Stephanie's Story

Stephanie has been described as "passionate." Her Southern hospitality and often animated personality make you feel instantly at home, but her insatiable hunger for God's Word and her gift of practically applying Scripture to even the mundane things in life leave you transformed. Stephanie gave her life to the Lord Jesus when she was sixteen years old, washed by the blood of Christ and made white as snow. Although Stephanie was saved during her teenage years, it was a long time until she was surrendered.

Stephanie attributes the year she began to faithfully study the Bible as her turning point in her walk with the Lord. Stephanie no longer shriveled and fell down as the storms of life whirled around her; rather, she became rooted in the Word and began to know and understand her Savior in a way she had never before experienced. Up until that point, Stephanie had participated in many bible studies, but for the first time she began to study the Bible on her own with the help of a simple commentary. She soon realized that God did not just have a word for Bible teachers; He had a word for her as well. Her heart’s cry became, "Lord change me, Lord break me, Lord make me look just like you!"

Little did Stephanie know God was equipping her by His Word to undergo many trials, and she experienced firsthand that God’s Word is living and active as the Scriptures she previously studied flowed freely from her heart at the exact moments she needed them to sustain her. As Stephanie continues to study and apply the Word, the Lord continues by the power of his Holy Spirit to make her look more and more like Jesus and less and less like herself. He breathes new life into her soul every time she is faithful enough to open His Word with a teachable heart and has given her a hunger for righteousness and a thirst for holiness she never really had before beginning to study the Bible on her own. God’s Word has not only filled Stephanie up, it is now overflowing into the lives of the precious GEMS she is privileged to serve each month, and she has witnessed the Word’s transforming power in their lives as well as they seek to do what it says.

Stephanie is married to a wonderful man named Mark who has taught her much about perseverance, resolve, and utter dependence on God through his battle with three chronic illnesses. She strives to be a Godly wife who loves him, serves him, submits to him, and respects him regardless of how she feels at any given moment. Stephanie has three arrows in her quiver, and she delights in and is privileged to stay home and raise her precious gifts. Her ultimate hope is that her family would collectively point a dying world to Jesus.