My story is anything but normal. But I don’t think I would have it any other
way.
I was born to a missionary family in Lipa City,
Philippines. My parents were in language
school at the time, studying Tagalog in order to serve Filipinos at a mission
hospital where my dad would serve as a practitioner and an administrator. (Oh
the stories we shared around our dinner table of the adventures of practicing
medicine in a third world country!) I
had two older brothers, Stephen and Peter, who were four and two when I was
born. My little brother Paul would be
born on our next furlough in the States when I was three.
My earliest memories are in the Philippines, and I had (and
still have) a very positive perception of our family’s experience there. I remember running around and playing with my
brothers and other playmates until Mom rang the bell for dinner. I remember pilling into our truck and driving
across the island to a church where my dad would preach on the weekends. I remember all kinds of run-ins with local
wildlife like monkeys and cobras. I
remember going to school in our one room schoolhouse where all four of us were
taught together by either my mom or one of the short-term teachers who came
from the States.
 |
| Our family on furlough in 1990, shortly before my little brother was born. |
From the very beginning, I saw my parents living by
faith. I didn’t really understand what
that meant and couldn’t have verbalized it if you’d asked me because it was
just our way of life. If we had a need,
we trusted that the Lord would meet it in one way or another. And we saw God come through for us over and
over again. When we traveled to our
supporting churches on our furloughs, the song that played behind my parents’
slide show was “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.”
This was their theme song, and now I understand why. They trusted the Lord and saw his great
faithfulness in their lives more times than we can count. Ultimately, it was this trust in the Lord and
total commitment to his work that lead me to give my heart to Christ and
continue to live a life dedicated to God’s plan for me.
In the summer of 1991 on our trip back to the Philippines
from our furlough in Rochester, New York, we stayed in Manila at a missionary
guesthouse for a few days before making the rest of the trek home to the island
of Palawan where we lived in Roxas. I can
distinctly remember playing with my older brother Peter at the house; we were
standing on opposite ends of a stairway (He was at the top, and I was at the
bottom.), tossing a ball back and forth.
Seemingly out of the blue, he asked me if I would go to heaven when I
died. I didn’t have the slightest idea
and didn’t know what he was talking about, so he proceeded to share with me how
God sacrificed his Son to die on the cross for my sins so that I could spend
eternity with Him. I accepted Christ
into my heart that day. I didn’t even
come close to understanding completely the ramifications of that decision, but
that day marks the beginning of my journey with the Lord.
Our family stayed in the Philippines for a four-year term
and a one-year term (with a one-year furlough between) after that stopover in
Manila. We returned to the States
permanently in 1997 when I was 10 years old.
Because my dad decided to go back to school for a master’s degree in
rural health care, we moved to a small town in West Virginia (a requirement for
his degree program). It was there, in
Welch, West Virginia, where we first attended public school. I was in sixth grade and distinctly remember
thinking the day we learned about exponents in math class, “Wow! This is the
only thing we’ve ‘learned’ this year that I didn’t already know!” Needless to say, that year was more of a
growing opportunity socially than academically.
The completion of Dad’s degree brought new job opportunity
and place to live for our family. We
ended up in the western Pennsylvania town of Clarion. We’d visited Clarion several times growing up
because my great aunt and uncle lived there, so it was neat to move to a
quasi-familiar place. The house where we
lived there was the first my parents had ever bought, after almost 20 years of
marriage. We were moving there to settle
for the first time in my life. At this
point, my brothers were going into 12th, 10th, and 4th
grades, and I was headed into 8th grade.
Our time in Pennsylvania was a huge growing chapter for
me. This was the first place where I
went to the same school for two sequential years (I actually went to Clarion
Area Junior Senior High School from 8th grade until high school
graduation. Unbelievable!) and had the
opportunity to put down any sort of roots in to friendships or a physical
place. This was also a place where I
grew into my faith more than ever before.
It was here that I had to make the decision of whether I was truly going
to follow Christ myself or if I was going to give up on my parents’ views as I
became capable of making my own way in the world. Ultimately, Dad and Mom’s Jesus became my
Jesus as I built intentional relationships with friends and mentors, got
involved in ministry at my church, and learned more and more about what it
means to follow Christ. Not that future
years wouldn’t present challenges and opportunities growth, but these years
held such significant foundation-challenging and –reinforcing situations and
decisions that I will always maintain them as the years my faith became my own
and my walk with Christ diverted from just following my parents’ footsteps.
My college years took me to Liberty University in Lynchburg,
Virginia where I continued to grow through the challenges of school, my family
moving away from our Pennsylvania home I loved so dearly, a break-up with my
college boyfriend, and learning how to be a grown-up and living on my own. Also during the college years, I had to start
making and acting on decisions about what I wanted to do with my life vocationally. Having grown up around ministry and have been
involved in different kinds of ministry throughout high school and college, I
decided that’s what I would want to do.
However, my parents, being experienced with ministry, encouraged me not
to get a ministry-related degree because you can do ministry no matter what
degree is listed on your diploma. So
instead of getting a ministry degree, I worked toward the more marketable
education degree.
After completing my degree in Elementary Education, I didn’t
really want to enter the field of education.
An opportunity opened up for me to work at the University, so I accepted
the position and stayed in Lynchburg. This
wasn’t my original plan of going to school, finishing, and moving away to start
a new adventure. But clearly, the Lord
had a plan for me to stay here. I didn’t
know what that plan was for a while, but within a couple years, I learned a
little bit more of why I stayed in Lynchburg instead of moving away.
I didn’t know it at the time, but the Lord used that
position to help me ultimately end up in the ministry position where I find
myself now. It was there as I worked in
an academic department where I was encouraged to pursue my master’s degree in Human
Services (tuition fees being one of the benefits of my employment at the
university) and teach online. This
provided a means for me to pay off my student loans more quickly than I would
have otherwise. The Lord was laying the
groundwork for me to be able to transition into ministry in the years to come.
In May of 2010 I finished my master’s degree. I wondered if this would be a good time to
transition into a ministry role. But I
loved my job. I had been promoted to an
academic coordinator position and thoroughly enjoyed what I did and the people
with whom I worked. I prayed that if the
Lord wanted me to transition to something else that he would provide the right
opportunity and change my attachment to my job and release me from my current
position. Little did I know, he was
doing just that.
That summer, I traveled with Living Bread Ministries on a
short-term mission trip to Brazil. I
wasn’t extremely familiar with Living Bread, so while we were on our trip, I
observed different aspects of the ministry.
I also spent time getting to know the founders of the ministry, Patrick
and Bárbara Hubbard. Shortly after the
trip, the Hubbards approached me about coming on staff with the ministry. The idea sounded wonderful, but there seemed
to be a few obstacles in the way. I
still loved my job and couldn’t see myself just quitting a job that I enjoyed
so much. Also, Living Bread is
completely support-based, so my position would require me to raise
support. Because I still had student
loan debt, I didn’t feel comfortable asking people to support my ministry and
help me pay off my education. I
continued to pray that if the Lord wanted me to transition into a ministry
role, he would put all the pieces in place for that to happen.
Over the next two years, all those pieces fell into
place. I was able to completely pay off
my student loans. Some things changed in
my job situation that landed me in a different position at the university.
Though I still enjoyed my role very much, I didn’t have the same level of
attachment to what I was doing. So, when
the time came for me to leave, I didn’t have nearly as much hesitation to
putting in my notice.
June 30, 2012 was my last day on staff at Liberty
University. I began working full-time as
Administrative Coordinator for Living Bread Ministries in July.
Over the last two years, I have continued to love my role
with Living Bread and the opportunities it has provided. Though I am still working to raise full-time
support so I am not as dependent on supplemental income, the Lord has always
provided and met my needs.
My transition to Living Bread was not without challenges and
adjustments. I thought my biggest
challenge would be going from working in a busy office environment with lots of
people all day to a home office environment where some days I work by myself
during the day. This did take some
getting used to, but my biggest challenge was the newfound flexibility I had in
my schedule. I wasn’t married to an
eight to five, Monday through Friday workweek.
Instead, I could plan my days differently and use my flexibility to meet
others’ needs.
Despite the ups and downs of transitions and new beginnings,
the Lord has been faithful to me through all the adventures he has brought my
way. I never thought I would be in
Lynchburg 10 years, but I have been. I
never thought I would be able to enjoy working with a missions organization
right here in my home town and still have the opportunity to travel overseas,
but I do. I never thought the Lord would
take me so far from what I thought my life would look like and still be so
content with his provision and his timing, but I am.
My story is anything but normal. But I don’t think I would have it any other
way.
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