“Who am I?” is a difficult question to answer. For I am many things and there is no true way to express in words all that I am. I may not even know for sure all that I am. Even so I will attempt to give you some basics about me and we will go from there.
I was born on the 19th of October in the year 1981. Since that day of birth I have lived in many places and have done many things. I have an older sister who is the mother of my three wonderful nieces and my wonderful nephew. I am also the human of a bossy cat who was born on the 24 of September in the year 1988. (Unfortunately due to circumstances of school, housing… she has recently relocated to my parents house where she is letting them know I should be where she is and not somewhere else.)
I was born in Oregon, then moved to Illinois, then Iowa, then Wyoming, back to Oregon, then went back to Iowa for my undergrad years at Graceland University While at university I spent my first summer in Illinois doing an internship and my second in Ohio doing another internship. After three years of undergraduate studies I graduated in 2003 and moved back to Oregon. After a year I once again found myself in Ohio for four months as a spiritual formation fellow at the historic site I had interned at during my undergrad years. After Ohio I then moved to Washington (the state) to work towards an M.Div.
I had to take a little more than a year’s sabbatical from my formal educational pursuits. During this time I ended up returning to Oregon, where I served and worshiped in different ways with two Community of Christ congregations. I had planed to return to Washington, but instead felt I must choose the harder path and so now I embark on a new journey, in a new place. That place is Ohio.
I am an ordained minister, and have been sine July 2000, of Community of Christ and have been serving in various congregations, primarily within the Greater Pacific Northwest USA Mission Center. Living in Ohio, I embraced and served with a couple of congregations of the Western Ohio Mission Center. A few summers past I served at a historic site in Nauvoo and served with the congregation there in various ways. The following fall I returned once more to Ohio, but this time serving primarily with the Easter Great Lakes Mission Center and until recently also the Kirtland Temple while continuing my master’s degree.
The finishing strokes of my degree were in part the participating in a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) in Cleveland Ohio.
In May of 2009 I received my M.Div from the Methodist Theological School in Ohio. I am currently seeking to figurer out what comes next. I would prefer to work full time in some way with Community of Christ. Though in the short term I may need to serve in self-sustaining capacity, with some other form of work. My passions include spending time in nature, especially in temperate rain forests, on the pacific coast, and climbing/hiking volcanoes with friends. Within the realms of Faith, my passions include sharing and inviting people to know the Peace of Christ, Liturgical Theology, pastoral care, social justice, other justice, and much more.
I have hopes and dreams on being able to help others see, grow, enhance, engage and utilities their gifts and talents toward the work of the Peaceable Community which Christ proclaimed and we are called toward. Not just individual gifts but also those of the community.
I have been chosen with four others to serve in the role of pastor for the Kirtland Community of Christ Congregation. In this role I hope to work with others in living out our call and growing as a people, in part through taking risks to be that which we are called to be.
If you have any questions about me, please feel free to ask via the comments and I will do my best to answer them in future posts and updates to this (and other) pages.