For young moms, setting aside time and focus to dig into the Bible can be a huge challenge. And there’s a special group of servants at Faith who show up regularly to help such moms be able to feed on God’s Word, which is “your very life” (Deuteronomy 32:47).
Morning Bible studies have long been part of Women’s Ministry at Faith. Every Wednesday for two hours, childcare volunteers give the young moms who attend a valuable gift: time to focus on God’s Word and learn from other women, knowing their kids are in good hands.
Hillary Floch, whose children are 4 and 1, has attended four different Wednesday morning Bible studies since her oldest was a baby. She says the studies give her opportunity and motivation to be in God’s Word diligently. “It has been such a blessing to me, especially in this season of life with littles—feeling like they take up most all of my time, these studies give me an opportunity to strive to stay connected to the church and to the Lord by getting into the Word when I may feel too tired or too busy.”
Women’s Bible studies usually begin in the fall and go through a book or two of the Bible, lasting either a semester or a full school year, with a break in the summer. Hillary says she wouldn’t be able to come at all if child care were not offered. She and her mother-in-law have even been able to attend the same study together since she didn’t need to ask Grandma to watch the kids.
That’s because Chris Kopp and her terrific team take care of everything. Chris coordinates the Wednesday morning child care team based on the numbers and ages of the kids whose moms sign up. While the numbers of kids vary widely, those who serve are faithful to show up week in and week out.
The greatest number of kids they’ve served at one time recently is 36, Chris says. On the busiest days, they open an infant room and a toddler room in the Children’s Wing, in addition to a “home-school room” for school-age kids.
“It has been such a blessing to me, especially in this season of life with littles.”
In the toddler and infant rooms, you’ll find a few of the longest-serving people at Faith. Like Chris, Sally Schwartz has been volunteering in weekday childcare many years, since MomLife (formerly known as MOPS) met at the church and even before that. Gwenda Raska has been serving for the best part of two decades as well, enjoying the little ones particularly because she misses her grandchildren and great grandchildren who live in Canada.
Chris remembers Sally and Gwenda asking her over and over again during the Covid shutdown, “When do the children come back?” They deeply enjoy serving as a team to minister to young families. “I love little kids, and I feel like I’m helping the mothers,” Sally says.
Seeing the children week after week gives the volunteers a chance to get to know both them and the moms, and especially how to serve them well. They collaborate with moms to help their kids get comfortable. Since each child is different, they try to honor each child’s needs and mom’s desires. Sometimes that means texting the moms to come back, or just holding and comforting a crying baby until he settles down.
Hillary says their confident and cheerful care gives her peace of mind about her kids, knowing they’ll call her if necessary. She admires Chris in particular for remembering everything about her kids, offering helpful tips, and being able to tell if they are a little “off” from how they normally are.
Caring for the kids also includes moments for teaching and discipling, which is also an important piece to Hillary: “Being a stay-at-home mom with littles who are not in school/activities yet, this has been a huge blessing to them, giving them opportunities to play and learn alongside other kids and receive correction and insight from authorities other than my husband and myself that we can trust to lead them well.”
Chris says they often find themselves mediating between two kids, perhaps over a toy, and “teaching kids how to share and how to apologize.” A recent donation of toy cars was very helpful to provide a few more options for the boys, she says.
Sometimes one of the ladies’ home-schooled teenagers will also help with the younger children. One year, middle-schooler Anneyce Peabody would come play with the toddlers in more physically challenging games that the older ladies can’t do. The kids love that, Chris says.
It’s also been nice to have a few men serving on the Wednesday team over the last year. Danny Anderson retired a few years ago and enjoys using his free time for lots of different volunteer work, including in the “home-school room” on Wednesday mornings.
Dan Hilliard also recently took advantage of being retired and available to serve during the day; he serves in kindergarten on Sundays and his grandkids are a bit older, so he enjoys time with the toddlers on Wednesdays. His wife attends the Bible study while he serves.
“I admire the moms making the effort to spend time learning God’s Word in the middle of their busy lives,” he says.
It makes a difference to have men serving, Chris says. Their presence helps bring a calmer atmosphere with rambunctious boys, and some kids prefer men for various reasons. One little girl just could not be comforted by any of the ladies, but she would gravitate toward Dan. One day when Dan wasn’t there, she wouldn’t stop crying until Chris went and “borrowed” Danny from the other room – and the girl took to him right away.
Speaking of the other room, that’s where Andi Widman plans the schedule and activities for the school-age kids. In addition to Danny, her team includes Diana Ford, Willena Dannen, and Nancy Dannen.
Chris, who is more in her element with the babies and toddlers, is especially thankful for Andi’s leadership and creativity working with the older kids. “I start the year by contacting people and saying, ‘Do you want to help?’ and then Andi takes it from there.”
The “home-school room” includes a broad range of ages and can be quite a busy group, with 10 or more kids in the room. They begin with 45 minutes for quiet individual work; the kids bring some of their schoolwork to do, and the adults help them if needed.
Then they have a half-hour of free time, playing with the toys in the room or doing a craft if they like. Diana is the one who usually raids her craft room or goes to the dollar store to bring something fun to color, paint, fold, or glue.
Then the kids sit down for story time with Nancy, a retired elementary school teacher. During my visit in the spring, she read a James Herriot story, Moses the Kitten. Herriot uses a wide vocabulary, so Nancy had looked up a few of the words to explain them to the kids—and to understand them herself!
After the story and a prayer, they finish up with a snack and game time. Andi brings a different game every week to play until the moms return for pickup. The other volunteers said they’re amazed at the variety of fun activities Andi brings out for the kids. If it’s nice weather, the game might be outside. But when I visited, we sat in a circle inside, and Andi pulled out a bag full of plushie tomatoes to throw in a game that left us all in tears of laughter.
“They love doing this,” said Serena Stover as she picked her kids up after their next-to-last Bible study meeting last spring. “They’re sad that it’s over next week.”
Most importantly, the moms have been spending that time hearing and applying Scripture, praying for one another as they seek to walk in obedience to God.
Hillary is grateful for the uninterrupted time with older, mature women of God. “I’ve gained so much encouragement from the women at my tables who have been moms for many more years …. It is a blessing to me to see how God has used their stories to shape them into the women they are today—faithful followers of Christ.”
Dan looks forward to another year with the toddlers: “It will be fun to see how the kids have grown since spring, physically and socially.”
Their crew loves what they do, and they’d also love to have more workers! If you’re available to serve on Wednesday mornings, you can help just by signing up to be a substitute or on-call helper. Contact the church office or talk to Chris for more information.
Lynn and her husband, Doug, lead a Growth Group. Lynn serves as a writer and editor for Living Faith magazine and other church communications.
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