Greetings to you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  It is always an exciting time to see where the Lord will lead us and to discover how He is going to work out his plan in the places where we find ourselves.  Three or four years ago I felt the Lord telling me that someday I would be the pastor at Faith United Methodist Church and as we all know, we never know when God’s plan will be fulfilled.  So here we are sharing ministry together living into the unknown.

          I truly believe that as our paths are crossing, He will work out a great thing, yet unknown to us.  And I also believe that our paths are not crossing by accident but by His divine plan. 

          I was born in Kirksville and raised in rural Clark County, Missouri, the only daughter and eldest child of a grain and hog farmer.  All of the family lived very close, with both sets of grandparents only a couple of miles away.  I have two brothers, the oldest is a high school career counselor in the state of Virginia and the youngest brother a computer architect in Afghanistan working as a civilian with the Corps of Engineers. 
          I graduated from Wyaconda C-1 School where I attended 1-12^th grades [before the advent of kindergarten]. Following High School, I attended college at what was then called Northeast Missouri State Teaching College in Kirksville, MO(Before it became Truman), earning a B.S.E. in Business Education, with minors in Economics and Jr. High mathematics. During student teaching, my vision for my future began to change. 
          I then worked at Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, a private physicians office and then at Northeast Missouri State University (also known as Truman State University) before I left employment there in 1997.  While at Truman, I answered God’s call on my life to pastoral ministry, first through lay speaking in the United Methodist Faith Parish in Schuyler County.  Then I served two year as a part-time local pastor in the Callao Charge before going into full-time ministry at Atlanta/LaPlata/Mt. Zion East United Methodist Churches.
          During my appointment there I completed the Course of Study at Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri, graduating in August 2002.  
          Now let’s back up a bit to 1977 – I know it is hard to remember that far back, but I’m going to do my best!  While working at KCOM, I met Donald Swafford.  The story of how that happened is quite amusing, but let’s just say I didn’t marry the milkman or the mailman, but I did marry the plumber.  
          Don and I were married in October 1978, lived in Novinger and had two lovely daughters. Our oldest daughter, Melissa, is a registered nurse and now works at a dialysis clinic in the Kansas City area.
          Our youngest daughter, Jennifer, is now attending LPN training.  She is the mother to our two grandsons, Trae and Jace.  
          Don is self-employed as a Lennox dealer [heating and cooling] and has begun the retirement process after 47 years in the business.  We enjoy spending time with our family, which includes Pharaoh, our 7 year-old black toy poodle, as well as driving our 1977 Corvette.