Lydia Tirrel

Lydia lives in Firth, Nebraska, an awesome little town just south of Lincoln with her wonderful husband Quinn and dogs Wilson and Brady.  She spent her first two years out of college teaching 6th grade and is now working at First State Bank, which allows her to spend more time doing other things she loves such as being a part of her husband's ministry at Firth Reformed Church and Campus Life as well as spending more quality time with her family.  When Lydia is not doing any of those things she enjoys making home improvements, reading a good book and scrapbooking.

Lydia became involved with Hope for the First Nations as a junior in high school over eight years ago in 1999 during her time at Lutheran High School in Springfield, Illinois.  She initially came on the trip because many of her friends were going on the trip and she didn't want to miss out on a good time, but God used that to make amazing changes in her life and bring her where she is today.

Lydia feels that this ministry has made such an impact on her life for many reasons.  She loves the fact that she gets to see many of the same children from White Earth year after year and build relationships and share God's good news with them.  HFtFN has watched so many of these kids "grow up!"  It breaks her heart to see the conditions and hopelessness in which many of them live and she doesn't know if she will ever be able to stop doing ministry for these people and trying to bring God's hope to them.  She is so honored and humbled to help her husband Quinn lead their own group of high school students (like she was one day) to a new part of the reservation to build this ministry. 

Lydia graduated as co-salutatorian from Springfield Lutheran High School in 2001 and received her BS in education with a math concentration from Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska in 2005.  While at Concordia, she was blessed to be a part of the soccer team and still travel with HFtFN in the summer.  She was further blessed to meet her husband Quinn at Concordia and was married in July of 2005. 

"God has been so good!" ~ Lydia