Seabrook never fails to surprise me. We live in such a beautiful spot we wonder how we got so lucky. As we watch the poor souls who are traipsing all over Greece, Turkey, Germany, France and other parts of Europe to find a home for themselves, we know we are especially blessed to be right where we are.
We not only have a great location, we have some very special neighbors as well. I met three of our Seabrook neighbors recently at the Lake House. They are Jody Garvey, Maraide Sullivan and Patti Tully. All three are part of the Ladies Bible Study Group that meets every Monday, from 1:30 to 3:30pm in the Live Oak Room at the Lake House.
Every meeting starts with a short social time, followed by an opening prayer of an ecumenical nature. They then watch a short video, of some thirty to forty minutes, on some topic of spiritual significance. Everything is biblically based or on a spiritual life topic that warrants discussion. Every video comes with a workbook, and every meeting has facilitators who break the group up into smaller parts so they can discuss the topic the film has emphasized. Subjects frequently revolve around issues of trust and forgiveness. There is a closing prayer to finish off the day.
There are approximately twenty five members of the Ladies Bible Study Group who attend regularly. They have been in existence for eight years. Ninety per cent of the group comes from Seabrook, with others joining from Kiawah and Kiawah River Estates. They do not consider themselves a group that is around to do good deeds, however they usually do take on a Christmas project. This year their Christmas efforts centered on finding warm coats for the winter. They partnered with the Salvation Army in West Ashley as one of them had known Major Thomas Richmond of the Salvation Army and he was very anxious to help them with their project. The Salvation Army Office is on 2135 Ashley River Road. Major Richmond said there are lots of homeless people in West Ashley and the coats would go in three to four days.
Acting together as a group, the Ladies Bible Study group managed to come up with fifty winter coats. They accomplished all this by calling their various friends. They called all of the Tennis Captains leaning especially heavily on the tennis players who have become known for their generosity. The Group insisted that the coats be given away, not sold.
This is a very unusual group by any definition. They don’t fit easily into the standard of many groups on Seabrook as theirs is a spiritual mission and they are all devoted to it. For more information contact Jody Garvey at garveyjody@gmail.com or Patti Tully at patetiitully@gmail.com.
They left me with this thought: “The Bible is God’s Love Story to us”. What a beautiful story they are creating.
Submitted by
Barbara Burgess, Tidelines Staff Writer