Meet Jill

I am the fourth born child in my family of 19 children. I was born May 17th, 1991, just 16 months after my parents had their first set of twins, Jana and John. Growing up, people would sometimes guess that Jana, John and I were triplets because we were so close in age, or that Jana and I were twins, since we looked so much alike. As you can imagine, we had fun with that!

As a child, I was more reserved than I am now, but usually carried a smile and enjoyed toting a little one around on my hip as we played “mom and dad”, or “hospital”, where I would pretend to be the nurse by giving “medicine” (a.k.a. Koolaide) from a dropper to my “patients” (one of my friends or siblings), or I’d pull a bandage out of my little Noah’s ark apron to wrap up their “injured” leg.

There was always something to do or someone to play with around my house. Because we were home educated, mom had to make sure that we completed our allotted assignments before we were able to be done for the day. I took up piano lessons when I was 5 years old, and was happy to start violin lessons a few years later when I was 11 years old. Eventually, I also took up harp lessons when a friend offered to teach my sisters and I. Even though practice wasn’t always my favorite thing to do as a kid, I’m so glad my parents encouraged me to stick with it, because now I can just play for relaxation and enjoyment.

As a kid, my family was really involved in politics. I remember going door knocking for my dad and other candidates. When he was serving in the Arkansas State House of Representatives, we all moved to the capitol city and we kids would take turns going with him to work. We learned a lot just going to committee meetings and watching bills be discussed and voted on. We also learned where the ice cream sandwich place and free popcorn was! As I reached my teenage years, my siblings and I continued to help candidates and even traveled to other states as volunteers some presidential campaigns.

One evening when I was 12, I was talking with my mom. I realized I wasn’t sure that if I died I would have eternal life. I did like it says in the Bible (Romans 10:9), “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” I confessed all the wrong things I could remember to my mom and God. I asked Him in prayer to take complete control of my life and take me to heaven when I die. Not too long after that, my dad baptized me at our church.

Growing up, my parents kept many biographies of great Christians around the house for us kids to read. I loved reading about missionaries who did great things for God in other countries and oftentimes wondered if God might take me outside the USA at some point for ministry purposes. I went on my first short-term missions trip to El Salvador as a teenager with some of my siblings and dad. My heart was immediately captured as I saw the poverty and hopelessness a lot of people there were experiencing because their hope lay only in this world, not in a relationship with Jesus Christ. It was hard to leave and I prayed I would be able to return! God did just that and allowed me to go back not just once, but multiple times and to other places in Central and South America as well! I started teaching myself Spanish at home with the hopes of using this skill to communicate with friends and share the gospel of Jesus Christ!

From a young age, my parents encouraged each of us kids to gain as many life skills as we could to benefit this world and better equip us to share the gospel with others. When I was 16 years old I went through 12 weeks of childbirth classes with a single mom friend of mine as her support person. I had only attended 2 of my mom’s births, so I learned a lot in the classes. After spending more time with the class instructor, I met and started assisting midwives in the area at births. Through the wise, Godly counsel of my parents and friends, I started pursuing midwifery training and education and became licensed as a Certified Professional Midwife (they specialize in low-risk out of hospital prenatal, birth, and postpartum care). My prayer in pursuing midwifery early on was to make wise use of my single years while gaining valuable skills that I may someday use on the mission field. Although I don’t plan on practicing while I have little ones of my own at home, I know the skills I have already learned have benefitted me immensely and I may be able to use them in other ways, such as teaching, down the road. Right now I am enjoying being a wife and mother.