DALLAS (BP) — It is possible to be well-known and desperately lonely, Sheila Walsh told a group of 2,000 women at the sold-out Ministers’ Wives Luncheon on June 10 at the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting in Dallas.

“You can be with a group of people who think they know you well, and I know that some of you understand what that loneliness is like,” said Walsh, a best-selling author, Bible teacher and recording artist.

A native of Scotland, Walsh recounted how her traumatic childhood eventually landed her in the psychiatric unit of a hospital while she was co-host of “The 700 Club.” A coworker tried to talk her out of treatment, warning she would lose her ministry. Walsh told the coworker, “I’m not trying to save my ministry. I’m trying to save my life.”

She was diagnosed with clinical depression and PTSD and placed on suicide watch, meaning someone would check on her every 15 minutes through the night. Once, a man walked into her room and placed a stuffed lamb in her hand.

“He turned and walked to the door, and he turned around and said just one thing: ‘Sheila, the Shepherd knows where to find you,’” Walsh recounted. “Sometimes God will take you to a prison to set you free.”

Though she made a profession of faith at age 11, Walsh continued to believe she had to be perfect for God to love her, going as far as enrolling in London Theological Seminary to please Him and promising to be a missionary.

What ended up getting her attention in a life-changing way was Hebrews 12:2, which she read to the ministers’ wives from The Message translation: “Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed — that exhilarating finish in and with God — he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.”

Walsh asked the women, “What was the joy awaiting Jesus?”

“It was you. It wasn’t just that He was going to be back in heaven with His Father and the Holy Spirit and the angels,” she said. “He had always been there. The joy was that He would get to take you with Him.”

The theme of the luncheon was “In His Presence,” based on Psalm 16:11, and Walsh urged the ministers’ wives to “just sit in His presence and let Him love you.”

“You don’t have to have the right words. You get to be who you really are. You get to tell the truth. His presence changes everything, so you can press on in your marriage. …You can press on with your kids. You can press on in your church. We can press on because of Jesus, because He never lost sight of where He was headed, that glorious finish in and with God,” Walsh said.

The 2025 Willie Turner Dawson Award for exemplifying a pattern of extended service to ministry wives was given to Carolina Santander, a pastor’s wife from Chile now serving in Georgia. Santander and her husband Daniel were church planters in Argentina before serving at Woodstock en Español for 14 years.

Since 2014, the Santanders have served at La Iglesia en Johnson Ferry in Marietta, and Carolina volunteers with the Georgia Baptist Mission Board to serve Hispanic pastors’ wives. She is involved with Send Network efforts at equipping Spanish-speaking church planter wives across North America.

“I stand on the shoulders of those who came before me and alongside women who are boldly building the kingdom in their homes, churches and cities,” Santander said before speaking to Hispanic wives in Spanish as she accepted the recognition.

Officers for the 2026 luncheon in Orlando are Faith McDonald of Lenexa Baptist Church in Lenexa, Kan., president; Suzy Lea of First Baptist Church in Leesburg, Fla., vice president; Sheri Jamieson of First Baptist Church in Mount Dora, Fla., secretary; and Sandra Still, treasurer.

Next year’s luncheon speaker will be Amy Hannon, an author whose husband is a pastor at Fellowship Bible Church in northwest Arkansas.