Personal Narrative: Remember Why You Start

“Remember why you started” is the motto if lived by since starting school three years ago, but I have come to realize this has been applied to other areas of my life. Coming back to school after nineteen years was not a hard decision, however I was definitely nervous. Growing up I never really felt a clear cut calling to be anything more than a wife and mother. I was married at nineteen and had my first child the same year. My husband and I knew early in our marriage that we were called to ministry. When my son was two we moved to the Bay Area in hopes of becoming youth pastors of a local church however, that transition was not immediate. We lived on the side of the church in a Winnebago working full-time jobs and cleaning the church for extra

We moved back closer to my home town, Tulare, and sat under my father’s leadership at my home church. We filled various positions in our time there, such as, leading the youth, singing on the praise team, and again cleaning the church from time to time. We have had a lot of ups and downs over the years, but one thing I can always count on is that gentle reminder that God gives me to remember why I started. God knew exactly what He was doing while we were at the church in Tulare. He was giving us time to relax from life’s stresses, heal from its wounds, and refocus on our eyes on Him and his plan for our future. About three years later, in 2011, God called us be the lead pastors of Heritage Church of God in Reedley. In the past six years, God has continued to bless us, our family, and our ministry. He has opened countless doors for us to work in the community. My husband is a Reedley Police Chaplain, I am a mediator for the Reedley Peace Initiative not to mention all of the contacts and friendships we have continued to make along the way. We are blessed every day in our walk with God and are thankful that through the good times and bad he reminds us to remember why we