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
243 episodes
Breaking the Chains of Pornography - A Conversation with Deepak Reju and Jonathan Holmes
Pornography – do you know someone who is struggling with this particular sin? Unfortunately, it’s likely that you do, but you may not know how to help. In these two conversations, host Dr. Chuck Betters, along with Rebekah Hannah (Director of A...
•
40:43
Sexual Abuse: Hope Blooms After the Storm - One Woman's Story - A Conversation with Dr. Terry Eccles
What happens when a four-year-old gets an unwanted education in the darker side of humanity and experiences sexual abuse at the hand of her father? In this powerful, sometimes difficult to hear interview, Dr. Terry Eccles takes the listener int...
•
1:13:37
Sexual Betrayal in Marriage - A Conversation with Ellen Dykas
Some stats state that 50% of married couples in churches have experienced sexual betrayal in their marriage. When a wife learns about her husband’s sexual betrayal, in the blink of an eye, a bomb detonates and blows up her marriage. The very fo...
•
42:04
Sexual Addiction: There Is Hope - A Conversation with Jonathan Daugherty
"In August 1999 I sat by myself on my living room couch. Alone. Scared. I tried to piece together what 13 years of sexual addiction had just torn apart. My life was unraveling and I couldn’t harness my out of control behaviors. I remember think...
•
51:10
Schizophrenia: Broken Pieces and the God Who Mends Them - A Conversation with Simonetta Carr
When a son, sister, or grandchild begins to behave in unexpected and disturbing ways, family members hope it is simply a phase. For some, it is instead a life-time illness – schizophrenia. The diagnosis of schizophrenia can bring shock, fear, a...
•
29:32
Praying Through the Fog of Suffering - A Conversation with Bob Allums
Pastor Bob Allums, husband and father, learned at thirty-two years of age that he faced the battle of his life against throat and mouth cancer. The possibility that the disease and treatment would destroy his ability to speak, to preach and tea...
•
42:39
Faith That Doesn't Quit - A Conversation with Andrea Herzer
Andrea Herzer, a woman well acquainted with long term debilitating health issues, having spent the last twenty years with multiple illnesses, including regional pain syndrome and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, joins Sharon Betters for this Help & ...
•
46:15
See Me, Not My Disability - A Conversation with Tim Merkel
How do you pursue your dreams when congenital muscular dystrophy threatens your independence? When you are born with muscular dystrophy, you face a life of muscles breaking down, and therefore being unable to keep up with growth spurts. During ...
•
36:28
.png)
Doing Life with Your Adult Children - A Conversation with Jim Burns
Almost 40% of young adults live with their parents or grandparents. This is the highest percentage in 70 years. The last time young adults did life in such proximity to their parents or grandparents was just before the Depression. Then it was o...
•
51:03
.png)
Healing After Abortion - A Conversation with Lovette Vassar
When Lovette told her mother she was pregnant, her mother took her to an abortion clinic despite protests and tears. A few months later, Lovette was again pregnant, and though she cried, she followed the routine and returned to the abortion cli...
•
27:43
Raising Sexually Healthy Kids - A Conversation with Dan and Heather Wilson
It's tougher than ever to be both a kid and a parent today. The world's culture is continually pushing an anything goes sexuality on our children. What’s a parent to do in order to help their children navigate their sexuality, social media, the...
•
1:06:07
Motherhood, Shame and Guilt - A Conversation with Barbara Juliani
Barbara Juliani and Jane Anne Wilson join Sharon Betters to talk about those feelings every mother experiences at one time or another. This conversation follows an interview with Barbara about prodigal children. Barbara and her father Jack Mill...
•
35:49
When Parents Feel Like Failures - A Conversation with Lauren Whitman
If you’re a parent, it’s likely you have had more than one sleepless night reviewing the mistakes and perceived failures of that day. We resign ourselves to carry the emotions of fear, guilt, shame, and regret for the rest of our lives. But do ...
•
43:17
Can You Just Sit with Me? - A Conversation with Natasha Smith
Days, months, and years after the loss of her sister, Natasha Smith tried to hide the grief she carried. But the pandemic took away her ability to hide her sorrow and her five-year-old’s response to her unexpected tears gave her permission to g...
•
28:08
I Didn't Sign Up for This! When Peace Feels Impossible - A Conversation with Ann Swindell
How are you feeling today? Stressed, overwhelmed, drowning in too much to do, anxiety, the rubble of broken relationships – just life? Are these feelings seasonal or do you struggle with persistent gnawing anxiety? Sometimes, something happens ...
•
39:13
Anxiety - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - A Conversation with Liz Edrington
It doesn’t take much research to realize anxiety is a primary emotion experienced not just by teens but also by adults. Our guest, Liz Edrington, is no stranger to anxiety. As a teenager, she felt overwhelmed by anxiety. Now, she is a mental he...
•
37:08
And Then the Darkness Came - A Conversation with Edith Yoder
“Edith, we urge you to learn Braille, train with a white cane, and learn to cook blindfolded...” These warnings from Doctors and a Rehab team along with major eye surgery and regular vision-loss monitoring by top specialists at Johns Hopkins Un...
•
40:26
Anxious Teen? You Can Help! - A Conversation with Jessica Thompson
According to the National Institutes of Health, nearly 1 in 3 of all adolescents ages 13 to 18 will experience an anxiety disorder. These numbers have been rising steadily; between 2007 and 2012, anxiety disorders in children and teens went up ...
•
38:27
The House of Hope - A Conversation with Cori Salchert
Cori Salchert, fosters and adopts “hospice babies” whose own families find it too hard to cope with their child’s terminal diagnosis. She is the mother of over fifteen children, some of whom died in her care. Cori traveled a very painful pathwa...
•
46:52
Adoption and Children with Special Needs: A Hard Calling Filled with Joy - A Conversation with Jim and Karen Weaver
Jim and Karen Weaver’s international adoption journey led them to welcoming not one, but two boys into their family, making them parents of four daughters and two sons. In this transparent interview, Jim and Karen share the highs and the lows o...
•
56:29
Helping Hurting Children - A Conversation with Darby Strickland
Darby Strickland’s children’s books, Something Sad Happened and Something Scary Happened are designed to not only help children deal with trauma but also equip their parents. In this conversation with Sharon Betters and Heidi Nequist, Darby ans...
•
32:59
.png)
Motherhood and Its Idols - A Conversation with Christina Fox
“I end every day feeling defeated because I lost my temper with my kids, vowing tomorrow will be better, but it usually isn’t...I don’t want my kids to be 'less than' their friends. I also want them to stand out as college applicants. But I don...
•
36:28
Telling Your Story for the Sake of the Next Generation - A Conversation with Elizabeth Turnage
Have you ever thought about what your family will remember about you when you are gone? Have you considered intentionally leaving a legacy of faith? In this conversation, co-hosts Sharon Betters and Heidi Nequist talk with Elizabeth Turnage, li...
•
37:53
.png)
Miscarriage - Deeply Traumatic, Tragically Common - A Conversation with Jessalyn Hutto
The fear of miscarriage is one of the biggest fears of a pregnant woman. Jessalyn Hutto, author of Inheritance of Tears, When Death Enters the Womb knows not only this fear but the reality of miscarriage and the accompanying grief. In this conv...
•
44:11
Prayers for Your Baby or Child in a Medical Crisis - A Conversation with Eric Schumacker and Jessika Sanders
As a baby is growing in the womb, we often hear the words, “I don’t care if it’s a boy or girl, as long as the baby is healthy.” Sadly, sometimes, frightened parents hear the words from their doctor, “I’m sorry, but your baby….” You fill in the...
•
37:45
.png)