This is Us (30th Anniversary Edition)

We’re celebrating our church’s 30th throughout the month of November, so we’re focusing the “This is Us” posts on folks that have been around a good part of that time.

Deb Johnson came to Five Oaks and soon was brought on staff about 6 months after I came in 1997. Here’s a part of her story:

It was a raining October Sunday when we walked in the doors of Lake Junior High in 1997. After four dismal attempts to find a church in the area, we were tentative. We were escorted up the walk by a gentleman in a bright pink cap with an umbrella, who introduced us to the pastor’s wife. As we stood chatting, a squealing scream came down the length of the commons area and a young girl bounded up and bear-hugged our oldest daughter as if they’d been sister’s separated at birth! (They’d met at camp a couple of months earlier.) She quickly grabbed both our daughters and hauled them up to the front of the church with the rest of the teenagers. From the smiles on our daughters faces, we knew we’d found a place to belong.

Fast forward 5 months and I find myself not only employed by Five Oaks as Ministry Assistant to the Youth Director but also a youth sponsor preparing to attend Challenge 1998 in Colorado. To this day, that experience and the other mission trips we took, deeply impacted the rest of my life. (The picture above is from a youth missions trip to Mexico. Deb is on the back row, far right.) I interacted with other adults who loved teenagers and got to know students that would impress me with their faith and friendship. Today, several of those youth still attend Five Oaks and as adults they are now impacting the lives of kids and teenagers, just like they were impacted.  We had found a place to grow.

It’s almost 23 years since that rainy Sunday. My roles have been many, and our family has been involved in a multitude of ways. The faces have changed, and our congregation has grown and expanded, but it is still our place to call home.