I've been a stay-at-home-homeschooling-mom with three children for 23 years and have been praying for several years that when my youngest son graduated from high school, God would give me a ministry and not just a job.  Well, my son graduates this coming May, and here I am going on staff with Adventures In Missions ministering to Native Americans.

I've been a Christ follower for 32 years and with the gifts of administration, faith, leadership and serving, had been content with serving in my home church for 26 of those years.  My missionary journey began in 2002 when God broke my heart for the unsaved through a youth evangelism seminar that I was the administrator for.  The following year, 2003, God called me to my first missions trip with Adventures In Missions, a family trip to the inner-city of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  I was hooked!  What a mountain-top experience to share Jesus with people who haven't heard.

Shortly after that trip, God called me to a weekly ministry in my hometown where I became a counselor in a ministry called InAsMuch.  InAsMuch ministers to the poor of our city who are caught in generational poverty by supplying financial assistance, food, clothing, bus tickets, birth certificates, I.D. cards and more.  As a counselor, I assess the physical and spiritual needs of the person I am counseling and then take the appropriate steps to meet those needs.  I am so blessed to be able to share Jesus with every single person that I counsel with.  To God be the glory!  InAsMuch has been an excellent training ground for me in preparing me to be effective in my ministry with AIM.

In 2004, God called me to take my youngest son on a youth trip with AIM to NAOMI House, a Navajo children's foster care home in Joseph City, Arizona.  It was a week of bonding with the children and by the time we left to return to Indiana I had lost my heart to them.  When we left, God told me that I would return.  I have been back four times and each time I lose more and more of my heart to the children.  It was after this trip that I began to think about being a project leader for AIM after my youngest son graduated from high school. 

In 2005 when Katrina hit, God told me that life was fragile and He wantd me to apply to become a project leader with AIM now and not wait until my son had graduated from high school.  I told God all the reasons why I shoud wait but He wouldn't let me off the hook, and I have learned that when God calls, obedience brings peace, so I applied.  Shortly after applying to become a project leader my family went to New Orleans with AIM to do some reconstruction and it was on this trip that God brought the peace, and I knew that applying to be project leader was right for me.

In 2006 I attended my Project Leader Training in West Virginia and that same summer led my first project.  I absolutely loved my training and leading my first project.  Being able to see God working in the lives of the participants and putting them in the position to share Jesus is so fulfilling.

This past summer of 2007, I led four projects:  three with AIM (Houck, Arizona; Belize, Central America; and Heart Butte, Montana) and one on my own at NAOMI House.  Over the course of the summer, God broke my heart for the Native Americans and began to give me the desire to go on staff with AIM in ministering to them.  I prayed and prayed over that desire, giving it back to God over and over.  And now, God is in the process of bringing it to pass.  As I begin this fundraising adventure, I remember how faithful God has been to me in bringing me to this point in my life and I want to thank Him for giving me a ministry and not just a job!  To God be the glory!

When I was saved 32 years ago God gave me Proverbs 3:5-6 as my life verse, and it has been the verse God has taken me back to over and over as I have trusted Him and followed His call to missions.  "Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path."  God is truly directing my path.