Growing up, his father was a senior pastor and his mother was a music director. From a young age, he felt that the whole church’s eyes were on him. And because he grew up in the church, he assumed he was automatically a Christian.
Despite the apathy this perspective might have caused, Avery still attended Sunday school and other church activities happily. Yet after a while, he realized he had nothing pushing him to grow. That’s when he decided to choose Christ for himself, a decision that would determine the rest of his life. In his words, he didn’t gain religion—he gained a relationship.
“Without Christ, I am nothing,” Avery says.
Meredith Docena accepted Christ at age seven on a car ride home from church, but the weight of this decision didn’t fully set in until she was nineteen.
At that time, she felt convicted of her sin and rededicated her life to Christ.
From then on, God began to nudge Meredith’s heart towards missions until she signed up for a short-term trip to the Philippines.
During her second trip to the Philippines, as an intern with another Christian organization, a group of boys came by where the group was staying, looking for help. Together, the missionaries provided them with food from their kitchen until they were finally full. This was Meredith’s first encounter with homeless children. She couldn’t send them back to the street.
Taking to her blog, she wrote about the boys, asking friends to help her raise $4,000 to hire a care giver for them, while she went back to university. Within 6 days, the entire $4,000 was raised. And her calling became clear. There was a need here, and there was a desire to fulfill this need.
In 2013, while studying at Cedarville, Meredith founded Obed’s House, a safe place for homeless children that helps them heal from trauma and learn about God’s grace, truth, and love.
Meredith and Avery joined as ABWE missionaries to continue their work through Obed’s House. They are sent by Southgate Baptist Church in Springfield, Ohio.
