Everyday Orthodox

Tatiana Nikolova-Houston was secretly baptized in communist Bulgaria, learning the faith from her father, an accomplished puppeteer. She made her way to Texas, and became an iconographer and artist.

Hannah grew up without a lot of structure and without religion—but she found her way to Orthodoxy while she was studying at Berkeley, and is now a delightful and optimistic middle school teacher.

Mika grew up Serbian Orthodox in Milwaukee, attending camp in Libertyville and serving the church. Now an octogenarian enjoying her grandbabies in Northern California, she looks back at her years spent serving the Patriarch Athenagoras Institute and IOCC.

Hannah grew up without a lot of structure and without religion—but she found her way to Orthodoxy while she was studying at Berkeley, and is now a delightful and optimistic middle school teacher.

Elsie was born in the Holy Land, near the Sea of Galilee, to a Palestinian father and a Greek mother. After studying optometry in Tel Aviv, she found her way to California! She's the mother of two, and has worked as a culinary expert at Williams Sonoma, an interior designer, and a real estate agent.

Mallory converted to Orthodoxy and became a Presvytera! She is married to a Greek Orthodox priest serving in Pensacola, Florida. She's a fun, outgoing mom with a young family that keeps her on the run!

Mallory converted to Orthodoxy and became a Presvytera! She is married to a Greek Orthodox priest serving in Pensacola, Florida. She's a fun, outgoing mom with a young family that keeps her on the run!

Semele Halkedis Heller was born and raised in the Philadelphia area, and is now living in Northern California. She was a project manager in tech, but left to be a stay-at-home mom to her three children. She serves on the board of directors of the National Youth Science Foundation, her local chapter of the Young Men's Service League, and her local Little League. In non-COVID times she spends a lot of time volunteering at her children's schools. Semele and her family attend Holy Cross Orthodox Church in Belmont, CA, where she taught Religious Ed for many years and served as the co-director of the Religious Ed program. She likes to joke that she's passed the church volunteering baton on to her husband, who converted to Orthodoxy after all their children were born, and now serves on the parish council.

Live this week on Everyday Orthodox: Michael Elgamal is the driving force behind Creative Orthodox. He is a Canadian Egyptian artist who digs for examples of virtue in the lives of ancient Christian saints and brings them to life in ink and colour. The illustrations he shares online visually hang in an awkward balance between ancient Christian art and childish scribbles. He published two graphic novels: Anastasis: the Harrowing of Hades on Christ's descent to hell and A Forest in the Desert on the life of Saint John the Short

Meet Sarah Gingrich, an Orthodox mother of six living in Lancaster, PA. She is a contributing author of Darkness Is As Light, and co-author of the upcoming Lenten devotional for teen girls Letters For Pilgrimage. She is a soap-maker by trade, and when not working she enjoys beekeeping, hiking, sewing, painting, and gardening. Originally from Montana, she's lived in Canada, Costa Rica, and for six years in Puerto Montt, Chile, as a missionary. The family worship at St. John Chrysostom Antiochian Orthodox Church in York, PA.