Jessalyn Hutto
As a child I dreamt of becoming a famous actress, so it will come as no surprise that I was very disappointed when we moved from Hollywood Central (Southern California) to a tiny town in Texas. Despite this major setback (as seen through a child’s eyes) I kept pursuing my dream, and spent most of my childhood on the stage at our local community theater.
The summer before my sophomore year in high school, I was invited to a church youth camp where I heard the gospel of Jesus Christ for the first time. It was then that I came to understand that Jesus was the perfect Son of God who died a horrific death on a cross so that my sins could be forgiven. From that point on my life was completely different. God began to mold and shape me into something that desired to please him rather than myself. I began to sense that I wanted to be involved in full time ministry one day, but didn’t exactly know how.
I began my college career majoring in musical theater, but soon switched to special education. During my junior year of college I met Richard. He was passionate about the Word and cared deeply about its proclamation, plus he gave me that oowy-goowy feeling in the pit of my stomach. He told me that he felt called to pastoral ministry and I was hooked. Our dating saga is much too complicated to go into here, but lets just say I played hard to get until I knew for sure that he was the only man I could spend the rest of my life with. Once we were officially dating we were engaged after 4 months and got married 2 after that.
We moved to Louisville, Kentucky to pursue Richard’s seminary education with our new Mini Schnauzer, Melvin, in tow. While in Louisville we became pregnant for the first time and soon after miscarried. That was our first major trial as a married couple and the Lord gave us great strength and joy through it.
Then the Lord blessed us with Elliot’s pregnancy. Richard began the hunt for a full time job that would support us and allow me to stay home with our precious baby boy. The Lord had other plans. It became quite clear to us that we were not going to be able to find a job in Louisville. So, we packed up our tiny one bedroom apartment and headed home to Texas where there was a job waiting for us.
On December 31, 2008 Elliot was born and our family became 3… well 3 1/2! On June 4, 2010 Hudson entered our world and added to our joy. For now our family is four (Melvin went to live with his grandparents), but only God knows what the future holds for us. Richard is working hard on completing his master’s degree while providing for our family with a full time job. We look forward to the day, Lord willing, when he can completely devote himself to the study and proclamation of God’s word!
Our passion as a family: As we joyfully live in the abundant grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we will seek to daily know the Lord fully, serve the Lord faithfully, and proclaim the Lord fervently.
