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Promises to Keep

Eight-month-old Anna Fiedler has been twice baptized. Once in the flowing waters of the St. Paul font. And once at the hand of her older sister.

Recalls Anna’s mom Lisa: “On the morning of Anna’s baptism, I found Julia sitting on the floor of the family room, licking her hand and marking Anna with the sign of the cross. She knew all the words: ‘I baptize you in the name of the Father… and the Son… and the Holy Spirit…’”

Julia (5), Eva (3), and baby Anna are growing up in the church. They have ears for the language of worship and the songs of faith. They know that this is where they belong. “There are church families in their lives, people who love and care about them,” says Lisa. The girls arrive at church with happiness, expecting to meet up with their church friends Natalie and Mallory, Caroline and Madeline.

The generation that includes the Fiedler family is “beginning and growing in the new church,” notes Lisa. “The girls are going to the Christmas Eve service. They are going up for the children’s messages.” The first time Lisa and her husband Josh walked into the new Sanctuary in 2007, Lisa caught her breath: “This is where my girls will get married,” she realized.

For Lisa and Josh Fiedler, anchoring themselves in a church home has never been an afterthought.

When they were dating in Omaha, they knew they needed to find a church home that was “ours,” one that would respect Josh’s Roman Catholic tradition and Lisa’s Lutheran Church Missouri Synod roots. They found an ELCA church that was the “best fit for what we believed,” that offered an inclusive perspective where all were welcome.

“We started our marriage in the church, and it has been our strong foundation,” says Lisa. In a move to North Carolina and then to the Quad Cities, there have been disappointments along the way — joys named Julia, Eva, and Anna — and always a church.

In each church, they have found the gift of relationships in community, solace during the tough times, a grounding place to share in commitments and promises.

Lisa says, “St. Paul is part of the support network that we want to create for our kids. We grew up in strong Christian homes with loving parents that supported us, and helped to shape us into the people we were when we met.”

“When we moved to North Carolina as a new little family of three, our new church home supported us through the good and the bad, and created a family for us when we had no family around. Then we moved back to Iowa so our girls would have the support of family close by. But on top of the family, we knew we wanted them to have a church family, and we found that at St. Paul.”

“What we wanted, and what St. Paul is, is more than a place that we go on Sunday from 9:20 to 10:30. It’s where our friends are, where we have relationships that support us both in and out of church.”

With her background in early childhood education, Lisa is part of the teaching team in the Sunday-morning “twos” class. Here a little community grows. Eli and Aiden, Sophie and Amira sing songs, fashion aluminum-foil halos, play, read a story, share a little snack-meal. “They know that church is a good place where they are welcomed and loved.”

One Sunday, the two-year-olds gathered around a tissue-paper “fire” and listened to the story of the burning bush. Later, Eva spotted a tree afire with the golds and reds of autumn. “Look, Mommy,” she said. “A fire tree!” Just like Moses and the bush of old.

Lisa gives thanks for the gift of relationships founded in God. “The many close friendships our family has at St. Paul help to create that support net- work that makes church a place where our girls feel safe, have fun, and can grow in God with their friends and family — where they can grow into the strong, confident, Christian women we pray that they will be.”

These are precious years, Lisa knows. She could “kiss Anna all day long.” Confident Eva, with her bright red hair and purple polka-dot attire, is the “spice of life.” And sweet Julia possesses “the biggest heart.”

God has given Josh and Lisa these children, and “we have committed to raising them in the faith,” says Lisa. To God, to one another, and to their children, Josh and Lisa have made commitments and promises. Already, in church and at home, the Fiedler girls are learning that God is the source of every blessing.

The Fiedler family has most certainly found a home in this church community.

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"We don't have a message to speak, we have a life to live...our life lived is our worship." ~Miranda Harris, co-founder of A Rocha