As a teenager and young adult, Jamie experienced abuse that is so common for young women. After a battle with depression and a brush with death as a young adult, she surrendered her life to obey God’s calling again felt a “call” to go overseas.

As a young couple, she and her husband, John, served as missionaries in Taiwan among the Hakka and Taiwanese. Jamie speaks with honesty about the difficulties of life on the mission field, harsh conditions, culture shock and her own emotional baggage that made everything in life more challenging.

In 1993, they co-founded a missionary training and sending organization and directed that organization for twenty-two years. They have trained over 300 missionaries many of whom have gone to North Africa, China, and India. Jamie holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Linguistics and taught missionaries how to learn another language. She authored a book called Simple Obsession: Enjoying the Tender Heart of God, a memoir about intimate relationship with Jesus and learning to hear God’s voice. 

Then, in the midst of a faith crisis that caused Jamie to question everything she had believed, she opened a coffee shop called Joe’s Addiction in a “red light” district of Oklahoma City. Jamie is the lead pastor of this community among the economically poor, many of whom are experiencing homelessness, addiction, and abuse. They are learning together how to live the Way of Love.

Jamie is passionate to see Communities of the Hope (what Jesus called the Kingdom of God and Martin Luther King Jr. called Beloved Community) spread to every place where suffering and despair overwhelm. Jamie travels widely, teaching, speaking, holding seminars, and inviting more people to enter into this Dream of God for the world. She and John have five biological children, and many more who call Jamie, "Mama." "Mimi" is her favorite title though, given to her by her one granddaughter.