I found my identity and calling with the Friends Church while growing up in the community of Rose Drive Friends Church. Being a part of the Rose Drive staff for the past six years has been a struggle and a joy. In this season I work at Rose Drive as the college graduate assistant, learning from college students and intersecting my love of theology, missions, and discipleship in one incredible ministry. I am currently a third-year Master of Divinity student at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.

I am also a part of an intentional community of ten college/post-college students in Pomona, California, attempting to learn how to live openly and simply through spiritual practices and relationships with our community. More days than not, we’re all learning so much about how individualism and consumerism have seeped into our Christianity and how our own selfishness makes communal living quite difficult. But there have been days of rich joys in what God is teaching us about following Jesus’ way and in the fruit of our willingness to trust God and each other with what we have to learn.

In my heart I am still listening to God and discerning where my passions for academic theology, missions, and pastoral ministry will intersect in the future.

If you’re ever in Southern California, I would love to tell you more of my story over a warm cup of fair-trade coffee or on a hike through the San Gabriel foothills. Grace and peace to you all as you read these columns and find insight and encouragement for a life lived in response to God’s great love.

Conversation Cafe columns . . .