My name is Holly Sabelman and I was born and raised in Sanfransico, CA in 1978.
I was adopted in to a wonderful home at an early age by Eric and Maryann Sabelman. I am deeply thankful for my extended family of which most of them are living in CA. I also have a younger brother Matt who is currently a paramedic in Alaska.
From a very early age, I absolutely loved athletics! Not only did I love the completion and drive but I enjoyed the friendships made along the way. To this day, I still have a handful of good friends whom I was teammates with.
My dream as a child was to be a Division 1 basketball player and make it to the WNBA one day. Because of this the basketball court was where I spent the majority of my time but I also very much enjoyed playing soccer and softball.
I was well on my way to play basketball in college but during a game my junior year in high school I had a career ending injury to my knee. I remember clearly the day when one of the doctors told me that after surgery I would possibly never be able to run and might walk with a limp my entire life.
At that moment all my hopes and dreams seemed to crash down. I remember saying to my mom after leaving the hospital one day that "I felt as if I had lost my best friend."
This was the first severe struggle I had faced in my life up to that point. I went in to the next season of my life giving my all to physical therapy and was able to return to the soccer field as a goal keeper and on to the softball field.
Also at this time I started to attend church and a short while later I accepted the Lord as my Savior. This was in part of the amazing strength and encouragement my friends and family showed me throughout the whole time. I began to see that God had a plan for my life even if it was different than I had one day imagined.
I began to see and experience that I was being called in to the ministry. I was able to see this through the opportunities that I was given to help people and be a leader to them as they went through difficult times on and off the field.
I had the wonderful opportunity to attend Northwestern Bible College, in St. Paul MN and graduated with Christian Ministry and Bible. I had the privilege of serving in two churches in the Twin Cities area and then felt that seminary was the next step in continuing to serve the Lord with my life and career.
I very much enjoyed my years of seminary as I attended both Bethel, in St. Paul MN as well as completing my degree from Masters Divinity Seminary in IN in 2005. I really enjoyed working at Caribou Coffee throughout seminary because I love people and I love coffee! This was also wonderful training ground for serving people and providing them with a good experience.
In June of 2008 I accepted the position of Children and Family Minister at HOPE Evangelical Covenant Church here in Grand Forks. I quickly found a sense of home in Grand Forks and felt overjoyed as I started to serve the Families of HOPE Church. Life was going real well...I had been given a wonderful job and was looking forward to moving to Grand Forks with my fiance at the time. We both we enjoying moving here and he was very excited since Grand Forks was home for him. I remember being so excited planning a September wedding and found myself counting down the days until I was able to say "I do" to the love of my life. Life however ended up taking a different path than I had expected. Two months in to my position at HOPE Church my fiance left me and broke off the wedding. I was in shock and completely broken-hearted.
I was adopted in to a wonderful home at an early age by Eric and Maryann Sabelman. I am deeply thankful for my extended family of which most of them are living in CA. I also have a younger brother Matt who is currently a paramedic in Alaska.
From a very early age, I absolutely loved athletics! Not only did I love the completion and drive but I enjoyed the friendships made along the way. To this day, I still have a handful of good friends whom I was teammates with.
My dream as a child was to be a Division 1 basketball player and make it to the WNBA one day. Because of this the basketball court was where I spent the majority of my time but I also very much enjoyed playing soccer and softball.
I was well on my way to play basketball in college but during a game my junior year in high school I had a career ending injury to my knee. I remember clearly the day when one of the doctors told me that after surgery I would possibly never be able to run and might walk with a limp my entire life.
At that moment all my hopes and dreams seemed to crash down. I remember saying to my mom after leaving the hospital one day that "I felt as if I had lost my best friend."
This was the first severe struggle I had faced in my life up to that point. I went in to the next season of my life giving my all to physical therapy and was able to return to the soccer field as a goal keeper and on to the softball field.
Also at this time I started to attend church and a short while later I accepted the Lord as my Savior. This was in part of the amazing strength and encouragement my friends and family showed me throughout the whole time. I began to see that God had a plan for my life even if it was different than I had one day imagined.
I began to see and experience that I was being called in to the ministry. I was able to see this through the opportunities that I was given to help people and be a leader to them as they went through difficult times on and off the field.
I had the wonderful opportunity to attend Northwestern Bible College, in St. Paul MN and graduated with Christian Ministry and Bible. I had the privilege of serving in two churches in the Twin Cities area and then felt that seminary was the next step in continuing to serve the Lord with my life and career.
I very much enjoyed my years of seminary as I attended both Bethel, in St. Paul MN as well as completing my degree from Masters Divinity Seminary in IN in 2005. I really enjoyed working at Caribou Coffee throughout seminary because I love people and I love coffee! This was also wonderful training ground for serving people and providing them with a good experience.
In June of 2008 I accepted the position of Children and Family Minister at HOPE Evangelical Covenant Church here in Grand Forks. I quickly found a sense of home in Grand Forks and felt overjoyed as I started to serve the Families of HOPE Church. Life was going real well...I had been given a wonderful job and was looking forward to moving to Grand Forks with my fiance at the time. We both we enjoying moving here and he was very excited since Grand Forks was home for him. I remember being so excited planning a September wedding and found myself counting down the days until I was able to say "I do" to the love of my life. Life however ended up taking a different path than I had expected. Two months in to my position at HOPE Church my fiance left me and broke off the wedding. I was in shock and completely broken-hearted.
I found myself again at a point in life that hurt very much and was very hopeless. I was so thankful for my church family here in Grand Forks and for all the support of friends and family far away. I was filled with a sense of encouragement and the people who came around help me draw on God for strength. Even though it was a very hard time of struggle, God grew my character and faith in Him in so many ways. Not only that but it also helped me a great deal to know how to serve people and come alongside them in the church.
As life was coming together again for me, in the Winter of 2009 doctors found that I had a tumor on my skull. It had been causing a lot of health problems for me and I had major surgery to remove it the following May. I was fortunate to find that it was not cancerous but I had a fair amount of recovery to go through and it was another season full of struggle for me. Again though God worked in and through me and allowed my story to be one of encouragement and hope for others. Truly in my greatest weakness He was (and is) my strength!
It is my hope and prayer that my story will always be something that encourages others to never give up and to draw on the strength of God. I hope my life is a real authentic example of that to all the people that God brings in to my life and on to my life's journey.
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