God's G.A.L.S
a
Women's Bible Study Group
God’s G.A.L.S. Blessed
By Mary Ann Holton & Sue Oberg
Nearly a year ago, three ladies were called by Christ to continue the Beth Moore studies at King of Kings. In July 2009, Sue Oberg, Debbie Turner and Mary Ann Holton met for the first time. We all had been called by Him to study the book of Esther. With faith and hope, we began to plan for Esther: It’s Tough Being a Woman.
God had His hand in bringing 90 women to join us between two sessions every other week on Wednesday morning and Saturday morning through the fall and winter. We shared joys and tears, learned that beauty can be more than a treatment and discovered, for the first time for most of us, the strength and destiny of Queen Esther. Esther is the only book of the Bible where God is not mentioned, but he is all over it! Ask any of God’s GALS about chiastic structure or more importantly about providence.
In November, our service project was making fleece blankets for the Emma Norton Residence, a woman’s shelter in St. Paul. A group of God’s GALS served them a special dinner and gave them the royal treatment. It was an evening of manicures, bingo, prizes, roses and lots of God's love.
In December, we celebrated Christmas with a special brunch that featured Beth Moore’s A Fresh Advent video and brunch. After the winter break we finished up the study and had a final celebration in the spirit of Queen Esther and the feast of the PURIM. Our own Rachel Larson led us through relaxation and stretching techniques. Sharon Johnson treated us to some spa treatments; and we finished up with brunch and a special guest speaker, Nancy Roberts. Nancy shared the amazing testimony of her faith journey with us.
The spring found us planning a shorter but very powerful study… Jennifer Rothschild’s Me, Myself & Lies. It was spring cleaning of our thought-closets, clearing out all the negative soul talk we speak to ourselves and replacing it with God’s truth and hope. We had over 40 ladies join us every other week as we heard Jennifer’s encouragement and received insight into the thought closets of Kathy Troccoli and Lisa Whelchel.
The theme for the year was “For a Time Such as This…” How appropriate it was.
We’d like to give special thank you to Debbie Turner for her leadership, Julie Dzekute for her enthusiasm, help with decorating and a million other little things. To the many small group leaders, the coffeemakers and the media helpers and all those who helped plan service projects and celebrations, we could not have done it without you. A special thank you to John Accosta for the beautiful castle picture, which reflects his wonderful artistic talent. Thanks to the Pastors and all the office staff for their support of this ministry.
It has been such a memorable year sharing such an amazing faith journey with so many wonderful women. We thank God for His many blessings.
