About Sarah Jo Austin
Writer, photographer, and seminary student contemplating Christian obscurity and a slow, simple, quiet life with Jesus.
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I’m Sarah Jo Austin. Sometimes Sarah. Sometimes Sarah Jo. It honestly depends on which decade of my life you met me in.
I grew up in a small town south of Kansas City, but I moved to Springfield, Missouri, to attend college where I majored in professional and technical writing. I’ve never *officially* worked as a tech writer, but I have used this particular set of skills at every job I have ever worked.
Besides Jesus, my family, and my friends, here are the top seven things I love, in no particular order:
- Naps
- Prayer and spiritual formation
- Plants
- Sunshine
- Food (if you feed me, you love me)
- Logistics, spreadsheets, and optimizing anything in front of me
- Reading (mostly non-fiction, data based books)
My husband and I met in college doing young adult ministry work together, and we decided we liked each other and got hitched. While we were dating, we were part of planting a church, and we have called that church our home ever since. We have a middle schooler who serves as the lone extravert of our family. He’s into art, video games, popcorn, and family snuggle time. And we have a bossy Scottish terrier who is sixteen pounds of pure fluff and energy and liver treats.
In the spring of 2022, I made the decision to pursue a Master’s of Arts in Spiritual Formation at Portland Seminary. The hardest part was realizing that I did not have the capacity to continue my full-time ministry work and attend school at the same time. But the Lord was drawing me to the world of spiritual formation, spiritual direction, and writing, so here I am.
In my full-time ministry work, I served as the local outreach coordinator for an international anti-trafficking ministry for nearly seven years. As part of that work, I also served on the North American and global leadership teams for the International Christian Alliance on Prostitution (ICAP), and I continue to serve on that leadership team.