Hello and welcome to my Partnerhub page! Here is a deeper look at who I am and what I will be doing:
I have felt called to go into mission work since I was 12 years old. God put a passion in my heart for other languages and cultures at a young age, and I am continually learning, growing, and understanding more about myself and the others around me.
When I turned 18, I officially started working toward full-time mission work. As I attended community college, I spent my summers serving with my church, The Salvation Army, in the Summer Mission Team program. I was able to spend three full summers serving others, building relationships, and growing in ways I never thought I could through both the difficult and joyful blessings that God brought my way. I served on the Central team my first summer, the Costa Rica team my second summer, and the Japan team my third summer.
I had always felt a pull to East Asia and Japan specifically, and I thought that maybe that was where God was calling me to go. The summer I went to Japan was nothing less than affirming that it was definitely the place God had put on my heart to serve full-time one day. Along with His confirmation, God also made it clear that I needed to further establish my skillsets and grow in my confidence before I could properly serve anywhere long-term. So, after my last semester of community college, I applied to and got accepted to both the Middlebury Summer Language School for Japanese, but also Moody Bible Institute!
In the summer of 2019, I attended the program at Middlebury, which was a 9-week immersion program for Japanese. I gained the ability to feel confident in speaking in Japanese, and I am able to speak now at a fairly conversational level!
I went from this program directly to my first semester at Moody Bible Institute. I have spent the last almost 3 and a half years studying intensely the Bible, Theology, Intercultural communication, and relationships, as well as Linguistics! I will be finishing all my required classes at the end of this semester in December of 2022, and heading to my internship shortly after in 2023!
The last year and a half have also allowed me to work at a tea shop job I love, and through this, I have learned so much about not only, of course, tea, but also how to build a great community and how to strengthen personal relationships. Also, with the opportunity given to me to teach a small tea class at a church-owned tea shop, God opened my eyes to the possibility of business in missions; an idea I had not given much thought to before. Being able to bring my goal of relational ministry together with something else I am passionate about that can create a wonderful community became something I could actually attain.
My journey so far has had extremely dark periods, as well as extremely joy-filled periods. Overall, I could not be where I am today without God's steadfast love, guidance, and providence for me. I have been able to see God leading me and providing for me every step of the way, even throughout my dealing with mental illness and learning how to deal with new disabilities, God has never stopped leading me closer to him, and closer to his plans for me. I hope to help others who have dealt with mental darkness as I have. I want to serve and love people, and help them to know that they are truly not alone.
In 2023, I will be serving through OMF at Cafe Coen! Cafe Coen is a cafe ministry located in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan that provides a place to build relationships and community through good coffee, food, events, Bible studies, Church services, and English classes. I am so excited to get to come alongside Cafe Coen and get the opportunity to serve others in the Sapporo area!
