From a Recipient of "Many Blessings!"

Today is National Teachers Day. This day also marks the four-year anniversary of the death of Debbie Wells, my pastor's former wife and one of the most influential teachers in my life. I learned many valuable lessons from Mrs. Wells (aka Mrs. P.J.) that I will never forget, some of which I will share here:

1. Forgive no matter what.

 Mrs. P.J. knew how to tell a story. She wore the costumes and did all the voices. She knew how to describe a scene that created vivid pictures in my mind, many of which are implanted there forever. I remember the day I heard "Corrie ten Boom" share her message on forgiveness. Almost every time I find myself withholding forgiveness from someone, I remember the story of Corrie meeting the Nazi soldier who had beaten her sister, and the words, "I forgive you" have to come. 

2. Shyness is pride.

I have nearly always been an introvert. I didn't used to think of being shy as being prideful. Shyness, timidity, and quietness, in my mind, seemed humble. But I remember the day that Mrs. Wells told the other girls in my class and I about how she, a young, shy, girl, had been teased for her skinniness in high school. She explained how she realized that, by waiting for someone to befriend her, she was being prideful and selfish. Now, when I find myself wanting to withdraw because it would be more comfortable, I hear her words and I try to push myself to reach out to others. When I start wishing that someone would be my friend, would come talk to me, I make an effort to be friendly. Mrs. Wells always met me with a smile, a hug, and the most sincere, "How are you?" that made me feel like I was the most special girl in the world. And I'm pretty sure she made every person in the world feel that way.

3. Praise God without fearing man.

I can still hear her singing during the worship service at Western Hills. I see her boldly step away from her pew, toward the "King of Kings" banner across from her. She lifts the pole out of its stand, and begins to walk in front of the stage, back and forth, and up and down the aisles. I can still see her face, beaming with a smile and uplifted toward heaven. (That's where her focus was most of the time.) Proudly, yet so gracefully, she floats, like an angel, throughout the sanctuary. She forgets that we're all there, watching her, because she can't stop thinking about the amazing God that she serves. I'm inspired to remember why I am here. I'm in awe of my Maker. 

4. Hold on to the visions God gives you.

In January of 2004, when I was 15-years-old, I joined a team of about 10 other young people, under the leadership of Mrs. Wells, to volunteer at a Bible club at Heronville Elementary. Each week, we met Mrs. Wells on Wednesday nights to prepare the lesson we would teach the following Tuesday. I always left those meetings so excited about what I would be teaching the kids the next week. I remember riding to and from Bible club in a 15-passenger van, filled with the scent of freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies and driven by Mrs. P.J. (who, by the way, was known to have a lead foot). 

Mrs. Wells started bringing those Bible club kids to church in that van. Every Wednesday night, with a group of 10 or more kids trailing behind (or running ahead of) her, Mrs. Wells would enter building B with an excitement that caught the attention of everyone present. She was excited about reaching our community - the south side of Oklahoma City. She met the children in that community and brought them in to our church. This was her vision. And I caught on to it. I wanted to be a part of what God was doing through her.

And then, she got sick. So sick that she couldn't lead Bible club, or bring the kids to church. For about a year, I thought God's plan to use us to bring the inner city that surrounded our church building into Western Hills was falling apart. But, just months after my pastor's wife died, God called me to become an employee at Novo Ministries. I began leading a small group of volunteers from my church to run two Bible clubs at other schools near our church. The next two years, I coordinated and assisted with these Bible clubs. At times, I grew very discouraged. I didn't see the vision being fulfilled, even though we were still doing Bible clubs. It was a very hard time for our whole church, with Mrs. Wells being gone. 

But the vision didn't fade away. Other people, like our youth pastor and almost all of our youth, caught on to it. Now, for two years, a group of 20-30 volunteers have been teaching at two Bible clubs, which have grown as well. These volunteers are building relationships with "their" kids. Several of the Bible club teachers are inviting the children and / or bringing them to church. It is not uncommon for 5, 6, 7,   or 10 of my Bible club kids, on their way to class, to run up to me and give me a hug in the hallway at church. Many children have been saved, many have been baptized.

God's mission for my life for now is (and for the past four years has been) to reach the inner-city children of Oklahoma City with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Though it was God who called me, Debbie Wells inspired me to be in a place where I would hear that call clearly.  

5. Your determined purpose should be to know Him.

The 17th year of my life was the best one I've ever had. I was closer to God that year than ever. At the beginning of that year, Mrs. Wells began teaching the Wednesday night class for teenage girls at church. I remember being more eager to attend church each week than I had ever been before. I had such a great desire to know God and learn more about Him that I don't think I went a day without talking to Him and studying His Word. 

That summer, I went on a mission trip with Reaching Souls International to Tanzania. Mrs. Wells was a part of the group. Her passion for sharing Jesus with the Tanzanian people was contagious. I remember how her story of her visit to the Masai village brought tears to my eyes. She was like a brilliant ray of sunlight bursting through the cracks of the dark huts in that village.

In the fall of 2006, just before Mrs. Wells was diagnosed with cancer, she began a Bible study called "One-on-One with God". Mrs. Wells asked me to be one of the student leaders in the girls' class, which meant I got to meet with her and the other student leaders on Sundays. Each week, after church, we would go through the lesson we would be teaching the upcoming Wednesday. I developed some habits and new ways of thinking that transformed me and helped me to grow in Christ. During this study, we memorized this verse, which we read and reviewed each week:

"[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him - that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding [the wonders of His Person] more strongly and more clearly. And that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers]; and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope]*."

Philippians 3:10

I can't read that verse without hearing Mrs. Wells speaking it. She had a way of reading verses that made God's words seem alive, as they are. 

6. Be grateful for suffering.

On Sunday, October 9th, 2006, Mrs. Wells said something in our weekly Bible study meeting that I didn't want to forget. I felt something, or Someone, telling me to listen closely and remember. To realize a very wise woman was giving me advice that I might not be able to hear again. I wrote down, word-for-word, in my Bible study book what she said that day. In blue ink, at the bottom of the page and right across from Philippians 3:10, are the words: "When you really suffer, you experience more suffering like Jesus. You come to know Him in a way you never have because you are sharing in His sufferings. You begin to understand what He went through." 

Those words came from a woman who knew she had cancer, who knew her chances of living much longer were not likely, who felt unbearable pain at the moment she spoke them. When I remember those words, I am reminded that I have never, ever experienced anywhere close to the amount of pain she felt, and that I have most certainly never (and never will) feel the pain that my Savior felt because of the stupid, wicked choices I make every day. 

7. Don't forget where your home is.

I don't remember Mrs. Wells ever saying that. But her life spoke it constantly. She lived with an eternal mindset. She lived to know God, whether on earth or in heaven. 

*I remember always wondering what the next verse said - what "the hope" was. Well, I read the next verse a while later, after Mrs. Wells had died: "That if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body]" Philippians 3:11. I have risen with Christ, so I live in the resurrection. I can't help but smile through my tears when I realize that this hope is the hope Mrs. Wells had. I know that, when Mrs. Wells died, she left her body here and rose to meet Christ in heaven, where she is now. Her hope has been fulfilled for eternity. I can't wait for my own hope to be fulfilled and to see her again.