Texas Breeze

Our tummies were full and our minds were beginning to overflow from teaching and encouragement as we sat around finishing a lovely dinner at Semiahmoo on the first evening of the women’s retreat. Hundreds of women had been hearing from the excellent women’s teaching team all day and we were beginning to squirm in our seats. Despite the ample free time, the amount of information we were hearing was beginning fill our brains … And then came Amy!

Like a fresh breeze blowing through the room, Amy Knorr was the perfect after-dinner speaker for this year’s retreat. As she spoke on Ephesians 4, Amy focused on several great points including walking in Unity as believers and walking in Love. I was convicted and encouraged by Amy’s wisdom and entertained by her witty yet gentle spirit and humorous Texan accent. We laughed when she admonished us not to walk around with a “pucker on our faces” and cried with her as she described the painful experience of losing her stillborn son. Check out the insightful teaching here.

Intrigued by this new face to women’s events at Mars Hill, I emailed Amy and asked to spend an afternoon getting to know her more. I was truly refreshed to sit by Greenlake and talk with her about life in Seattle, the love and goodness of our Savior, and the all-consuming comfort of the Holy Spirit in times of pain and grief. I’m excited to tell you a little more about this dynamic woman who is now the face of “Women’s Thingys” at Mars Hill Wedgwood!

Amy lived in Houston, Texas before moving to Seattle last year with her husband. The Knorrs had already been faithful podcast listeners and were excited to visit Mars Hill while looking at graduate schools in the Northwest. When Amy’s husband chose to attend UW, they were thrilled to quickly become live attendees at the Ballard campus. Amy felt called to teaching and ministry at Wedgwood an enrolled in the Women Teaching Women class last Spring.

Amy’s passion for Jesus and the evidence of his grace in her life is abundant. She joyfully shared stories of being on the mission field in Russia and her call to return there someday. I loved hearing her heart for seeing growth among the women’s community at the Wedgwood campus through prayer and teaching events just for women. Her apparent knowledge of scripture and theology was refreshing as was her burden to help other women understand and apply Scripture in their lives.

I was also so encouraged to hear about her day-to-day life, her desire to live out her role as a wife in a way that worships Jesus and honor her husband, and the comfort she experienced through the pain of losing her first child. Amy tenderly shared the story of her stillborn son and the closeness she has felt with the Lord since then, feeling as though she understands on such a different level now the pain that God experienced sacrificing his Son for us. Her ability to see how God has used this tragedy in her life for her to share his comfort with others in similar situations really encouraged me to look at my own life and see where I can relay the comfort the Holy Spirit brings to others through prayer, listening, and understanding. The evidence of redemption in Amy’s life strongly moved me to want to understand God’s grace, plan, and call on my life in a deeper way.

If you are a woman who attends the Wedgwood campus, I strongly encourage you to step up and find out how you can be involved in the “Women’s Thingys” there and be an asset to the ministry that Amy is launching. You will be blessed to know this woman more intimately and to learn from her humble and humorous teaching! Look for upcoming women’s events in the Spring on the Wedgwood Blog.