And the winner is…

After several weeks of church hopping, the sense of homesickness reached a critical mass.  Every church we visited was beautiful in its own way, and it was such a joy to be able to witness so many wonderful things happening in such grace, diversity and unity. 

Ultimately our decision happened much faster than we expected, we had planned to attend a couple of churches on a “short list” for several weeks before making a final decision, and yet this process has been God led from the get go.  

He spoke, we responded.  

I can’t speak for the rest of my family, though there was a general “unrest” among us at being “homeless”.  The discussion of where to go was very short, and unanimous, it wasn’t about finding the perfect church, it was finding the place where we were called and planting ourselves there.  We've made the decision to call Uptown Community Church home.

Uptown is a not to small, not to big community church in beautiful White Rock.  You can read about our first Sunday, the one thing I didn’t mention in the original post, but drove much of our decision started with a “slip” by our friend Dawn.  We talked about it at length in the weeks since, as both Mom and I felt like it was a holy moment reaffirmed in the weeks that followed. 

Our friend Dawn upon seeing us on our first visit was chatting with someone else, once she saw us out of the corner of her eye she exclaimed: “Oh! My family is here!”  She quickly corrected herself, saying that we were friends that were like family, and yet this ever so brief moment, combined with the sense of family we experience with each person we meet.  The love and grace we see extended to one another.  The familiarity and joy amongst the community.  There is but one word for it.  FAMILY. 

As I reread my first post, I chuckle, because so quickly God is revealing opportunities to give and serve that I was so uncertain about.  Brian said that Uptown reminds him of the SPCA, so much cuteness that he can’t take home (Apparently it’s an analogy for SPCA=Cute puppies/Uptown=Cute Children…?) and yet thinks it might be a blast to serve with the little guys.  My longing for missions has been fulfilled and then some – I realized ironically that I’d met Len and Sarah just a few weeks before at Missions Fest.  They are leaving with their two young kids on a long term mission to Mexico in just a few months, and they seem overjoyed at the idea that we might want to help them serve for a period of time.

Matthew seems to love the youth time during the service, and Tig has been enjoying the worship and message alongside us.  Mom (who appears to have an affinity for pastors mothers…her BFF being Ian’s mom Netty) met the senior Pastor’s mom on one of our first Sundays.  Turns out they are both published authors.  The following week they traded books.  Awesome. 

I look forward to the weeks and months to come, as we get to know this family in new and deeper ways.  I am humbled by each person I meet… the joy in this place fans a flame in me that has been flickering dimly for far too long.

So my friends, it turns out the winner is us.