
The Faith Partner Christian Supply - downtown Elizabethtown sells Bibles, books, gifts and the owner, Mildred Alderman Jackson also is diligent on her computer creating church bulletins and brochures for churches in the area. In her mid-70s, she has been self taught and creates some unique graphics and packets.
Mark DeLap | Bladen Journal
A JONAH EXPERIENCE
ELIZABETHTOWN – There are many eclectic shops, wonderful boutiques and magical emporiums in Elizabethtown, but there is a small shop that is tucked away in the midst of the downtown hustle and bustle that, no matter how stressed or poorly you are feeling – you will walk out feeling as if you’d hung the moon.
It isn’t because it’s a Christian bookstore or because of the merchandise or the ambience or the décor of the Faith Partner Christian Supply. It isn’t anything material, really.
But there is a woman there who says she’s been called by God to be there. When she speaks, you can feel the agape love and care that she shares with each visitor and customer who comes through her front door. Some come to buy a book, a Bible, a card, a gift perhaps, but then there are those who just come to spend time with her – to glean from the wisdom of all she knows and the strength of her faith.
She’s the genuine article.
Mildred Alderman Jackson was born in Loris Hospital in South Carolina, but grew up in Tabor City, North Carolina, about 39 miles north of the South Carolina border.
“When I was born, the doctor named me after his mom, and I think that’s the ugliest name,” Jackson said. “I don’t like it. In fact, while I was in school, I tried to change my name and the teachers told my mom that I was changing my name from Mildred to Anne.”
“Just a little humor,” she said with a smile.
She graduated from Central High School in Whiteville, North Carolina, where her family had located to. She said that it is a “Jonah story” as to how she made the transition from Whiteville to eventually become a business owner for 38 years in Elizabethtown.
“Have you ever heard about Jonah in the Bible?” she asked. “I had been sick for a lot of years. I didn’t work, I had a hernia, I used to bleed from my kidneys, I had asthma, so I couldn’t work. I used to stay home and listen to Kenneth Copeland, Charles Capps and Pop Hagen teaching on TV. They talked about healing. And one day, the Lord told me, ‘Don’t take any more medication, you are healed.’ I started crying.”
Jackson, who had five children at home at the time said that as a result of her healing, she was able to once again get a job. Her husband, Leon Jackson was a pastor at Minter’s Chapel – First Born Church of the Living God in Boardman, North Carolina, but then he also pastored in Wilmington where he was the presiding elder over the North Carolina district for the First-Born Church of the Living God.
The First-Born Church of the Living God was established in the state of Georgia, county of Ware, City of Waycross May 12, 1913. The founding fathers were J. Q. Croom, S. P. Croom, A.M. McNair, W.M. Holland, M. H. Hall, L.G. Lockhart, E.M. Goodson, Q.T. Granger and L.O. Golden.
“God blessed me with a good job,” she said. “I worked for four and a half years in management. It was good money and good bonuses. It was a knitwear company. And, it was only seven minutes away from my house. So, I had it made.”
Jackson who is a Godly woman lives the scripture in the Book of John 10:27 where Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice and I know them.”
She hears. Though there may be skeptics, she really does hear. God.
“I was at work one day, walking around my department and thought to myself that one day I was going to have a job not because of the money but something I would love to do,” she said. “I felt the Lord telling me that I was supposed to open a Christian book store. In Elizabethtown. Be careful what you ask for.”
She originally did what most people do when they don’t want to follow a calling. She thought of all the reasons she didn’t want to go to Elizabethtown.
“I was afraid to come,” she said. “So, therefore, I delayed my coming and thus, God provided me with a Jonah experience that was rather unpleasant. It was a time I was supposed to be taking a vacation and making plans that I ended up being laid up with a walking pneumonia. The Lord came again to me and asked me why I was still where I was.”
At times, we run from a calling. Other times, we just simply give in due to the uncomfortableness and the stench of the whale’s belly. She said that it taught her to listen more carefully and to trust more fully. So, she started making plans to do something she never did before in a place she’d never been before with people she never met before.
“My husband and I came up and we looked around at several buildings,” she said. “One day, while my husband was down in seminary in Georgia and we had three kids in college, I decided to answer the call and had to go and tell my supervisor that I was quitting.”
She explained to him that she was going to open a Christian bookstore, and immediately got opposition and tons of reasons why it was not a good move. Sometimes the scripture in Romans 14:22 can be so true. Painful but true. “If you have faith, keep it to yourself before God. Happy is he that condemns not himself in that thing which he allows.”
“So, we found a building up here,” she said. “It was a little building across from the courthouse. Then one day my husband heard someone say that there was a building downtown for rent. There was a Hallmark store under lease and the woman wanted to get out. She asked me if I would move over here and I’ve been here ever since.”
She has been in business in Elizabethtown since 1987.
For the last 15 years, Jackson has had to take care of business by herself as her husband passed in 2010.
There have have been many challenges and some uphill struggles, but through it all, her rock-solid faith has carried and sustained her. She has a wood-carved plaque behind her counter at the bookstore and it has the quote from Psalm 27:13 that says, “I have seen the goodness of God.”
She obviously notices how cruel situations and circumstances can be – but what she CHOOSES to see is God’s goodness.
Each time there has been too little coming in financially, each time the bill collectors have come to the door, each time she’s wanted to just take an easier road and close her shop, the one who called her to do what she’s doing has always been faithful to her.
She continues in her mid-70s and after 38 years of faithful business to the communities of Bladen and Columbus counties. She still drives each day from Whiteville. And though her income may be meager and she may live hand to mouth, she never forgets that it’s God’s hand to her mouth.
“I can remember days when I would cry and drive from Whiteville to Elizabethtown and pray and ask, Oh Lord what I’m going to eat,” she said. “So, He told me to go and buy me a dozen eggs and a pack of grits. I would eat one egg a meal and a little bit of grits. And that would last me all week long. And do you know, I still eat grits and eggs?”
She could write a book about all the times “God, just stepped in…” but that would take lifetimes to write and she stays busy keeping the lights on – not only at the bookstore, but the light that proceeds from her countenance as she does the weekly bulletins for her church and brochures for other churches, as she waves and knows each passerby and prays for each one, as she waits on customers – some who just need to come in and hear a word of encouragement.
When she smiles, she lights up a room and it’s as if the favor of God has illuminated her.
You can see under that little frame of a Godly woman that she bears a lot of weight from the rigors of the day and the toll that life has tried to take. There are times when perhaps to close the doors for a final time would be the solution for most people. But she is not “most people” and she knows that she can only leave when the one who called her to open the establishment will have to be the one to call her to shut it down. She said that the voice of circumstance can’t bully her – it’s not the right voice.
She is a woman of faith. Not the kind of woman that tells you she will pray for you – but will really become your intercessor. Not the kind of Christian that lives the life only on Sunday mornings, but she truly is a woman walking in a 24-hour anointing.
“It doesn’t matter what color your skin is,” she said. “If God be for you and He say go, He will make it work. I’m still eating grits and eggs now – not because I have to – but it reminds me of how He has sustained me in the big things and the little things. And oh, how I depend on Him.”
If you get a chance to visit Mildred Alderman Jackson at Faith Partner Christian Supply at 117 W. Broad Street in Elizabethtown, North Carolina, stay and feel how good it is to have seeds of encouragement sown into your day.
And… don’t forget to ask her about her miracle chairs.
Mark DeLap is a journalist, photographer and the editor and general manager of the Bladen Journal. To see more of his bio, visit him at markdelap.com or email him. Send a message to: mdelap@bladenjournal.com