The ladies of the Friendship

United Methodist Church sponsored its annual bazaar a week ago, and helping

to ladle up soup and cornbread was its new pastor, the Rev. Betty Lou

Flood.

She arrived just two months

ago and hit the ground running. Besides pastoring the 110-year-old congregation,

she is continuing her studies at the Emory University Candler School of

Theology.

She was reared in Connecticut,

graduated from the University of Connecticut with a bachelor of fine arts

and taught for several years. Moving to Boston as a personnel consultant,

she met her husband, the late William Howard Flood, who was in the Air

Force, and they moved to New Mexico. He died in 1984.

Having felt the pull into ministry

for some time, she entered Yale Divinity School and was there for two

years. She left in 1986 to care for her parents.

For the next 15 years she worked

in Connecticut as a relocation consultant and then was sent to Savannah

for three years working for them. While falling in love with Georgia,

she also felt the pull to return to seminary and began the process of

enrolling at Candler.

A multi-talented person, Flood

is adept at oil painting, singing and, if the organist is not on hand,

she leads the hymns on her guitar.

This past summer she went on

a medical mission trip to Honduras. She was surprised to learn that many

of the villages the team served could only be reached by walking through

forests, and yet the inhabitants, though remote, were happy in their own

way.

Remaining in Connecticut are

her children, Brian, 28, and Shelley, 23. There are three grandchildren.

"Even though our membership

is small at the moment, the spirit in this church is mighty. It is like

the 'EverReady Bunny,' it just keeps going and going. Yet, unlike the

Bunny, it is not cold and mechanical but warm and loving. It is receptive

to new ideas, powered not by a finite battery but an infinite God of love

and grace," she said.

The congregation has just added

a memorial garden, created to honor the memory of Mary Jo Townsell. A

longtime member, this devoted congregate also started its choir.

Sunday worship service begins