Blue Ridge Mountains
From my bedroom window, growing up, I could rest my arms on the window sill and look out over the Blue Ridge Mountains. “I lift up my eyes to the mountains. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord…” was a verse I discovered at ten and all my life, the mountains have spoken to me of the majesty of God. When you grow up in a small town in Virginia, family ties and a love of history are sprinkled on your breakfast cereal.
Paula and Stacy
A few years after I became a Christian, I met Stacy at one of those “summer things” for college students. We rode in the same carpool to work for weeks. I could not get this man to talk—as in, could not. One day someone brought up the subject of racquetball and it was like someone had pulled his string. He managed a racquetball court in the army where, for months, he played eight hours a day. So, he says to me, what kind of racquet do you use? Do you like a three-sided or four-sided court? (Like are there different-sided courts? I think.)
Not wanting to lose the moment, I made up my answers right out of thin air. As I was opening the car door, the thought struck me: I will have to admit to this man that I lied. I will have to actually tell him that I have never played racquetball in my life!
From that humbling admission came the tenuous start to a relationship and a marriage of over 35 years, with two children and three grandchildren. We spent 25 years serving with the Navigators and Stacy now directs Mentorlink, a leadership development ministry in parts of the world where the church is growing rapidly. I’m writing, speaking…and keeping a small private counseling practice here in Raleigh, NC.
Paula's Family
Suddenly, it seems, two children turns into a whole brood of people. The son (Brady) who loved airplanes as a boy now flies 50-seater jets for Delta Connection in Atlanta where his wife (Hannah) is a counselor. Our daughter (Allison) is trying to keep up with Andrew, Molly, and Will while her husband, Jonathan, travels with his computer design job. So life at this point is…busy, wild, loud…for us all.
Friends
I love simple pleasures and long-held friendships. The women pictured here have gathered for “summer camp” for years now. We spend the morning with the Lord, walk all afternoon, and sit on the porch sharing our best and worst moments of the year. It’s a rich time. When I think of what’s influenced me to continue to walk with God through good times and bad, it’s the faces of friends that come to mind—their honesty and their faithfulness.
A Women's Conference in Boston
Speaking at a Campus Crusade Staff Conference
Speaking and writing and counseling women in a small practice here in Raleigh—that’s my life right now. In between, I enjoy seeing grandchildren and keeping up with an 85 year old mother. I love what I do—what I believe God has given me to do—though I try to remember that you can drown in cream.
