Kay RogersDuring Staff devotion time, Kay Rogers, Chief of Strategic Services, shared a beautiful story of her beginnings in Aglow and how God places Aglow in neighborhoods to bring the Good News to all.
After I became Baptized in the Holy Spirit and joined Aglow, I attended a weekly Bible study taught by my fellowship president. The timeframe was between 1977 and 1981.The Bible study was well attended. I grew to love Aglow.
One day our teacher suggested that we take that morning, go knock on the doors of the homes and apartments around where we met, and invite women to come to a Bible study in their neighborhood. We did and came back with stories about how we were received. One of the ladies even brought back a lady, recently arrived in the United States, who was eager to meet people. X was from Chile, raised Catholic, and excited about making new friends. Soon she received salvation, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, began growing in the Lord and became an enthusiastic member of Aglow.
During those years, I had young children and decided to teach a 10-week summer Bible study to ‘tweens, kids between 10 and 13. For three summers I opened my home one day a week during the summer to neighborhood kids, the kids of my Bible study and church friends—anyone who wanted to come. Summers can be boring and I always had fun things for everyone to do in addition to learning about the Bible, so my studies were well attended with lots of laughter and some tears as we learned together. I always taught the basics, including salvation, prayer, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and spiritual warfare. The two daughters of X were my students one summer. They were lovely girls and apt learners.
My husband was in the military so we eventually moved away. The rest, as they say, is history. After I had been working at Aglow Headquarters for a number of years, I had the blessing to travel with my President Jane Hansen Hoyt, to a retreat in Northern Virginia. This was my “old stomping grounds” so I was eager to see if anyone I knew was still there. Many were and it was fun to catch up with each other.
One evening, Jane and I were in the elevator with several lovely young women who kept looking at me and smiling. I asked if they were here for the retreat. They laughed a yes, explaining they were X’s daughters, grown up, graduated from Christ for The Nations, and home visiting their mom. I was thrilled to see them, all grown up, Spirit-filled women.
They took us to find their mother who was then a member of an area team, as well as the local president of a Spanish-language Aglow group. What fun it was to catch up with X. She told me she had gone home to Chile to visit her mother several years earlier. Her mother became intrigued with Aglow from listening to her daughter, and asked to start one in Chile. The group that met in her mother’s home was the very first Aglow group in that nation. At the time of the retreat, Chile was an affiliated Aglow nation with a growing number of groups.
As I reflect on this story of how God works to fulfill His promises—His Word—I think of Graham Cooke’s prophecy that there would be an Aglow group in every city and town of every nation of the world. I always wondered how He would accomplish such a “big” project. Today, I know that He will accomplish it one person, and one small obedience at a time. As we do what He leads us to do—talk to someone, visit a neighbor, invite a new comer to a Bible study, and take one step. We never know what part our “one step” will play in His plan. But sometimes, He lets us peak behind the curtain to see how He is working. He is Glorious and He doesn’t waste a thing.