By Stan Friedman

DETROIT, MI (July 3, 2013) – When Kelly Johnston was ordained Saturday night during the worship service at the 128th Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Covenant Church, it was a sense of déjà vu for her mother, Meagan Gillan.

Thirty years ago Meagan was pregnant with twins when her husband, Scot Gillan, was ordained at the Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona. One of those twins was Kelly. Today Kelly is pregnant—with twins.

“It’s just so crazy to think about,” said Meagan, who is now the executive minister of the Department of Women Ministries. She joked that the Arizona meeting was the first Annual Meeting Kelly attended.

Kelly said she was concerned that she might not make it to her own ordination service. She is in her seventh month of pregnancy, and Detroit is more than 800 miles from Wakefield, Nebraska, where she pastors the Evangelical Covenant Church.

In some ways, Kelly said, the parallels give her a sense that she was “called from the womb.”

Scot said simply, “I’m just really proud and grateful for her.” During the ordination ceremony as pastors prayed for the new ordinands, Scot was able to lay hands on Kelly to pray for her.

Kelly’s twin brother, Cooper, also attended the worship service.