{Meet Joan}

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know about Jesus. From my earliest memory, my parents took me to church and Sunday school. At the age of ten, during a revival, I prayed to receive Jesus as Savior.

However, that relationship was never nurtured. The church we attended strongly believed that Jesus would return immediately. I thought I would never have a chance to grow up, graduate high school, get married, or have a life. I never heard sermons about maturing in our faith or growing in grace. I also had a distorted view of God. I believed that to fear Him meant to be afraid of Him and that He was just waiting for me to make a mistake in order to punish me.

After my high school graduation, I worked for a few years at a Christian organization. I began to hear sermons with deeper theology and learned the importance of having a quiet time and personal Bible study. I realized there was more to the Christian life than being saved and awaiting our passage to heaven. I remember young people my age or a bit older being able to quote scripture verses and references. They shared their faith with assurance and ease. Although I knew a few scriptures by heart, such as John 3:16 and the 23rd Psalm, I resigned myself to the fact that I could never be fluent in quoting scripture or be brave enough to share my faith.

Around that same time, a lot of legalism began to infiltrate some of the churches and church members. I never heard about grace, but plenty of “you can’t do this,” and “you have to…,” and “if you listen to…or go to that movie, it’s a sin.” I was in total bondage for fear that I would sin. Soon, I became disillusioned with Christianity. I changed jobs, went to work for a local bank, and all but stopped attending church – I had had enough of that bondage.

One day, my brother told me about a small neighborhood congregation that met only on Sunday mornings.  I still felt a strong need to attend church, and this was perfect. I could go on Sunday, satisfy my attendance quota, and be free the rest of the week to do whatever I desired.

However, during the years at that little church, something happened. We had pastors that taught the word verse by verse and we studied entire books of the Bible. I began to realize that I could know and understand God’s word.

In 1983, through a mutual friend, I met the love of my life. We married eleven months later. We continued to attend the little community church and feed upon God’s word.

In 1992, before our eighth wedding anniversary, doctors diagnosed my husband with cancer. He underwent months of grueling chemotherapy treatments before doctors declared him in remission. The following summer, during a three-month check up with his oncologist, we learned his cancer had recurred. The first year, doctors gave him a ninety-five percent chance of survival, but with the recurrence and standard chemotherapy alone, only a twenty-five percent chance.

His oncologist consulted with physicians at the University of Indiana Medical Center and they determined the best course of treatment would be three rounds of chemotherapy, then high-dose chemo and a bone marrow transplant. After only two rounds of standard chemo, his oncologist said he was doing well enough to forego the third treatment and he entered Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas where they harvested his bone marrow. After the chemotherapy, he received a transplant of his own healthy bone marrow, and he began rebuilding blood cells. He spent a total of 24 days in the hospital and doctors discharged him thirteen days post-transplant.  Three weeks later, he was well enough to return to work and the fall of 2011 marked his eighteenth year of being cancer free. We are grateful to the doctors who cared for him, but give praise to the One from where his true healing came. When he returned to Baylor six months after his hospitalization for their annual transplant reunion, even his doctors were amazed at how well he was doing.

After such an experience, one would think that neither of us would turn our backs on God, but we did. We went through what I call our prodigal years before a difficult time of unemployment and near financial ruin caused us to turn back to Him. It was then that God stirred up a hunger for Him stronger than I ever had before. I read and studied the bible myself. I started purchasing Christian books, listening to Christian radio, and attending a mid-week prayer meeting. I couldn’t seem to get enough of God’s word. I learned that He is a God of love – not one who wants us to sin in order to punish us.

God led us to a new and larger church home in 2005 where the leadership taught the message of grace in a way I had never heard. I began to truly break free of the bondage of legalism.

I have a passion for women’s ministry and teach women’s Bible studies at my home church. My desire is to show women the importance of developing an intimate relationship with Jesus. I want them to know they can have an abundant life in knowing Him.

I also love writing and my hobby is photography, although I am at best an amateur photographer. The majority of the photos on this blog, unless otherwise indicated, are my own – including the header photos. I enjoy nature walks and being outdoors enjoying God’s beautiful creation. Most of all, I love to refect upon His grace.