San Francisco Peninsula
In March 2023, Gideon and I were approached with an opportunity to serve as domestic missionaries for a year in the San Francisco bay area supporting the San Francisco Peninsula ecclesia. After some prayerful consideration, we determined that we had already made a similar obligation to move to Maryland to help support that ecclesia, paired with immigration timing. We turned down the opportunity but were keen to keep updated on how the effort went.
Fast forward to the summer of 2024, we had been living in Baltimore for roughly 7 months, and the Baltimore ecclesia had seen some growth, in energy, members, Sunday school students, and new initiatives. It was during that summer, during a late night conversation at Idyllwild Bible School, when we discovered that the opportunity to support the San Francisco ecclesia was still available. That night, both Gideon and I gave each other a knowing look. We felt that God had blessed the Baltimore ecclesia, and was now opening a door for us to go and help support another ecclesia in need for a year.
After some prayers, and conversations over the next couple of days, we decided we would be open to pursuing the opportunity. Over the course of the next few months, Gideon and I continued to work with the ecclesia to see if it would work. We met on zoom to discuss the needs of the ecclesia, we spent a weekend with them in November of 2024 to get to meet the rest of the ecclesia, and every time a new need arose, it felt like God was continuing to open the doors that we needed.
The idea of moving across the country after having just moved to Maryland for only a year and a half was pretty scary and intimidating at first! However we really felt like God was calling us to also build relationships and support the SFP Ecclesia where they felt they needed it. Throughout our marriage, Gideon and I have been blessed to get to spend time with and build relationships with many brothers and sisters around the world and in both of our physical families. We often find ourselves relating to those in scripture who moved frequently like Paul and Abraham, and like Paul we find that each of these places holds a very special spot in our hearts. Even two months in, we can recognize that the same will be true of our time here in San Francisco. Our hope is that the bonds that we build and the love that we share, and our continued relationships with these brothers and sisters will be an encouragement for us all as we walk towards God’s kingdom.
Our effort with the ecclesia really kicked off in June of 2025, when we flew out to spend just over a week with the ecclesia, supporting their first in-person Vacation Bible School since 2019. This jumpstarted many of the relationships that we have built in the ecclesia since and gave us a foundation that we were able to build upon when we arrived in September. I enjoyed acting for the week as a character in Daniel's story and Gideon enjoyed running the sports/activity station. (We encourage any teenager or young adult that would like to volunteer for the next VBS in June 2026 to please reach out, it is a lot of fun, and we have a teenage/adult program in the afternoon/evenings where we find fun things to do in the area!)
The rest of the summer was spent packing our belongings and spending time with our friends and family in Baltimore and Canada. Then, this past September, Gideon and I packed up our car and dog and headed across the country to California to start our 11 months supporting the SFP ecclesia as volunteers. We were very blessed to have many members of the ecclesia donate items for our apartment and volunteer to help set it up prior to our arrival.
Our first official weekend since moving was the Ecclesial retreat in Carmel Valley, this was our first Ecclesial retreat we had attended and we enjoyed getting to know the members of the Ecclesia more. During this weekend, Gideon and I helped teach kids classes, run group games, and just got to enjoy fellowship with the brothers and sisters from around the bay area.
As we settled in, we worked with the outreach committee to plan and start up a few new initiatives in the ecclesia, as well as helping fill in some regular ecclesial duties to help share the load where we could.
In the first couple months we have enjoyed teaching and helping with Sunday school and have continued to get to know the members more. We have also loved having some monthly visitors who have attended our family nights and provided adult SS and exhortation. These family nights have been a huge highlight to us and have been one of our big initiatives so far. These family nights are for all ages and are open to the community around the hall as well to help build the ecclesias connection with those around them. We have so far done dinners, games, singing, service projects, and a “Great British” style bake off!
Other events that we have been supporting since our move have been starting a monthly women’s devotional group and running a “Why Believe" seminar series. And it is worth noting that these projects have not just been our efforts but are the result of planning and support from many Ecclesial members and the outreach committee.
We look forward to what the 2026 year holds with many more activities and events in the works and we pray for God’s continued blessing on the events and in all of our lives as we work together to support one another to love and good works. We are very thankful for the love and support that we have received thus far from the WCF in this work.