O’Shea Lowery’s life was forever changed on April 27, 1990.
“When the sun came up that morning, I never imagined the sorrow that would soon overcome the hearts of 24-year-old me and my children,” she recalled.
Today, Lowery is the mother of two and “Nana” to six grandchildren. She is a passionate speaker and writer, imparting God’s truth and the lessons He has entrusted to her to women’s groups, churches, classrooms and women’s Bible studies as well as composing original poems, podcasts and blogs.
She is a regular podcaster for LEAD, a Christian leadership magazine. The graduate of Baptist-affiliated Blue Mountain Christian University in Blue Mountain, Mississippi, also has a ministry called Entrusted Hope Ministries. She facilitates the work of the ministry as a part of First Church, Dallas.
“I was married, with two children,” Lowery said. “My husband was a safety man on his job site as a construction worker. He was electrocuted and killed instantly on the job.
“Back in those days we didn’t have cell phones. I had a real bad headache and drove to my sister’s house. My mother called her and told her to keep me there, that they’d come to pick me up and rush me to the hospital. Of course, at that time we didn’t know he was deceased,” she said.
“When I got to view his body and they told me what had happened, I turned and looked in the mirror and said, ‘God, what am I going to do?’” Lowery recounted. She was a stay-at-home mom living at the time in northwest Alabama with a high school education; she’d passed up a basketball scholarship because she just didn’t want to go to college at the time.
“Then this happened, and I never remarried. God allowed me to live out these many years as a single mom,” she said.
New path
Lowery felt called to go to seminary in her late 20s but her first stop was at Blue Mountain College in Blue Mountain, which is affiliated with the Mississippi Baptist Convention and now known as Blue Mountain Christian University.
“I was there in the 1990s,” Lowery said. “Blue Mountain College was very instrumental in my spiritual growth, and it didn’t stop when I left there. That’s what I like about Blue Mountain — the professors I had there are still in my life.
“I’m still close to those professors and their wives and people across the state. Three of my [ministry] board members are connected with Blue Mountain. You’re family from the time you step on that campus and after you leave. When I’m going through things today, I call on people from Blue Mountain. It is really a close-knit community.”
Lowery received her bachelor’s degree in Christian ministry from the university. She also holds a master’s degree in Biblical counseling and a doctorate in family ministries from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
Lowery began attending First Baptist Church Dallas, while studying at the seminary. “I fell in love with Texas and everything there,” she said. “I was getting ready to graduate in 2016 with my master’s degree, and the Lord just moved me to stay and complete my doctoral studies.
“The singles pastor at First Dallas asked me to teach a Sunday School class for single moms,” Lowery said. “He called a meeting to discuss the class because at First Dallas every class has a director.
“They chose a director of the class, and he picked April 27 as the day of the meeting — which was the date my husband was killed but he didn’t know that. I was fighting back tears, thinking, ‘What a faithful God you are.’
‘Strong and courageous’
“Immediately Joshua 1:9 came to mind. We named the class. ‘Strong and courageous,’” Lowery recalled.
“I was finishing up my doctoral work at the time and the Lord planted a seed — a thought to begin a ministry that other churches could bring in and help minister to their single moms,” she said. “Before that came, God called me to Entrusted Hope Ministries. He just burned that word, ‘entrusted,’ into my heart and spirit.
“I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life entrusting to others what God has entrusted to me. One of the outreaches of [my family] tragedy was Entrusted Hope Ministries. Instead of just sitting on it, mourning over it, and thinking about the loss, I tell women all the time whatever God has done to you, use it to help others,” she said.
First Church Dallas, gave her the opportunity to start her ministry. “It’s part of the outreach of First Dallas. What we do is train church leaders how to start a single mom’s ministry. [We] go into the church and show them what to do and provide curriculum.
“I’ve just written my first seven-week Bible study, ‘My Life as a Single Mom.’ We also offer an equipping series at First Dallas, teaching single moms how to manage money, how to prepare for the work force, time management and a self-defense class.
“The church has really rallied around this ministry. We really want to reach out to other churches,” she said.
For more information on Entrusted Hope Ministries and how to start a single moms ministry, go to https://entrustedhopeministries.org/.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Tony Martin and originally published by the Baptist Record.
