culture+hospitality || justice+mission || women+ministry

it’s awkward here, isn’t it? you have come to figure out who i am and what i post and why i post it – as if a few words and photos chosen for aesthetic could somehow be fully authentic.

let’s be honest: you want a peek into my world and i want to influence yours. so, here we are at the table with our questions and our stories.

i believe in the power of story

you will find stories here: real and often raw.  our world is broken. our systems are broken. our souls are broken.

the genesis of our biggest story tells us how that brokenness happened. the rest of our book tells us there is one who weeps with us, who woos us,  and who heals us in our darkest night. truth ~ not easy truth ~ but real is rarely easy.

maybe you believe this tale i tell and maybe you do not and maybe you are unsure – regardless of where you are or who you are, you are welcome here at my table.

i believe in the power of the table

you won’t find designer pottery or a spotless house. you will find a home – our home of six with room for one more and laughter and welcome. this hospitality is the kind served up on chipped plates and mismatched mugs and a roly-poly puppy warming your feet. regardless of your color, your language, your culture, your politics, your history ~ you belong here.

i believe in the power of belonging

the kind of belonging that means we matter and because we matter, we must walk justly ~ stepping into intentional solidarity with one another.  this is a solidarity that was birthed in a time and a place as a person. he joins people in their journey and he wears their bondage with them until freedom is found. i know someone who did that. i want to be like him.

i believe in the equality of people

the kind of equality that recognizes that there are places on this planet of ours where girls grow up second-class, where the female body is objectified and sold, and where gender defines a woman’s role in the home, in society, and in the church.

the kind of equality that questions these habits and addictions of ours that contribute to 29 million people in slavery. the kind of equality that cannot leave 63 million refugees unseen. the kind of equality moved to action when the color of one’s skin or the tones of their accent define one’s potential or one’s place in the human map.

these realities must change and until they do, both you and i have work to do. real work ~ the kind that moves us from our comfortable homes and keeps us up at night and impacts how we spend our money, our time, our vote, our hour of worship.

who am i?

i am ordained in the nazarene church. i hold two degrees ~ one of them theological. i coordinate a theological program to prepare pastors. i have a God-given call to preach and to teach. i am a missionary. i write.

i am a woman.

i am committed to being visibly present in ministerial roles so that a woman in the pulpit is a normal occurrence for young men and women.

i am a mother of four awesome, unique girls growing quickly into women.

i am a wife to jay, and we are a ministry team. we share responsibility for guiding ministry in 12 nations. we have been married for 27 years. we have lived in 4 countries on 2 continents spending just shy of half our lives in Eastern Europe. today, we live in the grand city of budapest.

i am trying to speak more than one language and my heart belongs to several cultures.

i love people.

i love Jesus.