Four ladies

Once a month, a group of pastors come to study with John.  The first group comes on Monday and spends the night, and then they go home mid morning on Tuesday.  The second group comes on Wednesday and goes home Thursday morning.  Three times a year, their wives join them.  This time, four of the ladies came in the first group (there are two).--Rosie, Emerita, Esther, and Daisy.  We study through a book in the morning, do a craft in the afternoon and a Bible study in the morning of the second day.  These ladies are SO different from each other, about the only thing they have in common is that they are pastor's wives.  

Rosie is a high school graduate and loves to learn.  She is a delight to teach because she finds understanding something new so much fun. She brings her very well behaved 8 year old son with her. 

Emerita, on the other hand, didn't go to school long enough to learn to read.  She is studious in her own way, though, her husband or one of her kids will help her to do the homework assignments I send home.  She is very wise and has a delightful positive attitude.  

Esther is very quiet.  She can read, though she is obviously sounding out the words very deliberately.  Last year I wondered if she really wanted to come or just came to please her husband.  This year, she is smiling more and participating more.  

Daisy is the youngest of the group--brings her "active" two year old with her and is pretty distracted by him most of the time.  She is a good reader and usually has an interesting story that applies pretty well to the lesson.  (This week she was telling about the guy in her town who claimed to have a vision concerning where a drowning victim would be found.  The whole town believed him and used machinery to dredge where he said to look.  They found a huge fish which no one in town would eat because of the "location".  Turned out the body wasn`t there at all, but several miles away.  Everybody in town got mad at the false prophet and were sorry they hadn`t eaten the fish.  It really did fit with the lesson, except the part about the fish.)

It is interesting to me how their personalities come through in the craft we do.  This time we were making some pretty paper gift boxes.  

Rosie carefully listens to and follows the directions. She loves crafts, like she loves learning everything else, and is thinking how she can use the craft for some project at church.  

Emerita enjoys the craft, though she needs a bit of help along the way.  Never having had the opportunity to develop her fine motor skills (ever think about the things you learn in grade school besides reading, writing and arithmetic?  things like cutting with scissors) she needs a bit of extra help to cut along the lines and see how things fit together.  She is thinking of who she can give her box to.  

I gave the ladies a couple of different options on how to do the box and Esther chose the simplest possible way.  She most always does.  Don`t complicate things is her motto.  I don`t know what she is thinking, but she actually smiled when she saw how nice her box came out, so I was really thrilled.  

Daisy chose two wildly contrasting kinds of paper to make her box, added every possible kind of lace or flower to decorate it that I would let her.  I looked at the outcome and thought "Oh my goodness" She loved it.  

I just feel so very honored to meet with these ladies once in a while to try to encourage them.  God has blessed me with them.