A Military Wife's Biography - Mya Parker

Whether you’ve just heard about The Lantern for the first time or you’ve been involved since its beginning, we think it’s important for you to understand a little bit about the women behind it. Each week over the next couple of months, you’ll have the opportunity to read a little about each of the women who started The Lantern. We hope you enjoy the posts and we can’t wait to learn more about each of you! ~Mya

Mya Parker

What was your life like growing up?
Growing up, we moved all over the country. My parents divorced and remarried when I was very young, so I spent my childhood like many children of divorced parents – sharing time as evenly as possible between each home. I spent most of my years before high school in Columbia, Missouri, with a short stint in California during first and second grade. The summer before high school, I decided to move to Iowa and live with my mom, step-dad, and brother for the first time since the divorce. Like a lot of kids, my high school career was packed full of sports, clubs, and extra-curricular activities. Late in my sophomore year of high school, I realized that I loved things that were challenging and required discipline, so I started looking at going to the military academies for college. Not knowing whether or not I would love a full-time military environment, I decided to apply for an Army ROTC scholarship. I went to Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa on an Army ROTC scholarship where I graduated with an International Business degree. I commissioned as a Quartermaster second lieutenant in 2006 and have been assigned to the 101st since.

How did you come to know the Lord?
I didn’t grow up going to church. In fact, I can probably count the number of times I went to church before moving to Iowa on one hand. Growing up, my parents worked hard and played hard and didn’t have a lot of concern for anything else, so neither did I. It’s interesting, though, looking back; even though I didn’t know the first thing about Christianity, I remember praying to God on a fairly regular basis – especially during tough times. And there were many. Now, I know that God was looking out for me and maybe He allowed me to feel that comfort even though I didn’t understand how I could know Him. The reason I decided to move to Iowa the summer before my freshman year of high school is because I turned into a wild child at a very young age. Since I was the only child living in my home growing up and the parents I lived with were very young, I was exposed to a pretty hard core party lifestyle and it became appealing to me at a young age. The parents I didn’t live with realized the trouble I was getting in and offered their home to me. So I took it. An intense custody battle ensued that summer and it turned my world upside down, to say the least. Even though I wasn’t excited about it, I was going to youth group with my older brother. One night at youth group, I heard our intern youth pastor’s radical testimony – his life was very similar to mine up to that point – and, for the first time, I realized that Christianity wasn’t about perfection, it was, and is, about God’s incredible grace. Later that summer, amongst the chaos of the custody battle, I gave my life to Christ in my bedroom. More than anything, I wanted to be made into a new creation. And I absolutely was. After tasting the freedom that God offers, I was hooked. I’ve spent the years since then attending mostly nondenominational churches, participating in and leading Bible studies, and attempting to love God and His people in everything I do. Don’t get me wrong, our relationship has been far from perfect (my fault, of course!), but it has been the greatest thing I’ve ever experienced and I couldn’t live without Him.

How do you spend your time currently?
I am still in the Army and will be for a couple more months, so most of my time is spent at work! When I’m not working, I love spending time with my husband, Nathan, and dog, Marley (NOT named after the movie!). We really enjoy traveling – from weekend trips in the southeast to long vacations anywhere in the world…we aren’t picky. I absolutely love spending time in nature – running, camping, hiking, boating – anything. While I can’t carry a tune to save my life, I am also passionate about music – especially listening to live music. I kind of feel like I should just list the things I don’t like to do; that would probably be a shorter list :). When I get out of the Army, I look forward to working with The Lantern to make it everything God wants it to be. I absolutely can’t wait to see what happens when we military wives join together and look to Him, instead of our difficult circumstances, for true joy and life – it’s going to be incredible. It already is! Nathan and I also plan to start a family within a few years, so we’re definitely looking forward to that chapter in our lives.

We hope you enjoyed learning a little more about Mya Parker and don’t forget to tune in next week for another biography post. Have a great week!