Student of Jesus, Follower of Christ
Why the Words Matter
I grew up with religion in the background — the way many Eastern Europeans do. Cultural, ancestral, present but not always personal. It wasn’t until I moved to America, and met Jim, and found a community at Rio Vista Church in Fort Lauderdale, that something shifted.
What shifted wasn’t a doctrine. It was a person. Jesus of Nazareth. The more I studied him — really studied him, his words, his interactions, the way he treated the overlooked and the outcast — the more I understood why Jim and I use the phrase “Student of Jesus, Follower of Christ” instead of a simpler label.
Jim’s 13-book series The SonFlower and the Bear explores this beautifully through fiction. I live it out in quieter ways — in how I raise our children, how I serve clients, how I show up at Bible study each week with my honest questions still intact.
I am a woman of faith. Not a perfect one. Not a performance. Just a woman who keeps going back to Jesus because every time she does, she finds something she needed.
Faith in Daily Life
For me, faith isn’t Sunday-only. It’s the patience I try to find with my kids when I’m tired. It’s the honesty I bring to every real estate transaction. It’s the gratitude I feel every morning in Fort Lauderdale sunshine — knowing I built this life by grace, not by grinding alone.
Our Bible study group at Rio Vista Church is one of my greatest joys. Real people. Real questions. Real growth. If you’re in Fort Lauderdale and looking for that kind of community — come find us.