#19 First Baptist Church, Fairfield

My FFB family knows how to have a good time!

When you grow up far away from your relatives your church family really becomes your family.  I've never known what it would be like to live close to any of my blood relations besides my immediate family.  So while I dearly loved my extended family, my church family at First Baptist Church Fairfield was extremely special to me because those were the people who were in my life on a regular basis.  To this day when I go "home" to Fairfield I immediately feel that love and warmth when I walk in the doors of church.  Within a minute, possibly less, of being there I see a familiar face who is so excited to see me and gives me a great big hug and tells me how much they miss me and my family.  The feeling is definitely mutual, I miss my FFB family very much and I wish I got to see them more often.  I have so many memories of First Baptist, however unfortunately I have discovered I do not have very many pictures of the people I love!  So next time I'm in town you may discover I have my camera and am taking pictures of everyone.  

Sunday School Teachers

I have had some amazing Sunday School teachers and I can say that with certainty because you know you've had a good teacher when its been 10, 20 even 25 years since you were in their class and you still remember things about it.  My first teachers I remember were my 4 year old teachers Mrs. Morgan and Mrs. Motzer, some of the sweetest ladies ever.  I'm sure I did learn actual Bible lessons in their class but what stands out to me the most is that we would always have a snack at the end and they knew I loved potato chips and I remember Mrs. Morgan telling me on several occassions that she brought those because they were my favorite.   Food actually stands out to me a lot.  Mrs. Humphrey was our GA teacher for years and we would always make food while we talked about missionaries and we loved it.  I still remember that she taught me to always take the chocolate chip cookies out of the oven while they still look like they are not done but the bottoms are brown.

One of my favorite families, the Jones!

Another great Sunday School memory I have is when Amy and Lester Jones were our teachers in 5th and 6th grade.  Lester is a great Bible teacher.  However, the memory I have that stands out the most about that particular class was when we were talking about how God told Abraham he needed to be circumsized.   One of my friends very innocently asked what circumscision was and Lester was at a loss for words.   I knew what it was and couldn't help but giggle and I remember his wife Amy started to jump in and save him with a tactful definition but before she could finish my friend had looked up the word in the back of her Bible and said very quickly "Never mind I know what it is!"  We were all able to hear Lester's sigh of relief!

Amy Jones was also one of my Sunday School teachers in our junior high school girls class.  I guess she just couldn't get enough of us!  Amy and Lisa Wolfrum would take turns teaching every other quarter and it was over those couple of years that I developed a really special relationship with both of them.  Amy was the person who introduced me to the book of James and I remember her telling us it was one of her favorite books.  To this day it is one of my favorite books as well.  So much great wisdom in James.  Amy and Lisa were both really great teachers but the thing that made an impact on me the most was how much they cared about what was going on in our everyday lives.  I remember long after I had them as teachers I would go and sit next to Lisa before church started and tell her about what was goin on in my life and she always listened and encouraged me.  The year that I came back from Fuge and decided I was going to go to Indonesia the next summer on a mission trip I ran into Lisa and her husband Mark at Texas Roadhouse.  I sat down with them for a little while and told them that I wanted to go to Indonesia. I still remember the looks on their faces and Lisa saying "Yeah right! I don't think your parents are going to let that happen."  Mark said something along the lines of, "You can't do that, its dangerous!"  However when it came time for me to go the next year they were both so supportive.  Mark even called me the day before I left, he had been traveling and was in an airport somewhere and he just wanted to call me and he prayed for me right on the phone.  It was so nice I cried, and I still get a little teary thinking about the Wolfrums and how much I love them. 

Another thing I remember about Amy Jones is that she would always tell me and Amy (White) Davis which boys she thought were cute and nice and which ones she thought we should date. There were a couple of boyfriends that we had that I think Amy Jones was upset for a longer period of time after we broke up then we were.   While it was funny that she was concerned about our love lives and didn't want us to end up as two old maids living together with lots of cats, it was also cool because she really cared that we each find a good guy to marry, she just wanted the best for us. If your reading this Amy, thanks for your persistence in encouraging us to find a good guy, I think Amy D and I both ended up with the best guys for us and I hope that that helped you get over some of our other breakups. ;) 


My senior high Sunday School teacher was Mrs. Proctor. She is a really faithful prayer warrior who cared a lot about the girls in her class.  I remember she gave us a poem that had some different verses incorporated into it. It was about how God made us just the way he wanted us, faults and all and it talked about how he didn't make us as perfect as we thought we should be so that we would realize our need for Him and that its God in us that makes us beautiful.  

My last Sunday School teacher at First Baptist was a very special couple. Kim and Doug Berkemeier were my college class teachers.   Doug and Kim introduced Amy White and I to a wonderful restaurant called Copelands and this amazing appetizer of spinach and artichoke dip served with fried bow tie pasta.  Now that dish in itself would probably have been enough to get them in the top 30 of my 30 years but there were other great ways they impacted my life.  Those few years in their class I had a lot of big decisions to make and I would get so stressed out because I felt the weight of how the choices I made would effect the rest of my life.  They would always encourage me by telling me they knew I would go on to do great thing for God and to trust Him to lead me.  I also remember Doug telling me that he knew Fairfield wouldn't be my home forever but that he felt God had plans for me in other parts of the world.  He was right!  Doug recently went home to be with the Lord.  My heart breaks for his family that they had to lose such a wonderful Godly husband and father so early in life, however I know he left a great legacy of Christ's love and example that will always be with those of us who loved Doug. 

I've talked about in a past post how much I loved my Pastor and hi family and I've talked about youth group in a post but here are some other honorable mentions of some of my favorite FFB memories.  Monday night softball games were a highlight of my summers.  I always enjoyed sitting in the stands talking to Julie Johnson, Amy J, Marla, Rita, and all the other wonderful ladies.  When I see posts about softball games now on facebook I still get a little sad I don't get to go anymore.  I loved Family Night Dinners every Wednesday.  Thanksgiving and Christmas potlucks were always a highlight of the holiday season. (It was the best when you got to be at the first table picked.)  Mission trips were a favorite part of my year as well.  I had fun with my friends but it was also always fun to get to know the adults on the trip.  Rita was always a favorite chaperone. It was wonderful getting to see Preston and Julie finally have their wonderful son David after such a long struggle.  Their faith in God and steadfastness through those difficult years is an inspiration to me.  I loved being Marla's favorite babysitter and the fact that my name was in Alex's first 20 or so words.  Revivals with Richard Greene were awesome, there have been times over the past 6 years that I've considered coming home just to hear him.  Working with everyone at VBS was always so much fun.  Doing recreation with Holly and Amy was probably my favorite VBS job. 

I loved getting greeted and hugged every Sunday when I was growing up by Mr. Nabors, Mr. Baker, or Mr.Simpson. One of them was always there with a smile, a hug and a word of encouragement.  There were also the ladies that I had to make sure I got my hugs from like Mrs. McCormack, Mrs. Sampsel, Carla, Marla, Mrs. Baker, Lisa, Julie P, Amy, Tracy and so many more they are all so special to me I can't name them all.  We also have so many faithful prayer warriors.  I remember when I was younger there was a ladies prayer ministry and when they started praying for something, you started to see God move.  It was an amazing testimony to the power of prayer.  I remember the first time I ever heard the term prayer warrior was my mom telling me that Mrs. Mary Lou was a prayer warrior and if you ever needed prayer you could ask Mrs. Mary Lou and you would know that she would pray for you.   

When I look back on my time at FFB the thing that stands out to me overall that this church does a great job at discipling their people to become passionate followers of Christ.  There are so many young people that I grew up with that are now either in ministry full time or just serving the Lord with all their heart in whatever career God has placed them in.  I've seen my friends grow up and go on to do missionary work in China, Japan, England, Mexico, Australia and right here in the states.  I have loved seeing how God has worked in the members of my church family.  We have been truly blessed.
 

 I could go on forever with this post but its already pretty long. . I do however have another post coming soon about working with the youth, so if I didn't mention you here I probably will there.    I love my FFB family and I'm so blessed to have had you in my life.  You did a great job of being the family we needed when our blood family was so far away.