18d • Tell your Story
My Story: The Seats That Shaped Me
I grew up in ministry. Both of my parents were ministers, and our home lived like a sanctuary — open, welcoming, prayer-filled, conversation-rich, shaped by faith and service. Every Sunday, before church even began, the women I affectionately called “the little old ladies” were waiting at the entrance just to greet me. They weren’t actually that old, but from my child’s perspective, they were the wise grown-ups who carried warmth and presence. Their greetings were the sunrise of my week. They saw me first, asked me about baseball, remembered details, and taught me what care really looks like: noticing first, greeting warmly, listening to understand, and caring because you choose to. They were some of the first caregivers in my life, quietly forming the blueprint of my heart.
For 25+ years, I worked in senior living as an Activity Director, creating engagement, inclusion, connection, and belonging for others. When I later transitioned into mental health work, I realized I was still doing the same ministry at its core — helping people feel safe enough to slow down, breathe, and reconnect.
In 2024, I started Uber driving here in Orlando, Florida. At first it was just driving, but almost immediately I began noticing caregivers in my backseat. Most never announced it, many never called themselves caregivers at all, but I could see it in their posture — tired shoulders, deep sighs, bodies carrying physical stress and minds still scanning tomorrow. In those quiet rides, I found myself doing what the back-pew ladies had modeled for me long ago: noticing first, holding space, listening more than talking, greeting people like they matter.
And at the very same time I was driving for Uber, I started attending Edge United Methodist Church in Groveland. Something shifted in me there. The stories I was hearing in my car and the ministry I had lived around my whole life began to connect. I felt a fire lit under me to find a way to serve caregivers. Not because I had to, but because I needed to. I knew there had to be a better way for faith-led communities to show up for the people who quietly carry the heaviest load.
It took time. It took listening. It took trial, and humility, and understanding that ministry isn’t built overnight — it’s built through consistency, relationship, and trust. But eventually, I started Mighty Caregivers at Edge UMC — a ministry where faith-led ministries and the community unite to help the community. Not a program for a few, but a belief about all of us: that care flows through ordinary people into extraordinary places, that no act of service is too small, and that unity is the real strength.
At Edge UMC, Mighty Caregivers became a place where we love boldly, serve joyfully, and lead courageously for others, especially those who don’t always feel safe enough to slow down.
And because storytelling has always been how I make sense of the world, I also started Mighty Caregiver Voices. Then came Mighty Caregiver Voices Podcast Journal, and alongside it, Mighty Caregiver Voices on Skool, and finally Mighty Caregiver Voices, a storytelling channel where caregiver experiences are heard, shared, and amplified. It became the place where caregivers could finally say out loud what they carry, and where others could lean in like those women once leaned in for me.
If Mighty Caregivers is the ministry of service, then Mighty Caregiver Voices is the ministry of story — the testimony of care, the proof that caregivers are everywhere, the echo of unseen compassion finally being spoken, not just felt.
I didn’t plan for these two worlds — church and backseat — to collide. But God did. And in the collision, I found clarity:
I’m not just a driver. I’m a noticer of caregivers.
I’m not just a planner of activities. I’m a builder of safe spaces.
I’m not just telling stories. I’m amplifying voices that deserve to be heard.
And I’ll spend the rest of my life keeping that seat open — for service and for story — for the quiet heroes beside me every Sunday and every ride since.
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My Story: The Seats That Shaped Me
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