Tookie’s smile tells a beautiful story. She grew up at Mission Arlington.

Tookie was a child in 1997 when her cousins invited her to church. She walked to her apartment clubhouse and remembers a tall, red-headed woman with a one-year-old on her hip taught her about Jesus.

That red-headed woman still teaches every Sunday, and now Tookie is, too.

Childhood led her in and out of different churches. She had her first child when she was still fairly young. But Tookie knows God never left her. A few years ago, her aunt asked her to substitute teach for her for one Sunday. Tookie says, “I never would have thought that I would be teaching…but I love seeing how everything falls into place. I love to see how God works.”

Every day of the week, Tookie is teaching in one of three community Bible Studies. In one neighborhood, a homeowner offered to let Mission Arlington® do Bible Study in her front yard while she was at work. Tookie lived nearby and offered to start teaching the Bible to her neighbors.

Once per week, that church meets in the front lawn. When it’s cold, they still meet. They just sit a little closer together. When it’s raining, they still meet. They just move to the porch. Nothing can stop the people from learning about God.

Tookie is eager to find ways to meet people’s spiritual needs. She teaches all ages, but really wants the preteen crowd to know God.

“Seeing how lost I was at that age I feel like preteens are the ones who really need to be reached.” She just began a new preteen Bible Study and eleven people have come, including two teens that she had never met before.

Is it beautiful to see lives being changed through this one life that God would not let go.