We’ve seen this month through the story of Jonah that God calls us to specific places during specific times. Sometimes it’s easy, most of the time it’s not. As Mars Hill Church continues to grow and replicate into more campuses around the Puget Sound, some of us will have to consider what campus we are called to, what neighborhood are we to plant our roots, in what community will we be on mission for the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

Here is the story of Cameron, a former Downtown member who with her husband, made the transition to Bellvue campus.

When I think about the reasons why my husband Tim and I decided to move to the Bellevue campus from Downtown about a month ago, some are obvious and some are subtle. The obvious reasons include Tim’s long commute from where we were living on Queen Anne to his job in Redmond, and a break-in at our rental home in February that left us feeling shocked and vulnerable. Our community group, which had really been a surrogate family to us since we moved to Seattle last summer, rallied around us during that time, and so when we physically moved to an apartment in Bellevue, we kept coming back to Queen Anne for group on Tuesday nights, and to the downtown campus to serve and attend church on Sundays.

And that’s where the subtle reasons come in. The drive wasn’t really an issue, though because we were serving in children’s ministry it was necessary to make the Bellevue—downtown roundtrip twice on Sundays if we wanted to hear the sermon. During this time the various campuses started becoming visibly more autonomous, and I remember a renewed focus on the concept of community as described in Acts 2: “And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” In fact, our Queen Anne community group read and discussed this passage nearly every week. Tim and I began to think: We live on the Eastside. We work on the Eastside (now that my part-time job in Seattle had ended). The only thing that is bringing us into Seattle on a regular basis is church.

In mid-July we decided to officially transfer to the Bellevue campus and join a new community group. That was a hard move, because we’d already felt some guilt over our new zip code and the extra planning it took to hang out with our dear Seattle friends. We weren’t exactly excited about leaving a year’s worth of deep, growing relationships only to start out new somewhere else. But we were also experiencing God’s blessing through a new physical community: an apartment I felt safe in, a shorter commute for my husband (and therefore more time together for us, still newlyweds), and the ability to spend more time with non-believing coworkers and other friends. God used our circumstances to propel us into a new situation, and though it was uncomfortable at first, He has opened doors for new community and service opportunities that use our gifts—music and youth discipleship. We know God has placed us here in Bellevue for this specific time, and for a purpose, so we’ve responded to his call to steward that. We’re excited to be part of the growing Bellevue campus, and happy to say that we’re all in.