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Wendy

Posted: Sun, Jul 13, 2014
When I was child growing up my parents raised us as Presbyterians. But it was very short-lived, they didn’t stay connected with the church and we weren’t very involved although I really like the feeling and energy and I have the fondest memories of those times especially with Sunday School and the few experiences I [...]

When I was child growing up my parents raised us as Presbyterians. But it was very short-lived, they didn’t stay connected with the church and we weren’t very involved although I really like the feeling and energy and I have the fondest memories of those times especially with Sunday School and the few experiences I had with the Youth group. But after that we withdrew from all church, all religious facilities and there was no religious practice for many, many years. When I started college I began a journey with this open, hungry mind. I met my husband in Idaho while working with young adults in recovery. Nature was our temple, just outside playing every sport every passion even if it was just sitting under a tree that’s where I felt really connected spiritually.

Wendy pursued different spiritual paths over the years but none of them completely resonated with her.

I became pregnant which was  a choice that we very much wanted to have a child together. The pregnancy was ended early my daughter came into the world and she didn’t quite make it, she had to be resuscitated. She was kept alive on machines for the first month of her life at 1 1/2 lbs. It was a really dark, scary time and my first instinct was just to cry out literally to God in prayer, just in desperate prayer. That was the first pulling me back, pulling me home to a more structured Christian practice. I finally had this desire to come to the Presbyterian church, my mother has returned as well, it’s really brought her a lot of peace and it felt like I wanted to explore that, and come back to my roots, my first exposure to Christian practice. I saw First Pres many times just driving and I thought, oh, I’ll just go. I’ll see what happens. So I came in and the first service, I sat down, was greeted by wonderful people and I just felt like I was home and that was really , that was it I felt like I was home. I cried through the whole service and the healing began.

My whole life I’ve wanted it (baptism), I’ve been curious, it just seemed out of reach and I was sitting down with Jenny at coffee, it ws just so simple, she made it so simple, so eloquent, so inviting, in the words that you’ve always been enough, God has always loved you and he always will, wherever you are on your path. And it was like, phew, cool, let’s do it. And that was that. Granted it’s much more to me in my heart, but, the simplicity of it in her delivery was something that brought me even closer to this particular church, you don’t have to be more, we are enough in God’s eyes, period.

~Wendy Andrick