Initially Rachel Vanarsdall believed that her family didn’t attend church because her parents were English. It took a while to conclude there was simply no interest. An aunt in Bethesda who attended Cedar Lane UUC irregularly may have been the seed that set the Vanarsdalls on their UU journey. After college with a degree in French, married and with children, Rachel and Lee found themselves in Carrollton, Texas. While the neighbors were nice, they really hungered for some likeminded people. Rachel remembered her aunt and that led them to the local UU church in nearby Plano.
Their two years in Texas were followed by a move to Maryland. It took five more years to reconnect with Unitarian-Universalism, driven in part by wanting to provide some sort of religious education for their children, Jeff and Becky. They started attending UUCSS in 2003 and while there had been some idea of touring UU churches in the area Becky had become involved in a multi-week RE project and so they’ve been with us ever since.
With the kids in their 30s and long gone, UUCSS is important for a different reason. Rachel’s job is French translation, a solitary occupation. Church introduced her to trivia when Steve Hirsch and Beth Blevins invited her to join their trivia team. And church has provided an outlet for working with people on other teams. She’s been on our board, taught RE, participated in an InReach group, was on Mandy Keithen’s support committee, is our collector for the finance team, and is a member of the Sunday Support team. She likes the energy and ideas that new people are bringing into the church and that provides hope for the future.