Drawn to God, Embraced by Community

Alexis’ Story

Alexis Kostelny is an 18 year old local that grew up in the Russian Orthodox faith and still has family in Ukraine.  During the isolation of the Covid pandemic, she felt a driving need for more of a connection to God and began investigating other Christian faiths online.  She felt drawn to the Lutheran faith but was not sure which church to try.

Then she was going down Prospect (as she’d done hundreds of times) but this time she suddenly saw St. Luke’s.  She attended her first service and a year and a half later was baptized in 2022. Alexis keeps her prayer shawl, baptism candle and napkin by her bed.  She says about St. Lukes, “Jesus is here in this church – I just feel it.”

Thank you, St. Luke’s, for being a place that brings people of all ages from many different pathways closer to God every day through worship, baptismal response, and the sustenance of this community of faith. As Alexis begins her freshman year at Ohio State University, the security that she doesn’t go alone – that the love of God and prayers of people of St. Luke’s – sustain her. In fact, she recently text Pastor Kyle pictures of gifts from the congregation prominently displayed in her dorm room.