“She loved people. She loved building up people.”

That’s how members and friends of African Methodist Episcopal churches in south Alabama are remembering the Rev. Lakenya Anderson today, according to Presiding Elder Frederick Sherrod.

Anderson, 40, of Brantley, was on her way to New Mt. Zion AME Church, her Crenshaw County church, for services Saturday when her 2018 Nissan Rouge collided with a car driven by Lucas M. Anderson, 20, also of Brantley, according to Sherrod and the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA).

Anderson’s 12-year-old son was also injured in the collision and is recovering after surgery, Sherrod said.

Anderson’s church was New Mt. Zion AME Church, Sherrod said, but her ministry to the community was bigger than one church. She was director of Christian education programs for the district and chairperson of the board of examiners for training preachers in her church’s district.

Sherrod said Anderson was one of the people who “provides hope in a hopeless world.”