Hi. My name’s Melissa. I’m a wife and mom. And I love helping with our Kids Ministry and Ladies Bible Study at our local church in South Carolina. I grew up in Ohio, but have officially lived in the South longer than I have in the North at this point.

I graduated college in 2003 with a degree in English and a minor in Family and Consumer Sciences. Since then, I’ve worked as a camp op staff member, researcher, administrative assistant, travel coordinator, florist, event coordinator, office manager, and small business owner / artist. But my favorite job has been being a stay at home mom, working from home in ways that spread the gospel.

I met my husband, Bryan, working on staff at a Christian camp together during the summer of 2004. Bryan and I became friends, then best friends, then decided we wanted to be best friends for life–so we got married in 2006 and have lived in the Upstate of South Carolina ever since. We’re both “old souls,” if you will–we love reading, classical music, going on drives through the mountains, puzzles, and making BLTs with homegrown tomatoes and fresh herbs. We love living a simple life, spending time as a family, and sharing food and conversation over a bowl of pasta or a cup of coffee or sweet tea. We love to cook together (he’s a chef by trade, but we began cooking together long before he ever went to culinary school). And we love working in the woodshop or flowerbeds together as we’re able.

I have always loved writing and have kept journals on and off since as early as I can remember (I have one from 1st grade–so basically as soon as I learned to write sentences). I’ve written a handful of blogs over the years and helped edit various manuscripts for author friends. Someday, I hope to write a book (or three). But for now, I want to practice writing and rehearsing the truths of the gospel in my writing, and if it helps someone else rehearse gospel truths, then I hope you’ll follow along.

I trusted Christ Jesus as my Savior a month before I turned five, was privileged to go to a Christian school and Christian university. Both Bryan and I grew up in Christian homes, going to church. When my first son was born in 2015, God did a work in my heart and drew me to Himself in a special way (first, through reading the Jesus Storybook Bible to my newborn, actually; then thru a couple of Bible studies written by Jen Wilkin). In 2017, I became interested in teaching the Bible to other women. In 2018, I started directing our preschool ministry at church, which meant working on adding connections to the Gospel and age appropriate applications for the curriculum we were using. And in 2019, God opened up an opportunity to begin teaching in my local church’s women’s ministry. I praise God that He continues to grow my passion for Himself and His Word and change me because of it. I pray that He will use me to share the gospel and live a life that is a holy sacrifice, pleasing to His sight.