Hannah Paul

I was born October 2nd, 1931, in Mississippi. I was raised with my mother and stepfather, during the Depression and many families kind of broke up, especially in the south. The Depression hit the south probably harder than it did the rest of the country. So we had to split up. My mother's sister kept me from about 8 or 9 months up until I was about 5 or 6 years old. And then I went home. Mama wanted to get her children. She had 5 children at that time and then my sister was born after that. We were living on a farm, doing what was called, "iving off the land."

What were you growing for your crops?

We grew cotton and corn. It was very nice. It was a hard life. We worked from morning to night when the crops were in. When I think about the farm, even as poor as we were, I can recall how very quiet it was and beautiful. You'd see corn on one side, cotton on the other. It was very good. I think that's really how God intended for us to live. I feel sorry for my niece's children growing up in the project. They don't know life like that.

So you earned your living by selling your crops?

Yes, we were working on half a shared property. And that means you work the land and you gave half of it to the owner of the land. And the other half was yours. But he did the selling so you didn't have to worry about that. He took care of all of it.

Was that enough income for the whole year?

No, no! There were other jobs. My mother worked in houses but they didn't pay much because they didn't have much either. But we made it. I don't find it no worse than it is today. But there were no homeless back in those days. Everybody had a little house to go to, that they called home.

Is Hannah Paul your given name?

My birth name was May Widley Edward. I never did like that name to start with, but I wanted to get away from that name. And since I came to know God in a way that I had never known Him before, I kind of cling to God, the Father. And it seemed like as I was reading the story of Him, He was always changing people's names. So I just kind of went down the line of the women that were close to Him but stopped when I came to Hannah. She seemed to have been struggling with something, and I was struggling with something. When she was in the temple she prayed and the priest thought she was drunk, but she wasn't. So I said, "this is it! I'm going to be Hannah." And so I changed my first name. Then later when I came to the New Testament, I was reading about the apostle Paul and he said something about being the "chief of sinners," and I could relate to that too because I knew that I too had been an aweful sinner. So I said "that's it, that's my name - Hannah Paul". Because I could relate to these two people. Paul was close to Jesus and Hannah was close to God, the Father.

So when and how did you become a Christian?

Now that I can't tell you because I truly don't know. I was born into a Baptist family and I was always told about God. Ever since I knew my name, my mama's name, my daddy's name, my sisters and brothers' names, I knew God's name. God's name stood out there but He was always God, the Father, because He was the father image. So I grew up as a Christian, or at least that is what I thought. But it was when I was turning 50, that I had a real spiritual awakening in my life. God seemed like He kind of pulled the curtain back and I just kind of looked in on a whole new life. And I have been on the ride ever since. So I truly don't know when I became a Christian.

How did you hear about Friendly Towers?

I was staying in the Uptown Baptist Church overnight shelter and I met some people there who came here to Friendly Towers and then they told me about it. And I also met one of the Jesus People at a rescue mission and she also told me that I should come.

What one thing did you learn while you were living at the shelter?

God showed me that all people are people and that no matter how low a person was, they still were a human being and we were not to turn our nose up at nobody. If there is any way possible that we can help a person like that then we should help them. I think that in some way I was kind of lifted up. You see, God knows us better than we know ourselves. I was kind of proud of living in the suburbs. I had a nice apartment in Evanston. I had this wonderful job as a practical nurse for over 30 years private duty, making all this money and I was certainly not giving to the church or other organization like I should have been. I really was not doing that. I was giving but certainly not like God required.

How did that change your way of thinking?

I learned to love all people, especially those we call "low life." But I would prefer to call them unfortunate people. I have learned to love and care for everybody; I didn't have that attitude before. There were certain people that I didn't really care for, but by living in the shelter and being on the streets a lot and meeting these people, I learned to love them. And now I find myself working with them, trying to get close to them so I can tell them the good news about Jesus. And I try to help them get in the position where they can help themselves so they won't have to live in the shelter. Also being in the shelter, I learned that people do not have to live like that.

What do you think we as the Church can do?

I think we as Christians should let the world see how we as Christians live, then we can maybe be a light for them. Then they can see something in us that they don't have. Then maybe that'll draw them. I think what I'm trying to say is if we are like Jesus says for us to be, if we do what He says for us to do, be salt and be light, I think that would probably help a lot of them come to the light. They would say "Well, I'm going to go to their church." We have to show that we are who we say we are.