My Bio

Who am I?

I was born in Northern Kansas where my parents were dairy farmers. My mom was a believer and always took my brother and I to church, which was difficult as my dad wasn’t a believer and leaving for church meant leaving him to finish all of the chores alone. When I was four I prayed the prayer to accept Jesus’. In 1983 there was a horrible drought in much of the plains. By November Dad was having to buy all the feed for the cows, and borrowing from the bank to do that. Suddenly my dad who could always handle anything couldn’t handle this, and finally came to the point of admitting he needed God and fell at the foot of the cross. Our family changed forever.

When my dad first became a Christian he had no knowledge. I can remember sitting with him on the couch as a 6 year old telling him about Noah, and David, and Daniel and thinking it was the weirdest thing that my dad didn’t know these stories that were so ingrained in my life. Within 3 months dad had read through the Bible and became the spiritual head of our house. My parents felt the call to full time ministry 6 months after my dad became a Christian. In August of 1986, we had sold all we owned and moved to Chicago so that my parents could go through a year of mission prep. The following year, we spent a 6 months of language school in Brussels Belgium before going on to Zaire.

Zaire quickly became home for me and the kids at the boarding school became lifelong friends. We were there for 2 ½ years then we came home for a year of home assignment and then returned for what was supposed to be a 4-year term. Four months later we were evacuated because of political unrest. It was a scary time but God was at work. Mom got the last seat on the only plane that wasn’t damaged in the rioting. Mom has a really bad back and there were obvious problems with her taking the truck convoy with the rest of us. However this meant that our family was separated for two days. My Dad, brother and I took the truck convoy, which took 20 straight driving hours over unbelievable roads to exit. God provided time and again on the way for our protection and provision. We were then reunited in CAR and flew out on US military C141’s to the NATO compound in Brussels before returning home. This was a difficult time for me, as I didn’t understand why God was allowing this hard thing to happen. I can now look back on it and see that I wouldn’t be where I am today without it and see God’s hand in it all.

I attended Sterling College in southern Kansas earning a BS in Christian Education. This was a time of solidification of my Christian walk and gaining knowledge and growing closer to the Lord through my work as leader of Discipleship Ministry and through in depth Bible study. After college I took a job as Director of Children’s Ministries near Chicago. It was a time of learning and growth and seeing God’s faithfulness in difficult situations. After God called me away from that position, I worked for 3 years as the director of a Senior Cneter. This was a huge step of faith, as I have no experience with seniors. My supervisor, who is a believer, was been an amazing example of what it means to believe the best in people and to facilitate their ability to fly. God has used this as a rebuilding time for me and a time to prepare me for what was ahead.

I began attending Harvest Bible Chapel and their Young Adults Ministry and was involved in a small group and an accountability group through that. These have continued to be an enormous blessing through this process of seeking to go into full time ministry. In January 2004 I began looking or a mission agency to work with as God solidified my call to return to Africa to work with the orphans. In February 2005 I came across the Adventures in Missions Website and was intrigued by their First Y
ear Missionary Program. I began the application process to come on staff as a leader and began support raising in September 2005.

My position with AIM is the Kenya Base Cares Ministry Liason, meaning that I work with our orphanage and our primary school that we have begun here in the slum of Kibera to support the local churches an their needs to serve their community and congregation. Our Primary School, New Adventure, currently has 350 children in grades 1 through 7. Our orphanage is home to 13 children who range from 10 to 16 years of age. These children have been given a tough road to walk and anything that we can do to help them make Godly decisions and walk out into the world as faithful men and women of God we want to do.

As I continue to walk this road of ministry trusting that God goes before us and being entirely at his disposal it is a challenging road. Praying for your heart to be broken by what breaks God’s heart is scary – it is a prayer that He will always answer and you will never be the same. As I walk through the slums her and past the many children it is impossible for my heart not to be broken, and for that I am thankful. As hard as it is to see their physical needs my heart breaks more for them to know their heavenly Father who died to pay for their sin and rose again to give them life and who longs for them to give up control of their lives to His hands of love.