“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.” Colossians 1:9-10 NIV

This month’s blog is written by another one of our Great Commission Association’s (GCA) pastors’ wives, Esther Van De Walle.  Esther and her husband have been at Oak Grove Baptist Church in San Jose, California for two years and have one son, Josh.  Esther was born in Ecuador when her father was pastoring there.  Her family moved to the United States when Esther was just under 2 years old.  Esther has taught high school and middle school Spanish and German, bilingual kindergarten, as well as homeschooled her son. As you read her story of how God has brought growth and new disciples during this time of Covid, I pray you are encouraged to see how God wants to use you to fulfill the Great Commission. Regardless of the world’s situation, we are still to be about making disciples.

December Reflections of a Pastor’s Wife - 2020 has gotten a bad name and many are looking forward to its end.  For me, it’s been a good time of drawing closer to God, seeing Him working things out, growing spiritually, and being used by God in new ways.  To God be the glory, great things He has done!

In June I took one GCA’s classes on The Abiding Church written by Nate Sweeney.  I saw how important it is to help our church family abide in Christ.  This encouraged me to spend even more time in personal prayer and in reading and meditating on God’s Word.  That was wonderful!  Next, I took another class with GCA Transforming Discipleship written by Greg Ogden.  That class provided me with a curriculum I can use to help individuals in my church abide in Christ.  There is such a need for this because there are a lot of people in our churches who don’t know all the foundational building blocks of life in Christ.  They aren’t putting them into practice.  They’ve learned some things from sermons and some things from group Bible studies, conferences, etc., but they haven’t put it all together.  They lack something.  They need more help.

Before I finished taking the discipleship class, a young lady in my church with special needs asked if I would lead her in a Bible study.  I had already finished reading the whole textbook (Discipleship Essentials) and was excited about what I was learning, so I knew God was telling me to start my first discipleship group (via Zoom).  Before I knew it, the young lady had already invited six other people to join us!  I had to adapt the material to the level of the group members, and our virtual meetings turned out to be fun!  I learned so much about them and fell in love with each one.  One of them made a profession of faith.  He now wants to be baptized, and he wants to work with the homeless.

I also took another GCA class on “Equipping Pastors’ Wives to give Biblical Counseling.”  It was great and fit in with the other classes well!  The class strengthened my desire to give biblical advice when speaking with others. The Lord provided situations in which I realized that I didn’t know what the Bible really says about a certain thing.  Growing up in church, people sometimes said something that I remember and that I assumed was the Christian way.  After studying the Word, it turns out some of those things are not biblical!  I want to know, live in, and always speak the truth.

With my first discipleship journey completed, I started my second.  Two ladies who are leaders in my church are meeting with me weekly on Zoom.  They have already said that when we are done, they want to do discipleship journeys with other ladies in our church.  At this rate, soon all the ladies will have been discipled!  Then we can reach out beyond the church! 

If you are interested in any of GCA’s classes, a new program is launching in February 2021.  For more information go to the GCA website or click here: https://www.gcasbc.org/gct

Cathie Smith is the Ministry Wives Coordinator for GCA. She is a ministry wife, mother of three, and enjoys  Earl Grey tea, yellow daisies, all things chocolate, and talking with friends. One of her greatest passions is helping women to grow in Christ and become life-long disciple-makers.