Living Out The One-Anothers of Scripture
The Care Ministry exists to love one another with the gifts God has given to meet the physical & spiritual needs of our body within Redeemer Bible Church. The 105 Care Team members serve to come alongside members of our body walking through seasons of grief, mourning, need, pain, and suffering, and they also serve in very practical ways.
Attempting to spotlight the impact such a ministry makes over the course of a calendar year via metrics does not begin to encapsulate all that the Care Team does. For every care basket delivered, there is a grieving member of our church family. For every Valentine’s Day drop off of flowers on a porch, there is a widow mourning the loss of their spouse. The fruit of a Care ministry can’t be measured with a number.
Testimonies of those blessed by the Care Ministry, however, begin to paint the picture of what our Care team does. One of our seven distinct teams formed in 2025 is our Companion Team. The Companion Team exists to walk alongside grieving members of our flock, rooted in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
In 2025, Paige Ruddle, and her husband, Benjamin, walked through an intense season of suffering. In their first year of marriage, the Ruddles experienced five miscarriages.
“No words could have begun to describe the level of pain, shock, and hardship we experienced that first year as newlyweds,” explained Paige. “I went through extreme seasons of anger towards the Lord, and depression, and we were forced to navigate that together. Even in the midst of our grieving, the Lord still used the most awful experiences to solidify, grow, and mature our marriage in ways that nothing else could.”
Friends, family, and our Care Team showed up for Paige and Benjamin in practical ways, but it was after their third miscarriage the newly formed Companion Team began to minister deeply to Paige. Having experienced such devastating loss in such succession, Paige felt alone, not having any friends or community that had walked through such a degree of pain. Redeemer’s Director of Connections and Care, Michaela Causey, approached Paige and let her know that a miscarriage mentorship program was being formed as part of the companion team, and asked her if she would be interested in having a companion walk alongside of her. Redeemer member Grace Havekost, who herself had walked through the pain of multiple miscarriages, became that companion.
“We instantly connected and there was so much that we could relate with one another,” explained Paige. “She has sat and wept with me, she helped me learn how to lament in a way that glorifies the Lord, she showed absolutely no judgment and met me exactly where I was with the Lord. It was a comfort for Benjamin to know that I was being well-cared for and ministered to by this amazing woman. I can’t tell you the amount of times she has prayed for me faithfully and let me know she was praying for me at the most perfect time, or when she would just show up at my house to drop off letters or a care basket after losing yet another baby. This woman has celebrated the wins and the breakthroughs, as well as wept and sat with me in silence when no words could even be said. The Lord truly knew who I needed to point me to Christ in the darkest season of my life. I am so beyond grateful for her!”
Trying to explain the pain of miscarriage in a blog post is an exercise in futility. Explaining the “blessing” of community to walk alongside a parent that lost a baby can desensitize us to the pain members of our church are feeling daily.
Every Sunday we gather, and some members of our church walk in celebrating the highest of highs—they just received the promotion they have long desired, they just married off their eldest child earlier in the weekend, they are returning from a weekend getaway to celebrate an anniversary with a spouse. Other members of our church walk in with spirits in the lowest of low valleys—mourning the loss of a child, questioning the exposed sin in the life of their spouse, desperate for reconciliation with a family member who betrayed them.
And that’s what makes the church family so sweet. It’s a group of broken people gathering week after week, in all possible seasons of life, from all possible walks of life, for the purpose of lifting high the name of Jesus, fellowshipping with and discipling one another, then going back out into the community to live on mission together.
When we hear the phrase “doing life together,” we can so often envision board game nights, double dates, and charcuterie boards. In reality, it’s living out the one another’s of scripture day after day, no matter the circumstances life may bring. The companion team allowed Paige and Grace to live out these one another’s in the deepest of ways.
“During the season of all our miscarriages,” said Paige, “we had friends, family, and care team members who showed up for us in very practical and tangible ways. Some brought meals, and others gift cards. They cleaned our home, wrote letters, went grocery shopping for us, and sat and wept with us. Through the most painful season of our lives, we experienced Christ’s love for us so tangibly in the care and compassion of others.”
The impact of the community rallying around them led to such a beautiful example of the way God brings beauty through the most painful of circumstances.
“Seeing how much impact that had for Benjamin and I, I also wanted to show compassion with the same measure that it was given to me, so I joined the care team!”
Maybe you’re reading this and you desire to use your giftings and life experiences to help minister to the body. If so, please reach out to our Connections and Care Director, Michaela Causey, and she can get you connected. But if you’re reading this and you’re hurting, and you feel like you’re walking through pain alone, know that you don’t have to.
As Paige explains, “I would encourage those who are walking through a season of pain to take that next uncomfortable step to reach out to Christ’s body and receive help. It takes a lot of humility and vulnerability to voice one’s needs, but I have personally seen how the body of Christ truly does love to bear one another’s burdens. I have been learning to not be a “blessing-blocker,” but instead to graciously receive the blessing as a gift knowing that those who give it will also be blessed!”
