Aeren, an alumni member of Seekers, talks about finding community and God’s call for her life
Aeren Martinez is an alumni of Seekers Church. While living in DC, she attended the Mission Support Group and Celebration Circle at Seekers. She moved to Austin, Texas in 2009 and now attends Metropolitan Community Church of Austin. She has strong ties to Seekers Church and has been coordinating the logistics for the Guatemala Pilgramage for the past several years.
I came to Seekers Church in search of answers to life’s questions. “Is there life after death?”, “What is the point of life?” or “What is my call?” With the help of many people at church I’ve actually started to figure things out for myself. The key statement here is “with the help of.”
What I found was a community, a family of people all in search of answers. I felt welcomed from the moment I arrived and I am grateful for that. I spent 22 years in the Army and didn’t know if I would find a community as tightly knit as that one on the outside world. At Seekers I found that and more. I came from a Roman Catholic upbringing. Church was mostly done on Sunday mornings. I don’t think I spent more time than that when I was growing up (other than the obligatory catechism classes before First Communion). I read a few bible stories, but never really read the Bible.
Since my retirement from the Army I set out on a course to figure out where I fit into the world. I lived in Pittsburgh for five years and took classes at the Presbyterian Church I attended there. The Servant Leadership School at the Festival Center gave me some deep insights to the injustices there are around me. But it is in attending classes at Seekers Church at the School of Christian Living that I feel I have most expanded my horizons.
“Call” was just a word to me, so the concept of call was a foreign concept. It was great to put to words the feelings I had developed over the years. The gentle pushes and pulls in my life. At Seekers I developed an understanding of “call” and how there is not just one “call” in a person’s life. That is certainly the case with me. I am most passionate right now about working with homeless men and women and doing my part to eradicating homelessness. But I also have a strong pull to doing something for the indigenous people of Guatemala. I don’t know where that call will take me, but in the mean time I’ve been on two Faith at Work pilgrimages there. The photo shows me at work on a hand washing station. Every time I go I feel a part of me wanting to stay. The pull toward Guatemala is very strong. Who knows, someday I may just stay there longer than a few weeks.”
