The Church Hopper

If you are a reader of this blog, you may have seen that my last blog was entitled “I am BACK”. Well, I thought I was… You know that saying, “If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans.” Yup, that happened. 

Over the past couple of months, a lot has happened. I went through three different sicknesses, went on a 10-day vacation, and I lost my Papa. On this blog I am going to expand a bit about one of those events. No, I will not share the awful details of nasty stomach bugs or sinus/ear infections. While I would love to share about my vacation, because traveling is my passion – I feel like this is not the place for all my tips and tricks. I am going to talk about the loss of my Papa and how the “church” helped us through this hard time. 

When someone passes away you feel a lot of emotions and numbness at the same time. You may also feel like you want to be alone, but in the next moment you want someone to hold you. Grief is a strange season, and no one experiences it the same way. For Christians, we also have many moments of joy that unbelievers will not understand. We have joy because we know what is next for our loved ones who had a relationship with Jesus. We are not sad for them; we are sad for us. 

Working in a church for many years, I have often been the person answering the phone when a member calls to let us know that someone has passed away. It is never a phone call that anyone wants to receive. Notifying the church is one of the first things that most families do because they know that they need that support. They need the prayers, the calls, the visits, and the community! Going through this season of loss for my Papa, I was amazed at how the body of Christ came together for my family. My papa’s church, the church that I work at, the church that I am a member at but have not attended in over 11 years. They all had us on their prayer lists, calls and visits were made. It was beautiful to see the other side of Christ’s love in action. 

I do not know how people go through hard times without faith or a church family. And, I am thankful that I will never have to experience it either. While I am church hopping and not actually settled into a church – I found comfort in my ties to my home churches and my weekly bible study group.