Backstory

Updates...updates...what I have for you today is some backstory. I am speaking on September 20 at St. Luke Presbyterian church in Kansas City, MO, the church which was my home all of my growing up and into college, and I wrote for them a backstory of where I've been for the last few years and how God called me into missions.

I thought I would also share it here.

After graduating from the University of Kansas in May of 2005, I moved to Ft. Collins, CO and after a short but eventful stint at the post office, became a Certified Nurses Aid at a surgical rehab center. Dance has always been part of my life, and in January 2006, I felt God leading me back into dance classes, so I switched to the night shift and enrolled in class. One Sunday later that spring I was in worship at church, asking God what is so important about dance? At the same time stories of children bought and sold in the sex trafficking industry were haunting me, and I felt God saying that I would use dance to help Him redeem these traumatized women and children.

Within a month my friends had gotten me connected with the International Christian Conference on Prostitution, a one week conference for ministries to sex workers. During the week I met many amazing people and learned more about recovery from this type of trauma. I didn't now what my ministry would look like...I figured I would begin by working for a magazine and raising awareness. After that I figured God would lead me. I wanted God sized dreams for my life.

The problem was I still didn't have any idea where to start. I just knew that overnights at the rehab center were draining me, and I asked God for a way out. He provided a way to my first interview as a flight attendant, which is what I have done for three years now. I worked for two different airlines (the first was a bit of a flop) and lived in five different states: Phoenix AZ, Washington DC, Portland OR, Denver CO, and back to Vancouver, WA (which is "north of the river" in Portland).

In the book of Hebrews, God says, "I will shake that which can be shaken so that that which cannot be shaken will remain," which pretty much defines those few years of my life. In the process I learned more deeply who God is, who I am, and how God works to put our broken world back together. I have been supported mostly by a small band of international friends who keep in contact through email, and through local fellowships in Denver and the Portland area. On the other side of the shaking, I was left with my faith in God and this dream to help women who are trafficked.

Friends in many different circles kept telling me that I needed to join YWAM, Youth with a Mission. On a whim one night I looked up Discipleship Training Schools (DTS), which is like YWAM 101, and found one that focused on Social Justice and the Arts. Through others, God confirmed that this was the direction He was leading me. I suspected that I would be joining YWAM on staff someday, but I didn't know when or where. DTS is the first step toward joining staff, and THAT is how I ended up in Pismo Beach, CA, learning from other missionaries and studying social justice issues; THAT is how I ended up in India and Southeast Asia, bringing the mercy, love, and good news of Jesus to hurt and broken people.

In November this year I will be returning on staff with Pismo Beach. I will probably be involved with many ministries at the base, but one prominent option is writing for a social justice magazine published weekly online and quarterly in print! I remember back three years ago when I thought that was how I would begin. God has been so faithful through it all.