Sooo today officially marks my 4 year anni at Vive Church…
BledJon, performing at Vive, 2015 
Pastor Keira Smallcombe, The Velvet Hammer, preaching a killer message, July 12, 2015
Jon invited my family for a “surprise cameo.” We didn’t know he would be performing… only that it was important to him that we were all there.
I didn’t realize, at first, that we would ALL be there. July 2015 marked new changes for all of us in more ways than one. It was the first time my family had been in the same church service in I don’t know how many years. Shortly after university, I left the church I had grown up in, and began serving under my Godparents. I served at that church until April 2014, when that chapter came to a close. Ups and downs plagued my familial and personal life in that year of wilderness. Some very high highs, like solo-traveling China 🇨🇳, getting promoted at work, resetting my relationship with my family, each individually. And many low lows, like trying to find a community of faith that was alive, falling into deep depression, desperate for the sadness of change to subside, even as low as trying to end it all.
Vision Sunday, 2015 
BledJon, Popular Loner Release Party, 2015 
Vision Gala, 2016
2014-2015 is all a blur to me honestly… it’s when I see landmarks like this that I’m reminded of how far I have come. This sunny Sunday was the first time we were all back in the same room, facing the reality of this next chapter in our family life. I was busted and broken. Hungry and thirsty for change, doubtful that I’d be met with genuine faith-filled and honest people… that is where I was when I found VIVE.
New life.
New community.
New expressions of faith
that matched my inner dialogue
with the God I’ve loved
my whole life.
Vision Gala, 2017 
Vision Gala, 2017
It’s an understatement to say I don’t fit in most places, with most people… and I would be lying to say I don’t struggle with that uniqueness every day… but I will never forget the moment I knew, this was home.
Only a God who knows and loves me would have blended the things I love most… dance, music and the love of people… all in one morning, to remind me that He hears my inner cry for connection.
The brother I longed to be connected to, was the brother praying for my One Day encounter. All while standing on the second row with every member of my family, broken and bruised, but together as one. I received a glimpse of hope that full healing would come.
The rest is history.
#thankyoubro#ilovemychurch @vive.church #thereshopehere#theFUTUREisNow#thisismystory#vivechurch#shareyourstory#afamilythatpraystogetherstaystogether#walkinginthedust
Imani Tahira 
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