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By Guest Columnist Terry Goldman
ATLANTA - In a day when people change jobs with every birthday or New Year, we enjoy hearing about an employee, passionate about her job – in this case, career! Thursday, March 31, Teresa Riddle Lynch of Zebulon, Georgia received a 20 year- service award from Jim Reese, President/CEO of The Atlanta Mission, an organization established in 1938 to meet the needs of the hungry, homeless and helpless.
At the Capital City Club in Atlanta, Mr. Reese told a group friends as well as present and former board members, “Teresa has been an example of faith, perseverance, love, joy and endurance for over 20 years. In watching her, I have seen it is not the size of her challenge, but the size of her heart, compassion and drive to do all as unto the Lord that produces excellence with compassion.”
Teresa said, “If I look back I see God’s hand in my life – a mother living her childhood in poverty, a research paper on homelessness in my freshman year at college, job offers for which I never applied but led to The Atlanta Mission.”
She added, “Not too long ago, I considered teaching as a career, got my certification and entered the practice teaching stage. While I loved teaching, I found I never once cried. That sounds odd, but I realized that at the Atlanta Mission I witnessed a stream of people in crisis, at the end of themselves, desperately reaching for help. Every week those events moved me to tears.”
She continued, “I knew I must be a part of the solution for all these people. Today’s celebration is about serving our neighbors and an amazing organization – that by God’s grace and protection has done just that for almost 78 years.”
Mr. Reese further praised Teresa Riddle Lynch, “She loves the highest and the lowest, our board, our clients, our largest donor and our smallest donor, with the same heart that comes only from Him. “