Program Coordinator, Training and Member Care
(719) 633-2078 x156 voice
(719) 633-2970 fax
Office
World Headquarters (Colorado Springs, USA)
My Story
I grew up looking for happiness and fulfillment in everything the world had to offer. I sought happiness through my accomplishments, my relationships, parties, pleasing others, and an array of other avenues that left me empty and hopeless for my future. At age 21, a couple of years after taking a college New Testament course, the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to the truth and I was overwhelmed with the knowledge that God was alive, that I had violated His standards, and that I was in need of forgiveness. I begged God to forgive me and promised to follow Him for the rest of my life, but I feared it may be too late. I called a friend for help, who then took me to an Athletes in Action meeting (a ministry of Campus Crusade), where I discovered that Jesus had taken on my sins and paid my penalty so that I would be forgiven and adopted into His family.
Since that time, God has been teaching me in many ways about His everlasting and unconditional love, His infinite and unsurpassed power, and His glorious and majestic sovereignty. As I grow in my relationship with Him, I become ever more aware of the extent of my sin, the depth of His grace, and the joy of knowing Him.
EMI Project Portfolio
Guatemala (Guatemala City) William Cornelius Vocational Training Center
Honduras (Talanga) Project Manuelito Orphanage
Born:November 30, 1976
Joined EMI in: I officially joined the staff of EMI in January 2007, seven months after moving to Colorado Springs so that my husband, Scott, could join EMI full-time. It has been such an amazing testimony to God's goodness to see Him provide a way for me to use my gifts and education to be a part of this awesome ministry alongside my husband.
Family
I married Scott Powell on September 2nd, 2000. We have two dogs: an Australian cattle-dog mutt, and a speckled miniature dachshund.
Professional Training and Experience
I have a Bachelors degree in Public Policy Studies from Duke University and a Masters in Counseling from Denver Seminary. After twenty years of formal education, I finally had to get a real job in 2004. I served for 3 years at Colorado Community Church in Englewood, Colorado, where I provided research assistance to our senior pastor, led women's Bible studies, and provided pastoral care to our congregation.
Overseas Ministry Experience
I have gradually developed a passion for overseas ministry over the past ten years, primarily through the influence of my husband, close friends who have shared their heart for ministry with me, and the books and sermons of John Piper, who has such a tremendous passion for seeing God glorified in all the nations and among all people groups. As a result of these influences, I have served on short-term trips in Guatemala, Honduras, Peru and Uganda, and I intend to serve overseas on about one trip per year. While I have discovered my greatest joy in giving financially to ministries worldwide over the years, I continue to grow in my desire to go myself. However, I believe that my primary calling is to care for Christian workers by providing culture training, counseling, reentry support, and encouragement to those who go.
If God told me to live long term in a cross-cultural setting, the country I would chose...
My greatest overseas experience to date was in a small village in the mountains of Peru, and I would love to go back someday. However, when considering where I would live as a long-term Christain worker overseas, I believe I would choose a region of the world that has never heard the good news, perhaps somewhere in Indonesia or North Africa.
Verses to Live By
Psalm 73:25-26
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
But God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
Habakkuk 3:17-19
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to go on the heights.
Romans 8 (verses 28-39 below)
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Revelation 21-22 (see Rev. 21:1-4 below)
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
