Hometown: McAlester, Oklahoma
Present city: Richardson
Education: Baylor University
Profession: Retired foreign missionary,
childbirth educator, birth and postpartum doula
Tell us about your family.
I was born in Tulsa but grew up in McAlester with a sister and brother. I have five children and 10 grandchildren. My son, Paul Sacco, daughter,
Annika Sacco, and their families go to Wilshire.
Where are you engaged at Wilshire?
I’m a MomCo mentor mom, a New Song member and I help in Friday Friends. I led small groups in DivorceCare at my previous church.
What are your favorite hobbies?
I enjoy knitting while watching TV or listening to podcasts.
Where is your favorite place to travel?
As a missionary I lived in Beirut, Lebanon, Cyprus and Poland. I also spent a year in Paris. I’d love to revisit these places, but now I’m enjoying my sons and daughter as well as a son-in-law and daughter-in-law and six grandkids here, my daughter and her husband and three grandkids in Waco, and my youngest son and wife with one four-year-old in Austin.
What brought you to Wilshire?
I wanted to find a church with unconditional love for everyone. I found that here and feel like I have a church home now.
What do you think God is up to in your life right now?
Teaching me new ways to love and be involved as a witness to God’s love and guidance in my life.
Tell us about your faith journey.
I grew up with parents very active in church, and at our family reunions we sang hymns and shared what God was doing in our lives. I have a memory at 8 years old of hearing that God was the light in darkness that would lead me out of darkness throughout my life. I put my life in God’s hands then. I knew God had planned something special for me, but never thought it would be in foreign missions. In spite of many hard circumstances, God has come through for me at every step. I realized while living overseas that Jesus only gave us one command: to love God with all your heart and to love your neighbor the same. That helped me stop listening to rules and judgments and accept every person, loving them for who they are now and not for who I think they should be.
What’s something interesting most people wouldn’t know about you?
I lived in Beirut during the war there and was evacuated to Cyprus several times by car, by ship and with the Marines by helicopter and ship.
What adjectives best describe you?
Calm, caring, a good listener.