Since moving to St. Louis 6+ years ago, Chris and I have attended the same church. We have loved our time attending The Journey and have seen our faith grow immensely in this time through the encouraging and challenging truths our pastors preach.
Apart from our Sunday morning worship, we are part of a community group that gathers together 1-2 additional times during the week to study God’s word and to fellowship around a dinner table. This, in particular, has brought about a lot of growth in our faith and marriage. (We’ve been part of community groups as individuals as well, but for this blog, I’m only going to focus on where we’ve been as a married couple.)
A recent conversation with friends forced us to reflect on what community has meant in our lives in the last two years. Lacking community at their own church, our friends asked, “If you really have good community, why do you want to leave the country for a year?”
Their question made sense. If we really had it good (were comfortable in our jobs, had good friendships, enjoyed our church, etc.), why would we leave?
We loved our life in St. Louis and especially loved our church family. We are constantly in each other’s lives. We speak Gospel truth to each other, speaking against the lies of Satan and reminding each other of God’s promises and our identity as God’s children.
We share in each other’s joys and pains. In November, Chris’s dad had some health concerns. In sharing with our church family, we knew we were instantly covered in prayers.
Several months ago, a 3 year-old boy (now 4) in our group was diagnosed with Leukemia. We all wept together and have surrounded this family. For months to come, as a group we will provide meals, clean, do laundry, run errands, babysit and whatever else is necessary to help carry the burden.
With all of this (and much more) in mind, it became clear. The reason we feel called to leave is BECAUSE our community is so great. We have been prepared to be sent out and to share the Gospel with the nations and to walk alongside our squad and disciple them as well. We aren’t leaving; we are being sent. And, we are covered in prayer.
