Wedding portrait of Lela and Oji Fagan standing together overlooking Niagara Falls, featured on a blog graphic titled "The List Knew Before I Did," part of the Found in the Margins series about healing, faith, friendship, and God's timing.
Posted inLatest News Life Lessons Marriage

The List Knew Before I Did: How a Forgotten List Led Me Back to Love | Found in the Margins Part 4

When I was nineteen years old, I wrote a list. Not a prayer list. Not a vision board. Just a handwritten list of qualities I hoped to find in a future husband someday. Then I forgot about it. Life happened. Grief happened. Healing happened. Years passed. What I didn't know was that God was doing a deeper work in me long before I would reconnect with the man who would eventually become my husband. Part 4 of Found in the Margins explores the surprising connection between a forgotten list, a season of personal growth, an old friendship rekindled, and the realization that sometimes God's preparation isn't about finding the right person—it's about becoming the right person.
Some goals aren't destinations. They're directions.
Posted inLatest News Life Lessons Prayers

Seven Things I Wanted to Fix About Myself | Found in the Margins Part 3

In 2009, I wrote a list of seven areas where I wanted to grow. Communication. Trust. Understanding. Financial wisdom. Relationships. Weight loss. Peace within my family. At the time, I thought it was a goals list. Looking back, it was really a roadmap. Years later, I realized something surprising: most of those goals never had an expiration date. Some were accomplished. Others evolved. A few are still works in progress. This installment of Found in the Margins explores what happened when I rediscovered a forgotten list and realized that growth isn't something you finish—it's something you live.
The Year I Thought I Had to Start Over
Posted inLatest News Life Lessons Relationships

The Year I Thought I Was Starting Over | Found in the Margins Part 2

In 2009, I thought I was starting over. A ministry chapter had ended. My future felt uncertain. Yet hidden inside that difficult season were friendships, healing, a first book, renewed confidence, and the early chapters of a love story I couldn't yet see. Seventeen years later, I understand something I didn't know then: I wasn't starting over. I was rebuilding.
Found in the Margins. The design resembles a scrapbook or memoir journal spread with warm burgundy, gold, cream, and parchment tones
Posted inBible Study Latest News Life Lessons

The Woman Who Wrote the Prayer Didn’t Know the Ending Yet

While cleaning out a box of old papers, I stumbled across a stack of Bible study notes from 2009. At first, I thought I had found old sermon notes. Instead, I found a conversation with my younger self. Hidden in the margins were prayers for a future spouse, future children, and a future family. There were goals, declarations, and reminders about faith, identity, and healing written during one of the most transitional seasons of my life. Seventeen years later, I can see something that thirty-year-old Lela could not: God was already rebuilding a life I couldn't yet imagine. Read more on Memoirs of a Black Girl.
Left My Purse. Left It All With God.
Posted inLatest News Life Lessons Testimonies

Left My Purse. Left It All With God.

I thought leaving my purse at church had thrown my entire day off. Instead, God used one small inconvenience to position me for prayer, provision, encouragement, and service. From running on E to preparing our newly launched Comfort Room for inclusive families, every moment reminded me that what feels like disruption may actually be divine direction. Sometimes the setback really is the setup. 💛
A thoughtful Black woman sits at a desk looking at her phone, surrounded by warm tones and journaling elements. The graphic emphasizes intentional communication, emotional awareness, and the message “We Are Not AI.”
Posted inLatest News Life Lessons Relationships

We Are Not AI: The Cost of Transactional Communication in a Convenience Culture

In a world of instant messages and constant notifications, we’ve started communicating with people the way we interact with machines—quick, transactional, and without pause. But relationships were never meant to function on autopilot. This reflection explores the cost of convenience culture and the power of intentional communication.