I really struggled to recover from my divorce. When my wife left, there were many days of being so numb, I needed to leave myself notes to know what to do next. There were tears from stress and loneliness. I often hid from my friends because I was embarrassed and didn’t want anyone to know. That included people at church. I felt…

After 20 years of serving on staff at Wooddale, I’ll be retiring on May 31, 2021. God brought me to Wooddale as a broken, “cracked pot” after going through a difficult divorce from a 26-year marriage. He used Wooddale to redefine my life through missions and serving our global partner missionaries who live and work here, near and far. At that time,…

I received a late-night phone call from my dad that knocked the wind out of me. My mom had a stroke and because of an existing heart condition, was being rushed into surgery. Time wasn’t on her side. My husband and I couldn’t go to the hospital due to COVID restrictions. Grabbing my women’s small group study book, I started skimming my…

The first holiday season after the death of my husband was like no other I’d experienced in my life. From the outside, my husband (Ken) seemed young and healthy. No one expected he’d be diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer. My 12-year-old son thought his dad would be around for a long time and in his grief, experienced a life-threatening…

I’ve seen God answer the prayers of this anxious mama and my 9-year-old daughter in many ways. Before COVID, we prayed together every morning as I dropped her off for school. We prayed for her day, the staff and any concerns she had. Part of our routine was also picking out a classmate’s name tag, laying our hands on it and praying…

As a young idealist, I longed to serve others and make a positive impact in the world around me. I was still 17 when I signed up to be an Air Force linguist. Being young in my faith, I made the dangerous prayer to give up everything to do God’s will. And just like that, my life changed. I found myself in…