Welcome!

So welcome to my new blog!

I've had several people tell me that I should start writing a blog about my life as a youth pastor. My teens are always doing hilarious things and I have so many stories that I would love to share. I've been told I should write a book, but I am going to do this for now. So I hope you enjoy my stories!

Here's a little bit of background on me:

I grew up as the only child of a Nazarene Pastor. My grandpa was also a Nazarene pastor. I was born in Washington, and my dad pastored there until I was 4 years old. At that point, we moved to Southern Oregon to take a small church in a town called Ashland. That's where I spent most of my life. During the middle of my freshman year of high school, we moved to a new town about 3 hours away. It was a tiny little town called Brookings. Our church was the largest in town and we had a very active youth group. We were only there about a year and a half when some things happened and we were suddenly church-less. From there we moved to Southern California and we've been here ever since!
I've been at this church since I was 16 years old. At one point during high school, I really felt God calling me to missions. I pushed it aside and ignored it as long as I possibly could... I'd watched my dad in ministry and I knew how hard it could be... that wasn't the life I wanted. But then at 18 years old, I really felt it again. But this time, there was an opportunity for me to work with the teens at my dad's church. Being only a teen myself, and still a bit apprehensive about ministry, I started as a junior high intern. The next summer we lost our youth pastor, and I stepped in. I really felt like God had called me to this place at this time, but the call to missions was still in the back of my mind and I didn't really know how it all went together. About a year after starting as a volunteer, I was hired part time. Two years later, I was brought on full time. I have now been full time for more than a year.
The group is drastically different than when I started almost 4 years ago. We lost a lot of our teens, and many graduated. When I started on my own, I had less than 10 teens. 3.5 years later, we have close to 80! We have also merged with a Spanish speaking church, and completely merged our two youth groups. I now have a co-youth pastor named Javier who has brought a wonderful balance.
Not only that, but God is fulfilling my heart for missions. I've been fortunate enough to go on several short-term missions to Mexico with our Spanish ministry, and I'm looking at a longer one to several different countries here in the next year. Not only that, but in so many ways, God has brought the mission field to me. It's not always about traveling to far away places... so often we forget about the people that are right in front of us!
This is the most amazing church I have ever been a part of. I am so blessed to be a part of something that is so much bigger than me! There are very exciting things happening and I feel grateful that God trusts me with his children. My teens are incredible. That is why I am writing this blog... because their stories deserve to be told. The hilarious things they say.... the heartbreaking life stories they are, and the wonderful people they're becoming.

I hope that by reading my blog you will get to see the wonderful side of ministry. I hope that you will get a kick out of the everyday things that happen in my life. Because they are so far from ordinary, but they are what makes my heart. These kids, this life... this is my passion.