Faces of Faith – Chattanooga, Tenn.

Our Oktoberfest event couldn’t have gone any better. In partnership with some local businesses next door, we were able to welcome more than 600 people onto our church campus. But easily the best thing that happened that day was meeting Eborah. Eborah had marked that she was interested in finding a church home and taking a Foundations class. In my initial follow-up with her, the first thing she mentioned was that she was still struggling, mentally and spiritually, after losing her mom earlier in the year. Her mom had been her spiritual mentor, and now she felt she’d lost that connection with God when she lost her mom. After an initial counseling session with me, Eborah agreed to take our Foundations class, knowing her mom would have loved for her to keep studying the Bible. After the first lesson, Eborah asked if her daughter Natosha could join us. After a couple more lessons, she said her son, Amasa, would join us too. The next week her youngest daughter, Lexus, came to study along with her children KJ, Ka’myah, and Kenzo. You could just see Eborah beaming with joy as she sat at the table learning about God’s Word every Saturday afternoon with her entire family. The best blessing of all was getting to see Natosha, Lexus, KJ, Ka’myah, and Kenzo get baptized in March 2025. Eborah was beaming with joy. It’s amazing how God can turn the story of one hurting soul into a story of baptismal joy for an entire extended family!

From Eric Melso, home missionary at Living Hope in Chattanooga, Tenn.