Mitch and I come from different backgrounds when it comes to our faith story. I grew up attending church on Sunday mornings, going to youth group, attending V.B.S. and even went on a couple mission trips while in middle school. Mitch did not experience any of that as a child but started to attend Sunday mornings with me to appease me really. His path to redemption started when he agreed to join a group of men from our church on a XCC ( extreme character challenge) weekend away. He thought he was going to get to know some guys from church while camping and hiking in northern MN. little did he know that he would come back a SAVED and CHANGED man of GOD. That little weekend away changed our lives forever and in ways I could have never imagined. Hurricane Ian also hit that same weekend and we felt the call to help in some way so we headed out on our first family missions trip and hauled a trailer of supplies we collected down to Fort Myers, FL. We had originally planned to head west on a family vacation, but God had different plans for us. After returning from this trip we both felt as if we were not finished there and our lives in MN started to feel unfulfilling. We got word that 8 Days of Hope was going to be putting on a huge rebuilding event in Harlem Heights, where we had recently served, in May 2023 and we should come down for this, so we booked flights and planned our second family missions trip within 5 months!! During this week, Mitch went out of his comfort zone and led a team to paint exteriors of 4 homes that week. The Florida heat set in full swing that week but not one of our kids complained, they were enjoying working together as a family and learning how rewarding it is to serve others, it was so great! Our kids loved both trips and talk about them frequently as they made so many memories and enjoyed serving others together. When we returned from this second trip the feeling of being unfinished got stronger and the desire to live the life we were living weakened even more. Conversations about joining Adventures Relief full time started getting longer and more frequent until one day Mitch called me and said God told him to trust and follow him, he says he got smacked in the face, so to speak. So here we go, life changing decision to let the Lord lead our family into the unknown with this crazy faith in him. At this point I had already started getting rid of the many things we had in our home, try going from a hobby farm with a full on daycare to a 43 ft fifth wheel with 3 kids under 10 at that point. The next few months was our first test of faith as we got ready to sell our home and move into tiny living. We were a full time RV family on missions as of January 2024 and we haven’t looked back.
It is now July of 2025, we just had a baby girl in April and are now serving in Western North Carolina with no plans to exit this life the Lord has put us on. When hurricane Helene hit the WNC area there was no preparing for what was to come, disaster and devastation is widespread. Realizing we are Better Together, a few organizations, including Adventures Relief, have teamed up to use the special gifts God gave each group to serve the WNC area as the Better Together Collision. We are currently serving over 300 homeowners and hosting 100 plus volunteers a week, that is a lot of kingdom work being done.
To God be the glory forever and ever! Amen!
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