THE SRVIVRS STORY

In February of 2017, Josh Nehring had this vision of a worldwide non-profit focused on service. He and his brother-in-law, Josh Nielson, discussed this big dream in the pool at their family reunion that summer. On the way home from the reunion, Stacy Nehring, Josh’s wife, was in a tragic car accident with her children that took the life of their 13-year-old daughter, Lilli. As they processed their loss of their precious Lilli, they knew that serving others created a healing balm and created the Live Like Lilli Foundation, which focused on service. Though their impact was huge locally, it wasn’t as big as they knew God wanted it to be. They prayed for those that could help them create something bigger. 

 

Then, in April 2020, tragedy in their family struck again. This time, Stacy’s younger sister, Shannan and her husband, Josh Nielson lost their sweet Layla, only 19 months old, in a drowning accident in their family pool. They received a lot of love and support from close family and friends. One of which is Shannan’s close friend, Shannon Jensen. Shannon knew loss of her own because she had tragically miscarried her son at 15 weeks. She rallied alongside Shannan to help her family in every way she could.

 

During this time, Shannan Nielson reached out to a Facebook group called Worldwide Unified that had been created weeks before for all people of all faiths to come together in prayer, fasting, and unity over the Covid 19 pandemic. This group not only prayed for the pandemic, but the group became a prayer roll for anyone needing prayers, fasting, and faith. The Nielson’s asked for prayers on behalf of their Layla.

 

Elizabeth Crapo found the post and her heart began to break all over again. She and her husband had lost their sweet Marah in August 2019. After they got home from church one Sunday, they mistakenly assumed that someone else had gotten Marah out of the van and put her down for her nap. Their tragedy created a new place in their heart to mourn in a new way they had never felt before. So, when Elizabeth saw the post of a Christian mother of 5, losing their youngest daughter about the same age, her heart broke all over again. Elizabeth asked to be her Facebook friend, and started following the Nielson’s journey of grief alongside her sister and husband, Stacy and Josh Nehring.

 

One day, Elizabeth reached out to Shannan and offered her love, connection, and any support she could give in her time of grief. They instantly became friends. Shannan, Stacy, and Shannon Jensen wanted to do a service project in honor of all their lost babies, the Blanket for Babes project.  Shannon Jensen started to create beautiful graphics to help promote their service project ideas. They asked Elizabeth if she wanted to do the project, too. She was so excited because the Crapo family had found that serving others had also helped them in their grief. They had felt strongly that one day, they would want to have a nonprofit and help serve others in their grief journey, too! During the project, Stacy and Josh reached out to Elizabeth and they also instantly bonded. 

 

All 3 couples decided to all “meet” over a Zoom call, and Josh and Stacy’s idea of SRVIVRS, a worldwide community who serves others while surviving loss, was shared and SRVIVRS began.