Serving with my family at PCC is an experience I never expected to have, much less
enjoy. A little background: I come from a church background, but not necessarily a
happy one. Church as a kid always felt more like an obligation than something I wanted
to do. When I met my husband, he was also involved in a church but had a much better
experience than I did.
We weren’t expecting much when we began attending PCC almost two years ago.
Though my husband had a better experience in the church than I did, he also had some
church hurt that pushed us both away from feeling accepted. It wasn’t long before we
felt a pull to do more within the church. We volunteered at many events, such as Easter,
At the Movies, Trunk-or-Treat, Christmas, and more.
We were building relationships within the church that became very important to us. Still,
the relationship that flourished and became stronger was our relationship with each
other. Our conversations became more Jesus-centered and service-centered. At first,
we didn’t notice it. We have always felt communication is crucial in a relationship, so
while we were always talking, we didn’t see a change in our topic of conversation. To us,
we were just having conversations. That is, until people around us started commenting on
how much we talk about church and how much we are involved in the church!
Serving together at church has changed us in ways we never expected. Many would
look at our relationship as recently as just a couple of years ago and think we were an
“old, boring married couple.” We got up in the morning, got our kids off to school, went to work, came home and had dinner, did a couple of chores, enjoyed hobbies that
included playing video games or reading, went to bed, and started the whole process
again the next day. Weekends were only different because we didn’t work and our kids
didn’t attend school.
Now, our days, evenings, and weekends are completely unrecognizable comparably.
Each day of the week has something on the calendar to indicate whether we are
participating in a church event, meeting, or small group activity or preparing our family
for a church event, meeting, or small group activity! Also, having to keep track of
anything on a calendar for our family is a huge change! I’m now attending Bluefield
University through PCC to get my degree in Christian Leadership with the hopes of
becoming a Pastor. My husband is one of the tech coordinators at the Aylett campus,
and I’m the growth track coordinator at the Aylett campus. We are also excited to go on our
first mission trip this summer with our kids and the other students!
The truth is, we don’t feel obligated to serve. Maybe in the beginning, we volunteered
and later thought to ourselves, “Why did we sign up?”; but now we don’t even question whether we will sign up to volunteer. It’s a given for us. The level of love we feel for our
community and our compassion towards those in need or even to help and pray with
someone is unbelievable. We have never felt this level of belonging anywhere else
we’ve been. PCC is home. PCC is family. And serving others is an honor and privilege
for us.
Anyone who may be considering serving with their family or even on their own, I
encourage you to do it. Even when that day comes that you signed up to serve, the
bottle of nerves kicks in, and you wonder why you did this; I promise you there will be
someone there who will see you serving and feel encouraged. You will have an
impact on someone. Maybe you won’t be aware of it, but God puts us exactly where we
are needed and where we need to be.
So, if you’re on the fence, go for it.
