Born the eldest of three children, Emelyn was raised in Massachusetts by her two parents. In her adolescent years, she became the second-oldest of four children with the adoption of her sister from Ukraine. Emelyn was raised to know and appreciate God’s Word, benefitting from the spiritual influence of family members and Christian leaders and regularly attending worship services, Sunday school, and church events. She came to know Jesus Christ personally through a youth Bible club called Awana at 9 years of age. By her teenage years, she had developed an interest in missions. One of the influences God used to stir her excitement about sharing Jesus in other parts of the world was her home church’s annual missions conference.
Emelyn graduated with a degree in Health Science and a Master’s degree in Public Health in 2022 and 2023, respectively. She has worked in a wide range of capacities during and since college, including as a research assistant, educator and teaching assistant, and EMT and medical assistant, and her passion for God, ministry, and cross-cultural work has continued to grow. During and beyond her college years, Emelyn has had the privilege of visiting and ministering in Honduras on 2 occasions. She has also served at a Christian medical center and children’s home in El Salvador during 6 trips beginning in 2021 and concluding in 2023 for an average of almost 1 month each time. In 2025, she worked as a Programs Intern for a Christian humanitarian organization in Bogotá, Colombia and served as a steward at a historic European Congress on Evangelism in Berlin, Germany.
Currently, Emelyn serves at Living Hope Farms, a restorative home for survivors of sexual exploitation and addiction. As a ministry servant, she reflects Christ’s compassion and character; provides logistical support, including transportation, childcare, meal prep, and cleaning; assists with organizing the women’s and baby boutiques; helps with awareness and outreach events; and promotes the women’s healing, empowerment, and discipleship. She is also part of an anti-human trafficking movement in the Greater Boston area.
With WorldVenture, Emelyn looks forward to joining the team of missionaries in Guinea who are sharing the Good News with the Maninka people—according to the Joshua Project website, 0 to 0.1% of the population of 3,622,000 are Christian, which highlights the tremendous need and opportunity to make Christ known among them. To effectively minister in the local languages, she will invest time in learning French and Maninka. Furthermore, she will have the privilege of engaging in medical outreach to the Maninka people as well as serving as a teacher for the children of the missionaries at a homeschool co-op called Beachhead Academy.
Emelyn is excited about this opportunity as God has given her a special heart for children, and in caring for and educating them, she will be supporting their parents who are doing the work of evangelism, medical outreach, and discipleship day in and day out. Furthermore, the students are third-culture children—individuals who have spent a significant portion of their developmental years outside their parents’ culture and have an identity that is neither tied to their parents’ homeland nor fully tied to the culture in which they grew up—so she will be honored to learn from them, surround them with Christ’s love, work with them, and meet their unique needs.
