.

Then I wrote about women ministers and missionaries, from Mary Magdalene to Mother Teresa.

Last week I wrote about the first African American women preachers.

These mighty women of Christian faith taught themselves to read, and stood up in the face of all manner of adversity to proclaim their love for Jesus Christ.

Today I want to conclude this series of columns by telling you about a woman of faith whose history has impacted mine in so many ways.

Her name was P. L. Freeman (PLF).

PLF was born to an enlisted couple on a U.S. Navy base in Charleston, South Carolina.

When her father was discharged from the Navy, the young family moved home to the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama.

The Freemans were hard-working, life-long Southern Baptists, and they raised their daughter in their family’s local church.

While PLF’s parents were working, her father’s mother, whom PLF affectionately called “Mama-ese,” took care of the little curly headed girl.

Every afternoon, the two of them would sit out on the porch swing and wait for PLF’s father and mother to get home from work; the little girl looking up and down the street for her mama and daddy to come and get her.

PLF loved her sweet god-fearing grandmother and cherished those memories of Mama-ese praying and reading her Bible and teaching her about Jesus.

Then one day the Freeman’s made the decision to move to Huntsville where Mr. Freeman started his own business. Mama-ese was sad to see them go, and PLF was sad to leave her beloved grandmother behind.

As the only child, PLF accompanied her parents to church every Sunday and Wednesday; but like so many people raised in church, she failed to make a serious commitment to Christ.

While in her teens she started experimenting with pills and marijuana and hallucinogenics, and she got involved in all that went with that life-style she found herself in.

After high school, PLF became fascinated with the occult and Eastern Religions; and she stopped going to church with her parents.

PLF was raised in a spiritual home, but her interest in the “spiritual” took a different route as she learned more about the occult.

She attended meetings and seances with friends throughout the city, and met more and more new people whose interests were definitely not godly.

Her Christian parents were heart-broken, and they continued to pray for their wayward daughter, believing that one day she would surrender her life to Christ.

Like so many youth growing up in the 60’s and 70’s in America, PLF was searching for truth, for something to guide her life.

She hadn’t completely denied the faith of her parents. PLF had that ‘god-consciousness’ imbedded in her since childhood, but her spiritual hunger longed for something more.

Maybe that was why she delved into the occult and into other religions, she was spiritually hungry.

The prayers of a little grandmother in middle Alabama, and the prayers of parents sharing their concerns with their Sunday School class were soon to be answered.

One day a friend of PLF’s invited her to go to a “rocking, joy filled Friday Night Meeting” at a house there in Huntsville, and she decided to join her.

The meeting was different than any of the ones PLF had been going to.

The house was filled with happy and excited young people, sitting on the floor playing guitars and singing songs to God.

PLF soon realized this was a Christian meeting, but not like the churches she grew up in.

The people at this Friday Night Meeting were excited about their faith in Christ and loved to share it with others.

They welcomed PLF into their fellowship, and she finally found that faith-community she had been searching for.

During that period of time, Mama-ese’s prayers were answered.

The Freeman’s were able to share with their Sunday School Class that their “Prodigal Daughter” had found freedom in Christ.

It wasn’t long and PLF felt the stirring in her heart to enter Christian ministry.

She joined a group of friends from the Friday Night Meetings and moved to East Texas to attend a ministry training school called Twin Oaks Leadership Academy.

The Bible college had been started by Rev. David Wilkerson, the founder of Teen Challenge, a worldwide Christian discipleship program helping drug addicts find a new life in Christ.

PLF found her purpose and responded to God’s call to full-time ministry.

She learned American Sign Language while at Twin Oaks, and signed for the school’s choir.

As PLF and her friends from Huntsville prepared for graduation, they were asked to return to Alabama and start a residential program for female addicts.

The minister/director of the Friday Night Meetings had already started a residential program for men, and he saw the need for a program to help young women escape their addictions.

The recent TWLA graduates returned home to Huntsville and entered into a fledgling full-time ministry to female addicts wanting Christ’s deliverance.

It was several years later when I crossed paths with PLF.

I was the director of Teen Challenge of the Ozarks in Springfield, Missouri at the time.

I was asked by the National Director of Teen Challenge to go with him to a Director’s Conference in Talladega, Alabama.

Sitting there in one of the morning meetings as I listened to the speaker, I became distracted.

I looked across the room and saw a young woman with the most beautiful smile, shaking her head in agreement with the minister speaking.

I was mesmerized.

It was love at first sight, and I knew right then that I was going to marry that lady.

Thirty-nine years ago on April 9, PLF (Patricia Lynn Freeman) became Mrs. Patricia Lynn Dezotell.

And as they say… The Rest is History!

Doug Dezotell is a local pastor and a columnist for the Times-Gazette. He can be contacted at 931-607-5191 or by email at dougmdezotell@gmail.com. You can also find him in the pulpit at Cannon United Methodist Church on Sundays at 11 a.m. The church is located at 1001 So. Cannon Blvd. in Shelbyville. PLFD should be there too!