Posts tagged hope for today
The Power Struggle, Sharing Hope in Hardship, & Marriage after Addiction with Alex & Dallas Johnson

Dallas and Alex have known each other since high school, and have been married for six years this July. They grew up in the same college-mountain town in Arizona, and they recently got two new additions to their family, two sweet golden retrievers, Faith and Texas. Dallas owns and operates a towing business, and Alex is designing a clothing line that will donate portions of profit to charity; to suicide victims and sex-trafficked women in Cambodia, two things she’s most passionate about. Dallas and Alex also have YouTube channels: Tow Trainer and Hope With Alex. Dallas offers towing advice on active calls, and Alex encourages people to hold onto hope during hardships.

Listen in for a summary of Alex’s powerful testimony - how God miraculously broke her free from addiction to heroin, crack and alcohol. She shares how during that time she became involved in the adult industry and how Jesus broke her free from all shame tied to that. She also shares more in-depth on this month’s spin-off episode.

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Jacob and Tori Petersen - God Making Families Whole

Jacob and Tori Petersen have been married a little over 2 years, have a 2 year old son and a daughter on the way. They have a heart for family and seeing the restoration of families. Jacob is in a season of being the husband and father God has called him to be and enjoys welcoming all into their family home and making them feel like family. Tori grew up in the foster care system and God has since redeemed and restored pieces of her story and is using her as an advocate for foster youth, vulnerable youth and suffering families and is a voice for the unborn/pro-life. Taken from her site, Tori writes, “I share my life vulnerably with hopes to let my Abba Father be known & loved through stories, to offer hope to the hurting, & to serve people from all kinds of backgrounds.

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Linda Obremski and Mariah Metoyer-Marino on Grieving with Hope

Two remarkable women with two remarkable stories — join me for July’s episode as Linda Obremski and Mariah Metoyer-Marino share the journey they’ve been on since “losing” their husbands. They share how “losing their husbands” isn’t really what it is at all because they know where their husbands are… they aren’t lost but are home, in Heaven with their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, more alive than ever before. They share the hope and comfort they find in knowing they will see them again and the beauty of discovering their purpose in this new season they find themselves in.

They share how it does not feel right living from the identity of “widow”. Their identity is firm in Christ, as Daughters of the King, Daughters of the Most High God. They are living to bring Him glory through every trial and every suffering this life on earth may bring. Mariah shares that if suffering in this life brings Him more glory, then so be it!
All this and more in episode 19!

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Rick and Aviana Valadez on Coming Forth As Gold in Marriage, Blended Families and in Ministry

Aviana and Rick Valadez go into their marriage story and how Jesus saved and redeemed their lives. From head knowledge to a loving relationship with their Savior, from redemption from a gambling and drinking past and a compromised relationship, Rick and Aviana share the similarities in their stories is that they prayed to receive Christ into their lives yet it didn’t fully change their life until God took them to the end of themselves.

They also share how they allow Him to steer their blended family and how He led their family to street evangelism through their two boys and the journey from sharing Christ with total strangers on Friday nights to God preparing them for full-time missions.

They have a beautiful testimony and are sold out for the cause of Christ and honor Him with their whole lives.

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Jenn and Shawn Marriage Story - When God Moves Us Into Unknown, New Territory

Married 7 years, Jenn and Shawn Stocking share how God redeemed their lives and what He's done in their marriage. They also have three beautiful children! This is a fun episode as Shawn and Jenn record from their home just the two of them during this quarantine period. We decided to not let the pandemic stop us. Also, a fun game you can play while listening is counting how many times we say “quarantine”.

Jenn was raised in a “Christian” home but it wasn’t being fully lived it out. Drugs and alcohol were present and she eventually found herself in a really dark place. Hear Jenn found redemption in Jesus and was saved from that dark place she had been in.

Shawn admits he used to fall asleep in the chair on Sundays at church. He was raised in the “fundamentals of Christ” but not the Word of God. Shawn’s life took a turn away from God when his aunt passed away. He turned away from God completely and became an atheist/agnostic. Listen in to how God got a hold of his heart and reconnected him to Jenn and how they walked into unknown territory in their marriage.

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Marriage and Redefining Our Identity with Zack and Daniella Peck

Episode 15 was recorded in Brooklyn, New York. I sat down with Zack and Daniella Peck who drove all the way from New Jersey to record for the podcast.

Zack works with the youth at their church. Zack says he was working for the church for about a year before he was actually saved. It’s not about how well we do the “church” things, we can pretend all day long to be one person but God is not fooled. God wants our heart and through their testimony, we see just how patient, how loving and how kind our Father is with us. He patiently pursues our hearts and helps us work through our emotions and helps us process through them to get to the root of our heart hang-ups.

Daniella shares she grew up Catholic. She knew of God, believed in Him but it was always more about the rituals and had never opened up God’s Word for herself. Becoming a Christian was an easier transition as being raised Catholic meant believing in the same God but it became a more intimate, personal relationship with Him, knowing Jesus as God.

This episode would be great to share with a middle school or high school-aged person in your life as Daniella and Zack go into a lot of what the Lord spoke to them in their early relationship and how He called them to process through a lot of the hurt that stemmed from an immature, young “romance” and how He redefined and redeemed a lot of the idols, including each other, they had made.

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