Determined
When your mom’s the pastor, and you hear her voice all day, it can be hard to pay attention to the sermon. But for Callie, something changed when she returned home from college. The voice was no longer just her mom, but it was a remembrance of the rich values that had been instilled in her.
Callie jumped into college life with fervor and excitement. She quickly found a group of friends, joined a sorority, and learned to surf. She knew she wanted to find a faith community, but had a hard time finding one that replicated her church at home. “Openness is instrumental in my faith,” Callie explains, “For me, college is a time where openness is needed for self development.” She wanted a place where the theology fits her values, where family goes beyond who you're related to. She strived to find a campus ministry that used the gospel to influence her everyday life, not just for an hour a week.
Determined to find a campus ministry, Callie tried nearly every group UNC Wilmington had to offer. As a preacher’s kid, Christian community had always been built in. Searching for it on her own gave her a new appreciation for her Presbyterian roots, for the work her mom puts into ministry, and for the high standard of faith she grew up with, even if it was hard to match.
When several friends recommended Wingspan, and she learned of the connections with the PCUSA, her heart leapt. When she joined the Wingspan flock, she soon realized that she found the home she was looking for. “Wingspan is a whole different vibe from anything I had tried before,” Callie explains, “everyone knows everyone. I can be myself easier than I can in other groups.”
At Wingspan, Callie found what she had been looking for; a community that invited honesty, celebrated diversity, and made space for people to grow at their own pace. She joined weekly gatherings, showed up for meals and late-night conversations, and began reconnecting with her faith not as a performance, but as a grounding force.
Looking back, Callie realizes it wasn’t just the search that shaped her, and it wasn’t just Wingspan that made things click. It was both. Trying and failing to find the right community opened her eyes to the richness she had grown up with. But it was Wingspan that helped her receive it again, with fresh ears and an open heart. In that moment, she began to hear her mom’s sermons not just as background noise, but as echoes of God’s voice that had been walking with her all along.
