Beloved Community Spotlight

If you have seen a bright-eyed mom juggling three young children on a Sunday morning at St. Margaret’s, it might have been Ana Nolan.

She and her husband, Russell, have been married for 15 years and are raising three kids just minutes down the road from the church. Their daughter Penelope is seven, and their twin boys Sebastian and Lucas—“pandemic babies,” Ana says with a smile—just turned five.

Ana was born and raised in New Orleans, the daughter of Nicaraguan immigrants. She’s a first-generation American and a fluent Spanish speaker. In fact, Spanish played a big part in her love story: she and Russell met on a mission trip through LSU’s Baptist Collegiate Ministry, where Russell was the team lead and Ana served as the group’s interpreter.

She spent a year in Houston after getting her under-grad degree at Loyola and then a year in Carbondale, Illinois, where Russell completed his graduate-program before the couple settled in Baton Rouge in 2011.

Professionally, Ana is a speech-language pathologist specializing in brain injury rehabilitation. She spent a decade at Our Lady of the Lake but recently transitioned to tele-health, working remotely for a pediatric clinic based in Maryland. Russell teaches Anatomy & Physiology at Baton Rouge Community College.

Faith has been an important, though at times challenging, part of Ana’s story.

She grew up in an evangelical tradition, and she and Russell were deeply involved in their previous church for over a decade. A difficult period of faith deconstruction followed, which left their family without a church home for a couple of years.

Ana describes coming to St. Margaret’s as an act of courage: “We drove past it all the time. I looked up the website and loved what I read, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready to be back at church. St. Margaret’s has proven to be a safe place for me as I heal and rebuild my spiritual practice.”

She loves the church’s inclusive spirit and is especially moved by seeing women in leadership roles—something her previous tradition did not allow.