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, wholistic faith formation, 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, writing, gardening, illustration work, 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 usually in poetry or in reflective essays. 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, Ekstasis Magazine, The Harrisonburg Citizen, Bravery Magazine, Mothers Always Write, Anabaptist Witness, The Anabaptist Journal of Australia and New Zealand, and Transforming, a publication of Virginia Mennonite Missions. My second chapbook, A Fistful of Garnets: Mined Beauty in Words I Never Wanted is a glossary of mental health terms from a personal, intense season, an accumulation of years of anxiety and trauma that broke me open in eventually beautiful ways. It is forthcoming with Finishing Line Press in 2026. My illustration work has been a joyful partnership with The Soil and the Seed Project.

This blog was created as part of my role as Christian Formation Coordinator at Immanuel Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg, VA. I am very grateful to be part of “a local church with a global vision,” “a community being transformed by the radical love of Jesus.”

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