I was born in Oklahoma, moved to Singapore and then to Balikpapan, Kalimantan. When I was five my parents divorced and I went with my mother to live in Apple Valley, Minnesota… my hometown. Except that now I’ve lived in Chicago for longer than I lived in Apple Valley, so now I guess Chi-town is my hometown. 

I graduated from North Park College in 1992 with B.A. in Political Science and Sociology. I returned to North Park Theological Seminary in 1996 and crammed four years of study into five, graduating with an MDiv in 2001.

I’m normal. I struggle and I sometimes succeed. I doubt and I trust. I love and sometimes people make me crazy. I’m open and yet stubborn, honest and yet a master at self-deception. I’m generous and I’m materialistic, gracious and stingy. I know that within me there is an eager child, a peer-driven adolescent, a loving wife, a mother who has yet to have children, an impatient pastor, a passionate evangelist, a child who is just getting to know her father, a reconciler, a vagabond of the obvious, and both a workaholic and the laziest person I know. I am all of these things and more. But the thing I would like you to know most about me is that I am seeking to understand what it means to be a child of God, fully known and fully loved.

I love to dance, to paint, to read, to swim in the ocean, and to walk in the woods. I love being with my husband, hanging out with good friends and looking for things other people miss.

Sara Groves, Dave Matthews Band, BoDeans, Paul Simon, U2, Ellen Moore, American Angels

A River Runs Through It, Cast Away, Apollo 13, Shawshank Redemption, Life is Beautiful, Braveheart

I’m hooked on the Discovery Channel and anything with a crazy title like, “the man with the exploding arms” or “the woman who was pregnant for 46 years”. I also love the documentary channel, a good football game, a dose of HGTV, BBC news, and I Love Lucy

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell is a great read concerning how trends and movements begin; Tathea by Anne Perry and the sequel, Come Armageddon are a cross between science fiction and Christian myth and a good guilty read that actually pushes one to think. Life of the Beloved by Henri Nouwen and Abba’s Child are always good reminders to the perfection driven side of my life. And I love biographies/autobiographies and recommend reading as many as you can find. Here are a few good ones; Ernest Shackleton, Corrie Ten Boom, Jimmy Carter, Oswald Chambers, Barak Obama, Nelson Mandela

My family owned a small camp on Sebec Lake in central Maine and I spent many summers there during my childhood. The days were endless; we swam in the freezing cold spring-fed lake until we were prunes, read countless books on the screened in porch, caught dozens of quarter pound fish, went for ice cream at Butterfield’s several times a week, and learned the luxury of time.

I’d love to have the opportunity to meet everyone, to know everyone’s story and to uncover the rich things that we so often miss because we’re busy meeting people everyone else wants to meet.

It’s not really a superhero power… but I loved when the members of the Starship Enterprise would beam themselves to different places. I wish I could beam myself somewhere.