It occurs to me that I haven’t introduced the Sugar Group on this blog. In fact, I’m not really sure if the history of the Sugar Group has ever really been committed to paper. I am occasionally asked about it because of my email address and I usually give the short answer: “it’s a Bible study group.” That answer really doesn’t do it justice, though.
In 1982 (don’t ask how old I was then), a couple at our church approached my parents and asked them to start a Bible study group. At that time, there was no formal program in place for small groups at our church, though there were a few. The group has been together continuously since that time and has experienced a slow but constant evolution of participants which, today, leaves it with my parents as the sole original members, but still with some in the 20-year range and others as new as the last couple of years.
That kind of depth of friendship is not often found… anywhere. For me, one of the highlight of any trip home is getting in on a Sugar Group meeting. They meet every Wednesday night for dinner and Bible study and usually do lunch on Sundays after church. In the later 80’s we got into the habit of taking a trip together, started by co-founder Jan (who I think I’ve mentioned before) and myself with a backpacking trip. These days, it tends to be a bit less rustic (think condo on the coast).
The group has been through several of the very biggest events in the lives of its members. There have been weddings (at least a half dozen that I can think of), births, new houses, miraculous recoveries (from illness), graduations, new careers, and retirements. And there have been divorces, illness (including plenty of cancer), serious accidents, and death. The latter (death) has so far been confined to close family and/or friends of Sugar Cubes (as we sometimes call ourselves), but that appears likely to change soon given Jerry’s condition. The stories of all of those events would fill up a whole blog of its own (maybe someone should start one?).
While going through so much of life together might be a bit unusual, there are other things that make the Sugar Group different. Some of it is cute and fun, like the naming of the houses of each of the members. We’re the Starlight Observatory these days, but were previously the Houston Hangar, both named after the streets our houses are/were on. Another unusual facet of the group is the high percentage of people whose political philosophy is libertarian. In fact, Lance, who introduced my dad to Marshall Fritz in the early 80’s, still regularly participates in the Sugar Group. Yet another unusual characteristic is that there are now members who attend many different churches (that wasn’t the case in the beginning).
There is no One True Leader of the group. While my dad might be the closest thing to it, he doesn’t do the schedules anymore. Various people lead, and there are various topics. Pretty much anyone can claim a Wednesday night (or more) with a topic and/or a series. There are commonly some uncountable number of threads going on at the same time, some of which never seem to get finished, and some of which have gone on for years and keep on going. And that’s okay.
All that introduction leads to Wednesday night and my ‘guest’ appearance at the meeting. A few of the people there didn’t know I was going to be there, so that was a fun surprise for them. There were over a dozen people there. The topic was the continuation of a tour through the book of Matthew using a video series that is the text of the book put to video. Edi ran across it years ago and loved it. Now they’re going through it bit by bit. I think we got through a whopping 1/4 of a chapter or something like that, but it was good.
One of the greatest things about the Sugar Group is the prayer habits. We end every meeting with prayer. And it’s not just that we pray, but that, collectively, most everything that comes to the group, from the best of best, to the worst of worst, has been experienced somehow by people in the group. Their prayers for people who need prayer are wonderful to hear.
So now, if I mention someone from the Sugar Group (or just ‘our Bible study group’), you’ll know what I’m talking about. 🙂
V-