Bio

I was born in Omaha, NE. We lived in a small house with a giant field behind us and a pool up the street. My parents are the crazy, radical kind who stuck together when things got tough. They were also the kind who built us jungle gyms and playhouses and let us have dogs, bunnies, snakes, geese, ground squirrels, and ducks…in the city.  They believed that kids should be kids, and even though our home videos are a constant blur of one of the four of us getting in trouble for something, we had the best childhood of anyone I know.

When I was in Junior High we moved across the border into Iowa. Living for so many years in the country has given me a deep love for the stillness found there. Even as I crave the business of city life, there is always a part of me longing to steal away to the quite beauty of the countryside, if only for a minute.

My pre-graduation education included a mixture of  private schools (Lutheran and Christian), public schools in the big city and small town, with a tad bit of homeschool thrown in to make sure it baked evenly. Being a Styles, I began to lean heavily into drama and music during high-school and spent most of my time practicing or performing somewhere or being involved with any and all things Youth Church related .  Because I believed that all good kids go to college, I started taking a few general ed. classes at a community college during my senior year,  but decided, after graduation, to do an internship through the church I’d recently switched to.

The Edge School of ministry consumed the next 4+ years of my life and took me from Omaha, NE to Tucson, AZ. I learned a whole lot about what to do and what to not do in regards to life and God. Amidst taking students to Brazil, El Salvador, White Mountain Apache Indian Reservation, and Germany, were the daily tasks of scripture studies, home groups, setting up for services, working at the food bank, leading dramas, visiting campuses, singing on the worship team, and serving, serving, serving for Church functions and leaders. The last several months that I was in Arizona I worked full-time for both the Prayer Pastor at the church and The Edge. Little did I know that it would set me up for my next season.

At the beginning of January in 2007 I moved to Kansas City, MO and took part in the Fire in the Night Internship at the International House of Prayer. This required a schedule shift of going to bed at 6 am and getting up around 2 pm. After 3 months I started working full-time for Higher Grounds Cafe, the coffee shop on the missions base. In 2008 I swiched off nights and began working full-time for TheCall, in addition to keeping my hours at the cafe. In September of 2008 I moved to Southern California for  2 1/2 months to mobilize for TheCall California. Upon returning, I added a few hours a week of twin watching for a family that runs closely with IHOP and TheCall and has a foundation that seeks to promote adoption as a positive alternative to abortion. Three months later I realized two full-time jobs, a part-time job and a relationship were taking quite a bit of a toll on me and started cutting back.  I spent the better part of this last year working full-time for the Bohlender family. The mornings were spent watching the twins (who are now 1) and Zoe (who is 3) with an occasional glimpse of Piper (who was born at the beginning of July) while the afternoons were spent working for The Zoe Foundation.

Currently I am working as a sales associate at GAP.  I am also a Teacher’s Assistant for a Worldview class at The Daniel Academy, here in Kansas City.  I am on staff with the International House of Prayer. Perhaps the most exciting and difficult thing I am involved with now is getting to know myself, my heart, and my beliefs through my relationship with Joshua Bocanegra.  Nothing has caused me to grow, learn, hurt, and love the way that he has.

I have no idea what’s in store for the next year, or even the next few months but trust that the Holy Spirit will guide my steps as He has always done.