Jessie Filicicchia
Position:
Email: ajajess@gmail.com
Phone:
Birthdate: July 7th
Facebook: Profile
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Tell us about your family.
My family dynamic has changed, too:
I have a husband, Mike(y David Aja) Filicicchia.
I have a brother, Nicholas (Joseph) Aja.
I have a mom & a dad: Barbara (Lynne) Aja & Michael (David) Aja.
(Yes, my husband & my father have weirdly similar names . . . .)
How did you end up at New Life Church?
Per a random (supernatural?) connection, I had already heard about NLC early on in high school (through a friend at Spring Hill), so I went to New Life's first Sunday service fall of my freshman year. As I lived in the Burlodge, I went to a North Campus picnic after church, met Leslie Goo, joined her small group, and was "knit in," as some call it.
My friends and I like to say that our four years at U-M and NLC went exactly according to New Life's plan; (one of) their ideal college experience(s) seems to be this: Go to a Sunday service, get plugged into a life.group, make life-long friends, catch a kingdom vision, and pursue mission in the context of deep relationships for the rest of your life. And that's basically what happened.
Why are you still here?
Because I'm a regular idealist, I ask myself this often. And the most abstract way to say it would be as follows:
I desire to join God as He rescues the whole world by His love. I desire to get swept up in the divine reconciliation & redemption between all things & the risen Lord. I believe that God's Church universal is His chosen vehicle for bringing this gospel of forgiveness & hope to all people; through His Church, He will comfort, save, and minister to the world.
I used to not like the Church—as an idealist, I'm easily disillusioned, discontented—but then I realized that I'm just as weak & broken [as an individual] as the Church is [as an organic unit]. So I decided to get on board for life.
What do you do here?
Technically, I am one of the Southside New Life Team Leaders. This means that my husband and I lead the 80-or-so students in our South Quad house church in discipleship & evangelism, in grace & hope, in peace & reconciliation. I'm also involved in women's ministry on a church-wide level, because I am passionate about women's hearts, journeys, and dreams.
Okay, even my "technical" explication attempt started turning into something "un-technical" . . . which is most unabashedly below:
I love seeing the glory in others; I love helping God draw it out of their experiences, their pain, their tragedies & triumphs; I love to see Him use broken glory to restore their souls (and mine). My co-worker Sue and I like to think of ourselves as "Unicorn Trainers." I want to spend my life helping people become ever-increasingly more alive. I want people to know fullness & life through the presence of the living God. And that's what I get to do & be a part of every day.