Members

Shane & I have been trying to find a church to call "home" for several years now. We have spent many a Sunday morning attending a variety of churches & just haven't ever felt that welcome or inviting feel to any of them. I hate to say, but we grew tired of trying to find "the one" & just stopped going all together.

So when Mason came along, I got the urge once again to seek out a church "family" - especially one that had a good youth program for Mason to grow up with. It was really important to us for Mason to grow up learning about God, stories from the bible & how to be a good Christian.

Rewind to last October. I had noticed a flier posted up at Mason's daycare for a Halloween Party on a farm that was close by to where we lived. There was all kinds of food, kids dressed in costumes, a bon fire, & a haunted trail for the bigger "kids". A few people from the daycare were going as well as a couple of kids from his infant room so I thought it would be a great way to meet others in our community as well as get to know the parents of the kids Mason spends every day with.

We had SO much fun & everyone was so very nice. I met the "owners" of the farm & later found out that it was a church sponsored event. I also learned that Mason's daycare providers & owner of the daycare all go to this same church in the next town over from us. I asked a lot of questions regarding the church & went home to tell Shane all about it & how we really should go & check it out.

A few months passed by (without going to church) & I noticed another flier posted at the daycare for a fundraising spaghetti dinner put on by the same church that did the Halloween party. We ended up going to the dinner, meeting all kinds of nice, welcoming people & the following Sunday decided to attend their Sunday service for the first time.

It is a smaller congregation with about 215 members & people noticed that we were "new" so when the service was over so many members came up to us to introduce themselves & welcome us. They had a nursery for Mason to stay in & they also served cookies & refreshments after service - which scored points with me :) The pastor is a female which was something new for the both of us but we really liked her & enjoyed her sermon. 

That was almost a year ago & we have been going to the same church every Sunday ever since.

It took us 6 months of going to this church regularly to decide to become members & after 4 weeks of "new members" classes, I am proud to say that today our little family officially became members of Hillsdale Presbyterian Church:

I know in my heart this was the right decision for us because every time Sunday rolls around we don't mind waking up early & going to church. I look really forward to going & can honestly say that I have never felt that way about a church before. I am looking so forward to Mason turning 3 years old & being able to participate in "children's church" & getting involved in their youth program as well as Shane & I getting involved in their ministry throughout the year. 

Last month we attended a yummy breakfast fundraiser, next Sunday I am donating the cookies for after-service refreshments, we have enrolled in a young married couples class & I volunteered to help with providing lunch for families after the funeral service of a loved one so we are slowly getting involved & I am super excited to become even more involved with this wonderful church family.

It is really true that you meet people for a reason & had we not had Mason & enrolled him into this specific daycare we would have never met the wonderful people who introduced us to their church & we would probably still not be going to church. 

God definitely works in mysterious ways & for that I am thankful.