A reflection by Estherina Li
When I was in Year 10, Ellen asked me if I wanted to read the bible with her and another youth. While I didn’t consider us close, she had been my bible study leader for maybe a year. My earliest impression of Ellen was an image of her joking around with some of the other Cool Leaders in the foyer, wearing Very Cool clothes. I’m not sure we would have
naturally interacted with each other in any other setting.
A youth leader and a youth. A new worker in a grad role and a highschool student. A young married woman and a uni student. A young mum and a newlywed ministry apprentice. A mum of 2 and a new-er mum. These are all of the stages of life that Ellen and I have travelled through together.
We continued to meet, weekly, for the most part. Meeting at church around service, lunch and youth group, or at the library after school and work, to meeting at our houses right before an oztag game.
We read whole books of the bible, but we also read books on Christian living, even venturing into a pamphlet by Calvin for a time. We diligently shared prayer points after reading together, asking that God would make us more like Jesus in various areas of life.
Nothing terribly exciting or dramatic happened over that time, or at least on the outside. But God was using it to strengthen and nourish my faith, week in and out. We practised this discipline of meeting to spur each other on for about 5 years. We’ve stopped now, but I look back on that time so fondly. I’m so confident that God used it to grow me to the person I am now, and I’ve found it so encouraging to do the same with other girls.
Could you meet with a sister or brother to regularly come to God’s word together?