(Photo by Karen Brewer)

        Becky Kirby (center) with longtime friend Faye Nichols (left) and 
        sister-in-law Phyllis Jeffcoat.


        “Whether you’re ready or not, change is going to take place in your life. Some change is good, and some change is bad. Some change lasts only a little while, but some change lasts a lifetime. Change comes to everybody, and sometimes you don’t have control over it.”

        Becky Kirby's husband, the late Rick Kirby, who had served as Minister of Music at Liberty First Baptist Church, Reedy River Baptist Church, and Rock Springs Baptist Church before being called to Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Fountain Inn, died from injuries sustained in an automobile accident.
        “The Bible teaches that there are reasons why good people have bad things happen to them," she said. "Bad things -- storms -- happen to us for different reasons, but always when we go through a storm, a hard time, or a trial, one of the reasons is to make us a little more like Jesus. Another reason is to bring honor to the Lord Jesus Christ. Also, when you go through a storm and the Holy Spirit ministers to you and people minister to you, and you make it through, one day, the Lord is going to put somebody in your path who is going through the same thing you went through, and you’re going to be able to minister to them. Storms can be bad, but storms can be worth it.

        “I want to tell you about my storm, my change.”

        Kirby related how her husband, Rick, had suffered injuries in an automobile accident on June 14, 2002, and spent two weeks in the hospital’s trauma intensive care unit before passing away June 29. She and her daughters, Karla, then age 16, and Kelly, then age 12, were able to tell Rick goodbye. “He knew we were there,” she said. “It was such a blessing to know.

        “Sometimes, change comes, and you don’t have a choice. The Christian life is about reaction, when something happens to you, and you have a change in your life -- a storm. It’s about how you respond to the hard times. That’s the proof of what’s inside.”

        She then told how her husband had left her a notebook, in which he had written through the years, instructing her on what to do should something happen to him, details on funeral arrangements and insurance and other needed information. The first thing she found in the notebook was a letter, in which he told her how much he loved her and their girls.

        “I’m so thankful he left things in order,” she said. “He was prepared.

        “But he wasn’t only prepared that way. When he was nine years old, he accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour, and he never doubted his salvation. He was ready, as a husband and a father, to take care of us, but he was ready spiritually, and I’m so thankful.

        “His funeral was a celebration. There is no way to get through something like that without the Lord Jesus Christ.”

        She related how she had been a church member all of her life, first in the Methodist faith before joining Tabernacle Baptist Church in Union. “My family always loved the Lord, and we had family devotions,” she said. “I had been sprinkled as a baby and had been through confirmation when I was nine.” When she joined the Baptist church, she was baptized. “I did all of the things Christian girls are supposed to do,” she said. “I sang in the youth choir and the Agape Singers. I graduated from high school and went to Gardner Webb College, a Christian school. I was the best I could be. But I didn’t understand that your Christian life had anything to do with your personal life.

        “Rick was Minister of Music at Liberty First Baptist when we first got married,” she continued. “I taught Sunday School. I taught the children’s choir. I was so busy.” After she and her husband were led to Reedy River Baptist Church, and their first daughter was born, she quit teaching that year and went to a Bible study fellowship. “We had questions to answer every day,” she said. “If you didn’t have your questions answered, you could not talk in class. Well, I was going to talk in class, so I answered my questions. For the first time in my life, I got into the Word of God -- for the wrong reason, but on my own.” The in-depth Bible study led her to question her salvation, when she realized that she did not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. “I just never remembered making that settled,” she said. “So on March 6, 1986, at 3:00 in the morning, while I was feeding Karla, all by myself, I finally nailed down my salvation.

        “I have a burden for people who are in the church and have no clue about what a personal relationship is all about,” she said.

        “If March 6, 1986 had not happened in my life, then today I would have a different story, because I don’t think there is any way people can go through what people go through if they don’t know the Lord Jesus Christ.

        “When we’re in our storm, we can’t see Jesus sometimes,” she said. Relating the story from Scripture of how Jesus walked on water and calmed the storm the disciples were in, she said, “He was on the mountain, watching them, praying for them, taking care of them, protecting them, loving them. That’s what He does for us. He came to them just at the right time. He didn’t come too early. He didn’t come too late. He came just at the right time.

        “You may have just come through a storm. You may be getting ready to go into a storm. Or you might be right in the middle of a storm. But I know that our God is big enough to calm the storm, and calm your heart.”