My name is Melissa but some folks call me Missy. A former English and ESL teacher, I live in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where I care for my husband and three young children, more pets than we planned on, unruly gardens, and my neighborhood. I’m a Michigan girl at heart and a child of a bicultural/bilingual family.

I’m passionate about education (books!) and empowering families to be “on mission” together—nurturing wholeness and learning, creating patterns that instill identity, and pushing beyond ourselves toward hospitality and hope wherever we find ourselves.

My interests include being rooted in my diverse neighborhood, painting watercolor illustrations and taking photos of flowers, reading good young adult literature, creating hospitable spaces, giving good gifts, helping with teacher appreciation at my children’s school, and learning about ways the kingdom of God is and still needs to be breaking into reality on the margins. I get excited about good resources and love to share them.

I write about motherhood and faith, usually in poetry. My first chapbook Welcome, Stranger: Poems of Making and Keeping Our Children, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2021. My work has appeared in The Christian Century, Bravery Magazine, Mothers Always Write, Anabaptist Witness, The Anabaptist Journal of Australia and New Zealand, and Transforming, a publication of Virginia Mennonite Missions. More poems are forthcoming with Ekstasis Magazine in summer 2022. My newest chapbook is in progress, a glossary of mental health terms from a recent intense season, an accumulation of years of anxiety and trauma that broke me open in eventually beautiful ways.

This blog was created as part of my role as co-coordinator of Christian Formation at Immanuel Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg, VA. I am very grateful to be part of “a local church with a global vision.” I seek to share my thoughts in alignment with our church’s mission statement: “To experience God and equip each other for a life centered in Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit. Christ’s hope and wholeness invites us to recognize and celebrate the diversity within our congregation, neighborhood, and world.” May these words honor my church family and be an encouragement to you and yours. May you find lovely light here and seek to know its source more and more.

In humility and hope,

Missy