May I help you to be a light-shiner?
Not just any light! I’m talking about the light of Jesus Christ shining through you to our broken world. Are you already shining His light but need to dust off the lamp shade so it can shine more brightly? Is your light already bright but you want to know how to help other women shine theirs? Or maybe you aren’t quite there yet and want to know how to get started shining that light.
“You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world.” – Matthew 5 (The Message)
It is my passion to encourage and equip women to know, love, and follow Jesus, to live out his word in their homes, workplaces, churches, and communities, and to lead others to do the same. Because that, my dear visitor, is where abundant life is found… life full of joy overflowing in ever-widening circles of light!
To encourage and inspire you, I write about my adventure following Jesus and I share my worship art, too! Mostly Bible Art Journaling but also other types of worship or scripture art. To equip you, I share my favorite resources including opportunities to learn and grow as a student of the Master, Jesus Christ.
This is my greatest hope…
What will they say about me at the end of my life? (Yeah, I know it’s kind of morbid, but I think about this stuff!) 
I KNOW my kids will say I was a crazy, goofy mom and they’ll re-tell all the silly stories. It’d be cool if somebody would say I loved my husband beyond everything, I was a good friend, a favorite aunt, a fun Grammy, I liked to garden, I never stopped learning, and who knows what else.
But what I most long for to be said of me is that I loved Jesus and I pointed people to Him.
“…as I stretch my heart toward the high, shining love of God, someone who has not before known about it may be encouraged to look up and have hope.” A.W. Tozer
It’s all sort of upside down…
I went to Indonesia as a missionary with my husband and our children in 1999 and over the course of 10 years, God took my personality and flipped it around and gave it a twist! He took my C for “Conscientiousness” and my S for “Steadiness” and flipped them upside down and gave me an I for “Influence” on top of them both. (Have you ever taken the DiSC Personality Profile?)
God took me to the other side of the world to show me who He is and to begin to show me just who He wants me to be. Those years were transformational in my life. From my experience in ministry, the biggest impact on the people we serve in ministry is for them to see the work that God is doing in our own lives and not the work we’re doing in their lives.
It’s all – every little bit of it – about Him!
My best friend and our family…
My husband Ron is my best friend and adventure partner. We’ve been married for 40 years. We get to be mom and dad to five creative individuals – four daughters and one son. I’m also mother-in-law to three sons-in-law, and grammy to four cuties. They are artists and airmen, musicians and makers, readers and thinkers, and at least one of those babies is as goofy as me!
Ron is the Ministry Director at New Life Community in Carlisle, PA. We believe that the Lord uses us best together. It’s an honor and a privilege to serve alongside my man.
I want to get to know you too so I hope you will talk back to me. Let’s make this a conversation!
Five really random facts about me…
- I am an ENFP-T. A Campaigner to be exact. That’s me. We’re only 7% of the population. So many things in my life make sense now!
- I have a fur boy named Gordy. He’s an intense Jack Russell Terrier with energy to spare.
- I taught myself to knit when I was in 3rd grade and knit fancy Barbie sweaters from patterns in my mom’s collection of Workbasket magazines. Remember those? Isn’t knitting supposed to be like riding a bike? Once you learn how you never forget? Didn’t work for me!
- My husband and I often read aloud together. We started out reading on road trips and enjoyed it so much that we decided to keep on reading at home too.
- I love rain. It’s so beautiful and peaceful and washes the air clean. A good thunderstorm is the best!
So how about you?
Think about this…
every part of where you came from God has used to shape who you are today. I know some of it 
might be ugly but put on the right glasses and some of it is pretty good and maybe even beautiful! Every part of the story of you is in the hands of our good God.
Summertime is the perfect time to write a poem about where you are from! Do it with your kids and help them to write their own! “What?! Are you serious? I can’t write a poem!” Oh, but yes, you can! And here’s how:
Scholastic has provided this PDF template. Print it out, fill in the blanks according to the prompts and edit creatively (or not) where you need to and your poem will be awesome!
Here is an excerpt from my “I Am From” poem:
I am from booming, ticking, chiming clocks… mourning doves and percolating coffee on summer mornings.
From homemade bread, Herr’s peanut butter fudge sundae’s, and “Is that baby deer sleeping with his blankie?”
And from every moment of 19,121 and more days recorded in Sovereign God’s book before even one of them came to be.
Read my full “I Am From” poem here.
“I Am From…” Adapted by Levi Romero
Inspired by “Where I’m From” by George Ella Lyon
