Stories

How did I end up here, in Ellensburg working for Mercer Creek? It didn’t go exactly as planned, but God does things a little differently than we think they should go. Proverbs 16:9 says, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” This is true for so many reasons and is evident in my story.

When I was growing up, I didn’t have a clear, “This is what I want to do with my life” direction that some of us have. But one thing was clear, I loved church. I grew up in a Free Methodist church and had invested much of my time there; from attending Sunday School and Youth Group, to being part of multiple worship teams, I spent much of my childhood. 

During my senior year of high school and the following year, I was a small group leader for middle school students. I enjoyed helping the students and I thought, “might as well become a youth pastor”. That should have been my first sign. If it starts with, “might as well…” then it’s probably not the direction that you should head with the rest of your life. Looking back, God was planting the desire to work at a church, I just didn’t know what direction that would look like.

I decided to enroll at Multnomah University down in Portland, OR, but not in the Youth Ministries major, but in the Psychology major. I told myself, “if being a youth pastor doesn’t work out, then at least I’ll have a plan B”. Again, another sign that I might not be going in the best direction or what God intended. Through some health issues and an overall sense of uneasiness (which is another story all together), I decided to leave Multnomah and go back to the community college in Wenatchee to finish my AA degree.

This was a hard time because it felt like I had failed and that I was lost and looking for answers. Shouldn’t I have already figured out what I should do with my life? Through great council with family and friends, they pointed out that I was pretty good with computers and that I should think about entering the technology field. Without really knowing what that looked like, I decided to go to Central Washington University to the Computer Science major. Again, God was moving me into place for where He wanted me to be.

Then after changing my major again (that’s three times if you’re counting), I graduated with a BS in Information Technology and Administration Management. However, going to CWU wasn’t all God had for me in Ellensburg. What I found in Ellensburg was an amazing community. Mercer Creek felt like home. It was easy to get plugged into the college ministry Salt and get great friends there. I knew that Mercer Creek would be special to me, even if I didn’t stay in Ellensburg.

After working an an IT department here in town for a few months, Dan Arnold approached me and said that a full time position was opening up at the church for a “Tech” person. Someone to help run all the production for the weekend, help out with communication, and to be the IT support for the staff. I can now see that this is where God was leading me to. Every step of the way, God was preparing my heart to work at Mercer Creek. I couldn’t see what God was up to along the way, but He had everything in His mighty hand and I am incredibly thankful to Him for all that He has done.