God and His Amazing People

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Barbara Pritchett, formerly of California – now settled in Arizona, has a long, productive history as a servant leader with Aglow International. If you look in God’s book you would see the word ‘faithful’ as one of her descriptive words. Another would be the word ‘generous’, along with ‘friend’, ‘intercessor’, ‘teacher’, ‘soul winner’, and the list of defining words goes on and on. 

Barbara has never shied away from a challenge, whether it be personal or someone who needed prayer support while walking through a crisis. Barbara has always loved reaching out in her community and worked well with Patricia Lynn Taylor, another bold warrior for Jesus. Neither of them could be found sitting on the back row in any gathering of people, rather, they would be found at the front, cheering the crowd on to come up higher in their relationship with the Lord.

Once Barbara started in Aglow way back when, she never stepped away from service. Many times, she wore more than one hat meaning she had more than one set of responsibilities in Aglow. And you could always find her leading from the front. From handing out tracks and praying for people at the Rose Bowl Parade, to early morning prayer calls, to being on the Monday night Israel prayer calls, Barbara had put her hand to plow and cultivate the field God put into her hands. Plant. Water. God gets the increase. 

Barbara said that all she learned about Israel in Aglow has been a gamechanger for her. She went on 6 trips to Israel with the last one being in 2019 which a friend in Aglow gifted her that trip. Barbara said, “This was a true gift from God to me.” When asked what was a favorite memory from Israel, Barbara mentioned how she sensed and felt the Holy Spirit when she was baptized in the Jordan River. 

In 2018 Barbara lost sight in one eye. She kept right on going until losing the sight in the other eye last year while on the early morning Command the Morning prayer call. As Barbara said, “As I was on the prayer call, I suddenly saw a bright light and then it got dark and my sight was gone.” 

Barbara explained as we spoke that without sight, one has no idea if the numbers are up on a cell phone or where they were for her to try to make a call. 

Today, Barbara is living in a wonderful adult family home in Arizona near her daughter’s family. Four other people live in the home besides Barbara. Having already made friends with one couple there, Barbara was delighted to find out that the wife was a believer, too, but not the husband. 

One day recently, the perfect situation occurred. The husband had been out for a meal with friends and when he returned, Barbara was there, waiting in some ways. She asked him, “What are you going to do about Jesus?” The man was a little shocked asking her what did she mean? She told him, “We all have to make a decision about what we are going to do with Jesus. Are you going to receive him into your life or are you going to reject him?” After a few minutes, Barbara had the privilege of leading him to the Lord. 

We marveled together as we talked about how a believer’s life is never finished until the Lord calls them home and even then, the seeds they have planted through sharing and praying will still be producing life. 

Barbara shared, too, about a young caregiver in the home who is actually the young daughter of the owner. She asked Barbara if they could start a Tuesday night prayer time together. No telling who the Lord will draw to Barbara as she shines for Him each day.

The Bible clearly tells us in words spoken by Jesus that in life we will experience hard times, difficult times, challenges and tribulations, but in those times, we can be of good cheer because Jesus has overcome them all. If we are willing, God will take all that He has poured into us throughout our life and He will take mountains and make them into mole hills. He will take what the enemy meant to harm us and turn it for good. He is a good Father, and just like Barbara is doing, we can trust Him with our lives.