At this Sunday’s Network-Wide Members’ Meeting, we will vote on candidates for Deacon and Deaconess throughout the Grace DC network. Because Grace DC is a single church family spread across three congregations, potential leaders identified by one congregation need to be affirmed by a majority of members from throughout the network. We’ve already shared information on › Grace Downtown’s Diaconate candidate, but we want to make sure that you have a chance to learn more about Grace Meridian Hill’s candidates before you are asked to affirm them on Sunday evening.
Bios for each candidate are below. If you have any questions, email juliet@gracemeridianhill.org.
MARCUS CROSS
Marcus came to faith in Christ as a child, through summer camp in the 3rd and 4th grades. “In hindsight, I didn’t truly get it. I only knew that Jesus died for my sins,” Marcus explains. “But God through his grace has revealed so much more of who he is over the years.” This process of growth has included, most recently, the area of prayer, as Marcus is learning to pray more often throughout the day.
Marcus has lived in the DC area for ten years and has been a vital member the GMH com-munity for four of those years. He serves the Lord as an architect, a dream come true: “I’ve been blessed to grow up and fulfill my childhood desire to daydream and draw (and get paid for it).” He has also led the Set-up Team for two years and has participated in Youth Outreach efforts in various ways, mostly through the annual Summer Bible Club. Now Marcus is energized to serve our community and neighborhood, Lord willing, as a Deacon. In his own words: “It’s been great to be a part of GMH and see how God has brought a great group of people together. I’ve come to love the people in the congregation and it would be a joy to serve them as we continue to build up our local Body of Christ.
MARY KATHERINE HOWELL
Mary Katherine has been a member of the Grace Meridian Hill community and a resident of Columbia Heights for the past five years. She has served as a Youth Club leader, Teen Girls Group leader, Sunday School teacher (preschool, elementary), member of the Set-up Team, and Neighborhood Easter Party outreach team coordinator.
In the 6th grade, Mary Katherine was drawn like a magnet to the grace of God, Jesus’ unmerited forgiveness and unconditional love for sinners. She had many doubts, but through encouragement from her mother and many other mentors that a relationship with Jesus does not depend on the strength of our faith in Him but on His strength as a Savior to us, she began to trust Jesus more and more. Mary Katherine and her husband Walter have recently deepened their roots in Columbia Heights by purchasing a home together with Shapri LoMaglio and Libby Hill, two other two other Grace Meridian Hill members/youth leaders. This group mortgage is bringing intense growth in grace and the blessing of interdependence.
She feels called to care for others in the role of deaconess because she experiences the healing, saving, encouraging, comforting, life-giving, sacrificial love of God on a moment-by-moment basis. Additionally, as a former case manager at a Medicaid-funded outpatient mental health clinic in DC for three years and now as a graduate student in the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Program at Howard University, Mary Katherine has extensive experience in navigating health issues and systems.
ALBERT KANG
Albert is a great lover of the outdoors and enjoys taking advantage of the resources and facilities that the city offers for cycling and tennis. After having lived in the DC area for over ten years, Albert discovered the GMH community nearly four years ago. He currently co-leads the Columbia Heights Neighborhood Group (NG) and serves on our Welcoming and Offering teams. He has also been involved in our various Youth Outreach ministries: Summer Bible Club, Boys (Mentoring) Group at the Columbia Heights Rec Center, annual Neighborhood Easter Party at Girard Street Park, Sunday School teacher assistant.
Albert grew up attending church and accepted Christ as his Savior while in middle school. “However,” Albert shares, “years later I experienced a second spiritual ‘rebirth’ which truly made the Gospel real to my heart. The first brought the soul to heaven, but the second brought heaven to my soul.” Today, he is learning more and more everyday how faithful God is and has been growing in prayer, specifically, in “praying expectantly.”
Albert is excited at the prospect of serving as a Deacon. He explains: “I believe that when Christ healed the sick that not only was he performing signs of his coming kingdom, but that he was actively establishing his kingdom here on earth. Likewise, I believe that he is doing the same today through the Church and am excited to be a part of it!”
SHAPRI LOMAGLIO
SHAPRI LOMAGLIO has been in DC for nearly seven years and has been a vital part of GMH since its beginning. She has served in a variety of roles, including Sunday school teacher, Girls Mentoring Group at the Columbia Heights Rec Center, Neighborhood Group (NG) co-leader, and Fall Retreat coordinator.
I’ve been a Christian my whole life, but only in adulthood have more deeply understood what it means to make my whole life subservient to Christ and to truly submit all of me to Him. I’ve also only recently discovered the joy that comes from a life in Christ, shedding the guilt-oriented faith I was raised with to believe in a gracious, loving God. Now I’m growing in the area of repentance and forgiveness. I’m learning what it means to acknowledge the depth of my own sin and how much I’ve been forgiven, and how to forgive as I’ve been forgiven and that in my weakness He is made perfect.
Shapri is committed to serving Christ in her daily work, which enables her to explore “what it means for us to as Christians represent the name of Christ to the world around us in media, public policy, entertainment, and other venues.” But she’s now excited also to serve as a Deaconess. Shapri tell us: “I’m really excited to see how God can continue to grow our church in loving as radically as we have been loved both inside and outside of our church community. I believe God will not only use our love and care for others to impact them, but also to transform us to make us more like Christ.”