Our Monthly Women's Meeting

I know I always write about our monthly women's meetings at church, but I can't help it because they are so good! This was our second meeting of the season and I can't believe how much pleasure I find in being a table hostess and serving the other women and girls. This month the topic was about Bible study and the woman who did the speaking did a fabulous job. One thing I love about so many people at our church is that they are REAL. They might even be a little afraid to be open about who they are but they press through anyway.



The speaker last night shared her story, how she came to a living faith in God after 34 years of searching. She grew up in church and was surrounded by believers but it wasn't until later in life that it all really became hers. And now she has a passion for studying the Bible because it was from realizing that God wanted her to KNOW Him that she found what triggered her ability to accept Him.



Kezzi had the pleasure of sitting next to her at dinner and talking with her more afterwards. On the way home, there were such animated conversations and enthusiasm about Bible study. Kezzi, Hope and I decided to start getting up an hour before everyone else and dive into some in-depth Bible studies. This morning we started our study of Daniel using Kay Arthur's God's Blueprint for Bible Prophecy. I am generally not a fan of prepackaged Bible studies but I do like Kay Arthur's materials and have enjoyed my International Inductive Study Bible for years. When last night's speaker started describing her Bible study methods, I knew it sounded like Kay Arthur's materials -- and I was right. I was happy to hear this because I already owned quite a few of those studies and knew we could jump right in without waiting on something to be shipped to us.



Another thing we share in common with last night's speaker is a passion for interrelationships between the older and younger women - younger women meaning teenagers. And a passsion for NOT dumbing things down for the younger ones. I was pleased last night to see a handful of younger girls attending with their mothers. Priscilla saw another woman's young daughter come in and ask what we did in that room so Pris told her a little about it. When she saw another young girl there she said, "You come in here? I want to come!" To see fires like that lit is very exciting! It seems like every month Kezzi is expounding on how much the youth need to hear the messages, even more than the women do. To me it is nice to see things being shared that can minister to everyone, regardless of age.



Another woman and I were asked to meet with the speaker privately before the meeting and pray with her. When we came back into the main room, I was excited to see that my table was already full of women enjoying fellowship with each other. I think I heard that there was 57 women there last night. I'm so excited to get to meet more of them and to get to know more about the ones with whom I have already begun to form relationships.