I grew up in a smallish town in the southern part of Illinois, was saved at a very young age (the gospel was preached to me and I found it compelling and resonating with truth, seriously…I knew that I needed Jesus to save me), I met my husband at University of Illinois about halfway through and married him about five months after we graduated.

It is hard to remember a time when God was not incredibly gracious and working in my life, even when I was choosing to walk the wide path. There are stories from throughout my life where the Holy Spirit was working, especially in terms of discernment even at a young age. From the age of about 17 to 22, I continued to preach the gospel to people, but chose to live in worldly ways. Hard to explain in a short bio (trust me, this is short for me). Chose to yield myself fully to God in 1990 and never looked back.

My married life has found me growing into the image of Jesus and knowing that His work in my life is never done because I am definitely a “work in progress”, a supportive wife, a mother ten times over and grandmother of eight, a home educator for almost thirty years, and a person who has been in practice of much counseling and instructing over the years….always believing that God can do a mighty work in the life of ANYONE, and seeing Him do His work through us.

In some ways it feels a bit strange to write a singular personal bio since Joe and I have joyfully worked in tandem for over thirty years. Of course, He works individually in our lives, but I have seen Him work exponentially as a couple and as a family. In a ministry capacity, we served together in a house church situation for about thirteen years, with Joe in leadership for several of those years, a few years simply teaching; then moving on to Joe doing interim ministry for about three years and after that a more full time pastoral role for over eight years, to our current years with a bit more focus on Joe’s business, which is also a ministry in and of itself. I am delightedly an integral part of all of it.

In my spiritual life, I used to go through the whole Bible every other year, and then pick particular books of the Bible that I want to dig into more thoroughly on the off year. But after 2023, after reading through the whole Bible in 75 days and surprisingly seeing the benefits, I decided that would be my new every other year practice. This year, 2024, I am going through all of scripture every other day and currently deeply studying the Pentateuch the other days.

One of the biggest philosophies that I have developed over the years is how the physical, mental, and spiritual elements of our being are so closely intertwined. When I counsel (including my children), I mainly focus on what usually is the crux of the whole matter….how people are using their minds. While not opposed to helping people with physical ailments so they are not fighting with their bodies while trying to yield their minds, my main focus is to encourage people to follow the admonitions of Romans 12:2, Philippians 4:6-9, and last of all 2 Corinthians 10:5, not to the exclusion of anything else in those chapters in context, of course. Yielding the thoughts to God on a regular basis is life transforming and leads to submission to Christ in a Spirit empowering way, which I know because He has done it in me.

To wrap it up, I am a mission minded individual with a passion to equip people, alongside my husband, with strong Kingdom marriages, families and businesses.