Our featured guest today is Jessica Fitzgerald, CLU®, ChFC®, FLMI®
Jessica Fitzgerald is a devout Christian, wife, mother, friend to many, and sister in Christ to even more. She has enjoyed a long-standing career with State Farm Insurance as an Agency Recruiter. Jessica has a bachelor’s degree from Western Michigan University in Personal Financial Planning and will complete her Master’s in Organizational Leadership degree in June of 2022. She has earned numerous insurance and financial designations including the Chartered Financial Consultant, Chartered Life Underwriter, Fellow Life Management Institute, and insurance producer licensing. In the coming months Jessica will have her own State Farm agency.
Besides her career she also has a passion for the outdoors. She especially enjoys bringing others out to experience adventures in nature who may not have had the opportunity before. Jessica believes God’s beautiful creation all around us has a plethora of benefits for us. Therefore, she loves to be active outdoors and to bring others outside along with her.
Due to her passion for nature and a desire for disenfranchised urban youth to experience natural surroundings, Jessica started Active Outdoor Connections. The program’s mission is to show God’s unconditional love while working with the under-served community. It is her desire to provide opportunities for urban youth to experience God’s world outside their own small section of it; all while enjoying a healthy active lifestyle, and to getting outside their comfort zone in a safe way to experience the boundless joy and growth of accomplishing challenges.
Jessica has spent a copious amount of time frequenting national parks, camp grounds, and forest areas. While frequenting these places, she realized that there was unbalanced participation and attendance at many of the parks and recreational areas between white people and people of color. Jessica was burdened in her spirit by what she perceived to be an unfair problem. She could not find rest in her spirit until she found a solution; no matter if the solution only would benefit her small sphere of the world, i.e., urban communities in West Michigan.
Driven by her unrest and a desire to rectify the problem, Jessica started Active Outdoor Connections Program, a culturally relevant, year-round nature-based program for urban and underserved youth.
Jessica said when she was a child, she grew up poor. Her family had little money for recreational activities. Some of her earliest memories are of spending vast amounts of time playing outside; whereby her immense love for “all things nature” was birthed. Presently, as an avid nature enthusiast, Jessica has come to understand how the Lord was using her meager beginnings as a child to shape her for an outdoor nature ministry with urban youth.
As the host of the Lotus Flower Podcast, I personally believe all our experiences have shaped us into who we are today. God uses each experience, good and bad, to grow us spiritually and mold us into the likeness of Jesus and to shape us for the unique purposes he has for our lives. He does not want even one of our life experiences to be wasted. I am a firm believer that our life experience is one of the most overlooked ways that God uses to shape us for the way He wants us to serve Him and others in this world.
Accordingly, as Jessica looked back over her life experiences, she realized the hand of God was on her life to the degree that she responded in a tangible way, birthing The Active Outdoor Connections Program.
