Cultivating her community

Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.
The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.
Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.
...
She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar.
She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.
She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.
She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.
She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.
She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.
...
Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.
Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.
Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.
— Proverbs 31

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Throughout her life, Becky expended energy in her various communities at rates that made many people tire just watching or trying to keep up. However she seldom tried to "go it alone" and always tried to find family or friends whom she would repeatedly invite [until they finally agreed] to join her in the work — and many did just that! Like well cultivated plants, her family and friendships grew profusely out of her diligent and tirelessly happy work — plowing, seeding, nurturing, watering, pruning and harvesting — alongside others. She never seemed to care who got the credit, as long as the work was done. As it is written:

One sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. — John 4

In addition to countrylife responsibilities, home-birthing, home-schooling and home-gardening for her family, she

• organized and operated Christian Worldview Library [located at the Love Box Employee Fitness Center] to house and share the collection of her family's [and other's] books on religion, economics and education,
  
  
• organized and participated in a wide range of local food related, CSA-oriented initiatives to teach people the moral significance and nutritional importance of the food they eat and to help them learn how to cooperate to grow it more easily themselves at home or in community gardens such as the Friends Garden,
  
  
• helped start [in 1993] then oversaw [until her illness in March 2025] Northfield School of the Liberal Arts which was early to recognize the pedagogical power of the Trivium and the curricular advantages of close personal relationships between willing students and teachers in smaller settings now being provided by a growing host of local classical microschools stretching worldwide,
  
  
• was there at the beginning of the Heartland Community and Jubilee Presbyterian churches joyfully accepting the invitation to share the yoke of her Savior and Lord Jesus and to work with, learn from and now rest in him — serving privately and publicly as a herald of his cross and a representative of his irresistible kingdom to which the world must be reconciled through the work of his Spirit in his earthly body which is the Church universal,
  
  
• as well as a wide range of public events spreading the word about the things which she fervently believed were not only sorely needed but thoroughly possible to improve the lives of all the families which surrounded her or which she encountered in her travels.
  

It is fitting that Becky fell suddenly ill and collapsed from complicated health problems less than an hour after vigorously standing and delivering her final speech to the Wichita Pachyderm Club entitled Libraries: Legacy of Liberty. She reminded her hearers about the increasing importance of READING REAL BOOKS in today's digitally dizzying world and of supporting local initiatives like her efforts in recent years to nourish Sunnydale Community Library on Hillside north of Kechi as a place where reading, studying and working together in school and agriculture could serve as transformational opportunities helping humans become who they really

ARE ...
Agri-culturalists, Readers & Educators ...
who Live, Learn & Teach.

One word that keeps recurring among those recollecting their experiences with Becky is IMPACT — a term from physics which means

• an event that changes the direction and/or velocity of a body that is at rest or in motion
  

... and that is what she was [is and always will be] for many of us ... over the last 73 very good years and into whatever lies ahead. NOW it's her turn to rest awhile ... and time for us to keep stepping up together ... to do the next right thing ... just as she would have encouraged and worked alongside us to do.

Thank you, Becky.