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Will Stephens

What you'll find here is my work, my background, and writing shaped by life's back roads. The resume, a sampling from my portfolio, and my blog, Ain't No Tellin', ... are all part of the same story.

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Ain't No Tellin' ...

Ain't No Tellin' ... What All I Learned from my Grandmaw

April 17, 2026

My maternal grandmaw passed in 2022, three and a half months shy of her 101st birthday. She packed a lot into her century-long life. Born in 1921, when Amelia Earhart bought her first plane, and Einstein won the Nobel Prize, she wasn’t known worldwide, but in my neck of the world, she impacted a lot of people.One of her earliest memories is riding in a horse-drawn wagon taking cotton to the cotton gin, of her Dad being the only one around who made Molasses. Other fond memories revolve around the family getting their house and grounds ready to host ice-cream parties for the young people at church. To prepare for one, her papa limewashed the tree bases all around the property, a sort of homegrown white paint that brightened the place up. How the tiny lime crystals would have sparkled in the setting sun. Mamaw said that all sorts of people showed up after her papa sent out invitations by word of mouth.With her life, she wrote The Gospel According to Grandmaw. A woman who loved her flesh and blood family and her washed-in-the blood-family. As she grew up, her church family began playing a larger role in her life. She and her family assembled often with the saints who worshiped together in a one-room, white clapboard building perched high in the prairieland west of Saltillo, Mississippi. And, according to her, on any given Sunday, the elders and their wives all sat in the amen corners nodding with approval when the preacher told the straight truth of the matter—whatever the matter was. My mamaw once said, “Our family started our lifestyle in the Lord’s house.”My grandmother not only talked the Christian lifestyle; she walked it sincerely. I sat down with her one day when she was 97 and asked, “When did you become a Christian?” She said, “I was eleven years old.” Then she described her baptism surrounded by saints, horses, and cattle on the shore of a large lake in the middle of a tree-lined pasture. After the preacher buried the old and raised up the new, she came out of the water and lived as a faithful Christian for 89 years.It was also church where she met a young man who, after some time, would come to her house and ask, “Will you be my bride?” She said, “I guess so. I never did tell him I would, but I did.” And they were married for 65 years. They struggled financially. And they struggled emotionally when their first child was stillborn. They lived through the depression, World War 2 and segregation.One of her adult children took to the bottle and became an alcoholic. She ministered to him tirelessly, right up until the day she witnessed him walk back into the church building one Sunday and give his life back to the Lord. She served as a human crutch for her daughter, my mama, during a shocking divorce—every painful step of the way.When Grandmaw's mother became ill and was in the winter of her life, she offered to be her nurse. She would later do the same for her husband—serving as his caregiver until he passed.One of her favorite memories is driving a church bus around the neighborhood, picking up little children on Sunday mornings, and taking them to Bible school. She’d talk about smiling kids in raggedy clothes getting on the "joy" bus.For most of her life, she worked. For 35 years, she owned her own flower shop. And honestly, she was one of the best missionaries I’ve ever met—one of the best seed planters I’ve ever witnessed. Her flower shop was a mission field.No one came there for flowers without being asked questions like, “Where do you worship?” to get a conversation going. Or “Would you like to go to church with me?” She never left her faith at home while she went to work or out in town.If you asked her, “What’s your favorite thing to do?” She’d say, “Going to the church house and seeing all of the Lord’s people—if I can’t hug somebody, a handshake or a wave still means so much. To sit there and listen to the Lord’s Word together."I’d imagine most Southerners would claim that mamaws are just flat-out national treasures. And, besides Grandpaw, who else could offer you years of hard-earned, hard-learned wisdom filled with warm love at the center like your grandmother? There ain’t no tellin’ what all I’ve learned from that little woman, that lady we nicknamed “Granny Go-Go,” who ran circles around us on any given day.My grandmaw was a servant, a Gospel seed-planter, and a loving mother and grandmother. A woman who had great faith and trusted in the Lord when times got hard, and money was tight, who would say, “Everything will be alright if you’re right.” Which meant, “right with the Lord.”I asked her once, “What do you think you’ll say on your 100th birthday?” She said, “I would say, thank you, Jesus, for allowing me to become the age I am today. Thank you for taking care of my family. Thank you for your forgiveness. Now, I surely don’t have all that much longer, but I would love for you to still guide my family so we can all be together someday in heaven.”Yeah, ain’t no tellin’ how much I learned from my grand maw.

Resume

WILL BRIAN STEPHENS
Selmer, Tennessee 38375/ [email protected]
________________________________________________________EDUCATION
Regent University, Virginia Beach, Virginia
M.A. in Film ProductionLindenwood University, Saint Charles, Missouri
M.F.A. in Writing, summa cum laude; Alpha Chi Honor SocietyFreed-Hardeman University, Henderson, Tennessee
Master of Ministry, magna cum laudeFreed-Hardeman University, Henderson, Tennessee
B.S. in Bible, Art MajorPROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Fourth Street Church of Christ, Selmer, Tennessee
Minister, January 2017 – Present
Preaching, counseling, mentoring, desktop publishing, bulletin editing, writing, and graphic designFreed-Hardeman University, Henderson, Tennessee
Adjunct Professor, Freed-Hardeman University — Taught for-credit course at UT Martin (Fall 2015), “Scheme of Redemption”Student Center sponsored by churches of Christ at UT Martin, Martin, Tennessee
Campus Minister, University of Tennessee at Martin, June 2000 – December 2016
Regular duties included: teaching college classes, counseling students, event leadership and coordination, writing for organizational publications, managing the OrgSync page, and directing the student center (Skyhawks for Christ)G. Willie Brands and freelance graphic designer, 2007-PresentGrant Street Church of Christ, Decatur, Alabama
Youth and Family Minister, June 1999 – June 2000
Event organizer, youth class teacher, and public speaking instructorADDITIONAL SKILLS
• Author & Illustrator of children’s book, Willy Billy’s Bubble Trouble
• Producer of book trailers
• Proficient in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere ProREFERENCES
• Available upon request

Portfolio