Leading & Learning

Birthday:

• September 19, 19something… (ok, ok… let’s just say I’m “middle-aged”)

Family:

• Hubby – Rick (together over 30 years!)
• Son – TJ (aspiring screenwriter and filmmaker)
• “Ruler of the house” – Schultz (German Shorthaired Pointer)
• Great Parents – Jack and Jean
• 2 Brothers – both younger; Dave – married to Lynda (the one in the family with the gift of hospitality) and daughter Taylor; Darin – mountaineer in Steamboat Springs, CO with daughter Alex and son Jack.

Favorites:

• Mission: Dare 2 Share Ministries (founded 1991, I’ve been priveleged to serve since 1994)
• Passion: Leading and Learning to Lead (always the student)
• Speaker: Greg Stier (Louie Giglio is a close second)
• Music: Danny Oertli – Fight For Me; Chris Tomlin – Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)
• Drink: Decaf, Sugar-free Vanilla, Nonfat LATTE
• Hobbies: Reading, Scrapbooking, Camping, Rollerblading
• Food: Creme Brulee, Watermelon, and Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Caramel Apples
• Movie: Flashdance and Bambi (crazy combination, huh?)
• Visual: The majesty of creation (from the sun setting with the beautiful Rocky Mountains as a backdrop to the purity of a child’s smile)
• Sound: My son’s deep, from the bottom-of-his-belly laugh

My Story:

I was raised by loving parents who put family before all else. Mom and Dad made sure that we spent plenty of time together and learned to get along and love life. They taught us to understand right from wrong and to make good choices. They still continue to pass on this legacy – now through their grandkids who are the light of their lives.

As I became a teenager, independance became my goal and I began to make choices that challenged the boundaries of right and wrong that I learned as a kid. One small step over the line quickly grew into a lifestyle of drugs, sex, and rock-n-roll. My parents couldn’t control me and I wanted out. I finished high school because I wanted to prove something and moved out of the house at 17.

The next couple of years on my own I became more and more self-absorbed and self-destructive. I told myself that success meant a progressive career and the ability to do whatever I wanted when I wanted.

I met my hubby the Fall of 1982 and we were married the Summer of 1983. When I became pregnant, I knew the party life had to stop. TJ (Timothy John) came into being August of 1984. By 1988 Rick and I both knew some things in our lives needed to change. We got plugged into a church and began to seek some spiritual guidance.

In 1992 we started attending Grace Church. We found an authentic place to worship God where we could learn and plug in without feeling judged. God began to work on the whole family.

In 1994 I began volunteering for Dare 2 Share Ministries. I found out about them through my pastor, Greg Stier, who was also a co-founder of Dare 2 Share. I was self-employed and had never really served in ministry before. Rick and I had taught a couple Sunday School classes and I’d published the church bulletin for years… but this was different. Part of the mission was to reach teenagers for Christ.  I began to wonder if God had taken me through so much as a teen in order to break my heart for the teens this ministry was trying to reach. I didn’t (and still don’t quite) get what the word “calling” is all about, but somehow it felt as though He wanted me there.

Fast forward a decade plus and I’m the proud parent of an adult son who knows Jesus and I’m still immersed in this ministry to teenagers. My heart has never been more burdened to reach them… Two things I know: 1) The world needs Jesus! and 2) If anyone can reach the world it’s teenagers!