Today was finally the last day worshiping at Grace Covenant in Blacksburg. I have been dreading this day since last summer when the church plant became real! Not because I am not excited about the new church, just because I knew it would be emotional saying goodbye to so many wonderful people. I do need to remind myself though, they are only 15 minutes down the road! I hope to be more intentional about getting together with the people that I won't be seeing every Sunday, and maybe we will end up spending more time together as a result.
Twelve years ago this summer we moved to Christiansburg from Williamsburg and the first church we visited was Grace. It was also the last church we visited! Everyone was so friendly and welcoming on that first day, we met some great people, including the Singlers, Gardners, Bowmans, and Smiths. Dawn Bowman was pregnant with their first child, Drew. We started going to the Gardner's home group right away. I do remember teaching Children's Worship when we first started attending Grace, there were only about 8 kids in the class! Today it is closer to 30 :) Christina Ribbens, Michael Ribbens, and Cal Wontrop were some of my first "students". Now they are either in high school or college. One of my favorite memories from the early years was being able to reach out to international students on Friday nights in Squires. Since we didn't have children yet, our schedule was much more free (although we didn't realize it at the time!) and we met a wonderful family from Mexico who we hung out with for the rest of the school year.
Another great memory was the summer we led a missions trip to Fairmont, WV. The Larsons came with us and some of the kids from the youth group, we barely knew each other but had a wonderful time. Andrew Wolf, Corrie Holton, Lizzie Diller, Aaron Larson and Amanda Day came with us and strong friendships were formed. I think it's impossible not to become friends after spending an entire week in the hot sun trying to fix up a house together! And on the way home from WV all of the girls were in my Honda Civic and we listened to fun music and sang along. I do believe that there was also a sleepover at our house in Pembroke? I vaguely remember Corrie, Mikaela, and Claire coming over for some girl time.
I have loved Grace Covenant for the authenticity of its members, no one pretends to have it all together and we all agree on one thing, we are sinners in need of a Savior. The love and compassion that people have given us has been life-changing. I can't count the number of meals that people have brought to our house when I've had a baby or struggled with depression. People have mowed our lawn, helped paint our house, installed ceramic tiles in the bathroom, given us money "anonymously", and half of our furniture has come from Grace families. We have renamed our house the McKnight-Rodi-Holton residence :)
Grace has truly shown us what the Body of Christ looks like. We hope to take what we have learned to Providence, and try it out on them :) Luckily some of my favorite people are coming with us to the new church. And unfortunately some of my favorite people are staying behind. It is God though who unites us and makes us One with Him.
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