My faith in my own words:
First, to those of you trying to contact me, I am not yet a paying subscriber and for some reason am having difficulty being able to subscribe. I have sent a message to the hosts of this site, and hopefully they will be able to fix it for me and I will respond as soon as I am able. Meanwhile, to answer this question, my faith in God defines me. I've known the Lord pretty much all my life, as I grew up in a missionary family in Japan in the C&MA. At 20, I gave my life more fully to the Lord, after a 5 year period of searching. Shortly after that, he gave me a heart for missionary nursing. Asia and Africa both have my heart, and I have been in different places in both regions. At that time, he also gave me Isaiah 61:1-4 as my call.

Bethel Church is my home church, my family and my tribe, and I very much have the same world view. I went through School of Ministry there, back when there were only 37 of us.

What I enjoy doing in my free time:
Many things. I have sung all my life. When I had a keyboard, I would play for hours and sing worship songs, write my own music, etc. I love fishing and hiking, camping/backpacking, swimming. I like gardening. I love travel and exploring, learning new things. I love photography, primarily of nature, but through my trips overseas, have ventured into people as well. I am very often found on my computer, researching. I admit it also, I am a facebook fan, and love being able to stay connected with my friends and family around the world. I like to watch a good movie or tv now and then too, or read a good book.

My favorite book(s) and why:
Other than the Bible, one is Culture of Honor, by Danny Silk. It is such a different mindset from what so many of us have been raised with of rules and regulations and of punishment. I believe he's right on and it is the culture I want to propagate wherever I go and have any kind of influence.

My favorite places to go:
My favorite place in the world is Lake Nojiri in Nagano, Japan, in the mountains. I spent my summers there as a child.
I love Africa, especially Kenya and Mozambique, and also Tibet/Nepal. I just recently returned from a trip to Nepal.

What I am most passionate about in life:
I am passionate about growing in my intimacy with and worship of Jesus and helping others catch that passion.

I also am passionate about medical missions in 3rd World countries and disaster relief/development and different cultures.

My current occupation or what I do:
I am a registered nurse. Most recently, I worked in public health, but have done a variety of things in nursing. I am a Red Cross nurse, and also have worked with several disaster response organizations internationally which is something I love to do. I went to Kenya/Somalia with Medical Teams International, and to Japan after the tsunami with CRASH Japan as a base leader. I just returned from Nepal with Children Rescue Mission. Currently, I am home in Redding for a time and am caregiving part-time for a woman with dementia, but eventually hope to return overseas in medical missions.

My close friends would say my greatest strengths are:
compassion, adapts easily cross-culturally, persistent in trusting God, even through hard times.

Who has had the greatest influence in my life and why:
My father - he very much has modeled what it is to be a Christ-follower and a good husband. My mother died in February from pneumonia, following 37 years of MS, and my father cared for her day in, day out, faithfully loving her.
Bill Johnson, Danny Silk, Kris Vallotton and Terry Wardle also have all greatly influenced me in being hungry for the presence of God in a greater way in my life, to see people saved, healed and delivered (and knowing that God does intervene in our lives today and healing really is for today) and that God intends to use us to bring this about.
Danny Silk in particular believed in me at a time when no one else did and that changed my life and brought healing to me.