ALISA DAUM: How God has blessed me as a member of this church.
Happy birthday, Winchester Baptist Church! Eight years looks great on you.
When I first attended WBC in the fall of 2012, we were still meeting in the cafeteria at Millbrook High School. Earlier that summer, I discovered the church through the Nine Marks website and knew from the moment I walked through the door that this was where I was supposed to be. I remember sitting next to Janey and asking her to write her family’s address on the bulletin so I could check out the community group later that week. I had to leave the service early to go to work as a graduate student at Shenandoah University, and I felt terrible because there was no way to let Tim know I wasn’t walking out because of his sermon!
What a gift it is to look back and remember these things. To see what has changed and what remains the same.
Each year, as we look back, I see evidence of God’s grace because we are abundantly clothed in it. Each season adds a new layer of mercy and beauty as our community grows and new chapters are added to our stories. I am reminded that God’s mercies are renewed every morning, because I see them renewed each week with you.
God has gifted me with an overflowing fountain of grace through Winchester Baptist Church – through each of you to me. I smell the sweet fragrance of Christ when I enter the doors and walk among you. I taste the Lord’s goodness in the coffee that is brewed and the sweet fruit that is shared in tiny plastic cups each week. I hear the roar of voices from God’s people in the songs we sing together. And I see the Gospel lived out when you drive all the way to Ohio to stand with me at my father’s funeral.
I am reminded of the Spirit’s attentiveness to our lives when you ask about my work or how my family is doing. I am surrounded by beautiful illustrations of unconditional love, covenants and marriage when I look to each of you. Shawn and I are challenged, encouraged and inspired by your examples. My wonder and awe of creation are reawakened when I see the littles ones playing with each other, without any fear and with an endless sense of curiosity.
Winchester Baptist Church has been an anchor for me throughout these eight years. Its faithfulness – your faithfulness as individuals and collectively – has provided a strong foundation for me, even when my faith felt like it was holding on by a thin thread. Your prayers, your words, and your love have been used by God to help sustain me and draw me ever closer to Him.
My love for God, His creation and His mission have grown deeper than I ever thought possible, and I have barely even scratched the surface of this glorious passion. And what a joy it is to know that we have not only a lifetime, but all eternity to love Him even more. To know Him and to be known by Him.
Come and behold Him, the one and the only. Winchester Baptist Church, it is a joy to grow older with you.
—Alisa Daum