Hi! My name is Annie Walker and I am your new Director of Family Ministries. A little bit about me. I grew up north of Marion and went to Linn-Mar from K-12th grade. I then matriculated to Kirkwood and earned an Associates Degree in Education, after which I continued my education at UNI, majoring in History. After college, I entered the corporate world working for Transamerica and then Tata Consultancy Service. I love to travel, both with my family and for work throughout the US and abroad. I have been to India, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. This fall I will be taking a Viking cruise with my mother-in-law down the Danube, so will be adding more stamps to my passport.
My husband Tyler and I have been married for 8 years and we have 3 black and white cats: Sylvester, Samantha (who we call Sister), and Petey.
As part of my role as Director of Family Ministries, I will be directing both Kids Club and Sunday School programs as well as working in the before and after school program thru Children Weekday Ministries.
At my home church of Viola UMC, I was active in Bible studies, VBS (both teaching and learning) Sunday School (both teaching and learning) and was active in youth group at Prairie Chapel UMC. In 2014, my husband and I were married and have had quite the windy, curvy road that has lead us to where we are. Tyler began his career in teaching high school. In 2017, we really felt a call to do more in ministry so we entered the School for Lay Ministry. This was a 3-year program, taking 4 classes a year where we learned about different paths for ministry as a lay person. After taking these classes, however, my husband felt a call to full-time ministry and is now in seminary at the University of Dubuque and is the pastor at Palo UMC. I am now following my call to a more active role in ministry by serving the community and church family of Lovely Lane UMC.
My prayer for these programs is to welcome all and that everyone feels they have a home and place or role to play in all of these programs. Please do not ever hesitate to reach out to me with any and all ideas you have, so we can collaborate together and really grow the kindom of God on earth at Lovely Lane UMC.