Meet Kitty

Six-year-old Kitty Upton loved the Bible. It showed in the way she delighted in her daily review of the Sunday school book and the memorizing of the week’s verses. And it was nurtured by her godly parents. Even though she had not yet accepted Jesus into her heart—which happened when she was 11–Kitty loved God’s Word.

She continued her personal daily Bible reading after receiving Jesus as her Savior, but she longed to study the Bible with others. In response to her prayers, the Lord provided a neighborhood Bible study for her during junior high and an elective Bible study class during two years of high school. These studies kept her steady through her teenage years.

After graduation from high school Kitty went on to Bible school, but even then she had a nagging sense that there was something more. She just didn’t know what it was.

Meet Bob

Bob Magee entered her life during freshman orientation at Seattle Pacific College, in the Fall of 1951. His integrity and total commitment to the Lord caught her attention. They were engaged in the Spring of 1952.

Their first years of marriage included Bob’s tour of duty in Korea and his completion of college. With two young children, ages 2 and 5, Bob and Kitty moved to California for a year of grad school for Bob. Kitty was invited to a Bible study.

It was here that she was introduced to the fullness of the Holy Spirit in the life of a follower of Christ. She came to understand such truths from Scripture as Jesus’ words that while he was alive the Holy Spirit was with the disciples but after his Ascension the Holy Spirit would be in them (John 14:17); that when we are saved we receive the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13-14);  and that it’s possible to grieve the Holy Spirit (Eph 4:30).

In other words, the Holy Spirit is a person with emotions, and we can be in relationship with him.

Aha! This was Kitty’s missing piece—an understanding of the person and work of the Holy Spirit! Immediately she began to experience the fruit of the Spirit in her life.

For example, she found it difficult to be patient with her children. One day at lunch, her 2-year-old reached for his milk and knocked it over. Milk pooled on the table and poured to the floor. In fact, the same thing happened every single day.

Instead of her usual harsh response, this day Kitty asked the Lord how the Holy Spirit wanted her to respond. And then she began to laugh. “That’s OK, I’ll fix it,” she told her startled kids. After that she always gave her son his milk in an empty “honey bear” bottle, an idea she credits to the Lord.

Kitty’s dependence on the Holy Spirit changed the focus of her life…

…not just how she interacted with her children, but what she chose to do with her time, and the joy she felt in her new sense of freedom.

She was experiencing the lifelong process of being conformed to the image of Christ (Ro 8:29). She says that we are called to the process, but the choice is ours: will we follow him or refuse him? If we choose to follow, it is the Holy Spirit who walks with us through this process.

About this time the Lord called the Magees to the mission field. They spent ten years in Zimbabwe. During a particularly dry time in Kitty’s life, God spoke to her through Psalm 19:7: “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul…”

He also began preparing her for the next step.

While in Africa Kitty received letters from two family members, living far apart from one another but both telling her how the Lord was changing their lives through a group called Bible Study Fellowship. She determined to look into BSF when they returned to the U.S.

“When she returned home, she found that everything about BSF—from the hymn singing to the in-depth study—‘was a fountain of water for my personal wasteland.’

“She and her husband became discussion leaders in their respective groups, and they were eventually asked to join the staff at BSF headquarters in Oakland, California. Six years later, the couple agreed to plant BSF in Africa and the Middle East.

“Bible study quenches a thirst in their souls, say the Magees,  and knowledge of the Scriptures supplies wisdom needed for everyday living.”¹

I asked Kitty what benefits she reaped from her involvement in BSF. Her nearly instantaneous response was:

  1. Confirmed the value of studying the Bible in a group;
  2. Sealed her conviction that God’s Word is absolutely true and applicable to every situation in life;
  3. Taught her how to be a leader and how to choose leaders.

Until COVID, both Kitty and Bob taught the Bible to groups at the senior community where they live. For a time, I was able to attend Kitty’s class, and can attest to her love of the Bible and to its applicability in our lives.

The study had a tremendous impact on my own life… But that’s a story for another time.

God’s hand has been on Kitty all her life, creating a thirst in her soul for his Word and satisfying her with living water. “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:38). And as this living water flows through Kitty, people are led to God’s Word.

Ginger

¹This is a quote from Clint Kelly, who wrote an article about Bob and Kitty Magee for the SPU Alumni magazine, Response.

You can read mu post offering Kitty’s helpful answer to  how to study the Bible here.