Our church home is Life Bridge, a Foursquare church in Fort Wayne, Ind., pastored by Bill and Sherrill Campbell. We are Steve and Jade Staley.
We met in high school and dated for about three years. After graduating, we went our separate ways to explore what life had to offer. Little did we know God would reunite us, and our lives would be changed. We were married on June 2, 2007, and we like to think of ourselves as high school sweethearts who married each other’s first love.
We both grew up knowing God but didn’t attend church on a regular basis. When we moved to Fort Wayne, Ind., after reuniting, we both had the desire to start attending church. Steve had known about Life Bridge through a business connection, so we came to visit. Little did we know, once again, that our lives were about to change. We walked into Life Bridge and instantly felt at home, as we were greeted with such friendly faces. This is one of the reasons why we made Life Bridge our home.
The people of Life Bridge are wonderful, and we know we are loved and cared for tremendously. The pastors and leadership are great, and we can’t say enough positive things about them. Pastor Bill speaks so profoundly and relates his messages to everyday life, which is very important to us as it helps us learn and grow in a much deeper way.
We now know God brought us to this church for a reason, and can look back and see the wonders of His work. This church family has impacted our lives greatly. Now we understand the power of prayer and believe we can get through life’s challenges with God by our side.
We didn’t always realize this, as we had to learn from our experiences in this past year. We had been in a time of need financially, emotionally and physically, and had to lean on God to get us through the turning points in our lives. This has only brought us closer to Him and to each other. Looking back, we are grateful we had to struggle, because it brought us this realization: Our God is here, and He will provide for us.
After a couple years of attending Life Bridge, we are now involved in different areas of ministry. We sit on the marketing committee, help run a group for couples, have helped in the children’s ministry, have begun to be leaders for the youth group, and teach a small group called iMarriage in our home. Through this, we have established some great relationships.
We are thankful we are involved in such an awesome church body, and thank God for bringing us to great leadership and people who truly care about us. Many people have impacted our lives, whom we have had the privilege of getting to know better and learn from. We are also grateful because God has brought us closer to Him and is teaching us many things and answering our prayers. We pray every day that our faith only grows stronger, and that we may impact people just as we have been so greatly impacted.
