Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / March 13, 2018 | Expresso - Melissa Shultz

Transcript

March 13, 2018 | Expresso - Melissa Shultz · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't gonna share the story that Connie shared about our experience together in Haiti, but I was gonna share.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: I think most of you have heard about um Connie's um flight to Haiti.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: And she it talked about how it was rough.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: It was so rough and it was terrible, and she did not think she was gonna live.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so then we were returning from a trip to Haiti and it was bad.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: It was very turbulent, and but I just kept thinking it couldn't have been as bad as Connie's first trip.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: So this isn't so bad, and like, dear Lord Jesus, you know, do not come right now, but be with us, and it couldn't be so bad because Connie's was worse the first trip.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: So we finally land, but prior to the landing, the little boy in front of me throws up on my bag because it was that rough.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: It was our anniversary, and Connie and Patty kept saying, Happy anniversary, you're on an island trip, and it wasn't quite like that.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: So we land and I turn around and I look at Connie like it wasn't so bad, was it?
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: And she is bawling, and she says, It was worse.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: So when Connie asked me to speak, um, I immediately began to think of um just the words to the song, This is my story, this is my song, praising my savior all the day long.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that verse goes with the song of Blessed Assurance.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: And that entire verse says, Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine, air of salvation, purchase of God, born of his spirit, and washed in his blood.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: I began thinking about my story and God at work in my life, and that refrain of this is my story and this is my song, just kept rumbling around in my head.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: And um, when Tim and I mow, if I mow by myself, it's a three-hour job.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: And if Tim and I do it together, it's an hour and a half.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's a long time.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I say, I'm sorry, I'm gonna do on and off glasses, and so if it annoys you, just be ready.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: So when we mow, I do a variety of things.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: If you want me to pray for you, I will pray during the summer.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: I am very diligent about praying when I'm on the mower.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: That is, I kind of have a little thing, like I'll pray while I'm on the mower.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: I also um begin to work through Bible verses, like verses that start with the letter A, or I work through songs.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so sometimes all these different hymns come to mind, and I will just kind of sing and pray as I'm mowing, and the time passes quickly, and what I found is that sometimes I can get off the mower and I'm in an entirely different frame of mind, as opposed to those other times when I can sit for an hour and a half and I can stew, and I can be mad and I can rethink conversations or what I wish I would have said, or why didn't I say, and why wasn't I saying this?
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I find that I am getting off the mower after an hour and a half, and then I'm actually in a worse frame of mind.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so um, kind of starting my hour and a half of mowing, and again, if you want me to pray for you, starting here in about a month, I'm very diligent about praying until about September.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: So um and so these hymns can that's one of the things I'll do is just kind of work through some different hymns.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so this song, Blessed Assurance, is one that often comes up because I get to the letter B, and then sometimes by the letter Q, I'm like, oh, somebody needs to create a hymn with the letter Q.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: I grew up going to Northland Christian Church, and at that time when I grew up, we sang hymns.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so this is one that we would have sung growing up, and so these songs come to my mind in a variety of circumstances and situations.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, my grandma went to that church.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: The pastor that married Tim and myself is the same pastor that married my parents years before.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: And um, so when I was in first grade, I probably was six or so, um, the pastor had taught, and there was also an altar call at the end of every service.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I felt, physically felt, it was the like two Sundays before Easter, so about this time of year, I physically felt like something propelling me forward.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: And at the time I wouldn't have necessarily known and called been able to call that the Holy Spirit, but that's what it was.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: And it was the Holy Spirit calling me, and it was God calling me on that day.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: And um I beg I prayed the prayer, and I prayed the prayer of that of a child when I understood that I was accepting the gift of salvation.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: What I also knew was eternal life.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: I knew it was um that I was separated with my sin and that there was a hope of heaven.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: And it all came in that prayer that I prayed as a child.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I understood those words of that song of Jesus paid it all.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: And in that song it says, For nothing good have I, whereby thy grace to claim, I'll wash my garments white in the blood of Calvary's Lamb.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: And that is what I felt had happened to me.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I knew I'd been washed white as snow.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: I began to grow, you know, as you do as a child, um, a little bit of it at a time as I grew.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I did experience spiritual growth.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I was involved in Sunday school and youth group throughout high school.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um there were other things I was involved with in high school at the time, but a lot of that was youth group activities and friends that were around at that same time.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: But at that time, I also thought I needed to work.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: I needed to do things to prove that salvation.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: I needed to show that I was good and I needed to work to please Jesus.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, my mom was very big on what would people think.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: That was her mantra, it felt like through life and growing up.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um what would people say?
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: What would people think?
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: What would people if people saw me doing something?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: And so it wasn't necessarily that I was raised on biblical principles, but I was raised on um working to please people, working to please her, working to please Jesus, and just needing to work for my salvation and working to prove that I had that salvation.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: So that is something that I've continued to fight, I feel like my entire life, even as an adult, is stopping that what would people think, and just thinking about what would Jesus, what does Jesus want me to do?
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: It is not what other people want me to do, or what do other people, what are they gonna think, but what does Jesus want me to do?
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: So after I graduated high school, um I went to Washburn and I met Tim and we dated a short time and then got married within our dating, and then an engagement was about 18 months, and then we got married in 1990.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: So we've actually been married um, it's 28 years already, it'll be 29 this year.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: So just we were babies.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um we got married at Northland, but we knew pretty quickly when we got married that we wanted a church of my church of our own.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: As I said, my entire family was at Northland, but we kind of wanted to just establish something as our own so that it didn't feel like um it was just an extension of you know, that's how I'd grown up.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so we started coming to TBC that summer.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: And we pretty quickly got involved in a young married Sunday school class.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: And um, Mike and Kathy Halpin were here at the time, and they just um poured into us.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: They taught us about parenting, even though we didn't have kids, and it would be years before we had children.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um they were great examples in marriage and parenting and just living life, and we enjoyed our time that we were able to spend with them, both in a Sunday school setting and just in um spending time in their home.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: The song Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing is one of my favorites.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: And in the line it says, Oh, to grace, how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: Let thy grace, Lord, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: Prone to leave the God I love.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: Here's my heart, Lord, take and keep it and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: I know my heart is sealed, but it that song perfectly describes that feeling I feel like I constantly have and that I'm fighting.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: Even though I've known Jesus for years, um, my heart, that prone to wander, and how you just like, oh, you're so frustrated because sometimes you feel that wander and that constant um being pulled, that binding that comes back to him.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: That I'm just um amazed that still, after all these years of knowing Jesus, that we can also identify with that song of being prone to wander.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'll show you a picture of there's Tim Schultz.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, isn't he so cute?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: He looks the exact same.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: Why does he have to look the exact same 28 years later?
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: He never ages.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: He's got such great jeans.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: His mom is sitting over here and she has great jeans.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, oh, Tim Schultz, way to go with your great jeans.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um Tim Sh um Tim started law school in the August after we got married in May, then he started law school in August, so we didn't really know much about married life without him being in law school, like right at the beginning.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: And we um started a small group pretty quickly after we'd been married.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: We decided to have a small group, and we were kind of went around, we just kind of thought of some couples that were kind of at the same place in life.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: There were some couples that were attending um law school and then were also coming to TBC.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: So we started asking, do you guys want to start a small group?
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: And we went through and kind of got a handful of people, got pretty good response.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so then the first night we're like, okay, this is the night.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody come on over for small group.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: We've been married a minute, how do we know what we're doing?
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: But um, this many people came.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: Big fat zero.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so instead of, I mean, immediately, yes, we are discouraged because we're like, what?
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: We want community, we want other people.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: But what we didn't expect, um, then we started.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: We, Tim and I were like, we really feel like we want community.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: We began to just um reach out to some other people, some other people that were Oshburn.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there were a couple people that were in law school with Tim, and we just reached out to other people.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: And some of the people are still around here that were in our first um small group, and there were Dan and Di Holloway, Stacey Waldy, Robert Keyes, um, Val Barkley, and um Chad Verge was in our small group.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: We had the best time.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: It was such a great time of growing together and um figuring out life together when we were all, you know, 20 something.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um we sang praise songs, we studied God's word, and it was just such a great time to just experience life together.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um that was also the season I cooked my first turkey.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um I tried fried chicken, that was a disaster.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody said you have to cook it forever.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like, why does it get that brown outside and then gross insides?
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: I dragged my first cat home, and um I and then I worked full-time while Tim was in law school.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: And when Tim graduated from law school, we headed to Dodge City.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Tim's dad was an attorney in Dodge, and so we went to Dodge City for Tim and his dad to work together.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: On our drive out, Tim said he couldn't wait when we got to Dodge that we could live in the country.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, um, Dodge City is the country.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so I am not so sure about living in the country.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh by the time we left, we actually did live in the country.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: But what it also was was our time of the wilderness.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: We call it, Tim and I will still call it the wilderness.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that period of time that in the Old Testament, when, you know, in Exodus and the people wandered and wandered, and um um that's what it felt.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: It felt like a wilderness for us.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, church life was very hard.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we attended a church that wanted me to be baptized again because I hadn't been baptized in that specific denomination.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: And that began a real um time for us to study.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: What is baptism?
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: Why should we need to do that?
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Is that something we should do?
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: Should I need to be baptized again just for church membership?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: So that was a good um part of our marriage as far as like figuring those things out, but it was just hard that time in our church.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um we were trying to get pregnant and nothing was happening.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: And so that was um, you know, frustrating at the time as well, not being sure what that was supposed to be about.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: It was a hard time in our marriage.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it was just a wilderness.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it felt like there were good points, but it really felt like those five years were hard.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there were times of disappointment, there were some frustrations, there were unmet expectations on both sides.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, of us, it was different all of a sudden when we were holding jobs and Tim wasn't in school, and it was just hard.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: And that was a time that I found my heart in that prone to wandering, um, like the song said.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um I did get end up getting pregnant in Dodge City with Emma, and she was born in Dodge, and we only lived there one more year before we returned to Topeka.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we returned to Topeka uh for a job that was not what Tim was promised.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, not just promised, but you know, when you come for a job, these expectations of what you think it's gonna be, and that's not at all what it was.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so it felt like we were coming back and dragging this wilderness with us.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: And what was this and what were we doing?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so times were hard and times were lean, you know, still, and um, it was hard.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um so after um, so we came back, and I was about a year old, and then um in that fall, I was pregnant with Ethan, and Tim left his job.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, that those are hard times too.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: When you leave, like Tim will say, I left a job with a pregnant wife, and that is um that's hard as a man to do when he feels you know the weight of responsibility on on his shoulders.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um but then after Ethan was born by that next spring, Tim was working at another law firm.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: And when we were back at TBC, we landed.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, when we came back to Topeka, we landed here at TBC again, and we're involved in um other Sunday school classes, and we met several families who would um continue our friendship like from then, from 1997 until now.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: There's some people that we are continued to be friends with from that Sunday school class.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, one of the Sundays there was a sign-up sheet that was going by, and we were just putting our names in it.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: That was before cell phones and texting and all.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: Do you remember those days?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: Way back in the olden times.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we would pass it, it was called a notebook piece of paper.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: And we would pass it around and you'd sign up, and you'd like, here's my name and my address, my phone number, and you'd pass it around.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: And the uh uh piece of paper came to me and there was a name on it.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: And she'd already written her address, and oh my gosh, this person lived down the street from me.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna cry because I see her.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so I went up to Christy Chance and I said, Would you want to go on a walk with me?
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so, because I realized we weren't very far apart, and so we could load up our strollers and walk.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: And we walked and walked and walked and walked and walked.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I um I bought had to buy new stroller wheels.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like we roll, we rolled our stroller wheels out, and we packed snacks and we talked, and our kids, you know, swapped back and forth in strollers, and um, it was so good.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: Those were such great times of joining our food together and just um it came from passing around a notebook piece of paper to just see who lived down the street.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: And we had such great times of walking together.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: And once school started, her daughter is a little bit older than mine, and so school started, and so those walking days slowed down, and then all of a sudden you do find that you know things begin to pull you apart.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: Different schools, different things in life begin to pull you apart.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: But the past couple of years, our lives have reconnected again, and we've again resumed our walking.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's probably not with the same fervor that it was when we were um a little bit younger, but um man, those it's so great.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like we've said, how we prayed for our little wee ones when we were walking, and we talked about how hard parenting was for two-year-olds.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: And uh now our lives have converged, and we're praying again, and now we're praying for those kids that are 20 years old.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: And oh man, you know, life just looks so different when your kids are 20.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: But being able to pray, being able to pray for each other and walking, and then just um talking through life about um living in obedience to him in a variety of ministries and how that's looked over the years.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: So that song Um Trust and Obey says, when we walk, excuse me, when we walk with the Lord in the light of his word, what a glory he sheds on our way.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: While we do his good will, he abides with us still and with all who will trust and obey.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: And when you hear those words about trusting and obeying, it leads me to one of our biggest times um in our marriage, which was um following in obedience and homeschooling.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: Marriage is a huge act of obedience, but then following, um, we homeschooled our kids.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: When we returned to TBC, um, we began to become familiar with some families with that were homeschooling.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: And Tim's sister homeschooled, um, was beginning to homeschool her daughter.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: And at first, literally, Tim and I like went into the other room and we're like, these people are wackos.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like, this is I do not understand this, I do not get it, I no, we are not doing this.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then what does the Lord bring around?
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: So by the time Emma was almost, she was probably four, not quite five, um, here we were.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: And we were um brought back the idea of homeschooling with our kids.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: And for us at that time, it felt like an act of obedience and that we needed to trust and obey him.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: And here we were, um, walking in this strange foreign land of homeschooling.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: And for us, we were not a family that said we would start from kindergarten and do this for high school or do this forever.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: It was each year the Lord would lead us um to what we needed to do, and we would pray about it and trust him with what we were supposed to do.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so there was one specific year that we really thought this was probably the time Emma was going to go to school.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: We were looking at schools, trying to decide what to do, and this is the year.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: And we just kept coming back, you know, as we were praying, like, no, I feel like we still are supposed to have her at home.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: And it was the hardest year at home.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember asking Tim, why is it so hard?
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord called us to this.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: I know he called us to this this year.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: Why is it so hard?
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, just because he calls you to something, that doesn't mean it's gonna be easy, but it's your walk in obedience.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: Well, after I got done being mad at him, because I'm like, don't sass me.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: Just you know, I wanted him to agree with me.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted him to just say, you're right, it is hard, be done.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: God would not call you to something that is so hard.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: But that was not the case.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: Tim was speaking truth, and he was right.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: When it is, there are some hard things, and when he calls us to that, we need to walk in obedience with him, and I needed that reminder.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we had um other situations in life that when the kids were really young, um, that required some humil humility on my part and the realization that life doesn't always follow a predetermined plan, but that I needed to trust and obey him.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, when Ethan was not yet one, my mom, who was only 54, was diagnosed with endometrial cancer and it had already spread to her lungs.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it required extensive surgery and chemo.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: And exactly a year later, um, it returned, and this time it was in her brain, and she needed radiation.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: So at that time my um parents had moved to Holton, uh they were there, but my dad was continuing to work, and so there were days that he would bring mom down to me, and she would stay at our house while, you know, during the day I had the was home with the kids, and so then I would stay home with my mom and the kids, and my dad would work, and then at the end of the day, he'd come get her and then take her home.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um and there were times I was frustrated.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: I felt like it wasn't fair.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: I felt like other people had their moms to help, and I was needing to help my mom.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: This is terrible.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: I it's so terrible.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: But but that's how I felt.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: I felt like it was this was not my time.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: You were supposed to raise your children, and then it was time to help your parents.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: And that this was a really hard time, you know, did need to help my mom.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there were so many blessings though, in that, in having my mom around.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, my my mom did have chemo and radiation, and so she lost her hair.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: And she wore scarves.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so Emma wore scarves for a long time.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, that's what you do when you get ready in the morning, you put a scarf on your head.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: And she told my mom how pretty she looked and how pretty her scarves were.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: And they'd sort through and choose which one scarf to wear.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: So sweet things like that that, you know, she's empathizing with my mom, but she has no idea that it is sad because my mom has lost her hair.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: But my mom had um big extensive, she had a few good years after her treatment, but between the chemo and the radiation, um, it resulted in some significant physical decline, um, mental decline, and ultimately dementia.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: And my dad ended up retiring and he stayed home and took care of her.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then by the time my mom went to be the with the Lord, she was only 69.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: And um so in January of 2015, he called her home.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um by that time, um, not long before, I mean, a while before that, she was actually um wasn't mobile and she was nonverbal, and my dad um took care of her um beautifully.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: So at the end we had her at hospice, and um I remember singing softly and tenderly to her.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: And those words are softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: He's calling for you and for me.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: Patiently, Jesus is waiting and watching.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: He's watching for you and for me.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: Come home.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: Come home.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: Ye who are weary, come home.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling, oh send her.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: Come home.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: What a powerful promise that those who know him will be called home.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember, I mean, my mom could not speak.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: She couldn't speak for a long time.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: But praying and just asking her, don't you feel Jesus calling?
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: And in January of 2015, she did pass away.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: Man, I didn't think that'd be so hard.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I've said that sometimes like you don't realize, like, I still need my mom.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: Over the years at TBC, Tim and I have spent a lot of time in small groups where we've lived life with others.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like I said, his first our first small group was when he was in law school.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: And when we had small children, we spent lots of time with other families.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: We had grade schoolers, they had grade schoolers.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: And now we're in a uh small group that has a variety of ages, of people and kids, and um babies and young children, and so it is a fun time.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: We've been in small groups where we've done studies and where we've done DVDs.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: And this group we've really enjoyed.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: We prepare food, everybody brings food for a meal, and we um just have a great time.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we'll pose a question and just talk about it, sometimes we'll just tell about what's going on in life, and it's been really it's been great, um, just kind of checking on what's going on with people around our table.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: Some of our most memorable times have been the times that uh Tim has taught Young Married's class, and he's currently teaching another Sunday school class.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: And again, in this Sunday school class, we have couples with a variety of ages and places and stages in life.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I am amazed, constantly amazed, that God would use me in that capacity.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, to be with Tim as he would lead a Sunday school class.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: And like, what on earth?
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like here, 28 years later, I feel like some days it's still like we're 21, and what on earth are we doing?
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um when Emma was in early high school and Ethan was in junior high, I realized I could actually be gone.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: Remember, we were homeschooling, and I could actually be gone a couple of hours during the day.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I returned to a study called Bible Study Fellowship, and I had attended that when the children were young.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a verse-by-verse study that you go through, and it constantly encourages you to apply what you've learned, to not just take in head knowledge to apply and make that a part of your life and actually verbalize what the Lord is doing in your life.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um I saw the Lord at work and recognized him at work, and he began to stretch me.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: I led a small group, and then most recently, up until three years ago, well, up until a year ago, I was a substitute teaching leader.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: And during that time, I was given the opportunity to teach four times a year.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: Corey Powers, the uh current teaching leader.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so then four times a year I would teach, and I taught through the life of Moses, John, and Revelation.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: And if you would have told me again, like when I was 21, that um we would have a small group and then um at some point I would be teaching God's word, I would not have believed it.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, one of the final ways that the Lord is working my life and has grown me in my relationship with him are the numerous um younger women that he's placed in my life over these past few years.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, these women desire to serve him and follow him in their marriages, their parenting and their work life.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: I have the joy of walking and talking with these women, of memorizing scripture, getting coffee and talking with them in the early morning before their kids are even out of bed.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: We've read books that encourage us, encourage each other on our spiritual journey.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: We pray for each other and we pray for our families.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: These women have taught me so much, and I'm humbled again that he's given me the opportunity to spend time with them.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: They are leaps and bounds ahead of where I was at that point.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: And they spur me on.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I have one friend that sends me links to various podcasts, she sends me songs and music that I should hear, somebody else that suggests books, and I just think that God is doing a mighty work in women in Topeka, and that is encouraging and it's a joy to watch.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I feel like today the Christian woman is expected to have a perfect house, she's expected to have a platform, she's expected to have a cause, or she needs to run a business.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: And but I've been reminded over and over in my life that I need to just trust and obey.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: I need to be bold in my obedience to him, and it may even be in those small things.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it may just be in those small steps of obedience by asking somebody who's new to Sunday school to come sit beside you, to go sit beside them and just introduce yourself and ask who they are.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: For me, it looked like following in obedience to him to homeschool, even when we had no idea where that would lead or what that would look like or the fact that we thought it was wacko.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um be bold.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: If you've thought about leading a Bible study or a small group or a book club or having people over for something, then do it.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: Obey and be obedient to him, even in these small things.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: Being bold and following in obedience looks different for each one of us, but obedience to him is what we should do in our walk with him.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: We did end up homeschooling our kids all the way through high school, both of them.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um Emma graduated college this past December from College of the Ozarks in Branson, and she's on staff at the college in the campus ministries, and she also got her certification in yoga, and she teaches about five times a week for yoga or yoga classes.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: And um here's Emma and Ethan.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: Doesn't he look like his dad?
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: We say these are our replacements, like when we pass away, they're just gonna replace us.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: I wish I would have had a third to see what we would have gotten.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then um, do you remember when I talked a little while back about um we were in a Sunday school class and how some of these friends are still lifelong friends?
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um this is Emma, and this is her uh fiance, Ben Higgins.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: And um back when they were three years old in the nursery, um Pat and Michelle that are over here on the inn, they attended that home builder's Sunday school class that we were in.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_01: And Emma and then have been in Sunday school all the way through, and suddenly when they were senior, yeah, seniors in high school, he said, Oh, Emma Schultz, and she said, Oh, Benjamin Higgins.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: And um so they're getting married on June 2 at our house.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: Ethan is 19.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: Back to Ethan.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: Ethan's 19.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he completed a welding program at Washburn Tech.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: He worked for Tarwaters for a brief period of time.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: He ran, uh helped a guy run cattle.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: He spent three months in Wyoming working on a ranch with a guided elk hunt.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_01: And right now he's in Arkansas at horseshoeing school.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he hopes to complete that at the end of the month and return to be a farrier.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: Tim is a partner at Goodell, Stratton, Edmonds and Palmer, and practices law here in town.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: I just want to close with um one of my favorite hymns is um, It is well with my soul.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I just think that it's the challenge of the words of It is Well with My Soul.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard to have in life, to sometimes have that steadfastness in those words.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_01: But when we do have life in Christ, we know our eternal home is in heaven, and we can sing those uh words with confidence.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so that those words say when peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrow and sea billows roll, whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul.