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| All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church |
Josh and I met at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas. I grew up attending the Church of Christ my entire life, the same church in fact, every Sunday and every Wednesday night, faithfully. Josh "came to the Lord" through Young Life. He attended a Presbyterian church throughout High School. Once he learned he could get a degree to work in a church with teens, he was hooked!
Since he was older than I was, he started his career in Youth Ministry while I was still in College. He worked for a Church of Christ for a little over two years while I finished up getting my education degree. He then moved back to Arkansas so that we could get married.
Once I graduated he got a Youth Ministry job in West Monroe, Louisiana. We were both pumped to work as a team with the teenagers there. Unfortunately, that position only lasted a few years. Josh was faced with a cross roads in his career and decided it was time for a change, you can't be a Youth Minister forever and he had no ambitions to become a preacher. So, with an 10 month old baby girl and being 37 weeks pregnant with the next, we packed up and moved to North Carolina to live with my family while Josh went to nursing school at UNC.
It was a very stressful time. We ended up moving out of my parents house after 10 months and in to what we like to call "The Brown Apartments." Little did we know how that move would change our lives FOREVER!
Soon after we moved in, a cute looking young couple moved in diagonally from us. After a failed attempt at getting them to cook out, we eventually got to hang out and became instant friends. Our dogs are still best friends :) Missy, the wife, is a fellow teacher, and Erik, is a fellow nerd with Josh (I say that with all the love I can muster in my heart, they are good nerds, cool nerds....) At the time, they attended an Evangelical church meeting in a movie theater.
After living there for a couple of years, it turns out we both were able to buy a house at the same time as well. Now we were 30 minutes apart, which hinder our getting together a bit, but we were still able to maintain our friendship.
One day Erik introduced Josh to Orthodoxy. They were playing their nerdy games together and I'm sure he shared some book for Josh to read. Josh LOVES history and church, so he gladly obliged. They began reading and discussing Orthodoxy through e-mails and time together. We learned eventually that Erik has started going to an Orthodox church.
"Poor Missy" was all I could think. Her husband has completely lost it! I must comfort her, were my thoughts! When we would get together I would try to make sure she was doing ok and handling this crazy "phase" of her husband. Little did I know that slowly, but surely, she was beginning to enjoy the Orthodox church. I noticed one day that when we were debating with Erik at how silly this whole Orthodox business was, she was defending it....what was happening?
I also noticed that my husband was reading more and more. Was he merely just trying to please his friend, or was he getting interested too? That is just silliness!
After repeated invitations, we finally gave in and visited the church as a family. I was COMPLETELY blown away by the service. I was in my first trimester with our 5th daughter. The incense was overwhelming and heightened my nausea. There was absolutely no child care whatsoever, so we had to handle all 4 of our young girls during the seemingly endless service, all while standing! There were candles, chanting, processions, Icons...so many strange things. None of this made any sense. Both Josh and I left the service thinking how impossible Orthodoxy was for our quickly growing family, not to mention all the crazy stuff that was done in service. I was glad to finally shut that door...or so I thought.
Josh kept reading...
and reading...
and reading...
Then he had me start listening to podcasts.
Then he wanted to visit again. He was slowly becoming convinced that Orthodoxy went back to the beginning, right back to the Apostles.
There was a Ladies Retreat to the beach coming up at my church. It could not have come too soon! I was so stressed out by my husband. What was he thinking? Was he going to tear our family apart? Were we going to have to start going to two different churches? Where would the children go? I discussed all of the questions with women who I considered mentors in the church. The most ironic part of the whole weekend was Friday night. We did a beautiful reading, prayer and singing time where we were invited to light a candle as a symbol of our prayers...how...Orthodox! So, I lit a candle for my husband.
Easter was about to hit in the Orthodox church, which means an all night service. We decided to wait until after that to start visiting. I grudgingly came along. I attempted to fumble through the liturgy, examining every word to find some sort of problem. We listened to podcasts constantly at home. I can't remember how, but somehow I stumbled across Facing East by Frederica Matthews-Green. It's a simple read of how a preachers wife made the transition to Orthodoxy. It takes you through a Liturgical year through her eyes.
It was just what I needed. She explained things in a way that I could understand. I connected with Frederica. I hit a turning point.
From that point on I was studying to understand, not just to disprove. There were many times I would call my friend Missy (now a full Orthodox convert) in frustration as I was trying to make sense of this new knowledge.
Sometime in the summer we became Catachumens and began studying to convert. It was thrilling and scary at the same time. I remember we witness and Chrismation service shortly after that and had some doubts. She looked so happy joining the church. I wasn't ready yet.
The more we studied the more I realized that the Orthodox church was truth. It came directly from Jesus through the Apostles and the Church Fathers. There is a preserved church that I can trust the doctrine. We all believe the same thing. We all believe the Bible and Jesus Christ.
With great excitement, August 15th, 2012, our whole family joined the Orthodox Church. Our daughters were baptized and Josh and I were Chrismated. It felt so good and so right to finally be a part of the Orthodox church.
And that is just the very beginning of our journey!
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