Who We Are
Hello! We are Joseph and Rachel Givens. We were raised Baptist, and came to Anabaptist convictions as young adults. We have two young children, Elijah and Micaiah, who would be overly excited to meet you. Together, we have been called to serve among the most vulnerable people in exile in Calais, France at the Maria Skobtsova House. We will seek to maintain a prayerful presence in Calais, both among the exiled there and among French nationals. We hope to be a visible representation of the gospel as we try to be ourselves and love every person who comes our way, wherever we may be. We currently live in Saint Paul, Minnesota and are covenant members at Third Way Church, a local Mennonite congregation.
More About Us
Our Story
We both grew up in a conservative denomination that did not place much emphasis on the way that our faith should influence our everyday lives. As we grew and matured, we began to realize that the internal, personal spirituality that had been emphasized in our youth was only half the story. We came to understand that our faith should move us to action, to serve others, and to work to build God's Kingdom among the broken.
This realization caused us to seek out like-minded believers with whom we could connect and work together to serve in our community. We discovered the Anabaptists in college and were convicted by their commitment both to internal, personal faith and to external action that took the words of Jesus seriously when he said "love your enemies" and "love your neighbor as yourself." Through this conviction, we chose to connect ourselves with a local Mennonite congregation a number of years ago, with whom we have been sharing loving relationships and serving our community ever since.