A few days before our Fresh Grounded Faith Somerset conference began, the family of God experienced an unspeakable loss in this community. Three family members from Oak Hill Baptist Church were lost in a tragic house fire.

One of those who passed away was BriLee Kay, a vibrant 17-year-old born on December 15, 2007, who attended Oak Hill Baptist Church.

Sherry Loveless, a member of Oak Hill, came early to the conference on Friday in hopes of donating her tickets because she and others from their church family were attending to this great loss and could no longer come.

While Sherry waited in the lobby, she passed by the Compassion International table and thought she would see if there were any children with the same birthday as BriLee Kay. She fingered through all the packets displayed on the table, but there were none with a child whose birthday was December 15.

Sherry decided to attend the conference after all.

At the close of Friday evening, Shaun Groves shared his Compassion story and asked everyone to pray for the one child on the sponsorship packet found in their conference bag, reminding everyone there were no duplicate packets anywhere else in the world like the one they held in their hands.

“The child packet you are holding in your hand is the only one that exists for this child,” he said.

When Sherry pulled her child sponsorship packet out of her bag, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. In her hands, she held the packet of Peninah, an 8-year-old girl from Kenya whose birthday is December 15.

Of course, Sherry was overwhelmed and sponsored Peninah in memory of beloved BriLee Kay.

God is in the details. He cares about those in Heaven, He cares about those in need a world away, and He cares about those in our communities who are grieving and hurting. He loves you, and He wants to remind you He is at work and cares about the details.

My sister, that was just one amazing story from Fresh Grounded Faith Somerset.

God also moved through Angela Thomas Pharr as she taught Scripture and made us laugh, think, and feel so loved. And listening to Shaun lead worship and share his incredible storytelling ability with the group had me thanking God for His gifting in Shaun.

I got to teach about “living LIGHT,” and once again, I learned even more from the Word as I shared it. It’s just another reminder that God’s Word is living and active (Hebrews 4:12) and that His Spirit is always working through His people.

And speaking of His people … BIG shout out to our host church, First Baptist Church Somerset, as well as to our two Local Conference Coordinators, Rachael Adams and Christi Henderson, who did a wonderful job managing all the moving parts to make everything flow so smoothly. Because of them, our 11 co-host churches from around the area, and a wonderful group of volunteers, the women of this community spent the weekend immersed in truth and grace.

And girl, we got to see God do wonderful things…

We celebrated 3 new sisters in Christ, 40 women who chose to renew their commitment to the Lord, and 25 children sponsored through Compassion International, including our sweet Peninah.

Isn’t God good? Oh, my friend, He is! He certainly is!

We were honored to be part of this beautiful community of faith in Kentucky, and we are praying for our Oak Hills church family as they navigate this loss.

Grace and peace to you!

Love,

Jennifer and the FGF Team!

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