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When First Baptist Fayetteville called about an opening for the children\u2019s minister, her first response was a polite but firm no \u2014 she was a school teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two weeks later, after sleepless nights, she told her Riverside administrator that she felt she needed to take the position after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She became the children\u2019s minister at First Baptist in May 2006. She still writes curriculum, teaches children\u2019s church on Sunday mornings, and leads Wednesday night classes for first through sixth grades. Her classroom just looks different now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m still teaching \u2014 just for a higher cause. My teacher\u2019s manual is the Bible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her children grew up watching her faith in action. Amie and her husband took their daughter, Anna Beth, now 23, and their son, Will, now 21, on their first mission trip to Africa when they were just children. They have traveled to Guatemala many times since, during which they have had the opportunity to share the Gospel inside public school classrooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anna Beth was recently hired as the Lincoln County Director of Lifewise Academy, an organization that brings Bible teaching into public schools through released-time education. Will is finishing his criminal justice degree at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and leads a Bible study with CRU, a campus ministry<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though the O\u2019Neals are strong in their faith, they could not anticipate the challenge they would face in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amie had been putting off addressing some symptoms for longer than she should have due to her full calendar. On Jan. 30, 2025, her colonoscopy revealed Stage 2 rectal cancer. Amazingly, it had not spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That day thrust them into a whirlwind of medical interventions, including 14 rounds of chemo, six weeks of radiation, and two surgeries. Amie was determined to be there for her students, negotiating a two-week pause in treatment to run vacation Bible school. Her children were there for her, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy littlest prayer warriors were the children\u2019s ministry kids here, and also the kids I worked with at Riverside Christian Academy. They were all praying for me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amie said she was officially declared cancer-free in September 2025, and she was completely healed from her surgeries by the week of Christmas. If you ask Amie what she took away from that harrowing experience, she quickly points to God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe biggest thing I took away from 2025 is just how God grew me, and seeing God work in it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amie had always been a worrier, but her grandmother would always point her to the birds of the field (Matthew 6:26). Whenever Amie\u2019s fear showed up during that year, she said that passage cut through the noise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGod gave me this unbelievable peace through it all. I was so afraid I would be afraid, but He gave me that peace,\u201d Amie said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the cancer treatment center, she decided to focus outward. She asked God to use her to help others, whether it was another patient, a nurse, or a family member. One by one, Amie said God gave her someone to pray for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI would pray, Lord, give me your eyes so I can see other people. And He would allow me to talk to people again and again,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She kept a Facebook journal to keep family and friends updated easily, but people from across the country \u2014 even from Guatemala, Ecuador, and Panama \u2014 joined in praying for her and for all the people she was meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amie reflects that six of the people who prayed for her have since received cancer diagnoses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey prayed for me, so now I\u2019m able to have a platform online and get people praying for all these people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amie said the path was tough, but God uses her story to help all kinds of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy husband and I would walk out of Clearview Cancer Institute and just look at each other like, \u2018God\u2019s done it again. He\u2019s done something really cool,\u2019\u201d she said. GN<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" AMIE O\u2019NEAL was born and raised in Lincoln County. She and her husband, Matt, graduated from Lincoln County High School, attended Middle Tennessee State University together, and then came back to stay in the town they love and call home. Amie has worked as the children\u2019s minister at First Baptist Fayetteville for over two decades. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":25890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cover","category-fayetteville"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/fayetteville\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/06\/4-2-1024x683.jpg\")
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