Our Students. Their Stories.
You’ll find them in all walks of life – and all over the globe. They serve in churches, counseling clinics, classrooms, on the mission field, civic organizations, prisons, boardrooms and charities.
They are students and graduates of our Portland Seminary programs, and though their roles may vary, they share a common desire: to serve as trusted guides and mentors, bring hope by pointing people to Jesus, and model what it means to be a disciple of Christ.
‘My hope is to be that bridge maker’
In a world fractured by political and social tension, Jennifer Eckert is determined to do her part to bridge gaps not only between races and cultures, but between those who share different ideologies.
Eckert does just that as the director of development for a nationally renowned prison ministry, for which she travels throughout eight Southern states visiting donors and prisons in a fundraising role. She advocates for current and formerly incarcerated people and their families through programming, the Angel Tree gift-giving initiative, and corrections culture advocacy work.
“Diplomacy is a lost art, and I don’t want to move forward in a world where my 23- and 24-year-old children can’t voice their opinions because they’re fearful of retribution,” she says. “So my hope is to be that bridge maker – to be more courageous and have those hard conversations in order to intentionally create spaces for reconciliation to happen.”
‘He had other plans in mind’
Joff Williams and his wife Kari figured they would serve on the mission field someday – perhaps after their kids were grown and gone. But God had a different plan in mind.
Williams, raised by missionaries to Zimbabwe, followed a call to act now, leading to a three-year stint as managing director of the Global Mercy, the world’s largest civilian hospital ship, for service in Senegal, The Gambia and Sierra Leone. He’s now back in the states as the senior director for spiritual formation with the Mercy Ships organization.
“I have always wanted to be in ministry, but I think it’s important that we consider all of ourselves as Christians and as followers of Jesus,” he says. “He gives us things to do that I consider ministries, whether they get called that or not. And he puts us in different places and equips us for different things.”
‘Knowledge isn’t always the answer’
After experiencing seasons of loss and grief, Darcy Hansen was at the end of herself. Even as she strove to follow God and hear his voice, her marriage was struggling, her family was in crisis mode, and parenting challenges seemed insurmountable.
All the while, she struggled with the deaths and trauma of her youth. It seemed God wasn’t hearing her pleas. And even after 13 years as a lay ministry leader, she still felt something was missing. She considered attending seminary, but was reluctant to attend. She fought the idea for three years before finally relenting.
Today, in an ironic twist, she is now doing the reconciliation work she so desperately needed herself, serving as an administrator and adjunct faculty member at Portland Seminary. She knows she doesn’t have all the answers, but she is willing to ask questions.
“I prefer to figure things out together, in community with my students,” she says. “I know a lot of things, but sometimes what you know doesn’t necessarily translate and transform others; knowledge isn’t always the answer.”
‘It’s about this call that Jesus has on my life’
As someone with a quick-witted tongue, Dominic Abaria figured his career path would take him into the courtroom as a lawyer. But a transformative experience in youth group rocked his world and changed the trajectory of his life.
Today, as a pastor and mentor, Abaria stresses the importance of realizing it’s faithfulness – not necessarily the nature of the work itself – that is key to finding one’s God-given purpose. In other words, “ministry” isn’t restricted to volunteering at church or feeding the homeless.
“Faithfulness can manifest itself in a million different places,” he says. “And I think that sense of clarity has given people freedom to serve well in different areas in life. And it’s not pigeonholed into one idea of, ‘What does it mean to be successful in ministry?’ We can be faithful in any walk of life if we realize that there’s a journey that Jesus wants to take with us there."
‘Lord, what do you have in mind with this restlessness?’
Elmarie Parker and her husband Scott were perfectly content to continue serving as pastors in Northeast Ohio – Elmarie with a congregation and Scott as a trauma chaplain.
But something was stirring in Elmarie’s spirit – a restlessness – that wouldn’t let her stick with the status quo. For years the Parkers attended the New Wilmington Mission Conference, annually held on the campus of Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. And each time, Elmarie left with a restless spirit. She didn’t know what to think of it – or what it meant.
“I just began praying, ‘Lord, what do you have in mind with this restlessness? What am I to be understanding from this? What are you seeking to shift or help me see or be aware of?’”
It took years before the prayer was answered in 2011, and it wasn’t anything she could have anticipated. The directive: Pick up your lives and move to the Middle East.