My Story
At the age of twelve while on a mission trip to Mexico, God first called me. Never could I have imagined the places that my initial “yes” to His call would take me. I have spent the majority of my adult years in missions work overseas as a Bible teacher. Before marriage, I spent time with Youth with A Mission (YWAM) completing their Discipleship Training School in Australia (with outreach to Indonesia), as well as five years in Kenya, East Africa teaching God’s Word and piloting a Discipleship Training School there. I married my high school sweetheart and together we had three beautiful daughters. We moved our family to Africa in 2006 when the girls were ages 4, 5, and 6. We lived as career missionaries in Uganda for about 10 years. I served as a Bible teacher there in the prison and out in the villages and deeply grew to love the culture and people of Uganda. In 2015 we returned Stateside for our oldest daughter to begin college.
After almost 22 years of marriage, my husband decided he was no longer happy in the marriage and wanted out. It was the biggest storm that I had ever been through. I clung to God with everything and experienced His faithfulness like never before.
On Christmas day, 2020 my foster brother David passed away from Covid and two days later my Dad passed away from Covid as well. Again, I found myself in another great storm and I leaned into God as He carried me through. I longed for Heaven, yet I knew that God still had work for me to do here on earth.
I lived in Saint Paul, Minnesota at the time and we as a community had just gone through all the riots and chaos from the death of George Floyd. Only a ½ mile from my home, small businesses were being looted and burned to the ground. I didn’t have to look at the news to see the state of brokenness America was in as I was living amidst it. One morning while deep in thought, crying out to God, longing for Heaven, I knew it was God who numbered my days not Covid or any other tragedy. With the pandemic in full swing, I was working from home full time and the thought came to me, “What am I doing?” There were broken people all around me and most of my days were being spent alone in my home staring at three computer screens, working as a Business Configuration Consultant for CVS Pharmacy.
I felt God calling me to travel throughout the States as I worked remotely and share His message of love and hope to those, He would lead me to. The vehicle I was driving at the time had close to 300,000 miles on it and I realized it was probably not wise to travel very far in it. Then the idea of getting a van with fewer miles on it so I could have more room as I traveled and be able to sleep and work from it came to mind.
It was after sharing this idea with my daughter, Victoria, that she began sending me videos of people converting vans into homes. Less than four months later, I had purchased a van and God provided a friend of a friend who not only offered his tools but also his time to help me convert a 2009 Ford E150 into my small home on wheels!
This dream had come together so quickly and then lots of questions followed. Where and when to start. What would this ministry look like fleshed out?
Then I remembered the book that God had called me to write years earlier. The main theme being focused on not allowing fear to keep you from saying yes to God’s call. I had set this book aside years earlier when the storm of my marriage and family being torn apart had come crashing in. As I drove home from the DMV after getting the van register with licenses plate and tags, I began praying and asking God, “Are you asking me to pick back up my book?” In that very moment I received a text from my sister-in-law reading, “Danielle, I’m driving down the road right now and I’m hearing in my spirit, “Danielle, you have to write the book!”
God confirmed immediately. I have picked the book back up and have dedicated the past several months to working on getting His story through my journey out to each one of you. The title of my book is “Yes, Lord! Navigating Faith with Courage”
I’ve come to realize after over 40 years of following God’s call, that before every exciting adventure comes those two small but great words, “Yes, Lord!”
My prayer is as I am obedient to His call and travel in my van, Grace, that He would use me as an instrument of His Grace bridging a message of His love and hope to a broken and hurting world.
After almost 22 years of marriage, my husband decided he was no longer happy in the marriage and wanted out. It was the biggest storm that I had ever been through. I clung to God with everything and experienced His faithfulness like never before.
On Christmas day, 2020 my foster brother David passed away from Covid and two days later my Dad passed away from Covid as well. Again, I found myself in another great storm and I leaned into God as He carried me through. I longed for Heaven, yet I knew that God still had work for me to do here on earth.
I lived in Saint Paul, Minnesota at the time and we as a community had just gone through all the riots and chaos from the death of George Floyd. Only a ½ mile from my home, small businesses were being looted and burned to the ground. I didn’t have to look at the news to see the state of brokenness America was in as I was living amidst it. One morning while deep in thought, crying out to God, longing for Heaven, I knew it was God who numbered my days not Covid or any other tragedy. With the pandemic in full swing, I was working from home full time and the thought came to me, “What am I doing?” There were broken people all around me and most of my days were being spent alone in my home staring at three computer screens, working as a Business Configuration Consultant for CVS Pharmacy.
I felt God calling me to travel throughout the States as I worked remotely and share His message of love and hope to those, He would lead me to. The vehicle I was driving at the time had close to 300,000 miles on it and I realized it was probably not wise to travel very far in it. Then the idea of getting a van with fewer miles on it so I could have more room as I traveled and be able to sleep and work from it came to mind.
It was after sharing this idea with my daughter, Victoria, that she began sending me videos of people converting vans into homes. Less than four months later, I had purchased a van and God provided a friend of a friend who not only offered his tools but also his time to help me convert a 2009 Ford E150 into my small home on wheels!
This dream had come together so quickly and then lots of questions followed. Where and when to start. What would this ministry look like fleshed out?
Then I remembered the book that God had called me to write years earlier. The main theme being focused on not allowing fear to keep you from saying yes to God’s call. I had set this book aside years earlier when the storm of my marriage and family being torn apart had come crashing in. As I drove home from the DMV after getting the van register with licenses plate and tags, I began praying and asking God, “Are you asking me to pick back up my book?” In that very moment I received a text from my sister-in-law reading, “Danielle, I’m driving down the road right now and I’m hearing in my spirit, “Danielle, you have to write the book!”
God confirmed immediately. I have picked the book back up and have dedicated the past several months to working on getting His story through my journey out to each one of you. The title of my book is “Yes, Lord! Navigating Faith with Courage”
I’ve come to realize after over 40 years of following God’s call, that before every exciting adventure comes those two small but great words, “Yes, Lord!”
My prayer is as I am obedient to His call and travel in my van, Grace, that He would use me as an instrument of His Grace bridging a message of His love and hope to a broken and hurting world.
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