By Lindsey Carraway
Writing Specialist
LEAKESVILLE, Miss. — One hundred years old today, Alma Dean Hicks has served as treasurer of Cedar Grove Baptist Church in Leakesville for 65 faithful years, and she has no intention of retiring.
Precise to the exact penny and passionate for God’s people, she loves her church, and Cedar Grove loves her in return. On June 7, Gregory Foster, Hicks’ pastor, along with music minister, William Ricks, surprised her with a service and sermon dedicated to faithful living, with Hicks as the honorable example.
As family from out of town gathered around her, the church presented a plaque reading, “With all our deepest appreciation, we hereby honor Ms. Alma Dean Hicks, treasurer, for 65 years of faithfulness, commitment, and dedication to service for Cedar Grove Baptist Church.”
Concluding the service, Maria Teel from the executive office of the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board presented Hicks with a certificate recognizing her ministry, on behalf of Shawn Parker, executive director-treasurer, and the entire MBCB staff.
Having grown up in Cedar Grove, Hicks also raised her six children in her childhood church, three of whom still attend Cedar Grove today.
“Mother has always liked math,” said Rita Walley, Hicks’ daughter and pianist for Cedar Grove. “She was attending the University of Southern Mississippi, majoring in financing, when her father had a stroke. Her older brothers were in the military and there was no one to help her mother, so she quit school and came home to help take care of her dad. She never went back to college.”
Although Hicks surrendered higher education to help her family, she would eventually become the treasurer of Cedar Grove through a rather amusing turn of events.
“In the 60s, the church asked my dad to take the treasury position,” Walley said. “He took his work home and asked mother to do it. So she did it for him, got the title, and has done it ever since!”
Today, Hicks continues to serve as treasurer of the church, with Walley as her assistant. Family, friends, and coworkers affirm that she is a fount of financial finesse. In diligent dedication, she has always done her job with only a pencil and paper. Coworkers said if she made a mistake, “it was only a penny’s difference” and her report concluded with a correction of where she found and returned that penny. In budget meetings, Hicks accurately answers all financial questions and shows how plans and purchases work out in the bigger budget.
“She can still spout out the way they’ve always done it or the percent of whatever was paid to something — she knows it,” Walley said.
More importantly to all who love her, however, is that Hicks is a model of faithful living. She has stewarded the blessings of Cedar Grove with excellence for 65 years, and she has walked faithfully with her God for almost a century.
In his sermon honoring her ministry, Foster spoke on James 2:14-18, reflecting on the difference between faith, which is the inner commitment of the heart (the root), and faithfulness, which is the outer evidence of that faith (the fruit).
Foster compared Hicks to the myriads of biblical figures cited in Hebrews 11, men and women who “have run the marathon and not thrown in the towel.”
“In 1961, she accepted the challenge (of treasurer), and she is still engaged in that challenge,” Foster said. “I can guarantee that Ms. Alma Dean has been through all kinds of trials… She has put her feet on the ground a long time, and she has not done that for her, she has done that first and foremost for the Lord Jesus Christ, and secondly for this family at Cedar Grove Baptist Church. She didn’t want to be recognized; she just wants to serve her Lord God. That’s what faithfulness is.
“She’s not the only faithful one here, of course, but when we have a legacy like this, we need to say, ‘Thank You, Lord, for the example that we have at Cedar Grove Baptist Church.’”
Although Hicks has developed hearing loss and struggles with her health, she still faithfully takes her spot in the pew, disregarding “every excuse to stay home.”
“Mom never misses church unless she is just absolutely not able to be there,” Walley affirmed. “She makes every Sunday morning and Sunday night service, and she raised her children to value consistent church fellowship, as well. She is a wonderful mother.”
This Saturday, June 20, Cedar Grove will honor Hicks with a birthday party, continuing to celebrate all that the Lord has done in and through her this past century.
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