Conversations with Associates

Touched with sense God would lead, Spokane woman receives inspiration from unlikely places

While discussing Mother Gamelin in a Providence Associates orientation in Spokane, Becky Ward was "touched with a sense that God had called me to become more sensitive to what He was doing to lead and guide me.

?I realized that this was not just another group or association to belong to.?

"It was a lifetime commitment," she says, and one that has come to involve her husband Mike, who has since retired from his job as a vice president at Sacred Heart Medical Center.

International meet?exposes the common thread

At an international gathering of Providence Associates in Montreal, Becky says, "I could see a common thread through all of us ? from Chile, eastern Canada, Cameroon and the United States ? that was fascinating."

Though they spoke three different languages and had widely divergent backgrounds and experiences, members of the group were able to develop five core values and five directions in a session that lasted just a day-and-a-half.

Helping the poor guides the activities of the Spokane associates, who prepare, serve and clean up after a Sunday noon meal for the homeless and the disadvantaged at St. Ann?s parish, in the East Central neighborhood.

They also have developed a ministry with the Women's Hearth, providing needed items for the women who shower, lounge and develop social connections there. They prepare monthly birthday celebrations and lunches with guest speakers.

Listens when inspiration arrives

Inspiration for the good works comes from strange places, Becky explains. "I heard a little voice in my head that said, ?Why not teach quilting at Miryam?s House,? " she explains.

"I didn?t think it was feasible, but I called there anyway, and they said the women would love it."

Becky thought it would be a short-term, personal ministry, "but I fell in love with these women. They have come through so much pain and they have such beauty, but they don?t recognize their own worth."

Her work has evolved into a two-hour weekly quilting session. Participants fashion quilts that are raffled to raise money for Miryam?s House and alumni of Myriam?s House often continue to participate in the quilting sessions.

Work touches women's lives, lends confidence

"It?s more than the money," Becky says. "They are coming together and making something beautiful. It gives them confidence to use the sewing machine, to cut, be precise and finish something."

Becky, who was raised a Protestant, married a Catholic and converted seven or eight years later. While the Providence Associates are predominately Catholic, she says, those who are not are as active in the group as those who are.

Her own involvement, she adds, changed her life.

"I was an individual doing things, and that was okay, but now I am an individual out there as part of a larger group. I bring all the associates and the Sisters of Providence with me when I go.?