In 1998, 10 days after Jenny's wedding, I presented eight sessions at the Bible Teachers' Workshop at ACU. After one session a beautiful woman, Judy Beard, came up to meet me with her daughter, Kelly Jones. Judy was one of the shepherd's wives from Southside Church of Christ in Fort Worth. She was also one of the mentors for YMSG (Young Mothers' Study Group). They met once a month (mornings) in some of the older ladies' homes and had a speaker present a message centered on relationships, marriage, spiritual growth, and/or parenting. I presented my first lesson for them in the fall of '98 at Billie Goodrich's house. What a great group!
I continued going over once a year for 6 years until fall of '04 when they asked me to come once a month! My blessing - totally!!! And we switched it to night!
So many inter-weavings! Only God could have held the knitting needles on this intricate plan!
Scott and Tonia Beard (Judy's son and daughter-in-law) live in Trophy Club. Tonia joined a community Bible study at my house when we lived in Trophy Club. We became dear friends!
In Dec. '04, Kelly Jones (Judy's daughter) asked me to present a series of lessons at Decatur Church of Christ for a community project. I fell in love with the community. Jeff, Kelly, Corey, and Josh are now our special Wednesday-night-eat-out-friends! (Jeff was extremely instrumental in convincing Rick to give Decatur a 'look'.)
Donny and Marcy Edwards (Judy's youngest daughter and son-in-law) were on the search committee that invited Rick to submit his resume at Decatur. We love watching them parent their four boys!
And Wes and Judy Beard are some of the most special people in the world to me! I LOVE them both! Last weekend I did a retreat for Southside and drove an hour to and from the encampment Friday and an hour on Sat morning -- only to discover Sat afternoon that the encampment was only 35 minutes from my house! But all so I could spend the night and hang out with Judy Beard a little bit more! (We rarely have had a moment alone!) (Wes greeted us at the door at midnight and had a snack ready for us to munch so we could visit a bit more!)
And now... (drum roll, please), my son, Josh, with his precious wife, Kayci, will be in town this weekend to try out for the preaching job at Southside! Could it be????
YMSG is one of my most favorite nights of the whole month! I am blessed to be part of this little group of women who loves the Lord intimately and each other intensely!
Thank you Chris Sawyer for starting this group years ago! Thank you Judy, Pat, and Emily for continuing on! I love you more than I have the verbal skills to tell you!
More blogs coming on this wonderful group of sisters!
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3 comments:
Beverly,
God works in mysterious and wonderful ways!! I will be praying for Josh & Kayci and the church God is leading them to. I miss you so much!! We are going to try and come visit you and Rick Sunday, March 12th if you'll be there that Sunday. May God continue to bless you as you bless the lives of others by allow God to use you in such wonderful ways!
One of the real treats in life is looking back at God's roadmap. I must confess: There are times I wish I could see into His future plans as clearly. He has certainly blazed a trail of faithfulness in our lives.
Love that family and what they have meant to you and Dad.
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