Emily Christine Stader grew up in southwest Wisconsin. In February of 2020, she had the opportunity to travel to the Dominican Republic with some of her family to do a mission trip with 516NOW, which sparked her desire to learn Spanish and serve the Lord in missions. After graduating high school, she spent a year at the Rio Grande Bible Institute in south Texas as part of the InterCultural Studies language acquisition program, where she studied Spanish and learned more about Latin American culture.