MY JOURNEY
My journey to becoming a speaker, writer, and Bible teacher began with a good friend asking me to help teach a Bible study at my church. What?!?!?!
Although my background is in education, and I earned my battle scars teaching at both the high school and college levels, I felt woefully inadequate and unprepared to teach God’s Word.
Shakespeare? To Kill a Mockingbird? Poetry? Research papers? Yep, I am your girl.
But Christian living, Bible study, and theology? Don’t you need to go to seminary for that?
It was both a step out of my comfort zone and a step of faith! The Lord provided me with amazing mentors and teachers along the way, and I soon discovered that it was more about God working and speaking through me than any of my wisdom or gifts. I also learned to spend a lot of time on my knees and many hours marking up my Bible.
That journey began over fifteen years ago and led me to start my speaking, teaching, and writing ministry AT THE CROSSROADS. Why? Because I wanted to share with other women how God taught me to connect my messy, imperfect, and ordinary life with the grace, truth, and hope that faith in Jesus offers to each one of us.
MY PASSION
The heart of this ministry is CONNECTION, and my passion is helping women:
- Connect faith & life.
- Connect passion & purpose.
- Connect for inspiration, support, and encouragement.
I desire to become a CONNECTOR and teach others to become WOMEN OF CONNECTION who:
- CHAMPION other women enthusiastically: “You go, girl!”
- COLLABORATE with each wholeheartedly: “Sister, I am with you!”
- COMMUNICATE truth openly and authentically: “I hear you.”
MY EXPERIENCE
I have spoken to groups of various sizes and love the interaction with women. Drawing on my experience in the classroom, my speaking style incorporates various methods to reach women of all ages in all seasons of life. God has provided me with many opportunities to engage with small and large groups in many different settings, including community organizations, outreach events, youth groups, workshops/training sessions, and retreats.
Because of my passion for connecting women, I began an outreach ministry in 2012 called OASIS. Each summer, my team provides a free program to the community where a woman speaker comes and shares her faith story. Last summer, we had an average attendance of one hundred women at each event!
I am the type of person who needs to write things down to understand and process my thoughts and ideas, so writing and blogging has become the natural outflow of my teaching and speaking. While I would say I am a teacher first, a speaker second, and a writer dead last, God has graciously provided me with many opportunities to share my faith and life through the platform of writing.
Not only do I try to blog often here on my website, AT THE CROSSROADS, but I also write for online magazines, contribute to several inspirational blogs, and have authored a few short devotionals and e-books.
My recently published (Bethany House 2021) award-winning book, The Beauty of an Uncluttered Soul, teaches spiritually seeking women how to clear soul clutter by inviting God’s Spirit to transform them from the inside out. Currently, I am working on releasing a revised and updated version with an expository Bible study and teaching videos so that churches, Bible study groups, and women can use this material to study the Fruit of the Spirit together.
MY PERSONAL LIFE
When not teaching, writing, or speaking, I embrace my roles and responsibilities as a wife and mom living in Hudson, Ohio.
I am the proud mother of four young adults and one beautiful daughter-in-love (living in Brooklyn, NY, to San Francisco, CA, and in-between) who lives in Hudson, Ohio, with my husband, Michael, of over 33 years. As recent empty nesters and first-time grandparents, we learning to embrace a new season of life together!
I enjoy serving in the women’s ministry at my church, mentoring young adults, and volunteering in my community. I continue to teach Bible studies and have a passion for rescuing women caught in the sex trafficking industry by serving monthly at Rahab Ministries in Akron, Ohio.
After becoming certified as a Color Analysis and Style Consultant through Style by Color, I recently began my newest venture, Inside Out Beauty. For years, I have dedicated myself to teaching women how to connect faith and life by leaning into the transformative power of God’s grace, guiding them to understand how the Spirit can make us beautiful from the inside out. Now, I am excited to take this journey further by showing women how to reflect that inner beauty on the outside by learning how to dress in their best colors, discover their personal style, declutter their closets, and delight in the bodies God gave them.
I thank the Lord every morning for my cup of strong black coffee, always write better with my cat, Kyrie, hanging out with me in my office, and love to sing and dance in the car—especially when I can embarrass my family!
I believe God has called me to not only share my story of His faithfulness, grace, and truth but encourage others to do the same! I write, speak, and teach about my personal struggles, my times of doubt and desperation, and my search for meaning and truth. I try to be honest, transparent, and real.
If you are looking for a girl who has it all together, knows all the answers, and always has a smile and a scripture verse to share, you are in the wrong place! I humbly confess I am a sinner saved by grace who is a work in progress, always seeking fellow travelers to walk this journey of faith and life with me. And if you bring the coffee, we will be in this together until we reach our final destination!
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