About the Authors

Jill Palmer
Jill has been serving alongside her husband, Mark, in various ministries at the River Church since 1998. Together they have done youth and children's ministries with Jill always serving women's ministry in one way or another. In 2012 she took over the role of director of Women's Ministry and loves to see women make connections and experience His true freedom. She started this blog in 2013 with the hopes of finding a landing place for stories of God's goodness - both in her own life and the lives of women at the River Church. She came to Durango in 1994 for college (has a degree in Biology) and never left. This is where she dedicated her life to Christ, met her husband and discovered her God-given dreams and passions. When she is not working with the women of the River Church, Jill is busy taking care of, and homeschooling, their three children, reading, writing and occasionally binging on a series on Netflix.

Kim Beach 

Kim is excited to write for Growing in Grace blog, sharing stories of how God has used the mundane as well as the miraculous to teach His grace and mercy. Her unique perspective on life has been filtered by the variety of experiences God has given her - wife, mom, singer, writer, teacher, politician, daughter, chaplain, niece, life-long student, hospital mom, blogger, most importantly - a chosen daughter of the King of Kings.

Kim and her college sweetheart, David, have been married 23 years and have two amazing children - Chris and Ashley. They moved to Durango from Oklahoma 10 years ago, fulfilling a dream they had as a young dating couple - to live in the mountains of Colorado. Mountains have always held a special place in Kim's heart. In the Ozark Mountains of Missouri, she learned to seek solace in knowledge that the Maker of the mountains is also the Keeper of the valleys. The 121st Psalm speaks to the comfort that the Lord watches over us! Sometimes we see His hand, but often His protection is hidden by the everyday. Kim's prayer is that God opens her eyes to see the hand of God in every moment and that she helps others see His hand too. 

Esther Belin

Esther is super excited to be part of this opportunity to share her walk with God.  The more time she spends with God, the more reasons she finds to worship Him. He is a confidant who always listens to her secrets, endures her questions and hears her cries and concerns. Her walk is not extraordinary: it has been a continual thread fastening itself along the remnant of God's blessings. The goal of Esther's writing is to manifest the continuity in that fastening - the intricate embroidery as well as the frantic loose stitches.

Esther believes God created a divine appointment for her when Jill asked her to be a guest blogger. She started writing back in college and loved it. She embraced the challenge of words and thoughts, of order and crafting the elements of rhetoric into a cohesive abstract container using the alphabet. Esther likes to study words because it fashions history, opinion and the presence (absence) of God.

She is a mother of four daughters, a wife and a writer/artist.

Esther was raised in the LA area of southern California but lives on the Colorado side of the four corners region in the US.

 Tiffany Bleger
Tiffany Bleger is one of the few and the proud natives of Durango. She began attending The River Church in 1998, and has served in numerous ministries during that time.

Tiffany is married to her high school sweetheart, Jerome. Together they homeschool their three daughters and manage Jerome's real estate business. When she's not chasing children or her husband, you can usually find Tiffany chasing their giant dog, performing classical music, sewing, or shooting guns.
 

  

Megan Danquah

Megan is a woman, wife and a mother of three.  As a woman, she is passionate about music, cultures, traveling, languages, creativity, emotional health and friendship.  As a wife she is passionate about connection with her husband, vulnerability and fun! As a mother of three beautiful girls, she is passionate about heart-to-heart connection with them, seeing them have the freedom to express themselves as individuals and enjoying the way that God made them uniquely.  Megan loves that who she is encompasses all three arenas (woman, wife and mother) and so many more! To that end, it brings her great joy to see women released into the fullness of who they are - the fullness of ALL they are and she believes it is one of the top priorities of God's heart too!

Jen Kline

Jen is the Director of Children's Ministries at the River Church for the past five years. Moving to Durango from Minneapolis and pursuing a deeper relationship with Christ helped her to realize that God created her for adventure and Durango was the perfect place to find it. Jen is a wife to her husband, Bill, and mom to her three kids - Grace (12), Toby (10) and Josie (5). To Jen, children are the best example of faith and fruit. The community of Children's Ministry is about creating a safe place where children can be seen, heard, known and loved while they explore and encounter God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. In her spare time Jen loves to ride her mountain bike, cook for her family, go see really good movies and

most of all, laugh.

Nancy Turley

Nancy is a "newbie" to Durango and TRC. She moved here from Fruita, Co. in August of 2012 with her husband Steve, a retired gymnastics instructor and coach and their two small dogs, Lucy and Callie. Steve and Nancy were married, both for the first time, near 50 years of age. Nancy writes about navigating through life's circumstances with hope, and more recently, with grace - believing that God is always working behind the scenes on a bigger picture we don't yet see, to make all things work together for good.

She works full-time as an engineering technician for Red Willow Production Co. in Ignacio and describes herself as a right-brained person working in a left-brained industry. She started creating stories as a child but began writing in her late thirties when it became a meaningful vehicle of expression and therapy. She enjoys using life analogies and symbols in her writing, incorporating current reading material, scripture and quotes from the present and past gleaned along the way.

Since Nancy's and Steve's family members reside in Denver, the Western Slope area and various out of state locations, The River Church has become an answer to prayer providing meaningful sustaining friendships. She feels honored to write for Growing in Grace and to be in a community of real people in an environment of grace and hope.

Tawna Wilkinson

Although married, with grown children, eight grandchildren and more than half a century old, Tawna is gripped with childlike fascination regarding the tiny wonders of creation, be they natural or spiritual. 

When she catches a glimpse of hidden truth in the secret cubbies, Tawna is compelled to mine their depths, and grapple with giving voice to the unfolding universe in them. Universes that speak of the Father's Grand Design - the revealing and giving of His eternal love and glory to every extraordinary individual He created in His image.