An Expat at Bellevue

Late December 2023, my husband (Tim) and I were still settling in after moving to Edinburgh from an outer suburb of Chicago. We were finally ready to start looking for a local church to complete the settling in process. The church we attended before moving was (and still is) dear to us. It's a place where the congregation were close like family and where we loved people deeply and were deeply loved in return. We knew it was going to be unlikely to find another church family where we would feel so welcome and as comfortable. As any good planner would, I began doing some online research into area churches. The one that was the same denomination that we had move from was closing, so we would have to move on to other or non-denominational options. After a couple weeks of searching and making notes, we had a short list of 7 churches to visit, with the intent to visit a couple of times to the ones we like. The following Sunday, we opted to go to the closest, walkable location to our residence, Bellevue Chapel Evangelical Church. 

Bellevue Chapel, first impressions:

• It is a small Victorian gothic church with a grand steeple.
• They have done significant work in adding on in a small space. 
• People smile a lot.
• The congregation size is similar to our old church.
• They have a praise band/team.
• They read a lot of scripture in services (this is a good thing!).
• They strongly encourage and support fellowship, bible study, missions, and prayer.
• The speaker/preacher was knowledgable and engaging.

We couldn't find any fault, but we also had this list of churches to visit. Throughout the following week, we chatted here and there about it and were trying to decide which church to visit the following Sunday, but we just couldn't come to a decision. That Saturday evening, we were still undecided when my husband said, "let's just go back to the one from last week and do our second visit now, it is close enough to walk."

So we did.

The service was as engaging, challenging, and encouraging as the first one.
The people were so kind and welcoming and engaging in conversation with Tim.
And we just felt that nudge of, 'this feels right.'

Here we are, closing in on 2 years later, and we are involved (I even work for the church!), we have friends, we are loved and we love them deeply back.

Some may be skeptical of God speaking to people, but I believe the indecisiveness (which is rare for me) and that little "nudge" feeling just may have been God saying this was for us. What the people of Bellevue Chapel may not know is that my faith and relationship with Christ has matured more than expected in these last almost-two years. My personal bible reading and prayer life has greatly improved too.

We may do things, eat different things, and talk a little differently from people here, but we feel at harmony with this family of God.

May you know a God family like this too. If you don't already, come to Bellevue Chapel and you will!