EDMOND—Helen Amos, the widow of original Philadelphia Church of God minister John Amos, has experienced a lot in parts of nine decades. From her beginnings in the Arizona desert to her history-changing marriage to her continued service in the work and the Edmond congregation, the one outstanding attribute of Mrs. Amos is her reliance on God.

Most pcg members know Mrs. Amos as the wife of Mr. John Amos, who loyally supported Pastor General Gerald Flurry from the outset of the church in 1989 until his death in 1993 in Ohio. But that marriage came within a millimeter of never happening.

The Amoses met in the mid-1960s, when they both attended a Worldwide Church of God congregation of 40 in Phoenix, Arizona. However, Mrs. Amos was seriously dating a member from North Dakota at that time. After visiting him in North Dakota, Mrs. Amos drove back home with him and another member. Her suitor planned to propose to her once she unpacked her belongings, but her roommate inside told her that Mr. Amos had stopped by to talk. Mrs. Amos politely asked her suitor to wait. And the rest is history.

“I had in my heart that I really loved him,” Mrs. Amos said of her late husband.

Before she ever met her future husband, Mrs. Amos could have become a Mormon.

Mrs. Amos’s family had never been religious, but Mesa, Arizona was a dominantly Mormon community. Their neighbors attended church meetings either because they believed the teachings or because everyone they knew showed up. The local pastor visited their home several times to ask why they didn’t attend services, but every time they saw him approach, they stayed away from the windows and refused to answer the door. Finally, Mrs. Amos’s father had to bluntly reject the pastor’s membership offer.

Before long, only Mrs. Amos and her mother remained on the family’s three-acre property. The sixth of seven children, Mrs. Amos graduated from high school in Mesa, Arizona on her 19th birthday: June 12, 1958—ironically the same day her father died. Her siblings soon moved away and got married. A rowdy home environment became strangely quiet, making possible frequent viewings of the World Tomorrow television program with Herbert and Garner Ted Armstrong, whom they found to be “honest and straightforward.” This led to their invitation to church services and eventual baptism together around 1962.

Mr. and Mrs. Amos were married on Dec. 11, 1967. Mr. Amos was transferred to northern Arizona while a preaching elder in 1976. He transferred to Columbus, Ohio in 1980, and then to Oklahoma City in July 1987.

Mr. Flurry began writing Malachi’s Message in 1988, and Mrs. Amos helped mail copies to wcg members on their Ohio contact list. This was the start of Mrs. Amos’s 20 years of volunteer service in the mail department, first working out of members’ homes, then the mailroom at the Waterwood office complex in Edmond, then at the Mail Processing Center on the Herbert W. Armstrong College campus.

Mr. Flurry and Mr. Amos were fired in Pasadena on Dec. 7, 1989, for presenting Malachi’s Message to wcg leadership.

“John and Mr. Flurry were fighting a spiritual battle,” Mrs. Amos said. “John was reading Malachi’s Message, the original copy. He was convinced it was true and wanted to be loyal to Mr. Flurry. They were not only fighting for our lives but for the lives of people in the world.”

Mr. Amos, who famously read Malachi’s Message 14 times in less than four years, died in 1993 after transferring up to Ohio to serve brethren who entered the pcg because of the initial mailing of that book.

“I do miss him a lot and can’t wait to see him again,” Mrs. Amos said. “He loved and cared about people. That was a good quality in him.” Mrs. Amos remarried in 1997, this time to member Ed Reed, who died in 2000 due to rapidly deteriorating health.

Today, Mrs. Amos attends the Edmond congregation along with her son Ethan and his family. Her daughter Andrea is married to Washington Preaching Elder Gareth Fraser. Mrs. Amos’s sizable extended family remains in the pcg, as does her younger brother Donald Hannah, who still lives in Arizona. She has seven grandchildren: Logan, Kyle and Erica Amos, and Evan, Gavin, Lauren and Kylie Fraser.

Mrs. Amos loves travel—especially to Ireland, England and Scotland, she says, because those places sharpen her focus on the royal line and her future. She is also an artist who teaches a weekly night class of about 15 college students, Imperial Academy youngsters and local members.

Mrs. Amos says the years of history and change haven’t worn her out yet. She describes her life using one word: “awesome.” Daily Bible study inspires her to continue onward. “They’re going to use all the books written by the apostles in the Millennium, I think,” she said. “God’s promises to the Church and the whole world really inspire me.”