My husband and I moved to New York City in 2008, where we both began our professional journeys — him working in finance and me as a physician assistant in healthcare. We attended Redeemer Presbyterian Church where we met other young couples and formed a weekly Bible study.
My husband and I went to church regularly growing up and considered ourselves Christians. But during the years we met together with our Bible study group and attended church at Redeemer, we both started to realize there was a depth to being a Christian that we hadn’t known. We learned that we could have an intimate relationship with Jesus and be disciples of Jesus not just individually, but with each other as husband and wife and with our community of believers.
Our Bible study group began living life together more and grew to see each other as family, most of us not having extended family in New York City. Besides meeting together for Bible study, we’d hang out at parks, meet for coffee mid-work day, gather for significant life occasions, and celebrate holidays with each other. We’d pray for each other and share the significant highs and lows of our jobs and relationships.
We read through the book Every Good Endeavor by Tim Keller and learned about how our work and lives mattered to God, and that there was a uniqueness to working in a city setting as a Christian. The idea that God loved cities and that Christians should intentionally seek out living in cities was counter to what a lot of us had thought. Thinking and learning more about intentionally living in a city while going to Redeemer changed my husband’s and my heart and mind about where we’d eventually raise our kids. We agreed that Christians are called to be in the cities while abiding in Jesus and reflecting his values and priorities alongside other believers.
We had hoped to start having children easily and alongside our friends as many young couples do. But our path to having children included three years of trying and waiting before a surprisingly short adoption process, and then successful reproductive assistance resulting in twins. Our season of infertility was the first time my husband and I walked through significant sadness, suffering, and questioning of God. Our community from Redeemer held us up in ways that reflected how God cares for us practically, laments with us, and hopes for us when we are struggling to hope.
My husband and I both grew in our understanding of how suffering can bring us closer to God if we let it and can be a gift if we let it as well. We wouldn’t change the path we had to walk to have children because of how rich of a time it was in both of our faiths.
In 2018 my husband’s career moved us to Los Angeles, despite not feeling ready to leave New York City; but we knew this was best for our family. We had three children, and one on the way, and moving to a new city and making it home felt daunting; but I knew it was where God was taking us, and I wanted to honor that. We landed at an amazing Christian school in Pacific Palisades, Calvary Christian School. And we eventually found a church, Vintage Church, where we began forming relationships and then community.
My husband and I were grateful for the lessons we learned at Redeemer about faith and work and what Christ-centered community looks like, because we were able to take that template to Los Angeles and try to intentionally form community and find work for me. After a few months of living in LA, we were both struck by how significant the homelessness crisis was, and still is, in LA. We wanted to figure out how to be a part of improving this part of the city.
We learned about a medical organization called Los Angeles Christian Health Center, where the patients were mostly unhoused individuals, and I knew that that’s how I could help as a Physician Assistant. I don’t think I would have willingly signed on to work on LA’s Skid Row without the kingdom perspective that we are all made in his image and that we could do kingdom work with our jobs. Our kids now know a lot about people who are unhoused, and we’ve been able to have great conversations about God’s upside-down kingdom and that we can use our time and talents to serve others. My time working at the health clinic has helped our family care more about the people of Los Angeles and has given us opportunities to build understanding in our kids of God’s mercy and justice.
We wouldn’t change the path we had to walk to have children because of how rich of a time it was in both of our faiths.
On January 7, 2025, our family and most of our community lost our homes in the Palisades fire. The visible and invisible losses of this circumstance feel endless. Overnight, our friends and neighbors scattered to find shelter, and our life and daily rhythms were gone. How does anyone process this? For us, we are looking to Jesus and all of the lessons we’ve learned in community with fellow believers and in our times of suffering in the past. Something significant my husband and I learned from Tim Keller while we were at Redeemer was that God calls us to be obedient to him in the little moments in life — and then we are prepared to be obedient to him in the big moments.
We could leave Los Angeles and seek a comfortable life in another beautiful city — or at least one with a functioning grocery store. But our church and our kids’ school are in Pacific Palisades. We’ve spent years living life with the community of believers at our school and church. Our children have many adults who have poured into their faith as my husband and I have tried to do with friends’ kids. God has connected us and brought us together in Pacific Palisades when it was beautiful and easy.
Now, it’s uncomfortable and it feels dark. But we know that only God gives us real comfort and real hope despite the difficult road ahead of us. We are choosing to stay right where God has us — in a broken city — and try to obediently abide in him, so we can better walk alongside our community and remind ourselves and our friends of God’s truths in this season of suffering. We want to be a part of the hard work God has set before us to hopefully bring him glory through this tragedy. Jesus suffered and endured hardship, and we can too — with his hardship being far greater. Through this valley, we can grow closer to God, and that is what we want our priority to be.
