Bethel knew that she wanted to do ministry when she was teenager. However, she struggled with knowing exactly what avenue of ministry she wanted to pursue. She originally thought that she wanted to do music ministry because she loved to sing. So she pursued a music ministry degree from Ozark Christian College. While she did obtain her bachelor's in music and worship, she quickly discovered that she was not suited for vocational music ministry. This left her without a ministry focus and clear career path for several years.

After a few years, Bethel was asked by her church's leadership to co-lead the youth ministry of her church. While she was serving under a deacon, she would essentially become responsible for the legwork of the ministry. While she had some volunteer experience, she did not know how to lead a youth ministry. She willingly stepped up to help and learned a lot about leading a ministry as a volunteer.

However, after a year of investing in that ministry, Bethel's life was turned upside down when her dad was fired from the church after 17 years. Despite being in a difficult situation, she made the difficult decision to honor her ministry obligations to the end of the school year. Through this experience, she realized how much she loved the students she served, and that God had been preparing her heart for doing youth ministry all along. Bethel shared about this experience in this spoken word below:

After she recognized her heart for youth ministry, she believed that she needed to immediately pursue a vocational youth ministry position. However, she did not have any youth ministry training. After her ministry at her dad's church ended, she tried to get involved in a few larger churches in hopes that these ministries would help her get to a vocational ministry career faster. However, she had grown up being involved in small church youth ministry. Being involved in larger churches was not the best fit for her ministry experience and those ministry experiences did not end the way she would have liked. While those ministries were not a good fit, she is now grateful that these experiences taught her about how large church youth ministry works so that she has a context for understanding it and supporting it with her resources.

Meanwhile, Bethel began her self-publishing journey in 2020, and while she didn't initially realize it, most of the books she published were relevant to youth ministry because that was where she had experience. After realizing that she could also make digital youth ministry resources, she launched Simple Youth Ministry to do just that. Now, Bethel realizes that while she does not currently have the title of "youth minister," she finally has her own type of youth ministry, both with being involved in her local youth group as a volunteer and with the resources she has created. This hard-won wisdom has changed her perspective on the way that she does ministry and is how SYM came to be.

Bethel is hoping to someday build up the income from SYM and her other ministry projects so that she can dedicate her time to helping small church youth groups that need ministry support. She also still hopes that a traditional youth ministry job may be in her future. Any purchase or donation you make will bring her closer to those goals and will be greatly appreciated.