Starting July 1, 2020

Rev. Misty Howick

Pastor

Hello friends! Just your friendly neighborhood pastor here! I am so inspired by the work and hearts of Spirit Song Church and feel blessed to be Spirit Song’s pastor.

I am also blessed to be part of a wonderful family team. My husband is a librarian who loves helping people find their bliss through and beyond literature and helping them grow as they learn and use technology. My children, Airi (Eye -ree) and Aki (Ah-key) were born in Japan when my husband and I lived there for four years teaching English as a Second Language. Airi and Aki love to read, dance, do science experiments and enjoy the outdoors. We are a family of game players. Video, card or board games, we love them all! We also enjoy worshiping God and growing in our faith together!

I grew up going to church from a young age. I grew to love the songs, people and traditions that guided and supported people of faith. I felt that Jesus was my friend early on in a Sunday School Classroom, by looking at stories reenacted on felt board. I felt then (as I do now) that I was loved and that God would always be close by.

As a youth, I was strengthened in my faith and found I could enter into theological conversations easily. Our service projects to get to know people who lived a little differently always showed me that God is at work…everywhere.

I attended the University of Arizona and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. I quickly learned that I was not gifted in teaching in public schools and ended up working at a year-round camp in California that also hosted Christian schools. I led worship and taught science in a hands-on way. I fell in love with the ways that God was experienced in the outdoors, and I fell in love with my husband there as well. Eventually, I attended Drew Theological School in New Jersey, continued my work in Camp and Retreat Ministries and earned my Master’s of Divinity.

My partnership with my husband, led us to focus on his life goals to live and work in Japan, so we headed there right after I graduated. We arrived in August of 2011, the same year that an earthquake and tsunami ravaged the northern coast. Even though less than 1% of the population is Christian, we not only found an English Christian fellowship, but we were also witness to God at work in our community who welcomed and embraced us despite our differences. We gained important insight into being foreigners in a foreign land and have great compassion for those who decide to leave the familiar behind to be vulnerable in a new community.

As children grow, they have a lot of questions about how the world works, and their place in it. As Children of God, we also have a lot of questions about God’s Creation and how we are supposed to live our lives as God would want us to. These questions are so important, and our community is important in sharing our thoughts, feelings and interpretations of scripture to help one another when one of these questions rise to the surface of our experiences. One of my favorite mentors, a retired United Methodist Clergy person confessed that the older, wiser and more mature he became, the more he realized he didn’t know and relied more on trusting the mystery of God. May we have the confidence to trust God and our community even when the questions of our faith seem un-nerving.

Please join us for worship and feel the support of a faith-filled community who is interested in serving the people of their community as a means of spreading the love of Christ. Come and join us in exploring a personal relationship with God, as well as making a difference in the world.