Get to Know a Garden City Member: The Noffsingers
Hello! We’re Ken & Lila Noffsinger. We both grew up in Santa Cruz - Ken in the mountains and Lila near the beach. Despite familial connections and our friends marrying each other, we didn’t meet until after college when our parents set us up. Thanks, parents!
We’ve been married and living in San Jose for about five years now, and have come to really love the area. Some of our San Jose highlights include the food (Walia for Ethiopian, Swaad for Indian, & Bill’s Cafe for breakfast), walking the Los Gatos Creek Trail, hiking in the mountains, camping nearby, and exploring the cute downtowns like Willow Glen and Saratoga. Oh, and Lila is already counting the days until we can go back to Frosty’s Christmas Tree Farm to cut down a tree and kick off the Christmas season.
Ken started attending Garden City in 2013 when he moved to the area for work, and Lila started attending shortly after. Fast forward, and now we’re deacons and completely in love with Garden City and our Life Group. Our Life Group has provided SO much joy and support these last few months. A highlight was when each household made a quarantine care package with games, movies, food, and other Shelter in Place activities for a different household. We’ve also done virtual mixology nights, which have been a blast. And now that we can gather, we’ve really loved gathering with our group on Sundays to picnic together and discuss the sermon.
This year hasn’t been easy on anybody, but through it, we’ve had the joy of looking forward to the birth of our first child. Baby Girl Noffsinger will join us in November!. . . or October, if she’s feeling especially punctual. It’s been such a blessing to have her as a source of excitement and happiness inside our home when the outside world can feel bleak. We’ve also leaned into our at-home hobbies. Ken learned to cook sukiyaki and enjoys playing video games, Lila loves reading and crafting, and we really enjoy playing board games together (recommendation: Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective!). Plus, we have an English Bulldog named Gimli who keeps us laughing, so he’s brought welcome levity to a heavy year.
This year, God has been teaching us humility. All of our 2020 blessings - a healthy pregnancy, continual employment, safety for our families from the fires, local familial support - have purely been because of God’s grace, not because of our own works or planning. There’s been nothing that we can pat ourselves on the back for, but everything for which we can bow our heads in gratitude. We have nothing to boast about but Christ!
We miss and love you all, and we look forward to sharing meals around a table again soon. In the meantime, we hope to see you at the Sunday services in the park!