Abbie Berge

Abbie (Carlson) Berge is a 2013 AFLBS Graduate who lives in Fargo, ND and is married to Corey Berge. While she attended AFLBS, God did a work in her heart and life that she now sees as paramount to the maturing of her faith.

“My time at AFLBS was the most vital time in my life. I learned so much, made many mistakes, and drew close to God through it all through His mercy and His beautiful Word. I grew through so many personal battles and matured in ways I didn’t even know I needed to when I was there. It was humbling, eye-opening, and healing. “

Since graduating from AFLBS, Abbie has pursued starting a business as a wedding photographer, a lifelong dream of hers. “I’ve been intrigued with photography since early childhood for sentimental purposes, and it grew as a way for me to create. Now I have been studying it for ten years in varying ways and levels of intensity. I’m even (perhaps unnecessarily) majoring in it in college, and it’s become my voice and my passion.”

Abbie seeks to use her business as a ministry opportunity to those who use her as their photographer. “I was afraid when I officially launched my business that I wouldn’t be able to serve God through it. After all it is a visual field, which, for a lot of people, is associated with being shallow. I’ve never wanted to be all surface, but wanted my life to be filled with purpose and truth. Photographing for others means that I am there for some of their biggest moments and the rockiest. I am right by someone’s side when they ecstatically commit their lives to another person, and when they break down over missing loved ones. I want to serve, support, care for, and bless through working my hardest, spreading joy, and allowing empathy into my heart. That’s what most people need. (Ecclesiastes 3:1 There is a time for everything). I laugh, I cry, it’s exhausting and exhilarating.”

Amidst her busy schedule with school and photographing weddings, Abbie is also very active in her home church where she serves as a teacher and helper in their after-school outreach program. “It’s crazy, tiring, and incredibly rewarding. It’s great to give kids at the very least a happy memory of church to look back on so that one day they won’t be afraid to go back when in need and so that they might remember that they were loved there.”

Abbie and her husband, Corey, are praying about what the future may hold for them after they finish college. “We both want to serve Him, and I’m excited to see in what ways (big and small) He decides to use us.”