Unbeknown to her, God spoke to me through her words. It never fails to amaze me how powerful and humbling it is when this happens.

It was Sunday afternoon and the speaker had finished. Everyone else at our table had left.  I was putting my coat on and getting ready to leave. I was thinking of all I needed to do for the upcoming week and how I needed to hurry to get home.  She simply started speaking.  I looked in her eyes and knew she felt compelled to tell me a part of her story.  So, I sat back down and gave her my full attention.  Her eyes moved around the room in amazement as she told me how wonderful it was to see the Family Life Center at our church.  She remembered when it was built.  She remembered when our church did not have its own building.

She continued on from the beginning. Her and her husband moved to our area in their thirties and they had small children.  She spoke of the church they came from.  Our connection began.  My husband and I (both in our thirties) moved out here a couple years ago with our two small children.  We just so happened to come from the same church as her and her husband as well.

“Would this church ever grow?  Would it ever have its own building? Was it worth the trouble?” Many times shaking her head, she went on with our church’s journey. There were good times and not so good times. There were stories of disagreements, doubts, and having to rush in the borrowed building to pick up cigarette butts before the service began. Her attention to detail had me fully engaged.  By the end of her story we both were wiping a few tears from our face. “By God’s grace we are where we are today,” were the words she ended with.

It was and still is through the grace of God, with the unity we have in Christ, that we can always continue to build the church and share our stories.