My name is Kirsten Shepler-Ross. I am the daughter of RCA missionaries and spent my formative years in Caracas, Venezuela. After graduating high school I began to serve as a RCA short-term missionary in Latin America, Europe, and Canada. I graduated from Cook College and Theological School and received my MDIV from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. I have served as pastor at Trinity Reformed Church since 2007.

 

When God first began to lead me into ministry, it was not a mountaintop experience, complete with the booming voice of God; rather it was through influential persons who affirmed me in this new “call”—the Western Seminary professor who allowed an 11-year-old to attend a training on Young Children and Worship, the youth counselor on Project Timothy who recognized the gifts for ministry, the director of volunteer missions who urged me to get more training for ministry, the term papers at Cook College with “Go to Seminary” in red, the supervising pastors at my internship who affirmed my gifts. I received so much from my family, my church, my countries—host and home, and my God that I have a longing to give.  It is not necessarily a life I would have chosen; God chose me and I serve.

 

My husband, Keith, and I have been married since 2000 and are the proud parents of our son, Kai and our daughter, Kira. I like to laugh and play my piano too loudly; I put a great deal of my life energy into silly times with children; I am still crossing cultural, generational, and faith boundaries on the journey; and every day I thank God for picking me to do the most wonderful thing in the world—minister with and to God’s people.

 

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