Basic Info:
- 25 years old
- Graduated May 2004 from Tarleton State University with a BS is Interdisciplinary Studies (Elementary Education)
- Moved to Arad, Romania in July 2004
- Married in Nasaud, Romania on September 8, 2007.
- "I stand laughing on the corner of insignificance."
Biography:
I was not raised in a particular church. I started going to a
Methodist church with some friends in the 8th grade in Troy, Texas. Then I moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where I was baptized
and confirmed in the United Methodist Church. After only eleven months in Wyoming, my family moved to Castle Rock, Colorado.
There I became very active in the First United Methodist Church of Castle Rock. I worked in the church nursery, and
one year we decided to have a rummage sale to raise money for some new nursery equipment. The sale was so sucessful
that the nursery director decided to donate some of the profits to a non-profit organization that helped orphans in Romania.
She got all sorts of information about Global Hope, but at the time I was sixteen and not very interested in the problems
of the world.
Fast forward a few years. I moved to Stephenville, Texas to go to college
and found a nice little Methodist church that felt like family. Christmas of 2000 was the first time I think I could
say I realized God was calling me to be a missionary. I had toyed with the idea of Peace Corps, but that just wasn't what
I needed. My call wasn't anything dramatic, no burning bushes, no names being yelled in the middle of the night, just
a feeling, an idea that didn't go away. I have had lots of ideas of what to do with my life, but the ones that God condones
don't go away. They work out. So I was ready to be a missionary. . . .as soon as God told me where to go.
I had to wait about a few months to get that directive.
I went to World Day of Prayer put on by the United Methodist Women. I hadn't
really meant to go, I just showed up. As it happened, the focus country that year was Romania. While I was sitting
in the pew, it was like the light came on in my head. God was showing me where He wanted me.
Now that I knew where I need to go, all I had to do was figure out how to get there.
I searched 'Romanian mission trips' on the web and Global Hope was the only site that came up with ongoing Romanian mission
trips. I was up in Colorado that summer visiting friends from high school, and I decided to swing by the Broomfield
church where Global Hope originated. Imagine their faces as I was standing in the office explaining that I am a
college student from Texas and I want to go to Romania to hold the babies. Priceless.
Remarkably enough, things worked out and in June of 2003 I went on a two-week mission
trip with Global Hope to Arad, Romania. I loved it. I did not want to come back. However, my parents intervened
and I finished my degree. Now, I have a Bachelor's Degree, almost $8,000, and a plane ticket. Like I said, the
things God wants just seem to work out.
June 2004