More about Melissa

A friend asked me to sit down and tell her my life.

“What are you looking for?” I asked.

“Anything. Everything. What mattered to you? What scared you? What inspired you? What were the highs and the lows? Just… talk.”

As I did, she made notes on a large white board that I couldn’t see. She was looking for passions and consistent values that showed up in my story over and over again.

It was highly meaningful to see that authenticity was a high value that had shown up when I was very young and had continued through my life. Learning and growing were also consistent themes, as was connection and faith.

Faith has definitely marked my life. I made a personal decision of faith in Jesus when I was five years old—and even at that age, it was real. From that moment on, faith became the center of my life. By eleven, I was reading my Bible on my own and preaching (quietly) in my bedroom. I was - and still am - a deep thinker and a bit of a wrestler—curious, persistent, and rarely satisfied with surface answers.

As I entered adulthood, I needed my faith to be mine, not something borrowed or inherited.

That desire has shaped everything. I’ve spent decades reading, asking questions, and learning—from Scripture, from mentors, from philosophy and theology, from the study of cults and alternate worldviews, and most of all, from walking with God through seasons of beauty, silence, and storm.

I studied economics and education, taught high school, and later homeschooled my children. In my mid-twenties, I began teaching a reconciliation class where I watched adults get set free from shame, fear, and old wounds—and something in me came alive. Seeing people from a wide range of backgrounds all encounter truth and get touched, healed and set free from so many things was miraculous to behold. However, also around that time, I entered a deep season of personal trial: Alzheimer’s in my family, miscarriage and secondary infertility, long waiting in adoption, and a crumbling spiritual community. I asked hard questions about God, Scripture, and truth—and I found that pain really has a way of making us dig deeper – or run away.

We moved our whole family across the country so I could fully pursue truth and wrestle with my questions. I slowly found my footing again by spending time in His presence, worshiping, reading and showing up to try again and again. I spent three years at Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, was ordained at Heart City Church in Ohio in 2022, and helped launch a ministry school that focused on deeper connection with Christ. I also began writing down the truths I believed—core values that had been tested in pain and refined in joy. That list – a tangible testimony of my connection to Christ and lived truths for my life – became an anchor. And now, I help others name their own.

I believe adult believers need more than borrowed beliefs or performance-based religion. And when we are just venturing into adulthood - we need mentors and honest spaces to wrestle. We real tools to build, and brave communities that walk with each other through deconstruction, reconstruction, and deeper formation in Christ.

This is my work: to help people seek and find truth, clarify what they believe, connect with Jesus, and live rooted, joyful, powerful lives—lives that heal what was broken and create something worth passing on.