Parish Offers Bible Program For Those With 'hungry Hearts'
Sarah Adams first heard a call to learn and share Scripture in 2008. A group of friends shared a similar desire to meet and help each other better understand the word of God.
“Our hearts were hungry,” Adams said. “We wanted to know our Catholic faith better. We wanted to teach our children to know and love the Word of God.”
The small group went through changes as family commitments and scheduling difficulties prevented the friends from meeting on a regular basis. Nothing could have prepared the group for the terminal-cancer diagnosis of a beloved member, Robin Evernham, in 2010.
“During (the next) year, she brought the light of God’s love to everyone she met,” Adams said. ”She showed our community what grace-filled suffering was really like. Although she had no financial burden with her cancer treatments, countless people in the Evansville area were struggling every day. It broke her heart and called her to minister to these families.” So Evernham, her husband and their daughters founded Robin’s Nest Charitable Fund. Robin lost her fight with cancer on Sept. 10, 2011.
Four years later, Father Paul Ferguson, then-pastor of Evansville’s Holy Redeemer Parish, approached Adams after an Amazing Parishes retreat with the Holy Redeemer staff and handed her three books, saying, “Sarah, God told me this was for you.”
“I began to cry,” Adams recalled. “I had the confirmation of the Holy Spirit wash over my entire body.”
Father Ferguson apologized and told Adams that he understood if it was not the right time. But he had misunderstood the reason behind her tears. She was not crying due to time constraints or lack of time or energy, but from the impact the books immediately had on her soul.
“You see, on the front cover of the third book was a beautiful robin’s nest with three little blue eggs. God didn’t ask me, he told me, ‘Enough learning, Sarah. Now is your time to lead.’”
During the summer of 2015 Adams discovered the Walking with Purpose Bible study and implemented the program at Holy Redeemer Parish the following fall. To her surprise and delight, nearly 100 women joined her to share in what she defines as a “positive, open, loving, compassionate environment. Not everyone agrees, but there is a spirit of welcome. There is always an open chair.”
WWP is a Catholic women’s Bible study that aims to bring women to a deeper personal relationship with Jesus Christ by offering personal study and small group discussion that link everyday challenges and struggles with the solutions given to us through the teachings of Christ and the Roman Catholic Church.
Holy Redeemer Parish will host its second WWP bible study beginning with a “Connect Coffee Talk” event at 10:30 am CDT on Sept. 11. Small groups will begin meeting the following week. Sessions continue for 22 weeks. Breaks (e.g. Fall break, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring break, and Easter) are scheduled with families in mind. Meetings will be held several times per week in order to allow participants to choose times and days that best fit their schedules, and free childcare is provided. Registrations are now being accepted online at www.holyredeemerchurch.org or by calling Sara Sexton at 812-228-0311.
Adams hopes the number of women involved in the program will continue to grow.
“It doesn’t matter where we are on our spiritual journey,” she said. “The Word of God will speak to us if our hearts are open. God equips the called.”
