Week 2 ~ And that's all I know about that . . . .

I would like to take a moment and introduce you to my best friend.  We  have known each other for 36 years.  For about 15 years I was convinced she would never be my friend.  We love each other unconditionally and know many secrets about each other.  For instance - she can pinch you hard enough to bruise you with her toes!  She does not ever want her feet touched - EVER.  If you do, there is a good chance she will kick you.  She hates mice.  She loves to have fun.  She knows how to fry just about anything.  Her favorite desert is Lemon Ice Box pie and she eats it straight from the pie pan.  She talks with her hands.  She loves jewelry, purses and shoes.  She is a little OCD because she will point out when someones shoes and purse don't match!  She loves a good bargain and will buy two or three of something if you tell her it's on sale!  My children think she is awesome.  She tells them they are precious and she lets them eat desert first.

I would like for you to meet my mother

Sheila Scott

This week she will be telling us about being a Pastors Wife.

Pastors Wife

Our life in the ministry:

July 1977  Bill surrender to preach

January 1979 move to Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College

July 1981 moved to Lubbock, TX

February 1982 moved to Dumas, TX

November 1983 moved to Early, TX

June 1984 to 1985 Rest

June 1985 moved to Snyder, TX

August 1987 moved to Clyde, TX

February 1994 moved to Merkel, TX

May 2011 retired

June 2012 Grape Creek, TX

We started out on this journey with the Lord as two twenty-somethings with 2 young girls and now we are a little older and a lot wiser.  We have 3 children in full time service and 8 Grandchildren.  God is so good.

Bill and Sheila Scott

We mostly pastored small churches.  Small country churches.  We didn't always have a full staff.  And by staff I mean unpaid, volunteers to teach Sunday School, to clean the church, to work on the church bus or even to lead the music.  Sometimes we even didn't have a piano player.  Its fun to try and sing without a piano player.  God is so good.

Some things I learned along the way -

1.  Every church has “Busy Bee”. 

She will tell you more than you ever wanted to know.  She is the one who always has the best "prayer request."  She knows every detail about everything and everyone in town. And she loves to give the gossip details, just ask her.

2.  Every church has a “Granny”.  

Her kids and grand kids will say, after you tell them they can’t do something, “But my Granny said I could!"  She is the one who has been a member the longest.  She was there when they first hung the picture of Jesus and the children in the church nursery, so don't you move it, because Granny said it could stay forever!!

3.   And every church has a “Shirley”.

Every pastor’s wife needs a Shirley.   She is always there for you. She never complains.  She just wants to serve the Lord.  She wants to help the pastor’s wife. She is your biggest cheerleader, yet she wants no recognition. 

And of course there will always be someone who says,

“We’ve never done it that way, we always did it this way”

Or they’ll say

“You can’t take that down, Granny made that and put it up in 1950.”

You have to learn to have thick skin. You have to learn to smile and say,

"Is that so?"

Meagan, Sheralyn, Rachal, Noah, Jonah, Maylee, Nate and Eli

During the early years of ministry we moved every 1-2 yrs. This was very hard on the kids.  It was hard to end friendships and build new ones.   When we told the kids we were moving from Snyder, TX to Clyde, TX Cristy sat in the living room floor and said “I’m not moving!!” but of course she moved with us and after the first day of school she came home and said “I just love it here”.

My biggest pet peeve was when people placed restrictions on my kids because of the position my husband held.

“Since your kids are preacher’s kids do you really think they should do that?”

We always taught our kids that

you do it because it’s right and you don’t do it because it’s wrong

it has nothing to do with being a preachers kid. 

This helped them to not feel labeled.  They are each different people with different interest and personalities.  Why should they be held back at something because their father is a preacher.  Holly was a cheerleader in high school.  Cristy played softball.  Phillip played football.  They each had friends in and out of church.  They each had the chance to see life and work though some tough things while still under our roof and our guidance.  They each had a chance to be a kid, make mistakes and watch us show them grace and love just like our Father shows us.

Cristy, Mike

Rachal, Eli, Jonah, Noah

We have always had to live by Faith.
Very early on in ministry I claimed Psalms 46:10 as my life verse.

Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

Sometimes it is very hard to be still.  Sometimes I just want to take the reigns away from God and drive this wagon in the direction I think is best.  But God has had to whisper in my heart many times - Be still and know that I am God.

When God called us to Bible College, Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College in San Dimas, CA,  we stepped out on true Faith. Bill and I went to California to look at the college.  The Lord found us a place to live that was less than a mile from the college. We came home and started packing our stuff to move. We did not have the money for a moving van but we knew God would provide. One morning a U-Haul pulled up in front of our home in Sonora, Texas, all gassed up and paid for a trip to San Dimas, CA.

We were your usual Bible College students, we were broke and had to learn how to fully rely on God. The first Christmas in college we went to Sears and bought a $2 Christmas tree, it only had 2 limbs. The girls made homemade ornaments.  It really was a sad looking tree. It made Charlie Brown's tree look good!   If you were to ask our daughters now of their favorite Christmas memory it would be that year. They don’t remember us being broke they remember making the ornaments and making memories. God is so good.

We had also been told that everyone in Bible College has a baby. Well, we knew that wasn’t going to happen to us. And we almost made it. Our son, Philip was born March 1981 and Bill graduated May 1981.

Philip, Michelle and Maylee

We didn’t make much money especially in the small churches. We are not in the ministry for money.  The first church that Bill pastored only paid us $100 a week, but we knew on the first of the month we couldn’t get the kids in the car because our back seat was full of food.

  I remember one time complaining to my Mother that I was so tired of eating Sirloin Steak. She said “Do you hear what you just said?  It sounds like they love you if you are having to eat sirloin every day." The Lord has always blessed us. We never went without food.  We never went without shelter.  We never went without clothes. He gave us everything we needed, in His time and just what we needed.  God is so good.

Phill, Holly, Sheralyn, Meagan, Nate

My favorite thing about ministry has been the Ladies Ministry.  I always want to set an example for them as well as be a spiritual guide.  Ladies Retreats were always a fun time. We would have a Bible Study time and a time to share our burdens and our blessings. This was always kept in confidence and I have never had a problem with burdens being repeated outside of the retreat.  We always find time for some shopping and of course time to let loose and be silly.  One year we slid down the stair case in sleeping bags.  The ladies ministry has been a huge blessing for me.  A chance to really get to know the ladies of the church.  God is so Good.

Bill and I have had the chance to build some amazing friendships over all these years.  We have always been blessed with a family that was just the encouragement we needed.  Children the same ages, going through the same growing pains of life together and growing in our walk with the Lord.  As I look back at all the places that God has taken our family, I look back and think of all the friends we have made.  Friends that have driven miles to attend the weddings of our children, friends that have shown up on our front porch to take us to lunch, friends that have called just to say, "I was thinking about you today."  God is so good.

My husband has always said the best part of our ministry has been our children.

Our oldest daughter (Holly) is married to a wonderful Christian man; she helps him in his prison ministry in Springfield, MO.

Our next daughter (Cristy) is also married to a wonderful Christian man and they are missionaries to Japan.

Our son (Philip) is married to a wonderful Christian lady and they are on staff at Calvary Baptist Church, Odessa, TX

With the three kids we have we also have 8 wonderful Grandchildren that are all active in their parent’s ministries.

God is so good!

And that's all I know about that . . .