Below are stories of people who have given of themselves in extraordinary ways or who have been specially touched by their experiences at Chapel Hill. We hope that the examples from their lives will inspire yours.

Link to stories about:
Children | Missing Chapel Hill | Housewives & Superheroes

Above and beyond

The second year of Upward Basketball and Cheer at Chapel Hill is now complete. Great stories inevitably come out of a program like Upward where many people donate hundreds of hours to encourage, mentor and share the gospel with kids. Here is one of them.

Jenny Patterson is a 16-year-old cheerleader at Peninsula High School who volunteered this year to be an assistant coach for two K/1^st grade cheer squads, the Dazzlers and the Starlights. She invested two weeknights and Saturday each week to work with her girls, a large time commitment for a high school student with a cheer career of her own.

As if this was not enough, Jenny went above and beyond her call by inviting the 19 girls in her Upward squads to attend home games at Peninsula High. They got to watch her cheer, and were even invited to perform their Upward cheers during halftime. What a thrill that was for the 5 and 6-year-old girls in Jenny’s care!

Jenny’s generosity and willingness to be used of God by making herself available and sharing her talent with others is one of many inspirational tales to come out of Upward Basketball this year. Kudos to all the coaches and assistants and parents who worked as hard as Jenny to make our second season our best one yet!

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Dear Pastor Mark,

I love everything about Pennsylvania except for missing you and your family and Chapel Hill. As I have had a chance to settle in here, I look back with gratitude at all the joy I got by being a member of your church. I wasn't always the most active, but your church gave me a passion for Christ I never had before. When I think of the happiest days spent in Gig Harbor, they all included serving at Chapel Hill.

I was at BSF this morning answering a personal question about how much time I spent in daily worship of the Lord. The answer truthful, but painful also. I spoke about this wonderful Pastor I had in Washington and how I realized I was grieving for the loss, not able to realize you would want me to find a "home". As far as you are concerned, I know there will never be another Pastor Mark. Christ has work for me to do, however, and I know he can use my willing heart.

I stopped by a church today in Williamsport. They have contemporary services, Wednesday night dinners and an active youth program. My oldest Ben, said, Momma that sounds like fun, that sounds like Chapel Hill. They all 3 chimed in after that about how they loved Chapel Hill and all the fun things there were to do. AMEN! And so it is, God lovingly guides us, with hurting hearts to a new place to serve. It may not be Chapel Hill, but it is the same loving Lord Jesus Christ.

My point being, you will never know what beautiful truths and lasting friendships I found in your precious church. I must find them here too, but quite honestly....I really miss you and your lovely mother too. I hope you know you helped Chris and I through many dark times, and we are so thankful to have been a part of Chapel Hill.

Love and Blessings,

Connie Coyner

Housewives and Superheroes: Laurie Dawson

Laurie Dawson is a typical housewife in about the same way as Clark Kent is a typical journalist. Much of the time she is at home in Seabeck, cooking and cleaning and caring for her three children. But every so often she puts on her Free Burma Housewives cloak, figuratively speaking, and goes tramping through danger-filled jungles to bring relief and the hope of freedom to Burmese people groups like the Karen.

David, his wife Karen, and their three children are in Thailand and Burma full-time as missionaries, coordinating relief teams. Laurie mostly supports them from the U.S., raising awareness, interfacing with the U.S. Government on their behalf and raising support through events like the Run/Walk Relief for Burma held last month at Chapel Hill. Karen and Laurie nicknamed themselves the Free Burma Housewives after the government labeled opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent years under house arrest, “just a housewife.”

But every so often Laurie heads back to the land of her childhood to lend her support in person. She recently returned from a five-month stay, in which she was accompanied for the first time by her two-year-old son Gideon. It was a time of testing and trusting, beginning long before she ever set foot in the country. A time to realize that, though she shares some traits with Mr. Kent, she is really more the housewife than the superhero.

“I thought, Okay, I’m going to take Gideon in there,” says Laurie, “but I didn’t have a real sense of peace or affirmation that this is what I was really supposed to do. I’m not a full-time missionary. I’m just going as support. I don’t have any great medical skills. So I thought, Am I really supposed to do this?”

Laurie continued to worry about this for some time. Then one day she got a surprise in the mail.

“I received a package from the TLC group here at Chapel Hill that supports me. I opened it, and every single item in the package was something that was to be used on my trip. I looked at each little gift that was given and I said, ‘Wow!’ I had a sense that God was using this TLC group to affirm that this was what God intended for Gideon and me to do.”

Once in Burma, Laurie hiked for three days, often at night, carrying Gideon on her back, to reach the group of Karen people with whom she was to stay. She had little control over her circumstances, and again she began to wonder what she was doing there. She thought, I’m running after this toddler. I’m not much help. Everyone has to look after me.

Again God spoke to her. This time he used a couple of top Karen leaders to reassure her that she was indeed in God’s plan. They told her the fact that she had come all that way with a young child just to pray with them and stay with them was the most encouraging thing she could possibly have done and meant more to them that she could ever know.

Being told that, Laurie was able to relax into her role. But then Gideon got sick.

Sickness in the tropics is serious business. Malaria, TB, Typhus, cholera—all are distinct possibilities. When Gideon fell ill Laurie and Karen did what they could. They prayed. And they sought professional help, which in their case was a book titled Where There is No Doctor. They determined that Gideon suffered from an infected insect bite and were able to treat him successfully with the antibiotics Karen carries with her everywhere she goes.

Again, though, Laurie had to listen for God’s voice, to surrender to the God who has far more power than Superman but who doesn’t always use it quite as dramatically as the superhero does.

“When God opens the door,” she says, “you can trust Him to go right through it and He will take you all the way. Now your life is in His hand. You don’t know what will happen, but you can go and He’ll take you.” That’s good advice.

Whether you’re following a jungle trail with a toddler in a backpack in Burma or a trail of dirty fingerprints down the hall with a wet rag and a bottle of Formula 409 at home, God is there. The good news is, you don’t have to be a superhero to find Him.

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