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WOWS News

It was Wednesday night and I knew that Friday night was the WOWS Wondrous Women/Festival of Tables event.  I didn’t have a ticket and hadn’t planned to go as I had missed so many Sundays.  I was feeling bad about my long absence and thought the best solution was to hibernate more when I checked the day’s messages.  Linda Hook had called to tell me that “someone” was being recognized and that I might/would want to be there.  I knowingly smiled at the hypothesis that the “someone” was my dear friend and Lillypad, Mary Ann Tyler.  After Linda assured me that I could get a ticket at the door I decided to go.  Friday was on; I would go with my guilty feelings of absence and just deal.  I would go because I knew that seeing a few of my Lillypads get recognized would reinvigorate me from my annual hibernation and help me move through my anxiety surrounding a landmark birthday.  Because that is what Lillypads do: they guide you through; they light your path.  If you’re a frog! Or, an ever aging Kyle.

Among the blessings that God has placed in my life are a great group of women.  I call them Lillypads instead of the more commonly used phrase –- mentors.  Throughout my life I have always sought official and unofficial mentors. Having mentors has been an essential part of my development.  Why not learn from those who are doing the thing you want to do or being the type of human you want to be.  In this case, my Lillypads are being the type of Godly women that I aspire to be.  I call them Lillypads because they float along the river of my life helping me along and are a bright spot in the sometimes ugly swamp that life can be.

So, when on Friday evening three of my Lillypads were recognized for being the Godly women that they have become I was filled with emotion and inspired all over again.

As the evening began emcee Kim Robertson reminded us that while we were there to recognize and celebrate a few among us, we were ultimately there to recognize our Father’s blessings and that He deserved the supreme credit.  This sentiment was shared among the five women when asked to speak following their recognition they all offered the glory to God.  Just like a Lillypad!

dona Jarvis, Ruth Nally, Dot Nunn, Mary Ann Tyler and Mary Ellen White were all treated to a “This is your life” type of tour through their contributions to their church family and to the greater Kingdom. Their “This is your Life” was frosted with surprise visits from out-of-town family.  Brilliant idea and Kudos to the event planners--Linda Hook, Katherine Adams, Billie Payne, Emma Reed, Carolyn Nunn and Dot Nunn for this clever idea and undoubtedly tedious execution.  Viola!

Spouses, children, grandchildren and friends emerged from behind the staging area to “ooh’s” and “ah’s” from the women gathered and the surprised wide teary eyes of those five special women.  Amid the coos family members greeted each honored woman and surrounded her while the “This is your Life” tour journeyed on.  While the special guest families speckled the stage we all watched slides of each and then stood in ovation as Emma Reed presented each with a rose at the conclusion of their presentation.

Recognized for their quiet, gentle and humble leadership these women sat there no doubt wondering “why me?” Whether it was being lauded for their love and gift for working with young people, making prayer quilts, being named the best milkshake-maker by a clever granddaughter, touching so many through counsel and teaching or being noticed for being the queen of committees on committees, each celebrated woman took it in stride laughing and crying with style.  There was some Godly girlpower in the room without a doubt.  But each girl knew the true source of the girlpower.

Marlene Hourigan shared a short devotion after the recognitions.  Each table was decorated with a different theme of the table hostess’ choosing and Marlene’s theme was ”tea time.”  Her devotion referenced one of her table’s teacups.  She explained that it was one of the fairest teacups she owned and while preparing her decorations she had the chance to admire it once again.  It reminded her of the teacup’s journey to the beautiful vessel it had become.  The teacup began as a lump of red clay.  After pounding out the lumps in the clay, the Potter then took the red clay and molded it into its basic form.  But still not finished the potter had to place the teacup in an oven and increase the heat to make it solid and harden its shell – to make it last – to equip it to serve its purpose.  Emerging from the pounding, the molding and the oven was a vessel strong enough to serve its purpose and beautiful enough to inspire.

Emma Reed and Katherine Adams shared several songs in duet throughout the evening but it was their rousing rendition of “When the WOWS Go Marching In” after Marlene’s devotional that was the icing for the nourishing evening.  Speaking of icing, the desserts and food were yummy.  Rachael Ray, er, I mean Linda Ross and Sue Wills nourished our bodies before we filled up on God’s work in the lives of His daughters.

At the end of the night I was thankful that God had whispered to Linda to call me and that she obeyed.  I was thankful that I set aside my guilt in missing so many Sundays and went.  Never let that stop you; you never know the lesson or blessing you might miss.  Linda had asked me to videotape the event for the celebrated women and their families (because, really, how often do you get a “this is your life” tour through your own life? while you’re alive anyway!).  I was glad to do so as it afforded me the opportunity to view it from a distance.  I sat with audio guru, Wayne Simonis, in the elevated media booth slightly above it all and was filled with love for my Lillypads.  Viewing from that angle -- slightly elevated -- I could see all of the girls in attendance, I could watch faces (my favorite thing).  I watched the celebrated faces and I watched the guest families and wondered if they, too, could feel the love in the room and realize the gift that it could be to any of them who were not saved.

I watched their faces with the feminine features and realized how much I had missed those faces in my brief hibernation, how much I was a better person for knowing those faces around me.  I watched their faces with their feminine features and thought about how one of God’s gifts to women is our ability to nurture.  I watched faces that were like mine but held more - more wisdom, more experience in the creases that sculpted the face before me (please don’t hate me, creases are good!).  Through the tears welling (girls cry, it’s a gift) I breathed in the lesson that just like the teacup that each of these celebrated woman had emerged from their own pounding, from their own molding and their own oven to become the face before me.  I inhaled deeply and nodded knowingly in affirmation that this anxiety-ridden landmark birthday that was making me hibernate was a step in my process … a painful, yet necessary pounding or molding.  After all, my Lillypads (and all of those faces swimming around me) had reached, surpassed and learned from their own landmark, bad-for-girls, birthdays.  They are the women they are today because of these birthdays and God’s handy pottery skills.

Just before the program ended I discreetly wiped my tears and with a trademark smirk (like an inside joke between God and me) I tilted my head slightly up and winked at God.  I winked in acknowledgment, in surrender, in gratitude. I winked too, because if I was enjoying my slightly elevated view of things from the media booth, I knew that He had the primo seat.  I knew that He was there and had laughed and cried with us - His daughters.  In that moment I was in awe and my heart was full and all was well.

The WOWS event reminded me that God really is the bomb diggity.  That our Father laughs with us and cries with us, that he places us in each other’s lives to nurture and guide one another is the most blessed thing.  I thank God for His bomb diggityness and for placing each of you five women and so many others in my path. It is a phrase that is used often and sounds slightly cliché, but I am a better person for knowing you.  You have lit the pathway well, my sisters!

Kyle Shepherd