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When Emma transferred colleges after her Freshman year, she dreamed of finding a community to call home, but after a church split, she never imagined that home would be in Christianity.

Emma always wanted to make a name for herself. She grew up in the same town her entire life, surrounded by her family and close friends. She loved having people she could lean on, yet wanted to spread her wings in her own way. She dreamed of a college where she was accepted, and had a chosen-family that supported her in every way. One year into college, she hadn’t found the close knit circle she had been looking for. She transferred to UNC Wilmington with one last hope of starting anew. 

After a contentious church disaffiliation at her home church, campus ministry was the last place she imagined finding the inclusive community she had been dreaming of. As if by divine chance, she met Pastor Elizabeth, she learned of what Wingspan had to offer, she ignored the voices of doubt in her head, and she showed up ready to see what this was all about. 

Immediately, she could tell this was different. Wingspan offered a place to belong, a community to call home, and a theology that healed her. “Through Wingspan, I have come to know a more loving God. I always knew that God loved me,” Emma explains, “but I thought that meant I had to change, Wingspan taught me that God loves you just as you are.”

This new curiosity of what church can look like followed Emma into a summer church internship. As a Taste and See intern, she shadowed pastors while doing hospital visits, pastoral care, committee meetings, and preaching. “I had missed the church family I had growing up,” Emma says, “and Wesley Memorial UMC was so ready to love on me in any way they could.”

Today, instead of walking through college wanting to find her place, Emma is surrounded by a chosen family that celebrates her exactly as she is. Her faith has blossomed from a place of obligation into a deep, comforting knowledge of an unconditional love that follows her from late-night talks at Montreat to sweaty afternoons serving in Mexico. She carries with her the love of God in knowing that there is always room at the table.