Meet The Team
Ashley
Alicia
Gillian
Their Journey to Palm House:
Ashley
Program Director
There are defining moments that change the course and the direction of your life. This happened to me in an empty closet of an abandoned house in South Jackson. I was living in Mississippi as an inner-city missionary in the heart of Jackson when God flipped my life upside down. I knew that Jesus was calling me SHORT-TERM to the inner cities of America, but in this moment, as I sat in the dusty closet, everything changed. Jesus began to break my heart for the American Bride. Since I was 15, I obediently went to every city, state, and country that Jesus laid on my heart. In each place I waited patiently for Jesus to tell me the nation in which I would live and die in the dirt, the place I would hang my heart, the land where I would serve my people and serve my King. All my desires seemed to topple over as Jesus began to show me the blood-stained gown that had adorned the American Bride. He asked me, “Who will love the one who seems to have it all, yet is so spiritually poor that she is starving and bleeding to death without hope for a Savior?”
My heart's cry was so simple and so sincere - “Yes, Lord, I will go to her!” When I emerged from that closet, red-faced and hoarse, Jesus began birthing something on the inside of me. My heart's cry is now to reunite the lost, forgotten bride of America, with the Lover, Husband, and King of her soul! I now live in Abilene, Texas, at The Palm House in a neighborhood well below the poverty line. Here, Jesus is using me to love on inner-city children and to show others how to fall in love with Jesus every day of their lives. I still travel globally to encourage the church and introduce the lost to their Savior, but I am happily based in Texas, crying out for the Bride to hear the voice of the Bridegroom!
As a graduate from Christ for the Nations Institute and Iris Global, I love to see the magnitude of one person’s "Yes" to Jesus and how it impacts the nations!
Alicia
As I sought the Lord as to what He desired for my life, I asked Him to show me the path He wanted me to follow. His reply: “What if there is no path? Will you follow Me?” The years since have been a journey of following Jesus step-by-step in ever-deepening trust. The way has seldom looked like I expected, but has been filled with His love and faithfulness!
Following a summer at Iris Harvest School of Missions in Pemba, Mozambique, followed by a couple years where God led me back to my family's home in Pennsylvania, He finally brought me to Jackson, Mississippi. It was there that I first learned to live and love in the inner-city streets and neighborhoods. God taught me more than I could have imagined about daily relying on Him, loving Him with my whole heart and loving those around me out of that overflow! The mandate was simple: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”
As I prepared to transition after 3+ years in Jackson, I didn’t know what the Lord had in mind for my next step. Doors began to open in Abilene, Texas, and God began to give me His heart for this city. I count it a blessing and privilege to live in The Palm House with its heart for restoration through simply loving and building relationships with those around us. I am honored that God would allow me to be a small part of showing His heart in this city and to open the home I live in to be a safe place for those who need a listening ear or to feel His embrace.
I recently said, “Yes,” to marrying an amazing man whom God brought into my life. Neil has since also moved to Abilene and we are excited to continue making our home in this city, serving God and our neighbors here together, led by God's Spirit and held in His unending love!
Gillian
My life was changed forever in 2009, when I went to Pemba, Mozambique. It began with my YES! I find myself 10 years later continuing to say YES! to the plans He has for me.
'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to proper you and not to harm you, plans to give you HOPE and a FUTURE.'
Jeremiah 29:11
Pemba, Mozambique has been a training ground, I have learnt so much from my years there, running alongside other laid down lovers of Jesus. The heartbeat of the ministry is to Stop For The One. That LOVE looks like something... Jesus didn't just come to say a load of good stuff... He lived it. He is LOVE in ACTION.
That is both brilliant, and challenging at the same time!
Back in 2013 God began stirring the desire in my heart for America. God knows I LOVE America!
He led me to train with a ministry called Restoring the Foundations in 2014, at the end of that time I went on an adventure with God, and ended up serving In Jackson, MS.
I thought ‘that was the plan He had for me’, but no, it was a stepping-stone in the journey. I learnt so much there and really dreamed with God about a house filled with kids, a house that was a ‘safe place’ where LOVE isn’t just a word but an ACTION.
Through relationships formed there God opened the door for me to come and be part of The Palm House, here in Abilene, where multiple times a week the house is overflowing with children! I am so excited to live here and become part of the community, to bring restoration and hope and to impact the lives around me.