It was Thanksgiving weekend. The house was full of family, but I wasn’t the same Janelle who had walked out the door just a week earlier to head back to college. The week before, as I was loading my laundry into my car, my mom and I had a short but candid conversation. I can…
Ten years ago, I sat in an audience filled with gratitude, pride, and bittersweet joy as my dad gave his final address as Superintendent to the Iowa Yearly Meeting. It was the closing chapter of 36 years in ministry—twelve of which he spent traveling from church to church, supporting pastors and congregations across the region,…
Pregnant. Nineteen. Pastor’s Kid. Unprepared. It was the week of Thanksgiving, 1997. I was a student living on campus at a small junior college in Iowa. I’d graduated high school less than six months earlier, and truthfully, I had no plan for what came next. I hadn’t dreamed of going to college. I hadn’t applied…
Learning to Speak When Silence Feels Safer Let’s talk about voices. Yours. Mine. God’s. From the time we’re born, we instinctively use our voice to cry for help, to express joy, to learn, to connect. But somewhere along the way, life can chip away at our confidence—especially when it comes to using our voice for…
The Moment I Realized I Was Trying to Help God In the summer of 2016, I came face to face with fear. We had a one-on-one punching match the weekend of our oldest son’s 18th birthday. You see, our oldest wasn’t always “ours.” He was mine before he was also my husband’s. At 19, I…
If you were to write down one question for God right now, what would it be? No filters. No fear of judgment. Just the raw, unedited cry of your heart. Recently, I was preparing for a women’s retreat when God gave me a vision—one where questions were floating everywhere. If every thought, doubt, or longing…
Specifically, I’m talking about being bi-vocational—the often complex path of serving as both a business owner and a pastor. This topic has stirred in me for a while. And I’ve learned that when something won’t let go of my heart—despite my hesitation to speak on it—it’s likely the Lord prompting me to be a voice…
In 2023, I began hearing the still, small voice of the Lord whisper: Use your voice. At first, it was quiet, but it grew louder and louder. I was walking through one of the most difficult seasons of my life, a journey of deep emotional healing. And every time a lie from the enemy was…