So, I began teaching a small group of six- and seven-year-olds in the basement. I taught alongside Sylvia Kietzman and Sue Teiwes. The roots of my soul grew deeper as I heard—often for the first time —stories about God’s faithfulness to Noah, Abraham, Daniel, Esther and Ruth. In time, God would lead me to change careers. I became a schoolteacher in 2003 and currently teach kids in Glendale Heights how to read and fall in love with books. Within a few years of coming to College Church, I joined a small group of women from Pacesetters. We began meeting in each other’s houses twice a month to study God’s Word and pray together. More than 20 years later, we still meet. We have celebrated weddings and new children together. We have mourned sickness and death together. We remain connected through pandemics and continue to gather around the Word using technology. My soul is strengthened. While we may be separated physically, I know that we are together spiritually. I first learned the power of long-distance church support in 2010, the year my mother died. As her only child, I was in Los Angeles off and on for eight weeks caring for her and preparing for her death. My small group sent regular emails with Bible verses to encourage me. I had ongoing prayer support and encouragement from Women’s Bible Study friends. And though I had not taught in children’s ministry for some time, Diane Jordan spoke with me and prayed for me by phone. My soul was comforted.
I continued to fly back to Los Angeles, settling my mother’s estate. My husband, Kevin, and I did not celebrate our birthdays together for two years, because I used spring breaks and Thanksgiving holidays to do my executor duties. I remember attending the Thanksgiving Eve service in 2012, after missing the previous two. I was overwhelmed by being in the presence of God’s people. It makes me look forward, with greater anticipation, to when we will be together again—side by side. It’s reassuring for me to look back on the 25 years I have been at College Church, especially as we live through a global crisis. God’s Word exhorts us to remember—to remember his goodness, his sovereignty and his grace certainly as we read Scripture from the prophets and the apostles. Yet, it also calls us to remember his unique faithfulness to each life. I recently began discipling a younger woman new to College Church. Our life paths have similar detours. We are navigating our way through sheltered isolation, even while we build our friendship. We text each other often and call weekly to discuss a chapter of Esther. She has joined a small group and attends Women’s Bible Study when she’s not working. She has been replanted in a fertile land where her soul can grow deep roots in God’s Word and be strengthened by the local church. Our souls are secure.
I BELIEVE!
First and Foremost Kathy Brinker I am first and foremost a child of God, and this is Christ’s story of how he redeemed me. I was in my 30s, and my husband and I had three small children. I grew up in a works-based legalistic religion but knew I needed more. At the time, I was far from Christ and something was missing in my life. What was I missing? I was seeking, but what was I looking for? Unknown to me, the Holy Spirit was moving me to a relationship with Christ. Through my involvement in many community organizations in DuPage County, I kept constantly crossing paths with a godly woman. This was surely God’s hand, because we saw each other all the time. Her name? Olena Mae Welsh. Wife of a former senior pastor of College Church, she was also the director of the church’s disability ministries. For those of you who never had the opportunity to meet Olena Mae, she was a fierce witness, who brought many to Christ. She had a gentle way of inviting people to come and find and know Jesus. She was relentless for souls that needed a Savior.
18
We shared a connection of loving people and their families affected by disability. I later learned that Olena Mae worked with this ministry because she was initially afraid of persons affected by disability. What a testimony, what a Savior who made Olene Mae run towards something which was far outside her comfort zone. But, well within her comfort zone, Olena Mae kept inviting me to check out what was then the Seeker program, now our STARS (Seeking To Always Reflect The Savior) ministry. At the time, my two adopted boys with Down syndrome were ages eight and four, and I had a two-year-old daughter. After much prodding and several months later, I came to the program for my sons and their benefit. I remember hearing about the boys as an “indispensable part of the body of Christ.” I had never heard that at a church before. It was very foreign to me. In fact, many things were very different at this church. People asked me if they could pray for me, my family and they
