A2 Communities | Generosity Story

Jeremy McDowell:
For us, we joined Westside in 2007 and it wasn't until we had some family situations in 2010 that really drove us to community. And what really got us through those times was these friends through Westside and a lot of the groups that were created there and helped us the last seven, eight, nine years of our lives. And I think sometimes we want to go through life, and as a Christian, there's a stereotypical, life's always good. And I think sometimes we just try to survive. And there's just this longing right now in this group that we want to thrive.

Carie McDowell:
Through COVID, we've all experienced a lot of just different emotions. We've had this community to just have each other to talk to about this and share a lot of raw emotions about that and how we want to get back to normal life. We need community.

Jeremy McDowell:
We came home that Sunday after he had really pitched the vision of what had been in August about these A@ groups. And we said, "We want to do this." And we ended up sending out seven different texts of different friends from all throughout Westside, but hardly anybody knew each other and said, "Hey, we're going to throw this A2 group together. And we'd love to have you guys." And within two hours we had seven yeses.

Nathan Kallas:
So we moved here four months ago and two days, from Chicago. So it's been about a year long process of trying to see where God's taken us.

Katie Kallas:
I think it was the day we were... Got the call of, that Kansas is an opportunity. We were like, "That's the one place, we don't know anybody there." We kept on praying for those things to be clear and God just really printed this here.

Nathan Kallas:
All I can say is that I have no idea why I'm in Kansas, other than God led me here and it's been rewarding because one of our things where we wanted to be developed to be connected and really just have a body of a church that would wrap themselves around us without knowing our total backstory, which for me, it's all about needing healing and restoration and the opportunity to get grounded and grow again.

Jeremy McDowell:
We're literally, I think this is only the seventh time we've gotten together as a group, but that's a lot of our conversations are based around big dreams. We want to go to the Holy Land together and can we start a business that can give back to the community and to be doing that within seven weeks, it's big dreams, but we serve a big God and we believe that anything's possible. And so we're just looking forward and anticipating what God's got for us all.

Nathan Kallas:
Without them knowing our full story, it's been very encouraging and welcoming, no pressure. It's just been again, their group wrapping their arms and love around us and feeling encouraged. And that's for me and for us, it's what we need in this season of life. And so that's been very, very encouraging.

Jeremy McDowell:
I think Westside's focus on realizing that the church is well outside the walls and God has created all of us to be in community. And I really believe that life just begins when we begin to experience community with each other.