Valimont to speak at All About Grace

      The 17th annual women's event All About Grace will  be held on Saturday, March 9 in the Cheek Hall of Toccoa First Methodist Church.
     This year's speaker will be Jelly Valimont, widow of  former pastor of Encounter church, Dr Randy Valimont.
   Music will be led by Maggie Smallwood and a praise band from The Pointe.
     A compli-mentary brunch will be served at  9 a.m.
    This community event welcomes women of all denominations and those with no church home. No registration is necessary.
     Jelly Valimont was born in McMinnville, Tenn., where her father pastored. She also lived in Georgia and Florida growing up.
      Valimont attended and graduated from Southeastern University in Florida where she met her future husband.
     She and Randy ministered in Arkansas before coming to Toccoa in 1984. After almost 10 years in Toccoa, they were called to Griffin First Assembly.
     The Valimonts continued living in Griffin, rearing their three daughters and parenting two nephews following the deaths of the boys' parents.
    Under their leadership, Griffin First Assembly grew from a church of 350 to about 8,000 with 10 locations, serving both English and Hispanic congregations.
    In 2019 Randy Valimont was unexpectedly called home, leaving a grieving family, church, and community.
     Jelly Valimont has continued ministering to others in the midst of her own grief and the responsibility of mothering two fatherless teenage boys.
     She is multi-gifted and uses her talents to serve in many ways most notably, in music, teaching, speaking, and writing.
     Valimont is the author of I Have Issues, and Tapestry: A  Story of Adoption, Acceptance, and Destiny.
    Her passion is for growing and strengthening the Kingdom of God. To quote Valimont, “If I can do this while laughing, so much the better!”
    For more information on this community event, call Jayne Snell at 706-491-9867.