A few months ago Nick, my mom, and I were sitting at the kitchen table of my grandparents’ homestead in the boonies of Pennsylvania, detoxing from all the chaos in the world. The police protests and riots had just begun, and our souls were restless. The break was refreshing — and necessary.
We were shooting the breeze, discussing any topic that came to mind, when my mom mentioned an idea her small group had come up with to continue meeting while maintaining social distancing. I admired her group — fellowship was something I had been missing greatly, so I was hungry for something that could satiate that desire.
“We’re thinking about streaming church from her garage on Sunday.”
My eyes widened — could it really be that simple?
I looked at Nick, his eyes just as wide as mine. We stared intently for a brief second before hurriedly agreeing, “That’s a fantastic idea!”
When we thought about having church in our garage, it felt so right, and there were a few details we decided to iron out right there at the table.
When will we start? This Sunday.
What church will we stream? Hope Church in Brunswick.
Who will we invite? Our neighbors.
Were we crazy? It sure felt like it.
What a coincidence. I thought as we continued to mull over the idea, but now I know there is no such thing.
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The Saturday before our conversation at that dining room table we were trying to figure out what project to accomplish on our work-day. A few came to mind — weeding the garden beds, power-washing the patio, finishing up our basement remodeling project. Ultimately we knew there was one project we couldn’t put off any longer — we had to clean and reorganize the garage.
That day Nick drew up an extensive plan — one that involved a deep, deep, deep clean, making piles of things to throw away, to keep, and to sell, designing and building work benches to help with organization, and mounting some strut channel to help stack wood efficiently (he wanted me to include that he was particularly excited about that aspect of the project). It was no small feat — one we knew would likely take more than a few days to complete — but it was long over-due. We started cleaning out the garage that week.
Coincidence? I think not.
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In the middle of May, Nick and I took a trip to see his grandma so she could finally meet her newest great granddaughter. It’s about an hour drive, but I love a good road trip.
I seriously have no idea how we got on this topic, but we were discussing church — the fact that it was closed with no plans at that moment to reopen, how hard it had been to function without the fellowship, and everything in between. But what we were particularly wrestling with was something that had been stirring in our hearts for several months — actually, a couple years.
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When Nick’s lung collapsed the first time over a year and a half ago, he often laughs when he says “It’s because I didn’t listen to my wife.”
The day before he walked himself into the ER, we had been talking about a pastor friend of ours, Shawn — about how wonderful of a mentor, friend, and pastor he is, how we missed him, etc. I then exclaimed emphatically to Nick, “You should get lunch with him!” It wasn’t an abnormal comment — Nick often goes out to lunch with people, but his response kind of surprised me.
“Nah, I don’t have anything to talk to him about.”
The next morning at 8am I found myself in the trauma room in the ER at Southwest General waiting for Nick to return from getting an x-ray of his chest when in walks Shawn. Immediately my brain noted the coincidence and, once my surprise wore off, I asked him how he knew we were there.
“Your mother-in-law submitted a prayer request to the church. I was up reading my bible and praying when I got the email so I figured I’d come by.”
That day he helped us in ways I can’t even begin to fully describe. He stayed with me as I waited for the ER doctor to finish the procedure to inflate Nick’s lung, and he was able to help and encourage Nick in finding a way to heal a friendship that had been burdening him for some time. When Nick and I came back together after our separate conversations with Shawn, we were amazed — I remember just sitting in silence with Nick, marveling at God’s orchestration. Though I can almost guarantee you Nick was likely thinking “Why in the world didn’t I listen to my wife?”
A couple weeks later, Shawn became Senior Pastor at a church in the city in which we live — Hope Church in Brunswick.
Could God be calling us there? We wondered. So we prayed and asked for God’s clear direction and, to our surprise, God gave a very firm “No.” The day after we prayed that prayer, we had several people approach us at our church about a myriad of things — ministries, mentorship, offering encouragement in our involvement at the church. We didn’t identify it at first, but as we drove away afterward, we realized this was about as clear as God could get.
But our hearts remained open for whatever God had in store.
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When Nick’s lung collapsed the second time four months ago, Nick was allowed no visitors — not even 9-month-pregnant me.
While Nick was there, one of his pastor friends texted him to look out his window. When he did, he saw our pastor friend and Shawn standing on the path outside his hospital window waving. It was just the encouragement he needed — the hospital was so cold and lonely, and such a small gesture made a world of difference.
But the day after Nick was released from the hospital, he could feel his lung collapsing again. He was frustrated, to say the least. Here I was, mere days before my due date, with a husband that seemed to be making a habit of these lung collapses (I’m kidding, of course).
But in his frustration, Nick knew he needed to talk to someone, so he called Shawn.
The next 15 minutes Shawn spent praying for us, encouraging us, and speaking blessings over us as we wrestled with why Nick’s lung was so unstable and why this couldn’t have waited until — I don’t know — after we had our third child?
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It was bright and early on a Saturday morning — 4am, to be exact — when Nick woke me up from his tossing and turning. “I need to go to the ER.”
The next question was obvious.
“Who do we call?” There wasn’t even a chance that I would drive him to the ER at 39.5 weeks pregnant at four in the morning with two little girls sleeping soundly in their beds, but who else is there?
So Nick texted Shawn — someone he knew was an early riser, although perhaps not that early. There was a chance, albeit slim.
“I’m on my way. Send me your address,” was his reply not even a minute after Nick sent the text.
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The end of that story is a good one — the surgery Nick had done that day has a 99% success rate, baby #3 was born 4 days after the tube was removed from Nick’s side, and all is well.
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But driving together to meet Nick’s grandma a couple weeks later we could feel our hearts stirring. Could this finally be God’s timing? So we prayed, and as Nick prayed I could feel it — yes, yes it was. I knew it was, but who am I to interrupt a prayer? So I waited, but found myself listening to my husband coming to the same conclusion as he prayed. Once he stopped at the red light ahead of us, he turned his head, looked at me, and prayed “I think we both know that this is what You want us to do.” It was time to begin attending Hope Church in Brunswick.
But it was May — church wasn’t in session. Attending wasn’t even an option. So why was God calling us, right then and there?
The answer became clear only a couple weeks later at that table in my grandparents’ house in the outskirts of Pennsylvania.
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Nick and I are passionate about spreading the Good News to anyone that will listen. God is our marvelous Creator, our constant help, our loving Father, and He is coming again to reconcile the world and wipe out all the evil and sickness it contains — and that’s SO STINKING EXCITING.
We have been praying, just waiting for an opportunity to show people the love of Christ. When COVID hit, it seemed like we couldn’t do anything. We felt stuck.
“God, you called us to make disciples and we can’t even leave our house. What gives?”
But our God is a creative God, and He knew what He was doing placing us in those chairs at that table with my mom sitting beside us as she got the text that her small group leader was thinking about streaming church from her garage. This was no coincidence.
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So that week we mounted a TV in our garage, prepped a bunch of burgers, and invited our neighbors to join as we streamed Hope Church in Brunswick from our garage.
And it was totally weird.
First of all, neighbors. We see them all the time, but like, inviting them to church? In our garage?
But wouldn’t you know it, our neighbors are actually amazing. Like really amazing, and there’s something really amazing about getting our community together to do something a little out of the ordinary, especially when there’s food involved, because why not have a cookout? Throw a few burgers on the grill, cut up some watermelon, maybe grill a few ears of corn and you’ve set yourself up for a successful neighborhood Garage Church.
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I say all this to excite you and, if I can dare to say it, convict you. What are you doing to spread the love of Christ in this season? Because Lord knows the world needs it.
But be vigilant friends — expect hardship once you commit to doing this or something like it. I actually made it a point to warn Nick on the way home from PA that we should expect some significant marital issue to surface some time that week. If there’s anything I notice when we follow God’s nudging, it’s that. The enemy tries anything and everything he can to distract whenever anyone chooses the path of righteousness. But the Lord says to consider it pure joy when we face trials like that, because if instead of viewing it as a struggle we see it as a test of faith then we will gain perseverance in our walk with Christ (James 1:2-3). So that week when we became incredibly frustrated with one another, Nick stopped and told me “You were right.” Somehow knowing that this, although a legitimate conflict, was spurred on by the enemy’s hatred toward our obedience allowed us to push through and resolve and reconcile quickly.
But the enemy tried attacking us individually, too — the night before our very first Garage Church I woke up nearly shaking from a nightmare. But I feel blessed by this — knowing that I am following God’s plan for my life is so incredibly reassuring. It gives me an abundant amount of peace and confidence when I experience negative circumstances such as these.
God has used us to do some really amazing things and I pray that He would take the words I’m writing to spark a fire in you to follow Him and do the same. The world is desperate for hope — hope that only God can provide. So GO, and make disciples! Don’t sit back and let COVID keep you from doing what God has called all of us as believers to do. The world is broken and hurting and in need of a Savior.
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Matthew 22:36-39
~ Leah Artman ❤️
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