Jo Anne Sadler Memorial

Jo Anne Sadler was born August 20, 1951 in Westminister, Maryland to John and Naomi Fritz. She was the 5th of 6 children. She grew up playing cowboys and Indians with her siblings and enjoyed riding their family horse, Cheyenne. Jo Anne's love of horses started at a very young age.

Jo Anne graduated high school and a few years later, at the young age of 19, she had her first (and only) son, Marshall. Five years later, little Lisa was born. While the children were still young, Jo Anne got a great opportunity to start a career with Amtrak working in their office in San Francisco, CA. At the time, she was living in Virginia Beach and thought this would be a once in a lifetime chance to see the "Big City" that she'd always heard about. She packed the car and headed out west. She always told her family that it was the beautiful and majestic palm trees that she fell in love with and she decided make California her new home.

A few years after moving, she met her one true love....Carlos. It was love at first sight. They got married on February 19, 1983. A couple years later, they welcomed their daughter Amber into the family, and seven years after that, they adopted Jo Anne's great-niece, Keri. Carlos and Jo Anne were always committed to being examples of what a Godly marriage looked like and were always there to love and support their children and grandchildren in all walks of life and to help point them back to the Lord whenever possible.

Jo Anne excelled in her job at Amtrak and eventually moved her way up from secretary to Manager of the Marketing department. It was here that she wrote a manual for secretaries to follow - as the secretarial position had no real guidelines until then. This manual was so well received, that the president of Amtrak himself got a hold of it and chose to honor her, as well as a few others, at a dinner that was held in Washington D.C.! She had a reputation of being nothing but professional and always going above and beyond in everything that she did, at work or anything else.

In 2006, she and Carlos moved from CA to TN to retire. She always made sure everyone knew that SHE wasn't the one retiring, but Carlos. She joked that retirement kept her busier than any job she ever had! She finally got to own horses again, which was her lifetime dream. Shotgun was her handsome black stallion who stole her heart from the moment she met him, then there was Tiny Dancer and Little Red. She passed her love for horses onto her grandchildren, as well as anyone else who came to visit and go for a ride around the pasture.

Jo Anne was always so selfless and had a heart to help people no matter the cost. She spent a great deal of her life caring for her mother, Naomi, and did such a good job of it that at 93 years old, she is well and still here with us! :) She also went on a missions trip to Jamaica and returned with amazing stories and testimonies of how God worked among the people there.

Between the four children, she has 10 grandchildren...one grandson and nine granddaughters!

JoAnne Sadler, mother of four, grandmother of ten grandchildren and wife to the love of her life, Carlos Sadler, completed her life’s race and journey, this past Wednesday November 21st and went home to with be her Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ!

The Apostle Paul wrote the following words in his final letter to his beloved spiritual son Timothy, in . He said, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”

JoAnne Sadler most DEFINITELY finished her life’s race with excellence. She fought the good fight and contended for her faith and belief in her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And so, just as Paul stated, there is a crown of righteousness that was laid up for and awaiting JoAnne when she crossed that thin veil that separates us from this side of life and our eternal future!

JoAnne and I share many of the same loves and interests in this life. We both love to laugh and share time with our families and friends. We both love the beauty and splendor of all that our great God and creator gave for us to enjoy on this earth! JoAnne did, however, have a great love for something in this life, that I could not share with her, or relate to. And that is, her love for horses! You see apart from the carousel at amusement parks, the quarter carousels in front of stores and the pretend horses (broom handles) that we rode as small kids, I have ever only been on top of a real horse twice in my life. Once on a small trail horse, that had been trained to walk this short trail, whether you did anything with the reins or not. He just slowly walked this little trail and then the adventure was over. The other time, was on top of a race horse! A much larger horse, I might add, than the smaller and more stoic trail horse of before. MUCH LARGER!

I felt like I was sitting on top of a moving mountain and that mountain didn’t like me sitting on top of it and made sure that I didn’t want to stay on top of it very long, or ever come back for a second go of it!

I was like, if I squeeze any tightert

It was, however, JoAnne’s great love for the Lord that we both share and that united and formed a common bond and link between she and I, as well as so many others within her family in the Body of Christ!

It was JoAnne’s great love for the Lord that united and formed a common bond and link between she and I, as well as so many others within her family in the Body of Christ!

Which is why we have gathered here today to both mourn this TEMPORAL loss of our dear sister (and I emphasize TEMPORAL), because, as I stated this past Sunday morning, there is no DEATH for a true child of God. No, rather, JoAnne has taken up her eternal residence in Heaven and so we mourn her presence not being here now, but we celebrate her homecoming with all of the saints who have gone on before her to be with the Lord!

And JoAnne, as Carlos himself shared with me again recently, had a great love and passion for a VERY key component of the Kingdom of Heaven and that key component is UNITY within the Body of Christ!

And it is because of her desire to fulfill the very thing that Jesus, Himself, declared and prayed over His people, in , UNITY within the BODY, that I have just recently been introduced to my dear brother in Christ, Pastor Harold Cox, whom you will be hearing from in THREE HOURS, when I am done preaching!

I met Harold a couple of weeks ago at the hospital while visiting with JoAnne and Carlos and the family.

And because of the timing of the Lord and His will and plan and because of this great woman’s love for what the Bible actually says, this new friendship and this new chapter in the Body of Christ within Cumberland County has now begun.

So, that being said, in honor of Ms. JoAnne and her great love for the reading and the hearing of the Word of God, I would like to read her favorite passage at this time. .

READ FROM KJV BIBLE!

Just a couple of points on this beautiful passage.

In verse one, it says, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” and in Hebrew, that word, “dwelleth” is the word, “yā·šǎḇ” and it refers to, “taking up a permanent residence somewhere”.

So, this verse literally means, that those choose to walk with the Lord, shall have a place of PERMANENT RESIDENCE where they will abide (REST) in and with Him, and always be under His protection!

The other thing about this passage is the ending of it, in verses 14-16, where God makes His great and mighty promises to those who choose to walk and abide with Him. These promises are definitely promises that JoAnne would have picked up on and even heard the Father declaring specifically to her, His daughter, as she read them, through His Spirit living within her!

“I will rescue you JoAnne.....”

“I will protect you JoAnne.....”

“I will answer you JoAnne when you call on me.......”

“I will be with you in times of trouble.....”

“I will deliver you JoAnne.........”

“I will honor you JoAnne........”

“With long life will I satisfy you my daughter......”

“And I will show you, my daughter, my salvation!”

Friends, that is exactly what God did for JoAnne and what He will do for each and every person who makes the decision to follow Jesus, the living Son of God! He will deliver you and show you HIS salvation and bring you to abide with Him forever!

CALL OF HAROLD AND ASK TO SING “SOMETHING ABOUT THAT NAME” (if it seems right)