about me

janelle hurst

I live in the big little town of State College, Pennsylvania where I work at a downtown café and have the opportunity to engage with people from all over the world. The many places I’ve lived have impacted me deeply, particularly the three years I spent in South America. Through this God has taught me what it means to love deeply and give freely to people even if it means saying goodbye again and again. My testimony is that it’s always worth planting trees, even if you never eat the fruit.

Some of the things I’m passionate about are radical hospitality and God-honoring femininity. But there is one Person I’m most passionate about. Why? He breathed life into my nostrils. He redeemed my shattered heart. He healed the wounds of broken relationships. He poured out His mercy onto my life. He made me whole again.

here, you’ll find random snippets of my life, new ones and old ones.

me with the adorable niece

Ruth, wherever you go in life, unpack your bags—physically and mentally—and plant trees. Too many people never live in the now because they assume the time is too short to settle in. They don’t plant trees because they expect to be gone before the trees bear fruit. But if you keep thinking about the next move, you’ll never live fully where you are. When it’s time to go, then it’s time to go. But you won’t have missed what this experience was about. If you never eat from the trees, someone else will.
- Ruth E. Van Reken