As an "Army Brat" I grew up all over the world-attending 12 different schools before graduating from highschool. I have been married to the Rev. Dr. James A. Shelly since 1976. Jim is a Lutheran pastor. We have two grown children. Our daughter Janell is an elementary school teacher. Our son Jon works in construction and retail business.
Besides teaching Sunday school and singing in the choir, I serve on the congregational long-range planning and building committees, and have also coordinated our parish nurse ministry.
Jim and I enjoy hiking in the woods and exploring our family's ethnic heritages, including Pennsylvania Dutch (German), Korean, Scottish and English. Jim and I serve on our county park's Scottish Irish Festival Committee.
I have had a passion for relating my faith to nursing ever since I was a nursing student, when a frightened patient asked me to pray for her. I was active in our campus NCF group as a student and was President of the group during my senior year. Following graduation, I served as an NCF volunteer in Ohio, and then joined NCF staff in 1970.
In 1974 I returned to bedside nursing while pursuing a Master of Arts degree in pastoral counseling at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. I chose a seminary degree over nursing at that point because the seminary faculty caught my vision for establishing a theological basis for nursing, while the nursing programs I explored did not. I returned to NCF staff in 1978 to develop resources relating faith and nursing. In 1997, I received a Doctor of Ministry degree from the same seminary, with a focus on Health Ministry
My passion for Christian nursing has inspired another passion for writing and encouraging others to write. As Publications Director of NCF, I am committed to teaching Christian nurses to write so we can make Christ known in nursing through the written word.
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