A few years back I up and moved to a small town about 40 minutes outside of Philadelphia. It was the 3rd state where I resided in a 3 year time span. I moved to a place by myself where I didn't know a soul and no one knew me. My biggest concern was how will I make friends? I was working from home, so it wouldn't be through co-workers. No husband, so I wouldn't be mingling with any wives, and no children, so playdates with other parents were out of the question. But what I discovered was Common Creed.
Even before I moved, I looked online for a place where I could find a community of singles my age. I didn’t' want simply a singles group that met for drinks one or two nights a month, I wanted a surrogate family. As an adult, I've never lived around any of my relatives, so my friends have become family. But the older you get, the harder it is to find people who share your life experiences, whether you're married or single. So I was incredibly blessed to find Common Creed the first week I arrived. It is a singles group formed through a church only a few miles from where I lived. It is specifically for singles in their 30s or 40s. I didn't attend the church, but that didn't matter to them. Thank God for church leaders who understand the need for singles ministries. They are so incredibly rare these days, especially for my age group.
The people from Common Creed did quickly become my family. They were the people I called when I was sick, or when I needed prayer for a loved one. They were there for me when my car wouldn't start and when I had trouble finding work. They were there for me during holidays, vacations and even helped me pack and move to New Jersey. I am so grateful to God for a community that filled in the gap of loneliness and pray that more groups like Common Creed would pop up across the country. New Jersey certainly needs one
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Although I am now 90 minutes away from my Pennsylvania makeshift family, I still keep in touch with many of the men and women who made me feel at home. Some have gotten married since, others, like me, have moved away, yet there they remain ready to embrace another woman like me who needs a family to call her own!
If you are a single adult in your 30s or 40s, living in the Philadelphia area, you'll definitely want to pay them a visit: http://www.cosnet.org/commoncreed/