Welcome home!

You might recognize Ryan Mears as the mother of those cute little blonde girls, Delaney and Dylan, who sit down in front at worship on Sunday mornings. If you knew how nervous Ryan was about bringing young children to sit through a church service, you’d wonder why she ever chose to sit near the front.

Perhaps, unknowingly, she was testing the congregation to see how welcoming we would be to a family with “imperfectly behaved” children. She said she felt welcomed and included from the very first day and knew she had found her family’s new church home.

 Joe Kaminer, a big muscular bear of a guy, could be imposing, that is, until he shoots you one of his huge entire face grins. Those grins can turn your entire day around in an instant.

He cherishes his family, sings to everything and anything musical, loves theater and movies, and is as much a Trekkie as he is a Star Wars fan. That’s right, he doesn’t have favorites of any kind. And the music? He does karaoke and DJs on the side as “DJ Joe Joe.”

Although Joe doesn’t talk about the years before he and his sister were adopted, he was, as he puts it, “in the foster child system” and 11 years old when they came to live with their new mom in Batesburg-Leesville.