My husband and I miscarried our first child in Fall of 2007, this was an opportunity, I believe for the Lord to ready our hearts and minds towards the thought of becoming parents. In the Spring of 2019 we opened our home to 2 beautiful little girls and became their foster parents for 3 weeks shy of a year. Over the past 12 years, we have since opened up our home to more than 15 people with ages ranging from 6 months to 72 years. Our family has grown because of the Lord's calling pressed upon our hearts over the devastation of losing our first child.
My purpose for being here, is to provide love and family to those that wander this world without just that. To share openly and freely ALL that God has given to me-most importantly my faith and his gift of Salvation.
IN 2010, my husband became permanently disabled and was no longer able to run the youth ministry at our church. I stepped into his place and have been running the CANclub outreach at our church every Wednesday since. In this ministry, we open the church to the surrounding neighborhood of transient children that frequent the nearby apartment complex and provide them with 2 hours of reprieve from their poverty. The church volunteers provide a meal for each child and for the parents who choose to attend with them. We offer Bible stories, crafts and games teaching them the love of Christ through his word and by our example. There are nights when it is difficult for me to want to attend-having worked all day with my own students, struggled with homework with my own children, and now wrestling an MA degree on top of my previous commitments. But, EVERY time I go despite my selfish desires, GOD shows up and reminds me that it is a blessing to follow him, not an obligation through the smiles, words, and actions of the little kids that look forward to seeing me and hearing God's word each week.
In 2014 my kindergarten daughter wanted desperately to become a girl scout. There were no open troops available, and I groaned at the thought of taking on yet another task on top of my already busy schedule. Seeing her look of disappointment when I told her that she could not be a girl scout unless a troop opened up, God pressed it upon my heart saying "I called you!" I quickly recruited a few friends and their daughters to join our dream and assembled troop 780 which I have now been blessed to be part of for the past 6 years. Our troop has grown from 5 to 15 girls and each family has become a close and personal friend whom I am now honored to know. Our troop is faith-based, and each girl partakes in community services that are now annual traditions we look forward to each year.
My job is just that, a job. But it has become so much more recently. I have become the leadership teacher to a group of growing students-(started with 15 students has now grown to 22) and is one of the more desirable electives at our school. These students are charged with weekly leadership activities that reflect the great commission of loving others the way Christ loved us, of course, in a public school setting we just call this the golden rule-treat other the way you want to be treated. These kids have taken on high leadership positions at our school, lead tremendous activities, and include students who may otherwise feel excluded.
Also at school, I choose to share my faith when able to with students and teachers of faith by sharpening their knowledge through the word and prayer. I hope to also advise the first ever Christian club on campus within the next year.
Before watching this video, I never thought I was truly following the great commission. I thought that I had to give up everything and move to another country and live in poverty to follow God's calling on my life. It was a burden that I have carried for many years. But after watching this, I understand the wisdom of Mother's Theresa's words: Work where God is calling you. And I believe that God has called me to work for him right here, in Stockton California, where he put me.
My initial goal towards obtaining my MA degree in Administration is to receive the pay raise that will accompany it to support my largely growing family. But it is also to open up the doors that God has for my future. I have no direct incentive, no immediate goals, just knowledge, that God works in mysterious ways and when he called me to start my degree last Spring, I resisted-which is my go-to response to his voice. But like the son in the grapevine, the one who initially told his father-no he would not work for him, but then showed up to the task he first rejected — Matthew 21:28–32, I know there is a blessing in doing what the Lord calls us to do. So if the only blessing is to have a little more financial stability and freedom-then that blessing is very welcomed. If there is an additional more hidden blessing that involves a job that I have not yet fathomed myself doing then I will be ready to take up the next call that he has on my life.
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