The last week I was in Winston I was asked to share "my story" not once, but twice. I never really thought about it until I received the email asking if I was comfortable doing so. I almost replied "no thank you", but at the same time I knew that this is part of why we moved to Phoenix and my story is what would help me connect to the people here who need Jesus in their lives.
I didn't grow up in a church. My Mom would take us some Christmases and Easters, and she would enroll us in the town's Vacation Bible School, but there wasn't any carryover at home and we never really talked about it. Don't get me wrong, I had GREAT parents who sacrificed so much just for us girls. It just didn't involve church.
When I was a "tween" is when I first started to realize that some other families went to church every Sunday. I grew up in a very Catholic community and most of the kids I went to school with were going to CCD after school on Wednesdays and prepping for their Confirmations. I was curious and I'd say that during my tween years is when I first started to have a longing to see what it was all about.
My parents had friends who attended another church and we grew up with their kids, Michelle and BJ. I would often try to manipulate my way into staying the night with them so that I could go to their church with them on Sunday mornings. I loved singing the songs and would pray along with my eyes tightly closed that we could come every week, can't say that I understood much of the preaching. As we got into early high school we stopped spending as much time with them because we were all busy with different events... band concerts, choir concerts, sporting events, and more!
Probably through most of my freshman and sophomore year I didn't think much about church. I kept super busy with school things and it didn't leave much time. Then I met Mike between my sophomore and junior year...
Mike's entire family is Catholic. Mike was very involved in not only the Catholic church serving on Sundays and at church events, but he was also involved in the local youth group through the Nazarene church. Again, I started to feel very intrigued and a longing to see what it was all about. I started attending church with him probably my senior year when our relationship started to really grow. After we graduated Mike started lectoring and greeting at church on Sundays and I was right by his side most weeks. As he would drive me home I would ask him probably 50 questions about what the sermon covered!
We were engaged in November of 1990 and got married in November of 1991. I decided that if we were going to be married and he was that involved in the church, even though I still had lots of questions, it was time for me to join the church. So, at Easter time of 1993 I officially joined the church and our first child, Devin was born just a few months later; Kayleigh followed the following summer of 1994 and all seemed to be well. We continued to attend each and every week and Mike continued to lector frequently. But it seemed more like a Sunday morning routine than a relationship with God.
We moved to Indiana University for college in 1996. Right after getting there we sought out a Catholic church. We went to two different ones.... but they weren't the same as our small little hometown church. They were huge and no one seemed to be there for the right reasons. We eventually stopped going because it drove Mike and I crazy. I would continue to read Bible stories to the kids and we'd pray on and off at meal time; I'd continue to have a yearing to be somewhere on Sunday mornings, but we werent' doing anything about it.
We moved home in January of 2001 after learning that my Mom's cancer was spreading and Mike's seizures started becoming a dialy occurence. I would pray almost daily but Mike wasn't really too interested. He had become angry and bitter with God about various things that had happened. We went to Evansville, Indiana to visit friends over Easter in 2002 and on the way home from their house one of our kids said "so... what is Lent anyway? And who is the man they talk about dying on the cross?". OUCH! After that, Mike committed that even if HE wasn't interested in church, our kids needed to know what church was all about.
We had a hard time getting going to a church that year because I was put on bedrest early on during my pregnancy and my Mom was very sick. In November of 2002 Paige was born 9 weeks prematurely and then in April we lost my Mom to cancer. Shortly after that, a friend in our neighborhood told us about Sonrise at Aboite. We decided to give it a try. The first Sunday I went I felt like I learned more in that hour about God's love for me than I ever had before! And that longing that I had felt on and off for years had coming FLOODING back like never before. We attended Sonrise every week and every week our kids were loving it, I was loving it, and I felt like I was growing. It was probably the first time in my life where I truly understood that Jesus died on a cross to pay for my sins, to set me free.
We moved to North Carolina in May of 2006 and started seeking a church right away. We first attended River Oaks in the early summer, and we only attended once. I don't remember what was said specifically, but the pastor said something that turned Mike off pretty quickly. After that we visited a few other churches, but really had a hard time connecting anywhere.
Our world changed in February of 2007 when Mike lost his Grandpa Molitor. When we were home for Grandpa's funeral I watched from a few rows back as Mike cried genuine tears in the front row. My heart broke! On our way home Mike said he realized sitting at his grandfather's funeral, that we needed to get back to church, even if that meant it was the Catholic church. The next week we went to Holy Family Catholic Church and shortly after decided to enroll our kids in the Faith Formation classes to "catch them up" on First Communion and Confirmations. We DRUG Devin kicking and screaming every week and decided not to have him go through with the courses. But Kayleigh and Chase both did. I jumped in to teaching one of the CCD Classes and all seemed to be well. We quickly fell back into the "routine" of it all.
In the spring of 2008 our entire family came to celebrate Kayleigh and Chase receivin their first Holy Sacraments through the Catholic church. After our families left we were sitting at the dining room table for dinner and one of them - I honestly don't remember which one - said "so what was the big deal about Communion?". Mike and I again looked at eachother and quickly realized we had really messed up! We asked the kids, all of them, what they wanted. Their response took us by surprise.... not ONE of them wanted to go to the Catholic church..... and they all said River Oaks (the church that Mike walked out of the first summer in NC!).
A few weeks later we were on our way to Holy Family one Sunday when we decided to attend River Oaks instead. Our kids were so excited! And again, like Sonrise, I left there that day feeling like I had really LEARNED something about the Bible and I couldn't wait to go back week after week. I began serving in the children's ministry and then in the youth, loving the time with the kids and learning more and more every week about the love of Jesus and what community meant.
Many people can say they know the exact date they gave their life to Christ. For me, I can't say that. It was more of a gradual process. God was chasing after me from the time I was a little girl. Letting me know that He was there when I truly looked for him. The first seeds were planted many years ago at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Paulding with the Beiswenger family. Those seeds continued to be nurtured at the Catholic churches we attended and then at Sonrise. Somewhere in the first two years at River Oaks, they took off and before I knew it I was planting seeds in others lives, experiencing what true community was during some of the hardest days of my life, and then was just on fire to share the love of Jesus with people around me!
The cool thing about my story is how it plays into Mike's story.... he'll have to write his out himself. But, I will say I prayed week after week on Sundays as Pastor Beaty said his closing prayer, with my hand on Mike's knee, that God would pierce his heart. That God would take a hold of Mike and show him that he is loved and that He had a plan for Mike. After several years of prayng, God has gotten a hold of Mike in a way I NEVER could have imagined. That fire inside of Mike has led us to Phoenix and I cannot wait to see how we grow together in our marriage, and in our faith as we share our story of persevereance and faith with others!
That, my friends... is my story! And it's only just beginning!!
