Jessica grew up in Georgia and married at the young age of twenty. She and her husband, Mike, settled the family in northeast Georgia where they became a part of the church family at Grace Fellowship Toccoa. Over their twenty year marriage the couple had five sons, with one having ongoing medical needs including multiple open heart surgeries, spinal surgeries and more.
In her thirties God taught Jessica that her identity in him is one of an artist for his kingdom, teaching her that art was more than just a hobby to pass the time with but was rather a joy that he intenionally placed in her heart. It was then that her creative time became one spent in worship of and closeness with the Lord. During these years the idea of art ministry began to become a dream that she one day hoped would be a part of her life.
When her youngest son was just four months old, Jessica, found herself a sudden widow. Unknowing, Mike's heart had become enlarged and caused him to succumb to sudden death from cardiac arrest. Her and her families lives were shattered in one brief moment during an early August morning.
In the desperation of pain, Jessica and her boys leaned into the comfort and promises of the Lord. Without doubt there were very clear ways that they could see his work in action leading up to the moment of Mikes death. Work that she could not deny but instead hold on to as evidence that the one and only God Almighty was holding her and her family in the palm of his hands.
Over the next two years God lifted Jessica up in a way that allowed her to learn and take management of her late husbands exterminating business, continue operating the bookstore the family had owned for near a decade, support her son in his second open heart surgery, and start an art ministy within her church. It's in this ministry that her passion falls, where she hopes to share with others the Love of Christ and the ways the Spirit has walked with her.
In 2018 Jessica was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had just arrived in Albania for a short missions week with church family when she received the news. The Lord gifted her by having the news given there, where she was able to process it close with him. Once home she went through chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, and years of medications. In 2023 brought she celebrated her five year cancer celebration!
Jessicas life may have been shattered, and broken into a thousand tiny pieces, but in that brokeness is not where the pieces of her life lay. Every day God is busy working each piece back into a whole life, binding up her wounds, like a beautiful piece of stained glass art.