By Village Church
Tyler and Andrea
It took a burst appendix, stomach cancer, and four twisted intestines for Tyler to recognize that there was an issue running deeper than his immediate health concerns.
He’s seen a skeleton whenever he looks in the mirror since fourteen years old, and this is surprising because the most noticeable thing about Tyler is his size. He’s seriously jacked in athletic terms, but he’s battled body dysmorphic syndrome since his early teens; a condition that many people struggle with in the fitness industry he says. Andrea, Tyler’s wife, has experienced similar struggles and agrees with Tyler’s observations about the world they’re such a part of. She was facing liver failure due to her eating disorder at one point in her life. But despite these significant trials, both Tyler and Andrea have recently experienced some drastic changes. This is their story.
Tyler and Andrea first met at the gym two years ago. It was one of those mutually initiated meetings spurred on by wayward glances and smiles as they noticed each other during their work out routines. Shortly after that first introduction, they started dating. “Bodybuilding consumed my life” at the time, Tyler says. It started “with being thirteen and just getting fit at the gym. Then a little bit bigger, then a little bit bigger, then a little bit bigger, and then all of a sudden it’s like… what else can I do to get bigger? Then it starts getting carried away and you’re in bodybuilding competitions and using steroids.”
When their mutual crises points were reached, Tyler and Andrea responded by looking beyond physical fitness, to the self development world. This led them to self-help books, recordings, and seminars, to try and find answers to the more emotional, psychological, and spiritual questions. Questions like: what should I have faith in? It was then that Tyler ran into an old friend that he hadn’t seen for 10 years—and that friend invited him to church. With time, they ended up at Village Church.
And ‘it’s flipped my whole worldview upside down,’ Tyler says.
Then they went to the membership class, and through that, were challenged to think about where they were at in both their personal lives and their relationship: “We were just feeling so convicted. We were like, ‘okay we’re living together, we’re engaged, but we’re trying to be an example for God.’ So we just went to the justice of the peace and got married right away.” They also decided to be baptized, and soon after, became members. On top of that, Tyler invited his sister to a service three weeks into attending Village — and now she’s getting baptized this Sunday.
Neither Tyler nor Andrea come from families with strong faith, and yet when you speak to them today, they come across as so certain about their beliefs in Jesus and what that means for their lives. “My first God experience was like the love that I never had from a father… that was the big thing that was missing in my life,” Andrea reflects. They’re still part of the fitness world, but they have God in their relationship, they’ve planted roots at Village, they’re in a Community Group, they’re getting mentored, devouring theological books, and they view their places in the fitness world as entirely different. Now, they feel called to share the gospel with every person they come across either in or outside the gym: “God’s using us to mentor people now. It’s all we talk about,” Tyler says.
It’s become our anchor.
