About Kimberley

It took me awhile to realize it, but the truest thing about me is that I am cherished by God. He poured his creativity into me, just as he has you. Knowing that deeply gave me room to own how I’m put together.

I am a quiet, reflective person. Taught and somewhat skilled at checking off that perennial to-do list, I rejuvenate my creative spirit in nature, silence, and silliness. I’ve been learning with God what this juxtaposition of being and doing looks like for me.

Raising children, teaching others to speak English in the US and Ukraine, college, catering, leading at church, and suffering illness are some of the significant circumstances of my spiritual formation. But it is through the relationships within each, and most especially my relationship with God and with myself, that have truly been the transforming places.

I received my Master’s of Divinity (2023) and Certificate in Spiritual Direction (2021) from Portland Seminary. I have a degree in classical music performance (bassoon!), taught English in post-Soviet Ukraine to Hungarians, taught refugees and immigrants in Ohio and Ontario, married my husband after some hard-won patience on his part, adopted my oldest from Kazakhstan, had two more children (which my OB/GYN classified as miracles), catered my way into many lives in Central Ohio, grown a jungle garden and learned how to eat what it gave.

How I Became a Director

An active member of my churches all my life, I eventually discovered that I more naturally served in one-on-one relationships, listening and encouraging on the margins. I discovered that people want someone outside the standard offerings of church to wonder and listen together. When I read David Benner’s Sacred Companions and first learned about spiritual direction, my heart leaped and I felt a deep yes in my spirit: Yes, this is what I’m made for! 2016 was a pivotal year as the Lord called me into risks: take the entire year off to seek and stay in his joy, moving only when he told me. I discerned his approval of my desire to go to seminary to be trained as a spiritual director and enrolled at Portland Seminary in 2018.

It brings me great joy to tether your soul to Jesus’ great love; to give you sacred space and listening attention as a director; and tools, ideas, inspiration, and God-given words as a reader and a writer. I’m all about making space for you and God: to receive, reflect, relax, reconcile, recognize, and relish.