Always for Sophia Vale, life has been pushed along by water.
She lived much of her childhood on an island. Water would come to signify new life for her family … help her find identity as a teen … attract her to a college. It brought her and her husband together. And now, water has brought her home.
Sophia started in November as First Free Rockford’s Communications Coordinator. It’s the latest chapter in a family story carried by an unpredictable, trustworthy current.
Transitions
Sophia was born in Rockford, one of four kids, and her family all still lives in this area. Her dad was an Army surgeon, so they moved frequently: Virginia, Maryland, South Korea and then Hawaii for nine years. When her dad finished his time in the Army, the family moved back to Freeport. Sophia was a high school freshman.
“I would not recommend moving to Illinois from Hawaii in February,” she says with a smile.
Something even bigger and better had just happened during that season of transition. In Honolulu, they lived next-door to an older couple. Tom and Linda would sit on their front porch every morning and read their Bibles. To a family that was nominally Christian at best, the couple seemed a little too much like Ned and Maude Flanders.
But during a time when Sophia’s parents weren’t sure what to do next, or whom to ask for advice, they turned to the “crazy Bible people.” Tom and Linda shared the gospel with them and invited them to church.
“So that Sunday, we went to their Baptist church.” Sophia remembers. “It was super fundamental, but it was in Hawaii so it was also kind of chill.”
At the end of the service when the pastor did an altar call, Sophia’s dad — never one to draw attention to himself — walked forward to receive Christ. Sophia’s mom came to Christ soon thereafter. The family started attending the church and felt welcomed. That summer, she and her siblings went to Bible camp, and all four kids accepted Christ.
“We had a family baptism in July,” Sophia says. “They were afraid we would break the tank, with all of us in there together.”
“I think the reason my family is really close today is because we all had our new faith together.”
Pools in paradise
Water was already significant to the family in other ways, too. Living in Honolulu, the kids grew up swimming. “It was just a sport that you did in Hawaii,” Sophia says. “My grandma was a swimmer. We would do swim lessons in the summers and we were just always comfortable in the pool.”
Yet, it wasn’t until they moved back to Illinois that she started taking the water more seriously. Freeport High School had a strong swimming program; Sophia and her identical twin sister, Sammy, quickly made the team.
“I kind of did it as a way to make friends and stay active,” Sophia says. “And then I started succeeding. When I started thinking about college, I thought, Hey, maybe I could do this. I wasn’t thinking of a full-ride scholarship or anything, but a way to make friends and have some structure.”
She and Sammy both chose Biola University in La Mirada, Calif. Because they hadn’t become Christians until high school, they felt like they had missed the Christian education a lot of kids get when they’re younger.
“I wanted to be poured into. I wanted to make Christian friends,” Sophia says.
Biola could provide that, along with an honors program — both sisters were top scholars in high school. Biola also had a pretty good NAIA (later NCAA) swim program. Sophia and Sammy thrived in the pool, both making the national finals in their individual events as freshmen. They would continue to rack up athletic and academic honors all four years.
A love for story
Sophia majored in journalism with an emphasis in writing and publishing. In high school, she was inspired by the book Unbroken, about the extraordinary life of Olympic runner and World War II veteran Louis Zamperini.
“I thought, That is everything I want to do,” she says. “Being able to tell someone’s story and be able to blow it up and zoom in on it, and really bring a reader into the story—that was everything I was obsessed with. I wanted to have the tools to tell stories.”
‘Let’s … see what happens’
At Biola, Sophia also met and fell in love with Dan Vale, a swimmer on the men’s team. They got married right after they graduated in 2018. Dan is a native Californian, and they decided to stay. Dan worked as a club and high-school swim coach while Sophia worked in communications with the National School Project, an evangelistic organization.
Then the Covid shutdowns came, and Dan was quickly out of a job. As he applied anywhere and everywhere, Illinois opened back up before California. In fall 2020, he was offered a head swim coach position in Rockford, at the YMCA of Rock River Valley.
“So we thought, let’s go live by family for a while and see what happens,” Sophia says. Her job allowed her to work remotely, so they moved in with relatives temporarily until they found a house in Rockford.
Meanwhile, they learned they were expecting their first child. Maggie was born in August. “She’s pure joy,” Sophia says. About the same time, the Communications Coordinator position opened at First Free. It was a good fit.
“I really love getting to work in person with people again,” she says. “I didn’t know that was such a big thing for me until I started working remotely with my old job. It’s so much more fulfilling to get to enjoy people during the work day.
“And I love the family aspect of First Free. There are so many people who have been here for so long, and are so committed to it. No one will tell you that this church is perfect, but they are still committed to it and they still love it. That’s a cool dynamic.”
Midwest living
This month, Sophia got back in a pool for the first time since having Maggie. In a way, it felt like life had come full circle.
“There are a lot of things I miss about southern California, like going to the beach,” she says. “We were at the beach every weekend. But the cool thing about the Midwest is, life is more manageable here. We get to have a family and be near family when we do that. Having Maggie has helped me embrace our new life here.”
After being apart for the first time in their lives, Sophia and Sammy live near each other now, too.
“Part of coming back to Rockford,” Sophia says, “was getting to be really close to her and my niece, and now getting to raise our girls together, which is really special.”
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Sophia’s Choices:
Scripture: Matthew 7:7–11. Before coming to First Free, I raised personal support as a missionary with National School Project. I clung to this passage a lot during that season and it’s one that still brings me immense comfort.
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption. “It’s such a great story. Friendship. Endurance. Mystery.”
Books: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Help. “There’s so much truth, so many strong principles woven into simple narratives. Today, when people are feeling so strongly about huge themes like justice and equality, to think you can say something so strongly about that but in a really simple story. No one is soapboxing in To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Music: Lake Street Dive, Penny & Sparrow … “but we listen to tons of older music. I tend to gravitate toward the ’40s and ’50s, but Dan is always listening to stuff from the ’70s.”