When life is easy, sometimes you just forget God is there, and you don’t go to Him.

When life gets hard, it brings you closer to God.

For Emilee Pierre-Louis God became real to her when her family moved to Alaska to serve as missionaries. Back then, Emilee’s mom would tell her that she would make a great pastor’s wife, as she was very welcoming and warm towards people. But that was the last thing she wanted.

As a teen and young adult, she was very sure she was not going into full-time ministry. Colleges like West Coast Bible College were crossed off her list of possibilities, because it was a Bible College. Eventually she would become an alum herself as God began to soften her heart to full-time ministry.

After she graduated high school she moved to North Carolina. She had planned to do her part and serve in a local church. Then COVID happened, and what she thought would be a wonderful experience turned into the isolation of quarantine.

The surrounding area was put into lockdown. She noticed the effects of quarantine taking shape. People were angrier, sometimes just unpleasant, and probably scared. It would mark one of the lowest times of her life – and the loneliest. Being the daughter of a missionary, she realized she couldn’t do the one thing she had done most of her life, serve in her church.

Then one day as COVID began to pass, she attended a missions conference. As she looked around, and the restrictions from quarantine loosened, she saw the joy on everyone’s faces. She realized she missed her home. And she missed serving in her church.

She realized that what she had the opportunity to do for so long and took for granted, was the very thing she wanted to spend her life doing.

She would end up graduating with a degree in Biblical Counseling, from West Coast Bible College. There she met her now husband, Denzel, who wanted to pursue youth ministry. Now as Denzel transitions into leading the Youth Ministry at Valley Forge Baptist, she finds opportunities to build relationships with the teen girls.

Working as a secretary for Valley Forge Baptist Academy, she’s always encouraging students.

And there’s no place she’d rather be.