3G: Mentors and Accountability

...When the last Lieutenant had left Amanda and I remained hungry for the Word. I can remember rising early in the morning and driving to Amanda's apartment to do our respective quiet times, get ready for class, grab a burrito on Knickerbocker and faithfully show up late to class (oops). In the evenings we were going to STAND on Mondays, Intermission on Thursdays, Glen Meadows and Paul Ann on Sunday mornings and Sunday night bible study at the Lindahl's. Once a week I rose at 6:30 to cook breakfast for a bible study we started. The two of us were growing leaps and bounds and soon the two of us would become the few of us.

Amanda met Mara Garza, a gal I knew from Angelo Aquatics and the Central Swim Team. The three of us began bonding over coffee and Christ. We began praying about starting a bible study and asked that the Lord would provide solid leaders. These prayers lingered for a few months until the night that we met Bonnie Huckabee and Cindi Dauphin. Little did we know that they too were praying about starting a bible study. We started meeting together and sought the Lord for his direction. The next few years were precious. The group consisted of about 50% college students and 50% women of wisdom. They took us to great depths and challenged us immensely.

The fourth member of our party was Lt. Laura Terry who also was converted by God's grace with Ronnie's investment in her life and proclamation of the gospel at the Air Force Academy. There were few nights that passed that the four of us: Amanda, Mara, Laura and myself, weren't drinking coffee together as we questioned the Holy Book before us. Some of my fondest memories and times with my Savior are found in this chapter with these girls. Hebrews 3:13 encourages, "exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." There is a sweetness that comes when you actually do as this Scripture calls you to do. We "reproved, rebuked, and exhorted, with complete patience and teaching" as 2 Timothy 4:2 teaches.

As the picture testifies from the previous post, I was a big girl. The Lord really began to break my heart and my habits by the catalyst event of reading and weeping over the Scriptures that spoke in regards to gluttony. That night remains vividly in my mind as does the accountability that came to follow. These exhorters and encouragers came alongside me with all of my complaints and struggles. I could barely run a block without my heart leaping out of my chest and my lungs collapsing. They bore with me and my fighting frustration of the years of damage I had done to my body. I lost almost 70 lbs as they held up my arms in the midst of the battle (Exodus 17:8-16).

Bonnie Huckabee continued to faithfully mentor us. As time passed these friends too moved on. Amanda married Ronnie and moved to Little Rock, Laura received her next assignment in the Air Force and Mara met a friend, Bethany and moved to California to pursue a Masters in Biblical Counseling (my current degree plan). I continued to meet with Bonnie and reaped such wisdom and insight. As a campus missionary I found myself quoting this woman often. I have recently thought that all of the biblical womanhood books are written about Bonnie. She would immediately rebuke me with this statement, but in summary...I am so incredibly thankful for the Lord's provision of bringing each of these women in my life...to be continued...

(Pic 1: Laura, myself, Amanda and Mara being silly + our friend Joy)

(Pic 2: Cindi and Kirt Dauphin, both great mentors in my life)

(Pic 3: Todd and Bonnie Huckabee with me before I left San Angelo)