How our church friends became more like family

[Jared] Hi, I’m Jared and this is my wife Carolyn. We’d like to share a bit of our story with you and how Northwest has played a part in our lives.

[Carolyn] Seven years ago, we were expecting our first child, our daughter Abby. What we weren’t expecting was to have her come a month early. I was eight months pregnant and we were staying in a friend’s guest room because we were in the midst of this big home remodel.

I had had some complications toward the end of the pregnancy and while we were at a checkup appointment, they informed us that I’d need to have a C-section later that day. And, of course, our doctor was out of town. So we’d been pushing our contractors to finish up the home renovations.

The nursery was not set up. Our house was a complete construction zone. We didn’t even have a car seat yet. We were totally unprepared. We finished my appointment and like a deer in the headlights, realized we’d have to be at the hospital in three hours for the delivery.

One of my very first phone calls was to my friend Tara, who was part of our Life Group. She prayed with me right then and asked what we needed help with. After that phone call, our friends from Life Group and a few of our family members blessed us above and beyond our expectations. They went to our unfinished house and worked around the clock decorating, painting, cleaning, basically transforming it from a construction site to a home where we could bring our newborn baby.

[Jared] Yeah, we definitely can’t tell our story without Northwest Bible Church. I’d been coming to church here with my family for 25 years. Pastor Harrell baptized me when I was 12 years old. We were married here, we dedicated two of our children here and we’ll soon do the same with our third. But it’s not this building that stands out in our story, it’s the people. Whether it’s been Mission Trips, Bible Studies, serving alongside some incredibly devoted and talented volunteers or the amazing people investing in the lives of our children through the Kid’s Ministry, we often say that, “Our friends here are more like family.”

[Carolyn] We welcomed our third child at the end of last year. So if you run into me on a Sunday morning, you will recognize me as the mom struggling to carry the car seat as my two older kids run way off ahead of me. Our life is wonderfully chaotic. It’s filled with baby dolls, Batman and diapers, so many diapers. But now that I’m familiar with the challenges that come with raising little people, it’s obvious to me how blessed we are with the incredible support system of our church family.

I was overwhelmed by the love we were shown when Abby was born. The house was beautiful. The books were neatly put away on the bookshelf. Her crib was set up and clothes were even laundered and organized in drawers. As someone who is not good at asking for help and who didn’t grow up in a church family, I was floored by the way we had been served when we needed it the most.

[Jared] And now, we consider it a privilege to serve here and to be there for others the way our Life Group was there for us. We love being a part of a church where the truth of Jesus is the focus of Sunday’s message, from the music and every other ministry of the church.

This is just a small piece of our story, but we know that God’s doing amazing things through the people at Northwest, which is why we love it here.