A Thousand Words of an Ordinary Girl: February 2014

Today's post is something I've been torn to write about, but just too nervous to actually go through and do it. If you know my husband and I, you know we are followers of Christ and that we attend church regularly. A few months ago we ended up in a rut with our church routine, and struggled getting out of it.

I don't have the church going background story as many of my friends do. When I was really little I remember my mom taking me to a Catholic church, I never understood anything going on, but I remember enjoying Sunday's because after service they would have a table of donuts outside, so if we were well behaved we were treated to a donut. Once we moved from CA to NC we didn't go to church. It wasn't until my best friend (since 5th grade), invited me to her church in middle school (7th ish grade?). I loved it, and loved being involved with a youth group (which was new to me). The church's youth program had Sunday School, Wednesday night services, lock ins, and other great stuff that I can't remember. I made a lot of relationships there and always asked to tag along with my best friend. But, things within the church happened, and the youth group was affected. My best friends mom wanted to not only attend a church that spoke the truth, but had a strong youth group for her kids to be involved in. So sometime in late middle school or early high school they switched churches. I refused every invitation to go with my best friend to her new church because I was so hung up with the last one, and didn't want to go through all of that again. However, one day I caved and went to her new church. It was great because a lot of people from my high school attended there so I made more personal connections with people I saw every day. I loved the Sunday school, youth group, and Sunday night services. I just couldn't get enough. They kept talking about this Powertime Camp and a lot of people from the youth group were going so I, naturally, wanted to go and see what this was all about. (I mean I think there is a place in each of our hearts that long for some sort of summer camp experience...or was it just me growing up?) After that week of activities, worship, and learning more about God, I knew this was the church I wanted to come to regularly. So I did. I attended (just about) every Sunday School, Sunday Service, Sunday evening service for youth, and youth group on Wednesday nights. I got involved with Bible Quizzing, the Leadership group, summer camps, nursery, children's church, VBS, tithing, mission trips, concerts, church league basketball, and any activity they planned. If they had something going on, I was there. I made so many more relationships on a deeper level and I just felt such at home at church. I was probably there at least 3-4 days/nights of the 7 day week.

Then I went off to college, attended a great church on campus called Summit Church and fell in love with the contemporary atmosphere. Summit church and my home church were so different with their style of worship and preaching (they both did preach the truth -- which is important). On one hand I had the church I "grew up in", that I knew everyone (or a lot of people, because it's a pretty big church) and enjoyed being apart of, to attending a church where I knew Kev or a couple of people, but just felt like I got so much more out of their service.

When we moved here over the summer of 2013, we started/continued going to my home church. This just made sense, we knew the congregation, services, activities, etc. However, something was missing. We soon realized that we were not only missing the style of our college church, but that in all honesty we were going to my home church just to attend. We went because it was comfortable, or easy. I was so excited to be back at my home church, to see everyone and become involved again. What I soon came to realize is I was holding on to my last thread of the youth group. While at college changes had occurred. A different youth pastor came in, youth sponsors were different, maybe half of the youth group I knew were no longer attending, the college group shifted from college aged to adding young married couples and then adding to couples with kids, then this group shifted from all of that to a young adults class and a new college group was formed. When we started attending again everything was just different -- but that's not the reason we haven't been going.

We realized that when we went we didn't take a lot out of the service, and it felt like we were ghosts just floating by. When you go off to college, new people move in and make those connections, so coming back there were times where honestly we were only greeted by the men giving out bulletins, and when we walked into Sunday School the teacher would greet us. I felt like I was always checking the clock for church to end so I could go home, if Kev worked I didn't find motivation to go without him, or if I was "too tired" I would turn my alarm off and not worry about waking up to go -- this convicted me and as much as I didn't want to I knew it was time for us to make a change.

It's not easy accepting the fact that it's time to look for a new church, especially when it meant leaving my home church. It also wasn't a decision that came lightly, I fought with what God was telling us and continued to go to my home church, even though we knew we weren't supposed to be there. I eventually just felt so dead inside, which as a believer I should be on fire and shouting His name with JOY!

We are now attending, participating, and loving being apart of Twin City Community Church. This Church literally fell into our laps. One of my good friends from my home church was a part of their planning team and told us about it about a year ago. Then, as we felt uneasy about my home church and wanted to look into a different church, two people who I went to high school with kept posting about the launch Sunday. Week after week, day after day, so I figured it couldn't hurt to check them out. We went to their launch date on January 19th, 2014 and we loved it. The atmosphere was great, everyone was excited and welcoming, the worship was amazing, and the pastor's preaching really hit home. We went back the next week and prayed to see if this is where the Lord wanted us. It is a brand new church, so we are involved on Sunday mornings (when we help set everything up for service at the YWCA in Winston-Salem), attend service, and then we are involved with their growth track. I'm so excited for Sunday's to come, and I don't complain about getting up at 5:30 AM to be at church by 7 AM to carry, lift, and set up stuff for when service starts at 10:30 AM. I'm enjoying all of it.

We look forward to how God is going to use this church not only in our lives, but in the lives of the city of Winston-Salem. I'm so excited to be passionate about a church again, and to feel "at home" when I walk through those doors.

**If you would like to check out this church head to their website, see what they're about, and you can find the address there if you want to visit. Twin City Community Church **

--> [[I didn't give the name of my home church, because I don't want people to think that just because we aren't going there that it's not a great church. It's an awesome church, with an awesome kids, youth ministries, and adult ministries. I will forever be grateful the Lord lead me to my home church, for all the connections and memories I made there.]] <--

Okay, so it's been about 8 months since I've last posted about what's been going on in our lives. Before, Keven and I were happily living in our tiny apartment at Charleston Southern University. We had just graduated in May, were working (Keven at Piggly Wiggly, myself as a Nanny), hanging out with friends, and enjoying the beach just minutes away. As the lease was coming to an end to our apartment we were seeking the Lord as to where our next step would be. Would we stay in Charleston, stick with our jobs, stay with our friends, and apply to graduate schools. Or would we move back towards one of our homes and be close to family, find full time "grown up" jobs, and apply to graduate schools there. Well after much prayer we felt the Lord calling us to leave our jobs, friends, and church and move back to Winston-Salem, NC (where I'm from).

Ideally, you have jobs lined up, a place to live, and you can move and start a new chapter in your life. However, both of us had applied to dozens of jobs in NC and hadn't heard anything. Leaving us uncertain if we should risk renting a place to live without jobs and blowing through what we had worked so hard to save up. So, another obstacle to overcome. After more prayer we decided to ask my dad and stepmom if they would help us out and let us move in until we could get off of our feet. I know what most of you are probably thinking: wait, you and your husband are married, you're not supposed to live with your family, you're supposed to be able to provide for yourselves and be on your own, you're grown ups now. And I would say you're right, I understand where you're coming from. However, now a days it's a lot harder to get a "grown up job" with a college degree -- I'll cover that in a later post. Thankfully, my parents didn't want to see us go bankrupt and have more debt than my loans, so they invited us to live with them until we got off on our feet.

This has been such a blessing to us. (You see, my parents divorced when I was just 5 years old, and we were living in California at the time. A few years later my mom moved my brother and I to NC once she married my stepdad. So, I only saw my dad during summers and Christmas breaks. Then when I was in middle school my dad accepted a fire chief position in Baghdad after the war broke out. This left my brother and I to only see him less than 4 weeks a year, and sometimes it was just a week or two. Finally, during my senior year of high school my dad quit his job in Baghdad and wanted to be closer to us here in NC. Well after that year I went to college for the next four years and could only spend time with family during breaks or some weekends). So, you can see how I've never had the opportunity to live with my dad and build a genuine relationship. Before our relationship felt like a genetic one, you know where we knew we were related but there was never enough time spent to make a genuine connection. This move has been so great because we have hung out so much, done projects together, and have built an actual relationship with each other.

Sometimes you never realize why the Lord leads you places until you have time to look back on everything. So we moved up here at the first of July, ideally we would both get jobs and move out within a month -- ha we're funny. After a week of being here I helped out my stepmom at her job and I was a caretaker for an elderly lady part time. This lasted until October, when the family decided to move her into a home. So during that time I hadn't really been searching a whole lot for jobs, some every now and then, but not a lot. Keven had also been applying while I was working, the Lord blessed him with a part time job at Lowes Home Improvement in late August, then He opened a door for Keven to go full time -- HALLELUJAH

So it is now February, Keven is still working at Lowes, and I am still applying for jobs. You know, being unemployed does wonders for your ego and mood. I mean, when you apply to about 100 jobs and no one seems to select you, you have to think what is wrong with me? Thankfully, Keven has been super supportive and understanding and helped me get through this time. I know the Lord has a plan for me and is lining up the perfect job where He wants me to be, so for now I'll keep applying, applying, and applying and wait for that job to open up.