Driven by GRACE

I recently had the privilege to meet Faye. Faye has been a member of Church at the Cross for 44 years and has led a Life Group for 23 years, from age 50-73 called the GRACE Class. This women’s Life Group has been serving Jesus for over half a century. I had the opportunity to hear a little bit more from Faye about the history of service these women graciously gave in Jesus’ name.

When these women were younger, they would serve all over our community in many different ways. Some of these acts of service included but were not limited to cooking for church events, working at Brother Bill’s in Dallas (“And they worked us hard!” remembers Faye), serving people in a local nursing home, and always being available for small and large needs around the church. They have countless stories about the people and places they have seen transformed by Jesus. Now the GRACE Class no longer have the strength of their youth, so they have found new ways to care. 

You can imagine that a group of mostly widows is not necessarily sitting on a fortune, but these ladies show ingenuity! A local nursing home began to grow on their hearts. They had the idea to throw the residents Birthday parties and Christmas parties, including giving them all presents. The GRACE Class made a pact to stop buying each other birthday presents (which probably was really difficult for these close friends of many years) and put that money into a fund. Faye reflects on the idea, “We used to serve with our hands, now we can only serve with our money!” 

They wanted to give each resident a gift for Christmas, but their small birthday fund was not going to cover the cost. There were several needs, not only the gifts and party supplies, but they also were in need of a mobile sound system.

“I remember feeling this was an impossible task. But God said it wasn’t. If we will give God our hands, he will give us what we need to do his work.” 

The ladies, once more, put their heads together to come up with a solution. An auction! Between the ladies and their husbands and friends, they had many different gifts. The husbands would build a sundry of things, often out of wood. The ladies would sew and quilt. They could handmake these different items and sell them. Their first auction brought in just $35, but they were not discouraged. They held another one and about tripled their profits. This was just enough money to cover the cost of the party and gifts.

The GRACE class started the Woodridge Nursing Home ministry in 1998. Once a month, the class would celebrate the birthdays of the residents who had birthdays that month with a party of cake, punch, gifts, and entertainment. The Woodridge Ministry continued through the 2005-2006 church year.

The GRACE Class got to work. The goal was to create bags for each of the 125 residents that they could use to carry their bathroom supplies at the home. The one skill that the majority of the class had was sewing, so they saved money by sewing material together to make their own bags. They gave God their hands once again. Then they were able to purchase the contents with the money they had raised.

Faye remembers the class’s act of service with fondness. “We met at church one night, brought our material, sizers, pins, irons, and ironing boards!  Some cut, some sewed, some pressed, some ran string around the top.  We left that night with 125 bags made!”

This nursing home fundraising auction started an annual tradition. Other groups and people began to donate to the auction as well, often in honor of a loved one. The GRACE Class eventually were seeing $2000 come in every year!

The ministry continued to grow. They started receiving so much merchandise they ran out of space to store it. The nursing home auction continued for 13 years under the GRACE Class’s direction. As the women got older, they had to give up leading the auction; however, the fund still exists to this day. The ladies and others continue to give to the GRACE Class’s fund and it is used in all sorts of capacities like supplies for VBS, caring for different needs of people in our church, scholarships for Kids’ Camp, missionaries sent out of our church, and more.

“This is an example of what God can do with people who are willing to serve him.  If God asks us to do something, he will supply what we need. The GRACE Class did this with the strength of the Lord! I love these ladies. They have added so much to my life.  I am too old to serve in the ways I used to, but my memories are so good of the days when I was able!  God has blessed me so much in my life.”

The GRACE Class may no longer have the ability to create merchandise to sell and throw Christmas parties for the nursing home anymore, but this class loves to pray. These women cover our church, our community, our nation, and further in prayer. In fact, they still circulate a newsletter with prayer requests each week. This faithful group, over their many years of loving service, sit close to the heart of Jesus. When I think about what it means to help people and places encounter Jesus, these faithful women embody that notion. 

If you want to see what a long walk of faith, care, and love looks like, stop by the GRACE Class on a Sunday morning. I guarantee they will greet you with warm smiles and a really great breakfast. Then, if you spend just a little time, you will receive the culminated wisdom of hundreds of years following Jesus, and it will be totally worth it.

“We are like one, we are all working together in Jesus’ name.”

- Fay Randal, age 87