Welcome to my blog! Im a young 30-something living just south of Nashville, TN. I love my life and am so thrilled about the opportunities God has given me here! I have made some great friends, I get to work with an awesome youth group at my church, and help support an amazing project in Jacmel, Haiti! What a life!
How I Got Here
I was born and raised in western New York- North Tonawanda, to be specific, which is located between Buffalo and Niagara Falls. I have a 29 year old brother, Dan, and a 17 year old sister, Liz. My sister in law Cherie is a welcomed addition to our family!
I spent my growing up years in a mixture of public and private education. Mom is a teacher and Dad is the Electrical Supervisor at Buffalo State College. We’ve been involved with the local church and in various forms of ministry as a family as long as I can remember. Growing up, I planned to become a Pediatrician, although ministry and serving God was always a huge part of my life. I think I can pin down the sophomore year of high school as the time when things started to really change for me. Up till then, I was kind of the quiet, introverted, and not so popular kid. However, that year, our church hired its first full time youth pastor, who I took to right away. I did anything I could to get involved and help, I learned so much about serving the Lord in practical ways, leadership, and having a true one on one relationship with God that could impact my life and also change the world. I sort of became that kid who was a youth leader while really still being the student. Life became a great adventure for me, and I became a more passionate, outgoing, and strong personality within my circle of influence. That circle was expanded just before my sr. year. My dad was in a horrible accident which nearly took his life, and was out of work for several months. As a result, continuing to attend my private christian high school was not financially possible, so my brother and I made the switch to our city’s public school. Im not going to pretend it was easy, at all, but with the encouragement and support God had placed in my life, I was able to partner with a few of the other kids, and with our youth pastor, to start the schools first Bible club and weekly prayer around the flag pole. In the beginning, there would be maybe two or three of us, but after a while, there would be days were there were upwards of 80 students circling the flag pole prior to the first bell. Through this, and working with my youth group, God began to show me what a powerful force teens were for the Kingdom, and I became passionate about reaching them and serving with them to see great things accomplished. I really did believe we could change the world.
In the spring of my sr. year, my good friend Michelle asked me to accompany her on a visit to a Bible college she was considering attending. Thinking that I had my future already planned, I agreed to go and keep her company, but as we know, God’s plans are higher than ours. I will never forget returning home from that weekend, sitting down on my parents bed, and telling them I felt like God had told me I was to attend Elim Bible Institute in the fall.
My life would be so different had I not gone to Elim. God used that place to teach me how to study His word, to listen for His voice, to build character in me, and to bless me with some of the most amazing friendships I could have ever hoped for. I was blessed to be involved in so many ministries, including one called youth force. This travelling team would tour on the weekends and for 10 weeks straight during the summer leading worship, preaching, teaching, and performing drama’s at churches, camps and events anywhere from Rochester, NY to Miami, Fl. I was a part of this team for 2 summer tours and both the fall and spring semester of my sr. year, in which I also served as the assistant to the director and helped to lead the team. I graduated from Elim in 1999 with a major in Bible and a double minor in youth ministry and christian education.
Following college, I returned home to face head on the question my parents had posed to me four years earlier- how would I support myself on the education I had received? Being female, and also with an adimant stance that I was a “support” person and didnt really want a title of “youth pastor” the options were limited- well, actually, they were non-existent. So I did what seemed best- I got a job at a department store in the local mall! During this time, I met a part-time co-worker who set me up with an interview for a full time medical receptionist position at Buffalo Medical Group (a large, multi specialty physicians group in our area). I landed the position based on how much I smiled in the interview was what I was told. I started that job in September and was a receptionist for a family practice, internal med, and rheumatology office with some of the finest physicians I have ever had the priviledge to meet. Of course, I continued to be involved in leadership at my local church, working with the youth, running VBS programs and special events. However, after some time I began to get the itch for a change, and I started to think about relocating to Nashville, maybe going back to school, and pursuing a career as a manager in the music industry. My brother’s band, Fifth Seal, had become quite a commodity in our area, and “managing” it was something I found very fulfilling. After a trip to Nashville with our producer, and playing for and meeting with some record labels, I was sure Nashville was in my future.
As I began to think about saving money, relocating, and going back to school, my position at Buffalo Medical Group began to grow. With the implementation of a new group wide practice management system, there was room for promotion for me. I was moved to a position of team leader, then trainer, then Operations Specialist, all the while receiving intense training on and knowledge of this suite of practice management software known as Epic. As my responsibility, skill, and pay grade increased, the desire to relocate remained strong but it was apparent the timing was not right.
It was the spring of 2005 when I first began to receive “head hunter” calls. Recruiters began to contact me about consulting opportunities within the Epic world and I began to think and pray on this option. The jobs were all short term, required 100% travel, and more than doubled my salary. Since the positions required travel each and every week, the hiring firms really didnt care where my home was located and I saw this as an opportunity to transition to Nashville (my brother and sister in law had already moved) and not have to worry about looking for employment. I took a consulting position in March of 2005, and spent the next several months traveling to LA for work each week, and splitting my time on the weekends between my brother’s house in Nashville and my parents house in NY, completing the move to TN in December of that year. In August of 2006, a full time permanent position in our firm’s Franklin, TN office was posted and I applied. I got the job (I was later told by my boss at the time that he hired me because I was “sassy” and he knew I could handle being a part of an all male team!) and purchased my first very own house in Spring Hill.
The past several years as a TN resident have amazed me. God has given me a wonderful church, amazing friends who are as close as family, and ministry opportunities I would have never even imagined possible. It is safe to say that my parents no longer worry about what their little girl who graduated from Bible school would be able to do. I have a career in the medical field (just in a different way than I had imagined as a child) and am able to continue to fulfill my life long calling to minister through both my local church’s youth ministry and missions (which is another story of how God surprised me with His plans being different than mine!). Life has been a great adventure, and as each year goes by, I pray the adventure continues to grow bigger and that the Lord continues to surprise me with His amazing plans that are so much bigger than we could ever imagine.
