ABOUT

"Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of a man, the biography of the man himself cannot be written."

--Mark Twain

All biographies begin with the people and places...

I was born and reared in Georgia, with 3 sisters. My parents immersed us in the arts; music, ballet, painting. I even attended an opera before I was 13. But they also let us have 2 horses, and I marched in the band twirling a flag, and then playing the clarinet during concert season. When I graduated from high school I started a pilgrimage west, all the way to Birmingham, AL where I got my bachelor’s degree in history at Samford University. From there I traveled further west to Fort Worth, TX where I met my husband Tom, and completed a master's degree in education at Southwestern Seminary. We followed God’s call to pastor a church-to-be in Thompson Station, TN (where we stayed forever) and reared our family; two daughters (Mikel and Selah) and one son, (Jamison). Today both daughters have brought me sons-in-law (Jeff/Selah, and Jon/Mikel) AND grandchildren (Misty, River/Mikel and Jaxson/Selah).

Then they move toward the things we do...

From the get-go, Tom and I committed to partnership in ministry. That partnership was easy to embrace when we joined the 8 people who wanted to become a church in Thompson Station. As the church grew, I followed my passion to write; and wrote children’s curriculum for Lifeway Christian Resources and Woman’s Missionary Union. I served on our denomination’s state staff, and free lanced as a conference leader and trainer. Once our children were in school, I returned to the staff of Thompson Station Church and served in preschool, children, women, next gen, and prayer ministries (not all at the same time). Along the way I began writing books and have been published by Bethany House, Worthy, DaySpring and others.

In January 2024, after 35 years as pastor and wife, at Thompson Station Church, Tom became the founding pastor and I took an exciting new role with Hope4America.us as the Director of Discipleship.

Today I continue to podcast, speak, write, do television and radio interviews and look for ways to mobilize people to pray.

And then the things that make our hearts sing...

I am passionate for you to understand the power of prayer. I long to see God’s Name proclaimed through His people and His Church as we take seriously our privilege and responsibility of prayer. The Prayer Clinic ministry was birthed out of my passion to empower churches to become houses of prayer.

And the things that make our hearts cry...

If God whispers in our pleasures and shouts in our pain (like CS Lewis said), then I must be hard of hearing. Either that, or He’s got a whole lot to say through me. My life rocked and rolled gently until 2010. Since then my personal experience has included a prodigal daughter who returned home abused and divorced with two children; a personal battle with cancer twice; the death of my sister Sharon, (to cancer) and then walking up close and personal with...

domestic violence, drug addiction, New Age thought, hinduism, buddhism, witchcraft, deconstruction of faith, fostering and assisting with the adoption of traumatized children, psychedelics, marijuana, PTSD, mental illness, the list goes on.

God’s seen fit to allow my journey to be riddled with all kinds of experiences that might seem a whole lot like the ones you might be facing. You can learn more about these struggles and how they challenged my faith and drew me closer to God in my books, blog posts, online courses, on my podcast, and at my events.

The things that keep us going...

Knowing that God loves us more than we can ever imagine, and understanding that He means for us to experience exceedingly, abundantly more in our lives, is what keeps me going.

I love sharing the biblical truths I’ve learned in the messy middle of the chaos I call my life, and drawing you out of the muck of your mess too; because I’ve discovered that there is freedom and joy in sharing our stories.

I get really excited when people experience what happens when we pray– especially when we get our churches praying.

And the things that refill our tanks...

Hmmm. My tank is refilled with writing, teaching, walking, whining about working out, spa-ing (is that a thing?), driving Tom crazy with projects, and traveling with friends and family.

But, do you want to know what really refills my tank?

Retreating!

My favorite places to retreat are the mountains and the beach, don’t make me choose! That’s why we own, not one but two places that we are sharing with you. My “Laughing Place” in the NC mountains and “Sea Breeze Cottage” in Crystal Beach, (Destin), FL.

Take Tom, a good book, and any-one or all (even better) of my 3 adorable grandchildren to one of those places…