The study continued until late in the Spring of 2000. In May, several of us graduated from college and began to settle into “adult” life. Teal moved to North Carolina. Two couples, Chris and Julie and Kent and Mandy, were to be married mid-summer, so planning consumed their time. Frequently, however, we talked of how formative and life-altering our weekly meetings had been, and, slowly, we began to realize that we had an obligation to one another that would require a radical re-structuring of our lives.

By October 2002 the time had come. By then, our core group had grown, so there were twelve of us who began meeting regularly, discussing God’s mission for us and how we were to go about fulfilling it. Together, through much prayer and discussion, we hammered out a mission statement and a set of core values. Also, we arrived at a name – Divine Life - and a motto - a single new humanity - being firmly convinced that God Himself was at work in and within us, forming and transforming us into authentic persons. Our first public service was September, 2003; about 30 of us crowded into a small room to celebrate it. Our first C-sections began the next month.