Filling the void

Nichole Faatz catching up with Pastor John after a message.

A quality of humanity is the longing for more. Tragically, we often toss things into this void that will never fill it: family, drugs, money, friends, alcohol. And when those things are spent, there is still that lack in our souls. However, that lack reminds us of what we need: Jesus. This is the story of Nichole Faatz.

"It's just been a wild journey," says Nichole as she reflects on the past nine months.

In early 2024, Nichole recounts sitting on the couch in her home, spending time with her sons, Oliver and Cooper. For the family, life was good. The years of drug and alcohol addiction were behind Nichole. And though her struggles from childhood trauma lingered, she was present for her own children.

"Things were fine. I wasn't in the pits or anything, but I felt there was something missing," she says. "I'm like, 'I've never been to church. Maybe that's it."

Exploring this need for something more, Nichole stumbled upon a video of Pastor John preaching on YouTube. As she listened, something struck a chord within that lack she felt. Not wanting to leave it, she looked up Dream City Church to find it was only a few minutes away from her house. The distance, however, was not her biggest apprehension.

"I don't want to walk in and have the church catch fire," she jokes. However, there was a greater fear. "Or have people judge me because I'm covered in tattoos and have two kids."

Despite it all, that lack in her soul drove her forward, and so she told her boys they were "just going to do it."

"We've always believed but never learned about Him; you just kind of knew He was there." However, once she spoke to the boys, they had one answer: "Yeah, let's do it!"

The trio attended their first service in mid-March, sharing some misgivings as they entered the doors. "I was amazed, this was a lot bigger than I expected it to be."

Even with Pastor Siryeya welcoming her in and showing her around, the misgivings and fear grew as her boys were placed in separate rooms for Dream City Kids. However, Nichole decided then to keep trusting whatever this call was that brought her, finding a place to sit in the back of the sanctuary. It was there that all fear was wiped away.

"I was very taken aback by Pastor John's message," she says with a smile. "This is where I need to be."

And they have since come back every Sunday, with months and months of transformation.

Nichole regularly volunteers in Dream City Kids, offering her professional experience and passion to help the next generations.

"People who knew me prior to knowing Jesus—like how Pastor Dobie says—they don't recognize me!" Nichole shares. "I am a different person than who I was a year ago."

In her time with Dream City, Nichole jumped into serving, working with the young children of Dream City Kids, feeling the embrace of those around her, and celebrating her baptism alongside Oliver.

"Everybody is so caring, it is genuinely an amazing feeling," she says. On the day of the baptisms, watching her son go down and come back out of the water brought her to tears, but there was not much time for shedding tears of joy as it was her turn next.

"Pastor John looked at me and said, 'Are you ready? I am so excited for you Nichole."

Laughing at the sounds of being cliché, Nichole shares how she knows she is a new creation, being different, feeling different.

"All the problems and trauma and abandonment issues, all of that seemed to be washed away. I never felt more loved than I do when coming here and being closer to God. This is what the void in my life had always been. I needed God."

Nichole moments after her baptism.

Nichole's transformation isn't confined to her own life. As she grew in her faith, she began to see the same spiritual hunger in her brother that she had once experienced. The same sense of longing that had drawn her to Dream City Church now motivated her to share her journey with him, gently sharing the changes in her life.

It wasn't until an emergency, however, that the message stuck.

"On July 4, he blew his hand off of his arm, and I prayed for him that night." Recalling the ordeal, the heavy trauma, and the blood, Nichole remembers how as she was praying over her brother, he stated his hand was gone, there was no saving it. It was a challenge to her faith to pray and trust God for more. "God is going to save that hand!"

His hand was replanted as her faith had it, and he kept its use. After attending Dream City, she smiles to share that he now attends a smaller church in Council Bluffs, regularly attending a men's small group. "It's just crazy how that switched!"

We all recognize the need to fill this hole in our souls, but it isn't until we follow God's call that we can finally fill it.

"Trust where God's leading you, don't go off your own hesitations and what you might be fearing," Nichole encourages. "That's what I was scared of, but I just trusted that this was something that was meant to be."

The transformation, she testifies, is entirely worth it.