ETTA MAE MANNING On Wednesday, October 21, 2020, Etta Mae Manning loving mother of three children, five grandchildren, seven great grandchildren and two great, great grandchildren entered into the gates of heaven at the age of 100 plus 16 days. She was born in a log cabin on a farm near Fredonia, Kansas on October 5, 1920 where she lived until her marriage to the late Reverend Gearl B. Manning. Following a highly blessed pastoral ministry across the United States, they retired to the farm. She was a woman of enormous strength of will and character. She endured some deep valleys with the loss of everything in a flood. Later she lost her 21 -year-old son. This loss was inconsolable and she seemed to lose herself in the darkness of her bedroom. We fasted and prayed for more than a year. And then one Sunday morning she pulled back the curtains in her bedroom and looked out to see a family from the church parked in their car praying. She knew they were praying for her and in that moment,she was healed. She enjoyed some wonderful mountaintops and simple pleasures. She shared a fruitful ministry with the man of her dreams. She was blessed with an adopted son, Wayne which fit in easily with his new siblings, Jerry and Loretta. She enjoyed knitting and crocheting to the degree that she needed her “work basket” near her at all times. In the years following Gearl’s homegoing, mom’s ministry emerged along different lines. She evolved from a shy, quiet helpmate to a woman who loved to talk to strangers, laughed a lot and was simply filled with the joy of living. Her opening remarks to a new acquaintance were “I’m from Kansas and I’m 99!” Many sought her Christ-centered wisdom when they had difficult decisions to make. She resided with her daughter, Loretta Chamberlain in Rancho Murieta, California for the past 20 years. Love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These are the fruits of the Holy Spirit that grow in the hearts and lives of committed Christians. Etta Mae had them all in abundance.