We are Eli and Danica, and our family was led to Olympia City Church in the summer of 2014. At the time our daughter was three years old and our son was just turning one. We had been floundering in our church life, particularly since having babies and enduring many sleepless nights. We found little motivation to get to church, partly because when we failed to go it went relatively unnoticed. We had been attending churches but not connecting with the people during that time, and though we were trying in the usual ways we weren't really making progress and we were weary.

     We had rich christian friendships but they were being fostered “outside of church.” We started to question what “church” was. We would read articles about some churches trying a different approach: keeping it simple, sharing meals, growing by spreading out as smaller communities instead of growing bigger in one large location. It was more like what we had thought of as the “small group” or the accessory to church. But also maybe a bit more like what we read about in the New Testament. We remember crying with longing when we read about these churches.

     During this time we drove past a small sign inviting neighborhood kids to “backyard city clubs” in our area and saw that it said Olympia City Church and had an arrow pointing to a house. I knew there was no church “building” down that street so I looked up OCC online and when I read about the vision and mission we went to the next worship service. From there we were plugged right into a city group that was just launching at the house where I'd noticed the sign!

The model of the front door of the church being the home, having a shared meal, being involved with each other throughout the week, and seeking to serve together (even trying to coincide with kids’ sports and activities when possible) was absolutely life changing for our family. 

     For us the expectation of being present and being a part of things was so refreshing and connecting. We had been invited to participate in church activities in the past but it had never felt expected. We found a strong accountability we had been missing. We saw community similar to what we'd read about in the New Testament being modeled every single day. We weren't on our own Monday through Saturday. Church was a people and we were doing this together 24/7! We were encouraged by this to show love and value to others in a more purposeful way than we had been.

     Over time we became increasingly convicted of sin we'd allowed in our lives, abusing alcohol in particular. It became clear to us that we could not go where God was leading us while hiding sin. We went to our leaders and confessed and have been sober for over 3 years now. Since then, through the support, training, and the community of Olympia City Church, God has been changing our minds and hearts and increasing our desire to lead and disciple others in his gospel. We've been able to see God use us in ways we never expected. We are so thankful he heard the desire of our hearts and alerted me to that little sign on the street.