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The Help & Hope Podcast guests address life's darkest circumstances that are often difficult to discuss, yet need to be faced as we help one another walk by faith. These are the real-life testimonies of people who have walked through these experiences and have found their strength in Christ.
259 Episodes
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The title of Nate Brooks’ book, Disrupted Journey: Walking with Your Loved One Through Chronic Pain and Illness, describes the transparent conversation he had with hosts Sharon Betters and Heidi Nequist. Caregivers are one of the most forgotten communities. They often find themselves in this position quite suddenly and must navigate a whole new way of life, often alone, as they quietly persevere in giving their lives for the good of another. Nate knows what this is like and brings wisdo...
Rosann has experienced disappointment, pain and loss – but her scars and wounds are not obvious – very much like many of you. Today Rosann lives with the kinds of chronic illness that many of you contend with – often alone in your struggles because they are not visible wounds or scars. In this conversation with Sharon Betters, Roseann offers encouragement to fellow travelers, that though the pathway is often hard and you feel hopeless and helpless, there is a light in the darkness and purpose...
Preparation for retirement requires more than just financial planning. For most people, and especially for Christians, it comes with a host of other considerations—when to retire, where to live, and how to spend one’s time. Many find themselves asking, "Is there a right way to retire?" And what about the cultural perspective, “I’ve worked hard all my life, this time it’s all about me!” Is it ok to pursue pleasure that was unattainable before retirement? And what if unexpected changes in our h...
In the book co-authored by Susan Hunt and Sharon Betters, Aging with Grace: Flourishing in an Anti-Aging Culture, each chapter ends with a storyteller who is at least seventy years old. Each woman gives the readers a glimpse into what aging with grace looks like for her. One of those storytellers is Carol Arnold. Carol was eighty-three years old at the time of the interview. She travels the world continuing the work of the organization her husband started, Equipping Pastors. Surely Carol is a...
Lucy Malmberg’s grand adventures in life began when her parents hid her in a blanket-covered box as waited in line to board a plane to America from Ukraine after World War II. Her parents passed on to her a legacy of not only love for America but a passionate love for Jesus. In this conversation with Sharon Betters, Lucy freely shares how her faith guided her beloved husband George and her in the co-founding of Wedgewood Pharmacy, now, the largest national specialized pharmacy in veterinary c...
Elyse Fitzpatrick, author of over twenty books, a frequent conference speaker, and counselor, joins hosts Sharon Betters and Heidi Nequist to discuss aging and the second half of life. Rather than a question-and-answer format, listeners will feel like they are sitting around a table with three friends who are sharing their thoughts, concerns, and questions about what it means to age in this culture. For example, why is aging so hard? How does a sound theology help us age with grace in an anti...
There are many blessings that come with age: retirement, grandchildren, travel, and life experience. Today’s culture, however, marginalizes old age, often portraying it as burdensome and hopeless. Many older women can feel like an encumbrance rather than a blessing to their friends and family members. In this conversation with Chuck L. Betters, while acknowledging aging can be hard and challenging, Sharon Betters and Susan Hunt encourage women to find hope through both real-life and biblical ...
Many people have experienced betrayal, someone violating your trust perhaps by lying, cheating, some kind of abuse, putting their own interests ahead of yours when they promised otherwise. Betrayal affects every part of our hearts, often in ways we don’t understand at first. Some hurts we carry with us to the day we die because they are so deep and seem impossible to resolve. In this conversation with Sharon Betters, Wendy Alsup shares the impact of betrayal from her own life, not only throug...
This conversation is for pastors and ministry wives and those who love them. While there are occupational hazards in all lines of work, ministry families experience conflicts that sometimes not only result in broken relationships but the loss of their beloved church family. In most jobs, wives are not expected to be unpaid laborers, stand by their husband’s side every Sunday, remembering every name and something about the families, teach a class, play the piano, or host multiple gatherings fo...
From the time you’re little, your experience with friendships can make or break your day – whether it’s a five-year-old who is left out of the game on the playground, or a thirty-year-old who sees pictures on social media of her friend group having fun without her, or facing the most hurtful season of your life completely alone – friends or the lack of friends have power to help or hurt. Sharon Betters and co-host Heidi Nequist talk with Kristen Strong about the topic of friendshi...
1 in 8 couples have trouble getting pregnant. That's about 6.7 million people each year who have trouble conceiving. 10—15% of women who know they are pregnant will experience a miscarriage. Some studies say it’s higher. About 1 pregnancy in 100 at 20 weeks of pregnancy and later is affected by stillbirth, and each year about 24,000 babies are stillborn in the United States. This doesn’t take into account the number of babies diagnosed in the womb with a terminal condition – meaning if they s...
From age 12 through the age of 18, Doug began to experiment with any and all drugs, from ecstasy to crystal meth, that he could get his hands on. Over the course of the next few years, oxycodone became the dominant Idol that consumed him and eventually transitioned into a full-blown heroin addiction. Doug shares his journey into drug addiction including how being raised “in the church” left him so empty that he searched and found acceptance in the fans of a band called Insane Clown Posse. The...
With the explosion of the technology age we are currently in, easily-accessed porn invades younger and younger hearts, often unbeknownst to parents. When encouraged to protect their children from tech invasions, many parents vehemently declare that their child is so innocent and so protected, they are not concerned for their welfare. Their relationship to their child is so secure, that their child would not secretly travel into such a dark world. Sadly, these parents are often in the dark whe...
Depression affects more than 15 million American adults – 6.7% of the population 18 or older. Twenty percent of teens experience depression before adulthood and 70% will have more than one episode of depression before adulthood. 8.3% of these teens suffer depression for at least a year. Women are twice as likely to suffer from depression. Untreated suicide is the leading cause of suicide, and suicide is the leading cause of death for young people ages 15 – 24. These overwhelming statistics...
Thin. Fat. Thin again. Dieting. Binging. Starvation diets. Grapefruit Diets. Low Carb. Thin. Fat. Thin again. Constance Rhodes understands the obsession with body image. In this conversation, she shares her own roller coaster struggle with weight. Young people and adults alike will find a friend in Constance as she transparently tells her story of weight loss, weight gain, and the thin cage in which she found herself trapped. The Help & Hope podcast is produced by MARKINC Ministries. You ...
Stephanie Hubach is no stranger to the challenges of raising a child with special needs as a researcher in disability ministry and the mother of a son with Down Syndrome. Stephanie has spoken to thousands of parents about the struggles and the blessings of children who might be seen by our culture as dispensable but in God’s world are indispensable. We lose many gifts and blessings when we do not recognize that what appears weak to us is actually the strong. Steph’s passion for families raisi...
In this interview, two sets of parents speak honestly about how their children with an autistic spectrum disorder impacted their dreams, challenged their marriages, and created chaos in their homes. They also describe their special joys in parenting their children. If you are parenting a child with special needs, you will relate to their transparent descriptions of parenting children with a form of autism. These interviews will also better equip friends and family to come alongside of parents...
Bryan and his wife Sharon say the diagnosis of severe autism for his son Matthew confronted them with the reality that the future they had planned would never come. In this transparent conversation Bryan touches on how he and his wife went into survival mode, how he initially thought he could “fix” his son, the spiritual struggles they experienced, and the impact of Matthew on their other children and their marriage. Though their journey has been challenging, Bryan offers help and hope to any...
Nearly aborted, graciously adopted, and later abandoned, Lori Sealy has traveled the road of atheism and lived a life of autism. Lori was diagnosed with Autism as an adult, and not long after that diagnosis, learned her son had autism as well. Lori is a classical pianist and songwriter whose music gives a transparent view into the intimate struggles of faith and life that she experiences. In this interview, parents of a young man who has autism ask Lori the questions burning in the hearts of...
Paul and Jill Miller welcomed their sixth child, daughter Kim, into their home in 1982. It became apparent at a young age that Kim was behind in her developmental milestones. She was also nonverbal. Kim was diagnosed as having autism, a diagnosis that was just beginning to be recognized by doctors. Kim’s diagnosis not only created enormous stress on their family, but also isolated Jill as she learned how to parent their precious child. In this remarkable conversation Paul and Jill take us bac...
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