Chapel Stories: Maiju

I grew up in a home church in Finland where my family was deeply involved. When I was young, the church supported our family as missionaries to Thailand. After we returned to Finland, it became the church where I grew up. I attended Sunday school and camps, ran through the halls with my friends, and was eventually baptized there by my dad.

When my family moved to California during my teenage years, my parents intentionally found a church with a large and active youth ministry. They wanted my sister and me to have a church community—a place where we could form meaningful friendships and know that we belonged.

Those church homes taught me the importance of Christian community. They showed me what it means to be part of the body of Christ through a local church: to worship and grow alongside other believers, to serve together, and to have a spiritual family with whom you can share the different seasons of life.

When my husband, Albert, and I were dating and engaged, we wanted to find a church that we could attend together. We spent some time visiting different churches in the area, hoping to find one that could become our church home. But a few years into our marriage, we went through a difficult season. Somewhere along the way, we fell out of the habit of consistently attending church together.

Eventually, we knew that we needed to find a church community again. We discovered the Chapel—then called Prism—online and decided to visit. From the first time we attended, we felt genuinely welcomed. Soon afterward, we joined a community group, which gave us the opportunity to get to know people more personally and helped the church begin to feel like home.

We continued attending and gradually became involved in different ministries and events. Over time, we realized that we were no longer simply visiting a church. We had found a community where we belonged, and we eventually became members.

Both of our children were born after we had already become part of this church family. Now I am more grateful than ever that God led us here. Having grown up with the gift of a church home myself, it is amazing to watch our children experience something similar. They are growing up alongside other believers, surrounded by people who know them, care for them, and point them toward Jesus.

The Chapel has become a place where we belong, both individually and as a family. We have met incredible people here, and God has worked in our lives through so many of them. They have encouraged us, walked alongside us, and helped us experience the blessing of being part of the body of Christ.