SWWOMEN’s Retreat Speaker, Georgene Rice
Our speaker for the 2022, SWBIBLE Church Women’s Retreat is Georgene Rice. To many, she is a radio talk show host, speaker, singer, and musician. But to me, she is still my silly sister.
Growing up, she and I enjoyed a lifelong partnership, allies in everything. Wherever one was, the other was never far away, always together, even in the physical absence of one another. Two little skinny black girls with 3 neatly braided pigtails each, always laughing and always, always singing! If there was no song to fit the moment, we simply made one up! And though we were a year and six days apart, it seemed to us that one had never existed without the other.
We both accepted Christ on the same sweltering summer afternoon at Vacation Bible School in Happy Valley. From that day on, as we sang together as the “Rose Sisters” and grew in our childlike faith, we learned of the privilege it was to sing about God’s love and faithfulness and the importance of seeking to honor His name in whatever path He would lead us.
And although we grew up in the same house, were disciplined by the same parents, and had very similar life experiences, in some ways we are quite different!
In college (we were roommates), her textbooks were always neatly stacked on a desk or standing, side by side, on a shelf, organized by subject. Mine were somewhere, probably under a pile of clothes or stacks of papers, but they were there! Even today, my favorite cookbooks are dog-eared, the outer edges of most pages worn with years. The recipes that were my family’s favorites, have stickers marking them as such, some with handwritten notes about how much they enjoyed it or what to add more of or what to never do again! Mind you, these hand “scratchings” were never done after the fact with clean hands and clear thought, but rather, in the middle of the project with marinade or sauce stains left as a happy reminder of yet another tasty meal. This is the way I love them! Cookbooks with faded covers and floured pages that just say, “I have fed the ones I love!”
Georgene has fed those that she loves too! But, her cookbooks…….ah, you guessed it… they are neatly arranged like soldiers at attention on a lovely bookshelf at the entrance to her kitchen. There are books of every culinary persuasion and she uses them all. When she prepares a meal, the specified cookbook is opened, but nowhere near the melee of sauces, juices, or sticky peelings! It is safely resting on a bookstand, well out of harm’s way. That is because she has already copied the recipe and printed it on a “working sheet” of paper that allows her to have the text close by for reference. Crown roast, prime rib, or red velvet cakes are common. At the end of her cooking adventure those sheets of paper, splattered with sauces and speckled with herbs, look exactly like my beloved cookbooks. However, the papers find their way to the recycle bin, and her well used, and yet pristine cookbooks are returned to their places on that shelf….spotless!!
In grade school, Georgene learned to play the flute and was quite good at it, but it was the violin that caught my fancy. It was made of a beautiful natural wood and varnished to perfection and I was drawn to it. Unfortunately, the “loveliness” of the instrument ended there. A good violinist can make the instrument absolutely “speak” with authority or “sing” with emotion, just by their sheer mastery of it! At best, my violin could turn even a happy song into a whine that said, “Please, put me down!”
Thankfully, my sophomore year in high school, the band director extended an invitation to anyone who would volunteer to learn to play the tubas to provide a much needed “base section” for the Franklin High School marching band. Georgene and I decided that we would take on that challenge together and reported to the music room every day over lunch for months, while he taught us to play those tubas. We marched in every Rose Festival Parade we could after that. Those sousaphones wrapped around us like brass mollusk shells, heavy as lead, but we loved every minute of it!
Georgene continues to play her flute, on occasion. My violin, thankfully, hangs on a wall in my house, beautiful natural wood, varnished to perfection, and mercifully silent!
We are no longer those two little skinny black girls with 3 pigtails each. But we are still always laughing, because of the joy of the Lord; always singing of His love and faithfulness whenever the opportunity affords, and still, even today, when we’re together, if there is no song fitting for the moment, we simply make one up!
The lasting joy that we have ultimately comes from knowing Christ and His love and faithfulness to every believer, regardless of our circumstances. This is the message of hope and encouragement that Georgene Rice will bring: not of who she is or what she has done, but rather, of who He is and the mighty things He has done! She will bring this message, not just to me, her silly sister, but to all of you as well. Because we gather, not merely as women, but dear SISTERS…FAMILY, bound together by the precious, priceless blood of Christ!
See you this weekend, sisters.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11
