It wasn’t until after her death that an Alabama woman’s devotional study guide was discovered – a study guide with a Cookeville connection.
Now it’s available to women everywhere.
“My Sister’s Keeper: A Ladies Devotional Study Guide” was written by Sandra Hulsey to accompany a book with the same title that had been edited by Kerry Duke, vice president of Cookeville’s Tennessee Bible College, and published in 1999.
“The church she attended had evidently used ‘My Sister’s Keeper’ in a ladies’class,” Duke said. “She developed questions on each chapter with an answer key at the end.”
The original “My Sister’s Keeper” book was written by Christian women for Christian women, Duke explained. One of the authors was his wife, LeAnn. Another was Billie Hill, wife of TBC’s founder and first president, Malcolm Hill, and mother of current president David Hill.
Pictured from the left: LeAnn Duke, Kerry Duke, David Hill, and Billie Hill
“It covers topics such as hardships Christian women face, marriage, parenting, the role of women, and church leaders’ wives,” Duke said. “It has gone through numerous printings since its publication and is used in women’s classes in churches throughout the country.”
The story of how the study guide came to be is unusual – and tragic.
It began with an email to Duke last fall. The sender, an Alabama man named Thomas Garner, had been a friend of Sandra Hulsey and her husband, Jeremy, a preacher at Aldridge Grove Church of Christ in Moulton, Ala. He asked permission to publish the study guide as a tribute to her.
Garner explained in a phone call afterward that both Sandra, 37, and Jeremy, 42, who were from Hartselle, Ala., had died a few months earlier.
“I assumed it was due to an automobile accident,” Duke said. “He seemed hesitant to talk about it, so I didn’t ask any questions.”
But that wasn’t the case.
“The next day he sent an email,” Duke said. “I had to read it two or three times before I could fathom it. The couple’s adopted son had shot them.”
Despite the tragic circumstances of how the study guide came to be, Duke has high hopes for it.
“It was Sandra Hulsey’s gift to Christian women,” he said.
The study guide is available on Amazon for $8. The original “My Sister’s Keeper” book is available at TBC for $9. It is also sold at numerous Christian bookstores and websites.
-Amy Davis
To purchase “My Sister’s Keeper”, please visit our website:
