My name is Bree, and my faith story began as far back as I can remember. "We attended a small non-denom church that was the only church in our teeny, tiny town. I loved attending and have many fond memories of VBS, Sunday School, and our youth group. In my free time I would read my children’s bible, which I loved. Although I loved  all of these things, and I became “saved” as a young child, I couldn’t help but feel something was missing. I remember dealing with a lot of fear, and knew deep down I didn’t believe... It was a constant state of rationalizing and trying to make sense of it all, and I had way more questions than anyone else. I didn’t get it and I felt lost compared to my peers. 

     My family moved away from that town and we lost touch with the community. My teen years came and went, and I would go through seasons of deep darkness. That would continue to pull me away from faith.

     Fast forward to my early 20s. I’m happy, I’m married, and have a young son. We are doing well in life, and are doing our best to carve out a successful and healthy life for our sweet little family. I sometimes attended the Episcopal Church with my husband (Oscar). Oscar is a devout catholic but his uncle plays the guitar at the episcopal church so we go to support on certain holidays and I didn’t mind. The music was very beautiful, and the church members didn’t really talk to me, which I prefer. I’m not a believer, and didn’t feel pressured...I was cool with it.

      Initially I decided that when raising our kids Oscar would deal with all things spiritual.  I knew he had a strong faith and I completely trusted him. As long as our kids had freedom to choose their path, I was totally ok with it. Then came the alllll the Bible questions from the four year old! He could not be satisfied, and had to know answers. SO. MANY. QUESTIONS. It made me crazy!  With my husband working nights, I had many impromptu bedtime bible studies by myself until 3 am in attempt to satisfy his question in the morning: lots of bible reading, sermon after sermon on YouTube, reading forums, many university level apologetics lectures (mostly for me at this point), and hundreds of video testimonies online. Slowly the pieces started to fit and things started to add up in my heart. I could see the picture and my faith was born...add in an experience with the Holy Spirit during the birth of our second child and before you know it I’m asking around looking for local bible studies!

     Olympia City Church was the first church I tried. I was invited by a friend, and never even consider trying out another after meeting everyone at the church. I love the Bible based focus, where most of our time is spent directly in Bible study and conversation directly learning. We get to dive deep and that is a treasure. I love the simplicity of our church. When you strip all the extras away, it really gives a chance for the good stuff to stand out. People, Love, REALLY good food, and, most importantly, Jesus. ❤️"