Our story
How this table began
I'm a homeschool mom who loves good books and a full table.
From Colorado to Oklahoma
Colorado
Where I began
I was born in Colorado, and I wasn't raised in church.
Washington2015
Where I found God
Not long after I met Brad, I moved to Washington. There Kindra Andersen, whose husband, Braden, is the lead evangelist of The Jesus Tent Revival, began teaching me a Bible study. I was slow to come along, and honestly resistant at first, but God was patient with me.
In time I decided to be baptized in Jesus' name, in a pool, with only Kindra and Braden beside me. God also filled me with the Holy Ghost.
Washington
Where we began homeschooling
Our oldest went to kindergarten there. Through a series of God-moments, and friends, neighbors, and mentors who encouraged me, I decided to take the leap and homeschool from first grade, and I have taught our children at home ever since.
OklahomaSince March 2021
Where we are now
Today my husband, Brad, and I make our home here with our two teens and a ten-year-old. We worship at Broken Arrow UPC, where Aaron Dunn is our pastor.
Why I gather women
Those years at home were full: little ones underfoot, and plenty of friendly faces at church. But I learned that you can be surrounded by people and still not be known. I had acquaintances. What I longed for were a few women who knew me, prayed for me, and would tell me the truth.
I've always been a reader, and I've always bought books for friends. More than once I've handed out copies and opened my home so we could talk them over. A good book gives women something real to talk about. It points the conversation somewhere worth going, and it keeps us from drifting into gossip.
Gathering women is simply how God made me. I open my home, I show up for our homeschool community, and I'm the friend who checks in. Gathered in Bloom is that same table, made ready so women everywhere can set it in their own towns.
It was never really about the books. The fellowship is the point.
What I hope you find
- A few friends who really know you.
- Growth at home, in the way you love, teach, and care for the people God has given you.
- A rhythm of good books, with no guilt for the ones you don't finish.
- One day, the courage to open your own home and gather a few women of your own.
The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.
Titus 2:3–5