Mary Beth Wenger
email Mary Beth
Littleton, Colorado

infoHello Everyone!

When Susan contacted me I was thrilled to learn how many of you were going to make it and disappointed that I will not be able to attend. May the reunion be a blessing to all of you...

A summary of the past 20 years for me:

I graduated from Columbia Bible College in 1986 and by divine intervention landed in Pasadena, California that summer. God gave me a ministry to an elderly couple who had been missionaries in India for over thirty years. They were in their late eighties, and I became a companion and assistant. Not exactly what I had envisioned in my college years. However, it was God's perfect plan for them and for me. During that time God did a lot inside of me. I needed to experience His unconditional love, mercy and grace.

In 1993 I became a registered nurse in response to God's leading even though I felt inadequate for the role. I thank Him on a frequent basis for taking me down this path. Over the years I have had the opportunity to work with the wealthy, well-traveled, highly educated, and powerful (even a few famous). At their bedsides I came to realize that all the power, fame, education and adventure in the world could not compare with an intimate relationship with Jesus.

In recent years I have been working with the downtrodden, the outcasts, those with no fame, education or fortune. And here again I've realized that Jesus makes all the difference. The worship song by G. Kendrick expresses it well:

Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You,
There is no greater thing.
You're my all. You're my rest.
You're my joy, my righteousness,
And I love You, Lord.

Now my heart's desire is to know You more,
To be found in You and known as Yours.
To possess by faith what I could not earn,
All surpassing gift of righteousness.

Oh, to know the power of Your risen life.
And to know You in Your sufferings.
To become like You in Your death, my Lord,
So with You to live and never die.

I am grateful for God's faithfulness in my life and for the nearness of His presence.

Presently I am working for the University of Colorado's National Center for Children, Families and Communities in a program called Nurse-Family Partnership. I am training nurses to work with high risk, first-time mothers from pregnancy until their child turns two. We have 129 sites with approximately 30 states involved. I was a nurse in this program in Long Beach, California and miss my clients who tended to be teenagers and undocumented with very complex needs. The nice part in my new position is that I travel once a month within the United States for training purposes. I'm enjoying the challenges in this new role.

For those who are curious, I am single and have never married. Also not what I would have expected back in those early years. But I know I am in God's perfect well and I am quite content. That too is a gift from Him. When I feel the need for children in my life, I borrow my friends'.:)

Have a great reunion. I hope to make it to the next one. (The photo is of me with a nurse friend from Thailand taken earlier this year.)

Mary Beth

Taken earlier this year: me with a nurse friend from Thailand