As 11-year-old Nevaeh sat with her mom in church a couple of weeks ago, she had questions. The two have been attending First Free’s Sunday worship service at the Rockford Rescue Mission, where Stephanie is a resident in the Women’s Life Recovery program. On this day,...
Up until about a generation ago, the Evangelical Free Church of America included the Women’s Missionary Society, which supported women who served as home or overseas missionaries, or as traveling evangelists. Under that umbrella, EFCA churches would then create...
Hello, my beautiful girl, I cooed to my baby daughter as I picked her up out of her carseat. Then, out of nowhere, someone quipped, You don’t want to tell her that too often or she’ll get a big head. Wait…what? I thought as a record audibly screeched in my head. ...
Leslie James’ granddaughter once looked at her thoughtfully. “Grandma, I’ve met lots of grandmas and you’re not like any of them.” To anyone who knew her more than six years ago, she also doesn’t look much like the Leslie they knew. A two-time cancer survivor (lung...
Toni became the Kids Ministry administrative assistant in August 2021, though she and her family have called First Free home for several years. Born and raised in Minnesota, Toni found her way to Rockford after marrying her husband, Philip, a Rockford native. At the...
by Jim Killam | 5-minute read You wouldn’t know it by watching her play, but First Free organist Karen Anderson controls a warehouse full of electronic relays, pneumatic tubes, wall-sized louvers and — literally — almost 2,000 bells and whistles. The organ’s...
