Apr 27 2012
FAITH STORIES – Paula & Stephen Nierengarten
Paula & Stephen
Sometimes faith is accepting God’s will at the toughest of times. For Paula Nierengarten, the realization that she and her husband could not have their own biological children was a true test of faith.
“I won’t say I didn’t say, ‘What did I do wrong? God don’t you love me anymore?’ ” Paula says of those difficult days. “But I never turned away from worship. God will give you what he wants to give you. We figured God had a purpose for us.”
Indeed, God had a plan for Paula and Steve. Today, the couple has more kids than they could ever count, serving as parents to dozens of youth at Christus Victor. Whether through Spirit Bound – which is how Paula and Steve first got involved with Christus Victor – or at Minnesota Metro Lutheran Teens Encounter Christ, Paula and Steve are ever-present in the lives of many of the congregation’s youth. “Being involved with Spirit Bound and TEC allowed me to parent without being a parent. It fulfilled a need that Steve and I had in our lives,” Paula said. “I have more youth friends than I do adult friends. It’s a good feeling.”
Today, Paula’s deepened her commitment to the congregation’s youth by serving as a volunteer youth leader. “I’ve worked with teenagers who haven’t heard of God,” she said. “It puts it on my heart to make sure they get to know Him. I can’t imagine where I’d be without God.”
One of four children – and a twin, no less – Paula grew up in a Christian family. “I just accepted Christ as being part of my life,” she said, crediting her mother and grandmother with giving her a strong faith foundation. “We were of the generation that when Mom went to church to work on the rummage sale, we just went. We didn’t say, ‘I don’t want to go.’ We went and we helped.”
Still, it wasn’t until the ninth grade that Paula truly accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior. That was the year she and her sister were transitioning out of a parochial elementary and middle school into public high school and discovered Chuck Jacobson and Young Life – a nondenominational group that met one night a week at someone’s home to worship, celebrate with music and share stories of faith.
“It was a way for my sister and I to figure out how God worked outside of our little family and our environment,” Paula said. Paula’s faith has grown even stronger since she married Steve. “I have an extremely positive husband. I can come home and complain about something and he will put a positive spin on it. That is a blessing,” she says. “Surrounding ourselves with people who love the Lord as much as you do is also important. So is being in a community of believers.”
Paula is drawing on that faith again today as she helps counsel her mother, who is caring for her aging father. “I find myself encouraging my mom’s faith, which is what she did for me growing up and when I couldn’t get pregnant,” Paula said. “Sometimes bad things do happen, but I think He walks through those bad situations with us.”
