thankful.

As I was running tonight, I started mentally writing a blog post (yes, I do that- and if all the blogs I thought out while in the car or on a run actually got written, I'd have way more posts!) about my favorite parts of life in Tampa that I want to write when we hit our one year here in a week.  It got me thinking about my church, and I quickly realized that I could just write a whole blog post about why we love aletheia- so I'm going to!


From day one in Tampa, aletheia has been a blessing to Cori and I.  And I literally mean day one.


I attended the original aletheia church for a season when I went to JMU.  Since then they've planted churches in Mexico, Richmond, Norfolk, St. Petersburg, Gainesville- and Tampa.  When Cori and I first found out last July that his fellowship with the CDC (Center for Disease Control) would be taking us to Tampa, my sweet friend Caitlyn reminded me that there was an aletheia here.  I quickly realized that a few people I knew- and even more who I knew of- were part of that church plant.  Cori and I made plans to attend aletheia our first Sunday in Tampa.  After leaving New Orleans on Saturday afternoon, we rolled into our first 'home' in Tampa (and by that, I mean the hotel where we spent a few nights before we found our rental home) at 3:30 am Sunday morning.  Hours later, we pulled ourselves out of bed and made it to church by 11am- one of few times we've actually been on time for services!  We walked in and were greeted by aletheia Tampa's pastor, Aaron, who I knew from JMU.  Let me tell you something about the Proffitt family- they remember names and they remember people.  Even though it had been years since I'd attended church in Harrisonburg and even longer since I was a freshman in the kinesiology class that Aaron taught, he hadn't forgotten who I was.  I introduced him to Cori and met his wife, Ashlee, who was someone I knew of but didn't actually know at JMU.


I'll never forget what happened next.  My friend Lindsey- who was one of those college friends who you've always really liked but never quite had enough time to get to know- comes running up to me, excited but confused as to why this girl she knew from college but hasn't seen in 5 years is at her church in another part of the country.  She says, "Rebecca Taylor!?  But wait, that's not your name anymore!"  After a week of painful goodbyes to some of my closest friends in New Orleans, it was beyond wonderful to see people I knew within hours of moving to Tampa.  The Lord's kindness in that blew me away.  That first week, people from aletheia helped us move into our home and on Friday- less than a week after we'd moved- Lindsey and her husband Matt had us over for dinner.


And that was just the beginning.  In the year that we've lived here, aletheia has blessed us and challenged us in ways we couldn't have imagined or asked for.  Last fall, I was part of a Bible study for married women.  When it started, I had been married for 2 months, and showed up every week with an attitude of 'please show me how to have a Christ-centered marriage because I sure as heck don't know what I'm doing!'  Learning from and with women in so many different stages of life- some married for not much longer than me, others married for years and with kids- was beautiful.  To be honest, there are ways that aletheia has blessed us that we didn't want, but as it turns out, needed- like challenging us by example to step out of our comfort zones and more boldly share Jesus- but it is always rooted in the underlying, beautiful reminder that everything we do is based on the Lord's merciful, undeserved love for us.  We have loved worshiping amidst such sweet sisters and brothers, and I cannot say enough how much we enjoy the worship band.  

I could go on and on about aletheia.  I could talk about the sweet prayer times I've had at Bible studies or the men Cori's gotten to know (and play frisbee golf with!) or the way I'm absolutely loving the series on Jonah we're going through right now.  But instead I'll just end with this- the Lord has blessed us with aletheia tampa.  To Him be the glory!