Glen Ellyn is a diverse community, where people of all ages, origins, ethnicities, and economic levels all share common spiritual needs - looking for answers to important questions, looking for meaning and direction and to overcome isolation, temptation, injustice, as well as challenges and needs of all types. Christ Church is sensitive to these needs.

Pastor Saul Ebema is preparing to graduate in the Spring of 2008 with a Master of Divinity degree from Northern Theological Seminary in Lombard, IL. He attained his Bachelor degree from the seminary in South Africa prior to coming to the United States in 2005. 

He was originally from southern Sudan where he became one of the "Lost Boys of Sudan", a journey that began as he was orphaned at age 12 when his village was raided and his parents brutally murdered. He was only a few years older when his brother was killed as the two of them were trying to escape a rebel army camp where they were being held and made to fight against their will. 

Eventually he was able to make it to South Africa where he was led to belief in Christ, and, also met his wife. He is 30 years old, married, and has two children under the age of three.

Pastor Saul and the church are supported by a council of elders that includes 47-year Glen Ellyn resident Chuck Bartholf, and, Doru Laurentiu, the son of a Baptist minister, who came to the US in 1987 as a refugee from communist Romania where he spent his first 41 years. 

Others provide additional spiritual and administrative guidance, such as Rev. David Bauer of Bible Related Ministries of Hinsdale, IL, and church  members support the liturgical, musical, fellowship, maintenance, and other needs.

I can personally testify to the power of the Word as a source of comfort, strength, and answers for me in my life. During the most difficult and trying times or during the most successful and satisfying times - it has provided me with a foundation as well as a direction for what I should do. When we seek to understand the Word together as a community, we learn that much more about it, because of each other.

I am continually amazed at the power and the work of God in my life and those I see around me. It wasn't always that way, at least in my eyes. Not having parents from a young age on, losing my brother, my home...I faltered time and again, feeling lost, isolated, hungry, hopeless, alone. 

I sought to escape my pain in destructive ways. And, even when you find the right direction, life is a daily struggle. We all need the support of a family, a community, to be our best, to respond the way God wants us to.

If you need a community, a family like this, I hope you will consider Christ Church in Glen Ellyn.