Kristen Roeters' story of calling

As CEO and Founder of Global Grant Strategies, Kristen Roeters shares her background and life journey in an interview about identity and her faith.  Growing up in a conservative Christian home environment, Kristen remembered the emphasis on faith and action.  The midwestern community supported her faith journey and had expectations for her role as a young woman.

She shares the paradox of society's expectations about growing up in this conservative community while learning to live out her uniqueness as God called her.

The families in her community kept Sunday as a day of rest where marriage was expected, with the male being the head of the household.  Yet, being raised as one of five, three girls and two boys, all were raised to be independent thinkers.  This raised questions for her about the intersection of male–female expectations from within the community and the family, which sometimes seemed to conflict. 

This led to role confusion, on the one hand, ascribed roles around expectations for males (i.e., mowing the lawn) and the ascribed roles for females (i.e., interest in cooking and baking).  It felt like it was back and forth – she observed the very traditional roles of her mother and father yet felt encouraged to explore and be her own person.  Within the church, she experienced similar role expectations, yet felt like she never fit the ascribed roles for a young female.

This led to continued questioning as she grew up, both within the Christian school she attended as a child and then as a student at a Christian College, which she said was the best decision of her life.  The values and beliefs of her worlds continued to collide, yet simultaneously, she navigated the spaces and realized that one did not have to fit the traditional gender paradigm.  Her athletic, strong, and independent achievements led her to male-dominated professions like athletic training.

Traveling internationally and volunteering in Albania as a young woman for a year prepared her professionally for a career of global travel, followed by the decision to adopt as a single woman.  She questions who defines the norm when this is who God made her to be.  The questions continued: Can I fully live into who I am without feeling guilty or less than?

Later in life, in her 50s, she celebrates who she is called to be and her uniqueness within the construct of the Christian faith.  A major achievement is embracing the evolution of her faith and freeing her to enjoy the curiosity of “being.”  Kristen realizes that not having all the answers has freed her to explore and understand, to be uncertain and curious, to be open and unproven, a light unto the world of questioning.

Opening up to one’s faith allows one to be unafraid, to live without fear of the unknown, without fear of threat to one’s belief system.  She realizes those early family values taught her she could be anyone she wanted to be, and she credits that foundation to allowing her to be free and be herself, especially as she worked in predominantly male environments.  She shares how draining it can be to be the “only other female” in the room. 

A couple of years ago, Kristen took a break from global travel and trusted what God would bring into her future.  When called by the Divine, one may experience calling in different ways.  She has experienced calling in two ways:  Coming to terms with who God has called her to be – the internal calling (even though resisting this important voice) and the external calling of listening to what others indicate her strengths and that she has something to offer.  This evolution of listening to the internal and external call has resulted in the formation of Global Grant Strategies (GGS).  She enjoys journeying alongside people in the majority world, aligning best practices and funding to support their programs.  Her past experiences in international program development, writing grant proposals, and understanding the multilingual context have proven to be immeasurable to GGS.  

The power of voice, both internal and external, is an important component of one’s development, especially as a woman of faith.  Kristen shares how, throughout her life, she has learned from the voices of others in encouraging her development and her own voice in realizing her uniqueness as created in God’s image.  Accepting oneself and appreciating differences supports leaning into the paradoxes surrounding one’s being.