Why Our Family Joined Edgewater? 

Everywhere we looked was devastation.  “How can this be home?” I thought, as I peered out the car window, tears streaming down my face.  Just a few days after Charley had blown through Charlotte County, my husband, Lance, had accepted a job offer at a law firm in Punta Gorda.  They needed attorneys to help put things back together.  So here we were, house hunting in a place that no longer had houses and wishing we could go back to the home we loved in Apopka, a small town north of Orlando.  The job search had been long, and we knew that God wanted us here, but we weren’t sure why.  I cried for everyone’s losses that day, including my own.

Once we’d settled into North Port, we went “church shopping.”I knew exactly what we wanted: friendly and full of families with small children so that our two year old son, Christian, would have playmates.  The first church on our list was empty.  The second we couldn’t find!  I scanned down the list to the bottom and sighed, “We’ll have to go into Port Charlotte.  Edgewater is the only one that hasn’t started yet.”  We arrived late, there was only one other child in the tiny nursery, and the building was amess.  But, the sermon hit home. 

The following Sunday, when it was time to decide which new church to visit, I knew…. Edgewater!  I had to go back.  That was the Sunday I met Pastor Don and was launched into a life I never could have envisioned.

First, Pastor Don put me to work using my Anthropology degree to research ways to connect with the community.  Then, he encouraged me to do someconnecting myself by leading an invitation ministry.  At first I said no.  I was as broken, frightened, and lost on the inside as Charlotte County was on the outside.  But, with Pastor's help, we bulldozed the mess, clearing the debris bit by bit.  I didn’t notice the dust in the church anymore.  I was under construction too and felt like I fit right in.

During that time, I joined the worship band, an incredibly positive and loving group of people.  The first Sunday I sang, I was invited to help move one of the singers out of her home.  A few of the team members with trucks would be helping as well. 

I knew I had the privilege of becoming part of something special when every single person on the team showed up with trucks and trailers and spent the afternoon joking and laughing as they moved this woman’s belongings in the pouring rain.  That’s when I decided to join the church.  I knew I would find God here.

Now, I am working with others to develop the invitation ministry.  We envision a church that routinely goes outside it’s walls to draw others in, welcoming everyone into the loving family that is Edgewater, where they can explore, have fun, and learn to love God and each other.   

God has transformed me!  And, in exchange, I have stopped wishing for the perfect church, committing, instead, to loving this one and helping it grow. 

As a family, we have realized that it’s not about what a church can do for us.  It’s about what work we can do for God.   We didn’t choose this place or this church.  God chose it for us.  And I am extremely grateful that His plan was so muchbetter than ours. 

I thought we’d lost everything we loved and been brought to a place full of rubble.   Little did I know that the only thing lost was me.  Now, as the construction dust begins to settle, I can see it clearly.  God gave us so much more than crumbled buildings.  He gave us new life, a purpose and a home.

Lynn Ball