My family has had a whirlwind over the last couple of years surfacing from covid. Our walk with Kingship started on a Friday Night. Our youngest, sweet little Morris, was just two months old. Around that time, we were trying to recover from childbirth. We really didn’t have free time at all. We were just trying to find a community we could lean on. My wife, Amber, initially convinced my oldest Asher to attend the hosted event by the promise of tater tots. I think she was actually trying to persuade me since tater tots are my love language. The bond of father and son getting excited over a tasty treat worked and we showed up.
We met some people, ate some food, went back home and digested all of it. But the whirlwind of parenting tossed us back into feeling like we already have too much to handle. Community wasn’t a foreign thing to us. There was a time when we had built a community with neighbors to do life with, but as covid brought so much change, we saw them all move out of state, leaving us with a very bitter taste of starting over. It was evident in our lives that our family needed support and shared-value friends, but trusting again would take time. Dinner Church in a barn, as my son liked to call it, was maybe all we could handle right then. So we went a couple more times.
After getting to meet others in the Kingship Community, we took the leap to attend a Sunday morning gathering. Which is very interesting for my family, because I work on Sundays. So to make the effort, rework my schedule, so we could be there showed how much we knew we were in need of more. Kingship offered something more for my family than going to a different service that would have worked better. Kingship demonstrated commitment to doing life together. It feels like your home with family, which I had never felt before. It was something difficult for me to recognize and accept, probably because of being a product of a broken home.
The whirlwind continued with Amber’s grandmother having health issues that set in motion a lot of moving pieces that saw my family having to sell our house and temporarily move into a fifth wheel trailer with continued delays trying to move into our new home. Before we could move in the home was in need of repairs. Men started to volunteer to help me lay down flooring and paint. It was so amazing to witness and I have a hard time accepting help from other people. So for me to open up and allow people to come into my vulnerability of needing help was a huge step for me.
This led me to attending the Men’s Group and spend time with these others that surrounded me. Just to have a group of guys that meet in a public place and discuss their love for Jesus; sharing their vulnerabilities and triumphs, was huge for me. I had never had a father figure in my life, so to be encouraged and built up, it bolstered me to continue.
Kingship demonstrated that it walks the walk, not just talks the talk on Sundays. It took a lot for me personally to accept this level of investment in me. My heart grew because I didn’t know what to be in a place that felt like home. But I found I could be here and I’m so thankful for Kingship for experiencing that. My wife and I dedicated Morris during Easter and just to have a church body to be dedicated with us in raising our family to follow Jesus is amazing to see. I’m so thankful for that dinner. I didn’t realize it then, of what I was looking at, but I am grateful for the commitment of this community.
It's awesome to have you and your family, brother! Thanks for sharing!