Welcome to the Storytellers Live podcast where everyday women are gathering in homes across the country

to share stories of the hope found in Jesus. I'm Katie Dine. I'm Robin Cowan. And I'm Lindy Walker. And we are your

podcast host. Hello and welcome to the last day of 2025. We have an exciting story for you today. We have Amy Bates from Jackson, Mississippi, and Amy was one of our Patreon stories earlier this fall. And our gift to you this whole Christmas season has been to bring Patreon story to the podcast. And we're so excited for you to hear Amy's story. You might want to have

pen and paper because she gives a great list for us to look at for 2020. It's true. We're so

excited about the new things that are coming in 2026. You don't want to miss this and hear all

that the Lord is doing. And then a brand new story on January 7th as well. But here's Amy.

It's such a comfort because I know like almost all the

people in this room. There's maybe about a handful that I don't know. So it's really comforting.

So I'm Amy Bates. I am 50 years old. In August, I turned 50. And so when Catherine asked me,

we were walking in September and she asked me to pray about it, and I was like, well, I'm going to know.

But anyway, I did pray. She did come back to me. And I feel like the Lord gave me this topic, the gift of aging, because we all, we can't escape it. And we can either embrace it or we can

fight it. And so I have learned, as all of you have to, like so many things in my 50 years. And so

as I was praying about what to talk about, the Lord kind of helped me narrow down to just

10 because we don't need to be here till this time tomorrow.

But I have 10 things and then a story that the Lord has given me.

And some of them are funny.

And some of them have been just markers in my life.

So maybe one of these would be just something that you can take with you and be just a nugget

of truth that you can hold on to in your day too that has been special to me. Okay, I'm going to

go backwards. Ten, take two steps back and walk away. Okay, most of what I've learned in life,

I've learned from the snake man.

And if you have a child in this area and you have been at a birthday party or elementary school or the science museum, you've probably met the snake man.

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