In 2004 my soon-to-be husband was asked if he would temporarily fill in as the interim Youth Leader at a church in the city. “Just for three months,” his pastor friend assured us, until they could find someone permanent. They were in a tight spot, trying to breathe life back into a dwindling congregation without the staff to sustain it.

So, naturally, he said yes. Why not, right? We could do anything for three months.

With all of our family being local and most of them attending the same church, it was a relief to have a slice of space to ourselves, a place we could claim as our own. We commuted to the city from our little two-bedroom apartment in the suburbs on Sundays and Wednesdays, and it didn’t take long for the church to start to feel like family....