H7 Story: Community and Accountability
By Heather Wright
It’s hard to make this short because God has done so much in my life over the past eight years.
I started attending FCC in 2018, after I moved to Greeneville to try and save my marriage. I was alone and going through a divorce. I remember trying to hide in the back and blend in, but Sonya Higgs was having none of that. I remember thinking “lady leave me alone,” after she sat down next to me and started talking. (Now she is one of my most favorite people, my sister, and my mentor.)
At the time, I was ashamed, hurt, alone and seeking God for comfort. I didn’t really want to do the whole “fellowship thing.” As a natural introvert, I wanted to go to church, seek God, and be left alone. I attended off and on for a couple years, and I watched online during Covid.
One day, I was sitting at work watching online and felt a very heavy push to go back to church in person. So the next Sunday I did just that. After a few Sundays I switched to Afton where Sonya attended and then asked to join her Life Group. This is where I met my husband, Darrell. A year later we were married, and eight months later I found out I was pregnant. Now we attend our Life Group as a family. We are so blessed to have such an amazing support system. They have helped mentor Darrell and I through courtship, dating, engagement, a new marriage, the growing pains that came with all of that, and now parenthood.
Knowing we have our Life Group family for our son provides a sense of peace because neither of us have “blood” family we are comfortable leaving him alone with. It is incredibly important to us both that he is raised around people with strong Christian values as well. We are blessed to have the accountability of our Life Group family while we grow in our faith as a family.
To say we love our Life Group would be an understatement. It’s crazy to think that just a few years ago I was hiding in the back of the church trying to isolate, hide my shame, and find God amongst the hurt by myself. Today I am thriving, and even when things are hard, I am seeking community and accountability, and looking forward to the love and fellowship of our Life Group for years to come.
I started attending FCC in 2018, after I moved to Greeneville to try and save my marriage. I was alone and going through a divorce. I remember trying to hide in the back and blend in, but Sonya Higgs was having none of that. I remember thinking “lady leave me alone,” after she sat down next to me and started talking. (Now she is one of my most favorite people, my sister, and my mentor.)
At the time, I was ashamed, hurt, alone and seeking God for comfort. I didn’t really want to do the whole “fellowship thing.” As a natural introvert, I wanted to go to church, seek God, and be left alone. I attended off and on for a couple years, and I watched online during Covid.
One day, I was sitting at work watching online and felt a very heavy push to go back to church in person. So the next Sunday I did just that. After a few Sundays I switched to Afton where Sonya attended and then asked to join her Life Group. This is where I met my husband, Darrell. A year later we were married, and eight months later I found out I was pregnant. Now we attend our Life Group as a family. We are so blessed to have such an amazing support system. They have helped mentor Darrell and I through courtship, dating, engagement, a new marriage, the growing pains that came with all of that, and now parenthood.
Knowing we have our Life Group family for our son provides a sense of peace because neither of us have “blood” family we are comfortable leaving him alone with. It is incredibly important to us both that he is raised around people with strong Christian values as well. We are blessed to have the accountability of our Life Group family while we grow in our faith as a family.
To say we love our Life Group would be an understatement. It’s crazy to think that just a few years ago I was hiding in the back of the church trying to isolate, hide my shame, and find God amongst the hurt by myself. Today I am thriving, and even when things are hard, I am seeking community and accountability, and looking forward to the love and fellowship of our Life Group for years to come.
