Help & Hope
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.
Episodes
258 episodes
Sudden Loss of a Daughter and a Dad's Grief - A Conversation with Mel Lawrenz
You start your day thinking it will be like any other. And then a text with four words, “Eva not breathing. Pray.” Within hours, the unexpected death of your daughter propels you and your family down into the deepest sorrow you have ever experi...
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36:50
Grief and Lament - A Conversation with Dr. Frank James
Is it ever ok to question God’s love or wisdom, especially when you love and serve Him but experience tremendous loss? Dr. Frank A. James, President and Professor of Historical Theology at Missio Seminary in Pennsylvania joins Dr. Chuck F. Bett...
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47:53
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Preparing for Christmas in the Darkness of Grief - A Conversation with Chuck and Sharon Betters
“Christmas. What will we do about Christmas?” This was one of the first grief-stricken questions Sharon asked her husband, Chuck, hours after learning of the death of their sixteen-year-old son, Mark. In this poignant interview, Chuck and Sharo...
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20:16
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Chronic Illness: Living with Purpose - A Conversation with Sharon Betters and Friends
Having a long-term or chronic illness can disrupt your life in many ways. Managing your illness can be overwhelming as you try to understand what's happening in your body and how you can best use the energy you have each day. Chronic illnesses ...
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1:00:54
An Unexpected Twist in Life - A Conversation with Erin Kauffman
Twenty-nine-year-old Erin Kauffman was enjoying the fruit of years of education and working. She loved her newly purchased home and bought a new car that she could load up with equipment when traveling to school sponsored music events. Erin fil...
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44:43
Walking with Your Loved One Through Chronic Pain and Illness - A Conversation with Nate Brooks
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. Car...
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56:18
Hidden Wounds and Scars of Chronic Illness – Is there Hope? - A Conversation with Rosann Coulon
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 bec...
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36:05
Retiring Well - A Conversation with Dr. John Dunlop
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...
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36:00
Flourishing in Every Season of Life - A Conversation with Carol Arnold
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 ...
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26:32
Living Life with Eternity in View - A Conversation with Lucy Malmberg
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 b...
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48:32
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The Afternoon of Life - A Conversation with Elyse Fitzpatrick
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 fe...
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1:12:59
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Flourishing in an Anti-Aging Culture - A Conversation with Sharon Betters and Susan Hunt
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 r...
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59:31
I Forgive You - A Conversation with Wendy Alsup
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 way...
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31:46
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Ministry Wives: Betrayal and Restoration - A Conversation with Karen Grant
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 o...
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31:50
Desperate Woman Seeks Friends - A Conversation with Kristen Strong
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 ha...
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50:45
Helping Others Go Through What We Went Through - A Conversation with Kathe Wunnenberg
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 pre...
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31:50
Addiction That Started at the Age of 12 - A Conversation with Doug Clarke
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 ev...
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53:44
Teens and Porn - A Conversation with Cooper Pinson
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 ...
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35:02
Loneliness and Depression: Discovering Hope - A Conversation with Danielle Slaughter
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 t...
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33:40
The Prison of Chronic Dieting - A Conversation with Constance Rhodes
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 weig...
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43:32
Help for Parenting Children with Disabilities - A Conversation with Stephanie Hubach
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 ...
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28:54
Autism Spectrum Disorder: Speaking Hope
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 pare...
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1:07:33
When Your Future Turns Upside Down - A Conversation with Bryan Stoudt
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...
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26:55
The Thorn of Autism - A Conversation with Lori Sealy
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. ...
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59:28
Finding Joy in the Hard Places with Autism - A Conversation with Paul and Jill Miller
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 diagnos...
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51:57
