“If I’m having a terrible day, and I walk downtown, when I see that steeple, I know I’m okay.”
Mia is a military kid who grew up fast between Hawaii, Texas, and Germany. She came to distrust organized religion and cults that she believed controlled people.
After a difficult first semester at the University of Mary Washington (UMW), she rebooted her thinking. Her “semester of yes” meant signing up for clubs from rugby to radio to orientation. “I’ll try everything,” she said.
She still might have missed The House FXBG, a block from the UMW campus. But then she and her friend Becca, who was House president, bumped into the missioner, the Rev’d Ethan Lowery, at a coffee shop.
“Can we pay for your coffee? Because you know Becca, so you’re a friend of us,” Mia recalled him saying. She said yes to that and a Tuesday gathering called Praying Hooky. She was hooked.
At The House, established in 2018 by Trinity and St. George’s Episcopal churches, and a Lutheran church, Mia found compassion not control, especially from loving House “moms.”
“I am a very social person, but I’m not great at making friends because of the military kid thing,” Mia said. “It’s really hard for me to rely on people.”
“At The House you bond with people by learning and genuinely caring about them,” she added. “It’s like a designated group of people who want to be here for you, who are serious, real adults who can help me see what my future could look like.”
She showed up so early for Praying Hooky that she accidentally sat in on leadership sessions and joined the ministry team by the semester’s end. When neck issues cut short her rugby days, The House and St. George’s ensured she never felt isolated. She stabilized in body and mind. She also was baptized.
“I don’t think that I would be here if I didn’t have the House or St. George’s,” she added. “If I’m having a terrible day, and I walk downtown, when I see that steeple, I know I’m okay. If I had the worst week of my life, I know when I walk in there on Sunday I will feel OK.”
In 2025, Mia attended the last day of the diocesan 231st Annual Convention. Collegiate delegates proposed that the Diocese formally adopt a policy of non-compliance with ICE and related agencies except when legally required. It passed, and Bishop E. Mark Stevenson commended the young adults who led the effort.
“I have never been more proud,” Mia said. “This year, I’m going to be our student delegate.”