Anne Finaughty. 'Just add "f" and "i" to "naughty,"' she likes to tell new friends, and follows up with inappropriately loud and raucous laughter. Anne hasn’t learned to modulate her voice like us mild-mannered, dull adults who squirm when she talks out of place or doesn’t use her "inside voice." But what adults might find inappropriate, children love, and at 48, Anne is still a child.

Whenever Anne comes into a room, everybody is guaranteed a personal greeting; perhaps a hug, maybe a kiss. It hasn’t always been this way: she says she has never had friends.

When Anne was sixteen, she decided to follow Jesus. But how?

I didn’t have any friends for about 18 years. People left me alone for a long time. They didn't really want to know me. Maybe because I'm a bit too pushy.

The difficulties of life overwhelmed Anne when her father became terminally ill and she became estranged from her mother.

Dad was diagnosed with a terminal illness when I was 15. He died on June 23, 1983, when I was 22 years old. I was told he would die every three months during those seven or eight years. That's why I was frightened and stressed out. Nobody asked me how I was coping.

Anne had nobody to talk with about her loss. She had physical disabilities since birth, but this emotional trauma debilitated her further. She stopped walking and began using a wheelchair.

I lived alone. I suffered from six nervous breakdowns with the seventh on the way. Things happened to me that should never ever happen to anybody. I even had suicidal thoughts. However, I knew God wouldn't like it if I attempted suicide. I was fully in love with God and I couldn't do that to Him.

One day, two callers knocked on Anne's door. They were from the Riversong House, a collection of families living together in Christian community and had just moved in across the street from Anne’s flat. They were inviting everybody on the block to a donut-fry.

I was really uptight, stressed out and terrified of anybody coming to the door, but I was also terribly lonely so I opened the door a crack: "Who are you? What do you want?" They put me off, so I prayed to God about it: "Should I be friends with these people or not? What do you think, God?" and God said, "Yes you should be friends." By that time, they were at the gate, but I yelled, "I’ll be your friend, but you’re not going to change my beliefs. NO WAY!"

In response, they offered to bring me donuts. I thought, "They’re never going to bring donuts." People had been offering to do things for me all my life. They never kept their word. But two hours later, they were back with fresh donuts. They had kept their word! Did that open a door and a half!

Three years and many friendships later, Anne felt the call to follow Jesus in total community with Riversong House:

God told me to ask to become a sister, but I tried talking Him down by saying, "I'm not ready." I got so unhappy, that I just had to speak. Immediately, I totally calmed down and became peaceful and relaxed.

Our new sister Anne moved from her lonely, cluttered flat across the street in to her new home in Riversong. In a matter of days she had left her "ex-house" (as she likes to call it) behind, not unlike the first disciples who left everything to follow Jesus. By the end of the week, she was seeking baptism and we were asking each other for forgiveness. Miraculously, she phoned up her mother—they had been estranged for over two decades—and they forgave each other and reconciled completely.

Anne invited all her friends and acquaintances from the neighborhood to witness her baptism. She was radiant; a daisy chain about her neck and a garland of bright red carnations in her hair. We were reminded of the final commission of Jesus recorded at the end of Luke: that repentance and forgiveness of sins be preached to the ends of the earth. That is exactly what happened. Anne simply couldn't be restrained from shouting the Good News. When it came time for her to be baptised, Anne was all ready with a tarp pulled snug around her shoulders and happy outbursts like, "I'm completely drenched!"

Today, if you visit Riversong, you'll find Anne working in the sign shop or taking care of the young sisters in her apartment. You might even get an invitation to their seven o'clock Bible study. "I didn’t think I was a motherly type of person, but I'm excited to be taking care of those young ladies."

"I've been looking for peace my whole life. I never dreamt I would have this true happiness and peace. I wasn't looking for community, but community found me. I cannot believe it—I can be myself for the first time in my life."

 

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