Yvonne Lorraine Smith was born and raised in the Kansas City area. While a student at Central Bible College, her pen-pal, Gary Coselmon, asked her to marry him. In 1976, less than one year from the first letters they exchanged, with no formal dating, they were married. She moved to Michigan and began setting up house there. Within two years after they were married, Gary began traveling extensively with the evangelists Jimmy Swaggart, David Wilkerson and Morris Cerullo. Over the course of the next ten years, Yvonne and Gary lived where the evangelist were based.

While Gary was out on the road in ministry, Yvonne, mothered two sons Daniel and Nathan. In the first year of his life, their oldest son Daniel, contracted bacterial meningitis and became severely disabled, unable to speak or move for twelve years. She learned about special children first hand and how God provides strength and grace. Daniel then passed on to be with the Lord. Gary and Yvonne continued in ministry serving as youth pastors and twice as associate pastors.

God called Gary from the ministry road and directed them to move to the Kansas City area. There they started a church (The Gathering Place) in 1987 in their apartment house living room, soon afterward, purchasing a building for the congregation. After ten years of pastoring the church, and twenty two years of marriage, Yvonne was instructed by the Lord, to write her first book entitled "Return to the Garden." She continues to work with her husband, Pastor Gary, operates Scholar Prep Private Christian School, travels and speaks, and is mom to their four children Nathan, Andrew, Luke and Charity, mother in-law to Nicole and grandmother to little "Marky" and his new brother Seth :).

Romans 8:28