“I have a member of the VKids team who’s experienced significant bouts of sever anxiety. From serving on our team, receiving regular prayer and joining a small group, she is committed to finding the help she needs to do battle. It’s been such a hard road, I’ve prayed and talked with her so many times, and while I’d love to report a significant 180, that’s just not the case here. And I think this might be the case for many of us. But what there is is small wins each day—baby steps forward. While the anxiety is still very real, each day, as she wakes up and chooses to fight, she’s staring to win a little more. And I think that’s a beautiful picture of hope and healing. It can sometimes be small changes over time that ultimately change the trajectory of our whole life. That’s what this community does. It points people to Jesus as they transform in the largest and smallest ways to look more and more like him as our hope is shifted from ourselves and from the way the world tells us we should be to the place God shows us true life is found. And to me, that’s something to celebrate.”

—Becca Eastvold