Bethany Paul was born in the Chicagoland area, but moved to the suburbs of Philadelphia when she was 8 years old.  After completing high school, she went back to the Midwest to attend Michigan State University as a music therapy major.  Bethany has very fond memories of that time in her life, including being a section leader in the Spartan Marching Band (GO GREEN!) and a weekly gig singing covers (Guns N’ Roses, anyone?).

Bethany has not exactly had a “linear” life.  After college, she stayed in Michigan for a while and explored being a banker.  God was having none of that, and decided that she would complete one of her life-goals: traveling with a music ministry team through an organization called Youth Encounter.  So, after packing up her things and dumping them back in Philadelphia, Bethany set off for the main YE office in St. Paul, MN.  It was there that she met her future teammates – the people that she would be spending the next year with.

After a month’s worth of training, Bethany’s team (Watermark) set out in their van to travel the US and perform “family programs” (singing, sharing, puppet shows, etc) at various churches.  Ask her about that sometime, because there is not enough space to even begin to cover how amazing and influential that time was in her life.  Bethany traveled with that team for one year, including spending four months in Denmark.  She learned a lot about faith, God, people, love, and herself that year.  A lot.

Other times in her life came and went…including a short stint in Wisconsin and some time back in Philadelphia, where she helped to start a new church called The Renew Community.  Bethany visited Austin for the first time in 2008 while on vacation…and a year later, made the big move! 

On a more personal level, Bethany loves going on mini-adventures.  That is her most favorite thing to do.  She also loves to read (NERD), experience Austin, swoon over Switchfoot, and drive with the windows down while listening to very loud music.  She is very blessed to have an amazing family – parents, stepparents, a sister, and a brother – whom she loves very much.  Her life is guided by loving God and loving others; she will have that tattooed on her body one day.

At Journey, Bethany has the AMAZING opportunity to oversee the children’s and youth programs, along with helping people connect to each other and enable volunteers to give their gifts.  Basically, she’s a catch-all at Journey…and would not have it any other way.