[The below text has been machine translated and may contain errors. Please listen to audio for original and integral translation]
[Speaker 2]
Hello everyone, how are we doing today? Happy Mother’s Day to everybody. We’re going to do some things a little bit different.
Don’t we love when we do different things? I, I, that’s something I love, I do love very much about our church. We are not conforming to tradition or just routine because, um, and so today we’re going to do something a little different.
I do apologize to the 7 to 12 year olds there isn’t class today. Your teachers are actually going to be on stage, so there’s that. So I do want to take a moment, we’re going to, I’m going to invite a few people up here.
Give me a second, sorry I have notes. Um, and I want to make sure I see the things I wanted to. Anyway, so, um, I’m going to go ahead and invite a few ladies up.
Annette White, please, and Marie Hargrove and Lisa Wadding, please come up here. Choose a chair, does not matter which one, but we’re going to have a little panel, um, Mother’s Day. Uh, so we’re going to get to know our few ladies, leaders, ladies here from New Hope a little bit.
Um, hopefully we all can glean from their, uh, words of wisdom today. Um, thank you ladies for coming, thank you for coming up here and being willing to do this. It’s not always fun to be on spot, um, so I appreciate you more than you’ll ever know, I’m sure.
Um, but all three of these ladies have, um, you know, spoke over the years to you guys, and, uh, spoke sermons, spoke lessons, taught us things, um, just from here, this area. A lot of them don’t like to be up top here, but down there, um, when they’re teaching, and, uh, we do appreciate that, but I thought it’d be really neat with Mother’s Day, um, time to get to know them a little bit more, in addition to the teachings they give us, and probably will continue to do that for a little while. And so I, I did ask them to, to join us, and they all are so gracious to me, and jumped a joy for joy to serve the Lord, right?
Um, but it’s gonna be good, I’m sure of it. Um, so as we get started here, I had a couple things I wanted to say first. Um, so let me see, sorry, I just typed this this morning, so prepared here, you know, I thought we could, they all have, have a list of things, but I just wrote this today.
You’re all good. But I love, I love the thought of it being more, uh, in the moment, so, um, and all of you are good on your feet, so I love that. Um, so yes, I just want to say, you know, it’s been an honor to serve with all three of you, um, over the last 16 years that Steve and my family have been here.
Um, oh gosh, I didn’t think I would cry, I’m starting to cry, sorry, um, did not plan for that. Um, so anyway, it’s been an honor. Um, I’ve served with all three of you in different capacities over the years, um, and every single one of you have spoken to my life, um, significantly, and a lot of that wasn’t just the teachings, you know, up here, and there’s more of you that have done that too out there, don’t get me wrong, but all three of you have definitely done this for me, um, more, more so in passing conversations in the hallways, um, after a ministry event, after Sunday service, after, um, our times together, you know, well, even elder meetings, just chatting, talking, the regular conversation, um, God has really moved in those times, so I thought this is a really neat way for other people to also have those moments, though I’m sure most of you have, um, throughout the years. Uh, so we’re gonna kind of talk more to you lovely ladies, um, and they all are leaders here in different capacities, and they’re gonna share with us more about that too, um, give me a moment, I have a couple more things, let me see, make sure I hit everything before I get into the, the meat and potatoes here, um, and so, and again, I just want to thank you, and we’re gonna go ahead and get into more what we planned, um, so I, we wanted to go ahead and have each of you kind of, um, tell us about yourself, um, Steve added this morning, sorry, this isn’t, like, really, like, something you don’t know or anything, really, but, um, he wanted also to include the, how many children you have and their names and ages, he asked me to include that as well, and you introduce yourself, oh, we’re going into, yeah, we’re generations here, so, um, so, sorry, um, so he would like that, this is pastor, only real thing he injected is how many children, their names and ages, and then I also, as you know, as long, I wanted, we were curious about how long you’ve been here at New Hope, um, and what ministries you’ve been involved in, and are currently part of, the question about how long you’ve been here, I know, can get tricky, like, I had to think, okay, Bethany was one when we, that’s why I said about the 16, because she’s 17, but she’ll soon be 18, so close to 17 years that we’ve been here, that’s how I major it, so I don’t know if you guys have those significant things to help measure, um, that also, because years go by, right, and so, um, we’ll make sure Bethany, we’ll make sure their mics on, too, because I think, maybe one of them we did not use this morning, so, so there’s a little switch, and so, um, I guess we’ll just go in that, and down the line, if you want to start, and, um, go ahead and share with us, that was a little, yes, no, this is yellow,
[Speaker 4]
on, yes, I don’t need it loud, just, just on, um, I did the same thing Becky did, but, okay, how old were my kids, and it was back at the, when the church was in Dayton, um, my oldest, I remember her being 14, but then it was warm weather, I remember warm weather, and her birthday’s July, so I think she was close to 15, and she will be, will she be, she will be 34, 34 in July, so, um, that looks like about 20 years, like 19 or 20 years is what I kind of came up with, that we have been here, um, and two children, both girls, um, Malia will be, like I said, be 34, Chantel was 29, I have three grandchildren, nine, eight, and almost three, um, a dog named Sadie, I don’t remember if she’s six or seven, that’s when, when you’re young, and you get your family for the kids’ photos, older ladies said right on the back who it is and how old they were, and I’m like, I’m not going to, how would you forget your, I did it because the older ladies told me to, and that was wisdom, so, so, um, um, children’s ministry, I really don’t know how many years, because the church we attended prior to coming to New Hope, I had done for years, and so it all just was a blur, many years, I will never top Susie, but it was many, I’m going to say between the two churches, I had at least 10 years with kids, um, and then I did church secretary for about two years, and I’ve been working with women’s ministry currently, so.
[Speaker 3]
All right, so I have four children, and they’re all married, I have, as of Friday, this coming Friday, our son is getting married, and in doing so, we will gain six more grandchildren, which brings us to a total of 17. I know, isn’t that awesome? I love it.
So the oldest one is Emily, and she is 21, and then we have one in heaven who is also 21, Abigail, and then we have, oh, Trinity, she’s a newbie, she’s 17, graduating this year, and then Judah is 16, and a newbie Christian is 16, and then Elijah is 15, and the newbie Jeremiah is 15, and let’s see, 15, then Isaiah is, Isaiah is 13, and the newbie Serenity is 13, and then the newbie Selah is 11 and a half, and then Elizabeth is eight, and next one down is Vanessa is five, and Aria is just turned four, and Veronica will be four in July. Our children, I forgot that one, you know, you got to jump to grandkids, because, right? So our oldest is Jason, and he is 46.
I got married when I was three, so our second child is Jana, and she is 44, and Ruthie is 39, and Samuel is 31, so, and their spouses are all the same age, and except for Jason, who is marrying somebody who is younger, so that’s the family, and when we get together at Thanksgiving and Christmas, it is so much fun, oh my gosh, but we have, we do summer events at the park, because it’s really crowded, so that’s that.
Now, we’ve been at this church, I didn’t know, but Sharon told me 16 years, and I trust that she knows what she’s saying, because we came about the same time, which Sharon, I knew from another church, so we’ve been friends for about 30, let’s see, Ruthie was almost two, and she’s 39, so almost 37 years I’ve known Sharon, which, how can that be, right? So we’ve been here about 16 years, and when I came here, the first thing I did was start worship team, and then I took, I started working in the nursery, then I took over the nursery, and then I, then we didn’t have nursery kids, so then I started helping Susie teach the toddler class, and now I teach the older kids, and I have alternate ministry, and I have, I’m still at worship, and I’m an elder, yes, I can remember my family better than I can, everything else just happens because it is, and then we like to worship a lot, so Sharon and I get together with whoever wants to join us once a week, although it’s been in pause, which not, it’s officially been on pause, but we’ve been coming like when we can, so it might be a Tuesday, it could be a Monday, it might be a Friday night, sometimes it’s Wednesday, so that’s why it’s not on the board, because our life is so full, we haven’t been able to pick a day, but when I come back, because I won’t be here for a few weeks, I’m not leaving the church, this didn’t scare me away, it’s just we’re going, our daughter’s coming in because of the wedding, and then we’re going to Wisconsin, and then we’ll be back in time for the bridal shower, so when you don’t see me, it’s because I’m busy traveling, it’s a good thing I’m retired, so what’s that, oh I think, so anyway, did I answer all the questions, okay that’s all, okay
[Speaker 1]
thank you, so I moved to Dayton in 2002 from about an hour and a half north in Smithport, I called Dayton my home ever since, and I actually started at First Church of God up the road, and then Holly Wadding had invited Tammy to try New Hope, so I’ve been to New Hope for over 22 years, at the old church, we did, I can’t sing, although I love to sing, so I did the flags up on stage, so I was kind of part of the worship team, and then we kind of did away with that, I’ve done the nursery, toddler room, ran the computer to change the lyrics, I used to write to the missionaries, and that kind of dwindled away a little bit, because you really, it’s hard to write back and forth to them, they let us know what’s going on with them, and then when we built this church, I was nominated for the decorating committee, and I thought, oh I get to decorate, well I didn’t actually know that that involved picking out the roof, picking out the windows, I thought I was going to like decorate the walls, and we had to pick out the paint, the chairs, the rug, everything, so anyway that was fun, and helped organize Hope Fast, Pastor Steve and I were deacons, yeah, we served on the deacon board way back, 16 years ago, probably, I was a greeter, and still am, and then organized the greeter’s schedule, elder board, now I lead the food pantry, and kind of whatever, you know, I try to just help wherever there’s a need, and my kids, so I married Donnie, it’ll be 11 years this June, and he’s the best thing that ever happened to me, besides my kids, besides my kids, and between us, we have five kids, he has a son, Jacob, who has a wonderful wife, Katie, and they have two little girls, Lily, who made us grandparents, and London, they’re six and three, and then Mary, who Mary and Zach have been together for ever, it seems, and they just moved back from Florida, so we’re happy to have all our kids home, they have two puppies, so, and they’re very happy with that right now, my son is, moved back from, he left the house when he was about 20, and moved back to New York State, and then they, him and his fiancee moved to North Carolina, and they’ve been back about two years now, and they have a little boy, Silas, who is three, three, yeah, he just turned three, and we’re still praying for them to show up at church, they did show up in the parking lot today, and brought me a flower, so that was close, and then my daughter Amber, who is gonna be 28, oh wow, no, she’ll be 29, Adam’s 38, so I had them, I had Adam very young too, and Amber has two little boys, Eden, who is three, he’ll be four in August, and Jace is our baby, and he is, he’ll be three in November, and then Donnie has his stepdaughter, Ashley, who has a little girl, Colby, they live in Virginia, so we don’t get to see them much, but Colby’s a cutie, and she’ll be two, so that is our family, before you do the next one, I’m a grandma, so I have to make this
[Speaker 3]
right, I missed three grandchildren, I should have gone through families instead of by ages, so our daughter in Wisconsin, she has two other children besides Aria, we have, she is 17, and then we have a 14 year old, and the newbie grandchild, who is the youngest, is two.
[Speaker 2]
Love it, yes, let’s acknowledge them all, thank you Lord, yeah, thanks, it’s exciting to hear the blessings in your families, and the reason, right, so the next question I have, and I’m going to direct this to Annette, please speak of your favorite woman in the Bible, and why that is the case, why she’s your favorite.
[Speaker 4]
That question, I really didn’t have one for, the only, I can’t say there’s always been one that stuck out, and so I had to kind of think about it, and the only one that really seems to stick out the most for me is Esther, and the main reason was because she didn’t really want to do what she did, and then Mordecai, you know, said don’t think that just because you’re in the palace that you’re going to escape this, and she had everyone fast and pray, and she did what was right, and I guess it just, that’s me, I need 12 confirmations, a brick on the head, maybe two or three, four months of prayer, and then if I’m not 100%, sometimes I still don’t act on, I’m just, I think I’m so afraid to miss the mark that I do nothing.
Now in Esther’s case, she didn’t take that long, she didn’t need quite that many confirmations, although I guess when the whole country is fasting, including animals and babies, that says something, but yeah, for some reason that’s just the one that kind of resonates with me.
[Speaker 2]
Thank you, so my next question, and this is for Lisa, so please share a time that you felt close to God.
[Speaker 1]
So, my daughter was 14 and was diagnosed with bone cancer, and she’s totally healed and fine now, so I’ll put that there. So I would say that would be the time I felt closest, there was two very, there was one other one that I felt very close to God too, but more so with Amber, because we spent, we would go in on a Thursday, and I was a single mom at the time, my son was in New York State, so it was just Amber and I, my parents were in Florida, Rob and Tammy and their family were the only ones that I had here at all, and my church family of course, but everyone’s busy, but we would go in on a Thursday and have to stay till Monday, sometimes Tuesday if her blood work wasn’t, if her WBCs weren’t up high enough to go home, so we would be home like Tuesday, Wednesday, and have to go back Thursday, that was nine months, so we spent most of the time in the hospital. When you see these children in the hospital, you know, you wonder like, what is their hope in? Like if you don’t have Jesus, like what do you do?
Like who do you talk to? Who do you pray to? Who do you ask for help?
So it was very hard because a lot of these kids were left alone because their parents, I assume, were working, you know, and the nurses would take care of the kids, but, or they were just alone, I don’t know, but I used to think all the time like, I hope these parents have Jesus because that is the only thing that got us through that. Eileen, our previous pastor’s wife, her and Brian Whiting did a song, Healing Presence, and I would just play that 24-7 in her room and just to get the atmosphere full of God’s Spirit, and so the day that I got the phone call, it was on December 18th, and Rob and Tammy were in Florida, so no one was around, and my daughter was actually up in Smithport with her dad, and I got the phone call from her doctor that when she had the surgery a month before that, she said to me, I don’t know what happened, but that tumor, it was a bone tumor at the time. She said, I’ve never seen anything like that, but it just crumbled in pieces.
It crumbled, and I was like, you got it all right, and she’s like, yeah, and we sent it away just to make sure, and I’m like, make sure what, you know, and she’s like, just test it, make sure it’s not cancerous, but I don’t think it is. The way it crumbled, we’ve never seen anything like that, so I was like, okay. Well, a month later, I got the phone call that it, in fact, it was osteosarcoma, and I remember getting off that phone and just falling on my knees saying, why, why God, why, you know, she’s my baby, and I remember him very clearly speaking to me, not like internally, like I felt him saying, when that crumbled, I said it was finished.
So, every time, every time we had to go back for scans and more chemo and all that, that is what Amber and I stood on, you know, God gives us medicine, he gives us doctors, but he is the ultimate healer, and he takes care of us, and I stood on that, you know, we’re going through the process, but he said it was finished. So, amen.
[Speaker 2]
Sharing that, I almost, not forgot, but that was a season for you guys, a long haul, but God’s good, he’s so good. So, I’m going to ask everybody to share what is something that encourages you. I just think it’s good for your church family to know these things sometimes, if we can be a blessing to each other.
So, Marie, if you could tell us something that encourages you, and then we’ll go.
[Speaker 3]
When I, when I am needing encouragement, I worship. I pray in the spirit, loudly. I pace, and I call on friends, because depending on the encouragement, the reason I need encouragement, the reason for the discouragement, if it’s disappointments, they’re smaller.
If it’s a child who almost died in the hospital, it’s a lot bigger. If it’s a grandchild who has died, it’s a lot bigger. There are so many seasons in our lives that we walk through, but one thing I have always learned through all of it, is that when I put myself back into the presence of the Lord, which you enter his praise with thanksgiving, and into his, you enter his courts with thanksgiving, and into his, thank you, thank you.
You got to do them both, if you want to get into the presence of God. You always have to, and to be grateful to the Father, when you’re burying somebody who is dear to you, to be thankful to the Father, when you’re not sure where the money is going to go, as far as it needs to, when you are thankful to the Father, for his goodness, when your child is dying in a hospital, then it takes remembering who he is. And when I worship, the songs remind me who he is.