 by Kelly Johnston We’re sitting with William Howard in the Lakeland lobby. William is a familiar face at Lakeland with his service to the Kiosk team. But those aren’t the only ways William has stayed involved. Almost every year, a team from Lakeland partners with others from around the country and travels to Haiti. This trip, managed by the Global Orphan Project (https://goproject.org/), is often a life-changing experience. When asked about his time in Haiti, William eyes widen briefly and he sits back. “It was something,” he finally says. “A year or two before, I was a rule follower and during one of the financial challenge here, they asked the congregation to ‘Give, Gather and Go.’” I had done mission trips in high school and the Haiti thing came up. I love tropical weather so I decided to go. I talked with Jamie Davis and she told me you loved on the kids and spent time with them. That didn’t sound like me so I didn’t go that time.” A year passed and the Haiti trip was once again shared with the congregation. “When it came around the next year I felt something tugging at me and I signed up to go.” He pauses. “It was surreal. It opened your eyes to see the people of Haiti down there so happy but with nothing.” “Coming back our flight got cancelled, we missed our connecting flight due to an electric outage in Haiti, stayed the night in Chicago and when we got back to Miami a bunch of the group members broke down. I was grateful because we were back on American soil.” William will share more on his journey to Haiti next week in his final My Story post.  ABOUT MY STORIESEvery month Pastor Marta Gillilan and members of the Lakeland Social Media Team interview an individual, couple or family. From struggles in faith to joyful events, Lakelanders are sharing their stories through the “Humans of Lakeland” blog series. Get to know the people who call Lakeland home.
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 by Kelly Johnston We’re sitting down with William Howard for our My Story interview. William relaxes on the leather sofas with Pastor Marta. While we loved learning about William’s beautiful family and his passion for music, we switch over to a deeper topic: struggling with faith. When we ask if William has ever struggled with his faith, he leans forward and steeples his fingers, pausing as he reflects on his spiritual journey. Finally he takes a deep breath and speaks. “I always feel like I’m not up to par. Especially with how I grew up I struggled sometimes with wondering whether what we were doing was right. I had a hard time relating. It’s a constant and I wonder if what I’m doing is right but I try to just keep on.” He looks up at us. “But I grew up in a great household and both my parents were always supportive.” One of the things we appreciate the most about the Lakelanders who agree to be a part of our My Story features is their honesty and vulnerability in sharing some of their deepest questions and struggles. It helps us strengthen our community. This leads us into our next question for William: how does he feel about Lakeland? William smiles. “Lakeland’s good. We found out about it as we were going to another church and the commute became a struggle. We had come to Lakeland before when it was at the movie theater and then came back several years later.” He leans back against the sofa cushions and his smile widens. “We’ve been here almost 11 years now. We came in very cautiously. We didn’t join any groups. We didn’t get known until my parents started coming.” He chuckles. “My parents asked if they could go to the same church and jumped right in, which kind of forced us and it was a good thing.” ABOUT MY STORIESEvery month Pastor Marta Gillilan and members of the Lakeland Social Media Team interview an individual, couple or family. From struggles in faith to joyful events, Lakelanders are sharing their stories through the “Humans of Lakeland” blog series. Get to know the people who call Lakeland home.  ABOUT MY STORIES
Every month Pastor Marta Gillilan and members of the Lakeland Social Media Team interview an individual, couple or family. From struggles in faith to joyful events, Lakelanders are sharing their stories through the “Humans of Lakeland” blog series. Get to know the people who  To kick off our interview, Pastor Marta asks William to share a little about himself and his history regarding his faith. William leans forward, his voice deep and tinged with humbleness. “I grew up in church. My mom was the church organist and pianist. My father was the deacon and on all the committees. We were there all the time.” When asked if he experienced a spiritual or religious epiphany moment growing up, William pauses. “No,” he answers with a shake of his head, “I didn’t really have a big spiritual moment.” A small smile quirks his lips. “I was in church all the time. I became saved in 4th grade at a summer camp. It was just what I did.” William now has a family of his own. Despite the busyness of the past year, they’ve managed to stay active at Lakeland. William serves at the Kiosk in the Lakeland lobby on Sundays and his wife, Jennifer serves in the K-4 Campfire ministry. William smiles as we ask about his family. “We have two kids, Andersen and Alexa. My wife, Jennifer, and I are coming up on 18 years of marriage. We started out in a stressful time when we had both graduated, she was getting ready to go graduate school and we were going to move to Alabama. It was a crazy but good time.” “I like to DJ,” William shares with a grin. “My favorite music, I grew up in the 90’s in the suburbs so I always enjoyed hip-hop. Right now my radio is set to 103. But I listen to all kinds of music. Anytime Mike Zung is playing the banjo on Sunday mornings, I know something’s about to happen!”
ABOUT MY STORIES
Every month Pastor Marta Gillilan and members of the Lakeland Social Media Team interview an individual, couple or family. From struggles in faith to joyful events, Lakelanders are sharing their stories through the “Humans of Lakeland” blog series. Get to know the people who |
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