by Bob & Kathy Eckman
Berean Bible Fellowship
Atascadero, CA
 Bob and Kathy both attended
Baptist Bible College in Pennsylvania, and now live in
Templeton, CA. They have four children. Currently, they
are members of the Berean Bible Fellowship church in
Atascadero, CA. Bob is an Elder and a teacher for adults and
children, and Kathy is the Children’s Ministry Director. Both
Bob and Kathy are leading small groups using the
Becoming What God Intended
materials, including the workbook, the facilitator’s guide, and
audiotape series.
Bob is leading a group of 5 men, who are struggling with
difficulties and stress in marriage. Kathy is leading a group
of 11 women. Both groups are about halfway through the
materials.
Kathy: “Our experience with these materials is really great,
and our groups really enjoy working with them. One of the
reasons why people enjoy this material so much is that David
[Eckman] explains things in a fresh, different way that really
gets into your heart. He is saying things that really
touch our souls.”
Bob: “Being frank, as David's brother, I was a little slow to
show real interest in these materials. I had a certain level
of skepticism. Finally, I put it to the test personally, and
found the materials quite helpful. However, I wanted to test
the materials on other people before I really gave my full blessing.
Not only did others find the materials helpful, they were extremely
enthusiastic about the materials. From experience, I am now
very sold on their effectiveness in people’s lives. Something
that always nagged me - even from college days - is my worth, and
dealing with the issue of worth. I was not feeling especially
worthwhile. My readings from Francis Schaeffer were the first
to address worth for me. When David coined the phrase "you are
worth a Son to God," it really struck me, and I grabbed onto it the
first time I heard it. It makes perfect sense to me."
Kathy: “I did not feel worth anything from my family system.
It's been a slow process overcoming that background. I have
known David for 25 years. He has talked about this material
with us on occasion during those years. It's not just reading
the book once. I have read the material over five times, each
time gaining a better understanding of my relationship with Christ.
It has taken so many times for it to really sink in. It is
a wonderful experience to finally find my true worth in Christ and
have it really touch my life at the deepest level, where it really
has changed how I think! We want to use this material to
help others achieve this same understanding.”
Bob: “It has been fascinating watching the impact of this
material on my group. The first change I noticed was with the
acceptance level of the material. Initially, people look at it
and say ‘Is this going to be yet another study? I have taken
so many of these types of studies, and they really have not had much
effect on me.’ By the second or third lesson, they are saying
‘This is really good material!’ I tell them to just wait – it
will get better. They find that hard to believe. Later,
they tell me ‘Wow! It really DID get better!’ Because of
the deep emotional impact, they put this material in a different
category than what they are normally used to. I hear
comments from others through the back door like ‘this has really
helped so and so…’ or ‘we see the changes in so and so…’ The
men are focused on trusting God, finding their worth in Him, and
patiently living out their lives amid struggles and stresses,
letting God the Father work through the Holy Spirit and change them.
It is clear that this material is really touching their lives!”
Kathy: “At the end of each lesson, the workbook presents a
mental image to help you emotionally grasp the teaching.
The images that David uses really touch people. The women can
hardly wait until we get to the end of the lesson to do the image.
They leave the meeting with a strong desire to think about the image
all week. It's subtle, but little by little, you see changes.
People begin to get hope again. ‘I actually could have a joyful
relationship with Christ,’ or ‘maybe I really could feel that I am
worth something.’ The power of images is incredible to help
facilitate understanding God's wonderful truth.”
Bob: “One of the meaningful exercises in the workbook is
where you create a photo album of what God the Father has done in
your life - just like you would put photos in your family album.
This photo album acts as reminders to what God the Father has done
in your life. In our group, we often talk about what images we
have of God the Father. The result of this exercise is a set
of emotionally rich and powerful reminders of God’s wonderful work.
The workbook uses a lot of images that the guys find very helpful in
understanding God's truth, and in helping them with creating their
own images.”
Bob & Kathy Eckman
Berean Bible Fellowship
Atascadero, CA
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