My Bio

It is true that the Lord works in mysterious ways and truly does work all things together!  After traveling and doing missions all over the world (Africa, Europe, Asia, and South America), the Lord has placed a burden on my heart for a mission right here in North Dakota . . .

 

I grew up on a farm here in North Dakota and after high-school graduation headed to Northwestern College in St. Paul, MN.  I graduated from NWC with a degree in Cross-Cultural Ministries and then spent 3 years working at a faith-based rehab program in Minneapolis.  One morning at a coffee shop in the Cities, I ran into a friend from NWC who asked if I would ever be interested in leading a short-term missions trip.  Her brother was on staff with AIM and she told me that they needed trip leaders for their summer teams.  Three months later I was in Georgia for training, getting ready to lead a Real Life summer team to Peru. 

 

It was almost 4 years ago that I left Minneapolis to lead that first trip with AIM.  I was excited and nervous about what was to come, but my experience with AIM in Peru was more amazing and challenging that I could have imagined.  When that trip ended, I really believed that there was more to come between AIM and me, but I had no idea what or when that might be. 

 

After Peru, I came back home to North Dakota and began to get involved with ministry and community events here.  One of the ministries that I reconnected with was FaHoCha, a Bible camp where I spent most of my college summers working as Head Counselor.  FaHoCha is located south of Warwick, NDjust outside the Spirit Lake Indian Reservation.  Through my work there, the Lord laid a burden on my heart for Native Americans.  Many of them would come to know Christ at camp and then go back to broken homes filled with violence, abuse, and little or no encouragement in their new faith.  I found myself wishing that I could spend time on the reservation during the year so that these kids could be discipled and grow in their new faith in Christ.  I began to realize that there was a cross-cultural mission field right here.

 

These two “worlds” collided last fall when I got an email from Joe at AIM (he sets up short-term mission trips to Native American reservations across the USA).  He shared his vision to have a First Year Missionary (FYM) team on a Native American Reservation.  The FYM team would be a small team and would live and work on a reservation for one year, building relationships, getting plugged into the community, local ministries and churches, and discipling those who already share a faith in Christ.  This, of course, was exactly what the Lord had been placing on my heart.  When the opportunity to come on staff with AIM and work on the Spirit Lake Reservation came up, I had confidence that this was something that the Lord had been orchestrating for years. 

 

I am excited, humbled, and overwhelmed by the Lord’s faithful leading in this and I am so looking forward to the joys and challenges that lay ahead.