They're Back

On Sunday we heard from Chris and Wendy. Our church started in their living room. After a few years away they are back. And we are very glad. 

Here's what they shared:

Good morning church. Our names are Chris and Wendy. We've been part of this church for 8 years, although not consecutively. We were asked if we would share a little about this journey we're calling “There and Back Again.”

Our involvement with the church began when we joined a small group of people in the fall of 2006 to go through a study called The Peacemaker. By God's amazing grace and through a sequence of events that only He could orchestrate, this church, Sovereign Grace Orange, grew out of that small group, and for that we are very grateful.

We were active members here until the summer of 2014, when - after 7 ½ years of building relationships, serving, being reminded of the gospel and being encouraged in our faith - we made a decision to attend a larger church with a more established youth ministry which our youngest son desired to be involved in.

Even though we expected to only be there for a season, we knew we needed to get involved so we did. Out of a group of 15 strangers, God knit together a small group not of strangers, but friends. We were also blessed to become part of an after-school tutoring ministry in Santa Ana. Our son, Zach, was involved in a small group and one of the friends he made ended up being his roommate his first year at college. God's kindness displayed.

So our son did go off to college and we felt our time at Mariners was coming to a close. After 3 ½ years of being away, we remembered the community and fellowship we had at Sovereign Grace - there's no place like home so here we are, back again. While we were gone, we were blessed to have Pastor Eric check in with us every now and then. We've been blessed by a small group that welcomed us back like we had just been away at college. We are blessed by relationships that can pick right up where we left off. Truly we have been blessed and we are grateful for God's kindness to us in Christ.