In July of 2019, I went to Uganda with a small team from Church at the Cross and our partner ministry, Empower One. We came to offer medical care and prayer to South Sudanese refugees who had fled across the border seeking safety and hope.

In September of last year, I had the great opportunity to go on a trip with several other CATC covenant members to Japan to explore the opportunities of ministry that exist there. Upon hearing about this opportunity, I began praying and asking God if this was somewhere I should go, and He was very clear in His answer to me about going to Japan!

In 2019, our local church partnered with Compassion International to sponsor (or fund) a church plant deep in the jungle, in a town located east of the Andes Mountains, just south of the Colombian border. At this church (or center), more than 300 children are sponsored through Compassion International.

We went to Ecuador to meet people and go places. Although we found more than that, we found friends, hope, and a united love for Jesus.

In 2023 and 2024, I was blessed with the opportunity to visit and serve the unreached people group of Japan through Church at the Cross. Japan is the 2nd largest unreached people group, with just less than 1% of the population being Christian!

When my daughter and I joined the 2024 Family Mission Trip to El Paso with our church, I had a plan. Vesper had just finished third grade, and my hope was to widen her world—to show her life beyond suburban Grapevine and teach her the joy of serving others in gospel-centered ways.

This past March, I had the opportunity to go on our church trip to Ecuador with Compassion International to meet my sponsor child, visit the Compassion center our church partners with in Jivino Verde, and see firsthand how sponsorship benefits not just the child but the entire family and community.