Page 50 of Cole

Such a response hadn’t been unexpected. Her dad reacted that way whenever any of them got sick. It still didn’t make it feel less like it was overkill. However, Annie had to admit that whatever the doctor had given her had helped her recover.

She’d felt like death warmed over for the first few days. But now, just a week later, she nearly felt back to normal.

“Do you want to sit with us?” Lexi asked as she gestured to where Rori and Kelsey sat, two more of the Halversons’ daughters-in-law.

“Sure.” Annie was glad for the invitation because even though she’d been attending the church for awhile now, she hadn’t really made many connections.

“I’m glad you two could make it out,” Rori said with a warm smile when they sat down at the table.

“It looks like they’re expecting a decent turnout,” Dawn commented as she looked around.

Rori nodded. “There’s been a good response to starting up the study this year, so we’re excited.”

“Rori is helping to lead one of the studies,” Lexi said.

“I’ve never done anything like this before, but Lee encouraged me to give it a try.”

“I’m sure you’ll do a great job,” Kelsey said. “They wouldn’t have agreed to let you lead if they didn’t think you were qualified.”

Annie could tell that Kelsey and Rori were close, and she felt a bit envious of their friendship. Right now, the two women she was closest to were Dawn and Lexi. She and Lexi shared an interest in clothing design and creation, but beyond that, they didn’t have much in common.

They hadn’t been seated long before plates of goodies and tea and coffee pots were placed on the tables. Each table had been set up with a linen cloth and a small floral centerpiece. A small China plate and cup and saucer had been placed at each seat.

They’d gone to a lot of effort for the evening, and Annie was glad that she’d decided to come. Dawn could have just waited in the parking lot, but she’d seemed interested in the study as well.

“Welcome, ladies,” a middle-aged woman said. She held a microphone in one hand as she smiled at them. “I’m Alice Kennedy, for those who don’t know me. I’m the wife of Pastor Kennedy. And I’m so glad to see each one of you here.”

She then said a prayer to open their time together before she introduced the study they’d be using.

“We’re going to have two study groups, though they’ll both be using the same material,” Alice said. “We’re going to have one at ten o’clock on Tuesday mornings. That one will have care available for infant and pre-school-age children. The second one will be Thursday evening at seven. We don’t plan to have childcare available for that one, but if it should become necessary, we’ll revisit that decision.”

Annie figured that she’d come to the daytime one. It was better for her, and would probably make her dad happy since she wouldn’t be venturing out at night. He never liked when she did that.

“We were pleased to have a lot of interest expressed when we put out the plea for women to pray about becoming a Bible study leader. Because of that, we’ve been able to come up with three leaders for each study. Some of you might be wondering why we didn’t just have more studies. To help explain our plan, I’d like to ask Charli Madden to join me.”

Charli got up from her seat and went to where Alice stood. The older woman gave her a hug, then handed the microphone to her.

“Before I explain what we hope to do, I’d like to introduce myself,” Charli said. “I’m Charli Madden. I’m a former schoolteacher turned stay-at-home mom. My husband, Blake and I are parents of five children. Three girls and two boys. I’m going to be one of the leaders of the daytime study.

“Miss Alice is very cognizant of how busy women’s lives can be. So when she brought together those of us who had expressed an interest in leading the study, she made it clear that she understood that our families and jobs would come first. Because of that, she wanted to spread the responsibility of leadership over two or three women. As it turned out, there was enough interest for us to have three women per study who will rotate leading each week.

“I’d like to ask each of those women to come up here with me and introduce themselves.”

Rori got up, as did four other women. They lined up beside Charli and Alice. Over the next few minutes, each woman shared a bit about themselves. They were an eclectic group representing a variety of ages and a variety of stages of life.

Through all the talking, Annie and the other ladies had been drinking their beverage of choice and indulging in some very delicious treats. Annie hadn’t had much of an appetite while she was sick, and even now, she wasn’t eating like she normally would. The sweet treats, however, were definitely worth eating more than just one.

She hadn’t told Cole where she was going that evening, though she wasn’t sure why not. It wasn’t like he didn’t knowthat she attended church. They’d both attended services during the summer when he’d been in Serenity.

Of all the things they’d talked about, God hadn’t been one of them. She wanted to, though. It felt like it was an important conversation to have with him.

“We’ll have you sign up for the study you plan to attend just to give us an idea of what to expect for group sizes,” Alice said once the introductions were done. “But that doesn’t mean you have to stick to it if you find that the one you initially chose doesn’t work well for your schedule. We just want you to attend.”

“When you sign up, you’ll be given a copy of the study book we’ll be using so that you can start reading the first chapter,” Charli added.

“I want to thank each of you for coming out this evening,” Alice said. “And I hope that you’ll hang around for a bit to socialize and eat the delicious treats that several ladies in the church made for us this evening.”

After Alice closed the meeting in prayer, Rori returned to their table. Discussion quickly turned to which of the studies they’d each be attending.

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