When asked to put into words what Faith Renewed means to myself and my family I am flooded with words and emotions and I'm not sure where to even begin.  I guess the place to start would be the beginning, Steph and I were both previously married and church was far from a priority in those relationships.  We both saw the importance of that as a base for a successful relationship so we began to look for a church home for us and Steph's two boys, Kaden and Reece.  I took a couple of Sundays and went to a few churches in the area to get a feel for what they were all about and was just far from impressed, after visiting a couple local churches I had literally met no one.  I had a couple other churches that I was going to check out and then Steph's mom called and told us that a local pastor had come into her work that day.  His willingness to have a conversation about the church made her interested enough that she recommended that we check the church out.  We looked some things up online, listened to a message or two, and for some reason we decided to all go check out Faith Renewed instead of just me first.  We walked in and immediately we were greeted by some very friendly faces that seemed genuinely excited to meet us!  The boys, still a little shy at the time, decided to stay with us in service instead of going to the childrens area and we enjoyed that first service.  On the way home I remember asking Steph her opinion, she said she liked it and was willing to give it another week and see how it goes.  We fully expected to walk in the next week and no one remember us, after all we had only been once and hadn't talked to many people, but when we walked in Pastor Terry walked up to us and not only remembered our names but the boys too.  We were blown away by just how involved he was in the body of the church.  After another enjoyable service and getting to talk to some more people we realized that we could stop our search because we had found a home.  In the, almost, three years that we have been attending we have developed friendships beyond anything we've ever known.  We have also had some amazing milestones with our new church family.....Steph being baptized, then both boys being baptized the same day, we got engaged sitting in the sanctuary at a Wednesday night bible study, got married and had our reception, I rededicated my life through baptism, and we welcomed our beautiful baby girl Piper to our family.  Through it all we have had our "Faith Family" backing us up.  One thing we have learned very quickly is when you walk in the door you are family and family is ALWAYS there for one another.  The first series we got to experience was "Flip My House", this series not only stepped on our toes big time but it really made us step back and think about how we lived our lives and also how we were raising our kids.  We started to gradually make changes to how we lived....cutting out a lot of bad language (yes we still slip from time to time but we try hard), cutting out a ton of movies, music, and tv shows that were really just garbage (as Terry said in one message during the series "garbage in garbage out", we still say that one all the time), and we completely cut any alcohol out of our lives (neither of us were alcoholics by any means and we never drank in front of the boys but in one service it came up that "you may be able to stop at one but will your kids?"...that rocked us).  The crazy thing to me is that cutting a bunch of stuff out of our lives wasn't hard, it wasn't disappointing, and really it didn't feel like subtraction as much as it felt like we were adding room for what really matters!  That series took us to a whole new level as a family.  Our boys have absolutely caught fire for the Lord through an amazing Faith Kids ministry and now also through Renovate, our youth ministry.  Kaden and Reece went from singing random junk from the radio in the shower to, very loudly, singing worship music in the shower! One of the most rewarding things for us as parents has been watching the boys learn and grow.  One of my favorite things is when I wake up in the morning and see Kaden sitting on the end of his bed reading his Bible before he starts his day.  While we have been at Faith Renewed we have found many ways to get involved, Steph checked kids in on Sundays in the childrens area, I have started volunteering with the Renovate youth, and Kaden serves in the preschool pretty much every week now.  Through our amazing youth ministry he has developed a love for learning about Jesus and also a love for working with kids!  The biggest thing for me personally is the fact that no matter what I am going through I will always have my church family there.  They have been with us through tough times and they have been there to congratulate us in the happy times.  I know how hard it is to feel accepted in a new church or really any church sometimes.  If Steph and I had walked into most churches the way we did that first day, as two divorced people who have made mistake after mistake, we would have been judged.....we don't judge at Faith Renewed.....because neither did Jesus.  I'm not saying that we are perfect as a church by any means but I can promise without a shadow of a doubt that we are a church of Jesus loving people who are hungry to learn more and more about what it means to walk with our Heavenly Father. One verse that has really been strong for us lately has been "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father" -John 14:12  Personally I think this verse embodies what Faith Renewed stands for.....I have seen and experienced God doing "Jesus things" through normal every day people just like that verse says will happen.  I've seen deliverance from the bondage of addiction, suicide, anxiety just to name a few, I've seen people healed of MAJOR illnesses, and I've seen people lay their lives down for Jesus all at the altar of a small church in Mauldin/Simpsonville SC.  If that isn't exactly what Jesus was saying when He said Even Greater than I don't know what He is trying to say.