This group meets starting September 16th, and the 3rd Monday of every month going forward, in the library at the Temple.

Address: 400 N Edgelawn Drive, Aurora IL 60506

From 5:00PM – 6:30PM

I am a retired, United Methodist pastor and a former high school English teacher with a blended family of five adult children and seven grandchildren. I live in Oswego, Illinois, with two black lab dogs. My husband Neil passed away and went to be with God in April 2023.

God called me into full-time Christian ministry at the age of fourteen, but in college my decisions in life interfered with my calling, and it wasn’t until 1995 that God led me to Tanzania, Africa, to spend the summer with missionaries. That experience changed my life and led me to study at Garrett Evangelical Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. In 2001 I left my teaching position at Waubonsie Valley High school to enter pastoral ministry (God never gives up on us!). And after serving four churches as their pastor, I retired in 2018.

I attend Wheatland Salem UMC in Naperville, Illinois, presently serving as worship leader, which fills me with great joy. I am also on the missions committee there, and I’m very active in general in this congregation.

I also love spending time with my family and grandchildren, my friends, and my two horses. I am on the board of Joy In the Harvest, the sending organization for the missionaries in Tanzania, and I have made five trips there as a witness of God’s love to the beautiful people of Africa.

I have come to realize that my passion is to share God‘s joyful message of love and hope through my words, prayers, and actions in daily life. One of my favorite Bible passages is Romans 15:13: “May the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”