.png)
CHRISTIAN LIVING TODAY
I am Anita Onarecker, a new Elgin resident, and I’m so happy for an opportunity to greet you weekly through the Elgin Courier.
I previously lived in Spring, Texas, since early 1988. My husband, Dick Onarecker, and I planted a church there and served until October 1996, when he suddenly died one Tuesday. That was a great personal loss, of course, and a big change in my life.
Dick and I married very young and had both of our children by age 20. I did not marry a preacher, either — a few years after our union, God called him to ministry, and we moved our family of four to begin his education. Our children were in first and third grades at the time, and Dick finally finished his master’s degree the year our daughter graduated from high school.
He and I ser ved churches in rural communities, small towns and big cities. We began churches from nothing, and saw God bless and grow these congregations.
After Dick died, I barely recognized my life. I remarried a wonderful Air Force veteran and cared for him many years.
In 2000, I began longing for ministry involvement and sought to discern if God was calling me to ministry, or if I was just missing my life. With much prayer and counsel, I identified my call to ministry — which meant completing my education, an undergraduate and master’s degrees with five grandchildren cheering me on.
I served as a corporate chaplain in the Houston area, where I visited 18 companies on biweekly rotations. It was so interesting to meet everyone from CEOs to maintenance workers.
For 18 years, I belonged to a statewide women ministry leadership team, overlapping with my staff position of 13 years at a church in Spring.
The leadership team planned and presented seminars, conferences and made us available to local churches. This included training and encouragement for area leaders.
In October 2024, I resigned from a staff position where I’d led for 13 years in educational ministry for adults, outreach and other miscellaneous things.
Now, I live among you and want to be your encourager, share gleanings from the Bible, as well as things I learn that support me. As I write, I pray you will be blessed in the coming weeks as we begin this journey together.
Until next week… Anita
Onarecker, a writer, author and mini ster to women and adults, earned a Master of Chr i st ian Educat ion from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2007.
