Sunday, 29 April 2007

More Goodbyes

No bones about it-I'm getting attached to Holland. I may have been born and raised in Ludington, but this Dutch city has definitely become a second home to me. I have friends here, I have a job (well, classes, but more and more, teaching), I have a small group of guys to share fellowship and to hold me accountable, I have choirs to sing in, and I even have a church.

That was one of the biggest questions I had coming to Hope. Where would I go to church? Having never moved even into a different house in the same city, I didn't know what I'd do. I never had to switch churches. Washington Avenue/Cornerstone Baptist was my church, James Carlson, Jim Schultz, and Leslie Lew are my pastors, and that's all I knew. So what to do about church in Holland?

Don't get me wrong, I love the chapel services and The Gathering now just as much as I did freshman and sophomore years. Trygve and Paul have done a great job leading the Campus Ministries team and I think the folks in the Keppel House do an admirable job trying to reach the students and to minister to them. I'd be lost without that kind of support on campus, but I needed something else. An actual church community is what I needed.

I laugh to myself now when I think about how much I've been affected both directly and indirectly by the Bible Studs and that fateful knock on the door from Devin way back in August of 2004. I've cultivated some of my closest friendships thanks to the Bible Studs. I've had some of my finest college memories with them. I've met other great friends thanks to the Bible Studs. And I also found my church thanks in part to the Bible Studs. Honest. All I did was ask Ben where he went to church. It sounded interesting, and I found myself at West Ottawa High School's south campus with a bunch of seemingly random people, the standard contemporary worship band, and these two young pastors named Brian Aulick and Micah Kephart. The church called itself "Engedi" after the oasis located in the Holy Land near the Dead Sea.

I liked it right from the start, but I really didn't start connecting until spring of sophomore year and fall of junior year. I started to really enjoy the house churches and engage with the others, and they appreciated me and what thoughts I had to offer. I somehow got onto the mailing list for the Young Adults group and began to connect with them. I attended a different house church, had the same warm reception, and also finally met my pastor in Holland after almost 18 months of first coming to Engedi.

It took a little while, but I think I can consider myself part of the church's community. Maybe that's why it was so hard to tell everyone goodbye for the summer. Yeah, James Carlson, Jim Schultz, and Leslie Lew still definitely are my pastors, Cornerstone Baptist still claims me as a member, and Ludington is still my home. But in a way, Holland has become a home and Engedi has become my church, too. It made me smile when I got an enormous bearhug from Pastor Brian, wishes for a blessed summer, another enormous bearhug, and being made to promise that I'll be at Engedi if I'm in Holland on a Sunday morning.

The author wrote in Hebrews 10:25, "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching." I'd say I definitely have found that at Engedi, and it has been encouraging.