Jodi Cowles has lived more than half her adult life outside her homeland, working across seven countries and three continents as an author, publisher and entrepreneur. In this episode of Bleeding Daylight, she talks candidly about growing up with what she calls a "flannel graph" version of Jesus, a one-dimensional God who couldn't hold up against grief, doubt and real life questions. Jodi shares how the death of her young brother, a crisis of faith at Bible college and a furious, typewritten confession to God eventually led her to a far bigger and more trustworthy understanding of who He is.

Jodi also opens up about the years she spent working across the world, the cross-cultural insights that reshaped how she reads Scripture, and the gruelling four-year process of adopting her daughter in Istanbul, including a literal sprint through the airport as their visa came down to the wire. She reflects on the vulnerability of putting her story into print in her memoir, Then Came Joy, and on the gratitude and grief she's learned to hold together through recent family health scares. It's a rich, honest conversation about faith that's been tested and found good.

Jodi Cowles' Website

Moriah Hagel is an author, speaker and co-founder of the Seasons Young Adults Conference. Her journey into writing began not with a plan of her own but with a Bible study on a college campus where she felt anything but settled. In this episode, she traces the path from that first unplanned teaching moment through to her three books, First and Forever: Singleness in Ephesians, Alignment: God's Will or Mine, and her latest release, To Live: Finding the Mind of Christ. Along the way she talks honestly about singleness, the disruption of 2020, and the loss of her nephew, who lived just 49 days, and what each of those seasons taught her about putting God first rather than her own plans.

This conversation moves through some deeply personal territory, from the vulnerability of writing about her own shortcomings to the surprising readers whose lives have been shaped by her work. Moriah reflects on what it means to build an identity that doesn't shift with marriage, career or circumstance, and why she believes that foundation has to be established now, in whatever season you're in. It's a warm, grounded conversation about faith, creativity and the slow work of staying aligned with God through both the good years and the hard ones.

Hagelbooks

Matthew Wingo left a high-flying corporate career to pour his life into helping men find freedom from the patterns that once controlled him. In this episode, he takes us through the shattering of two marriages, the "hidden orchard" of secrets he tended in the dark, and the moment a 12-step recovery programme helped him finally connect the dots of his own story. With honesty and humour, Matthew talks about shame, obedience, and the daily choice to walk in the light rather than hide behind a smile.

Now the founder of Turnright Ministry, a men's 12-step leader, worship guitarist and author of Turn Right: The Pursuit of Noble Things, Matthew shares how grace met him in his lowest moments and how he's since made amends with the people he hurt along the way. This conversation is a powerful reminder that no one is ever too far gone, and that character isn't built in a single decision but refined daily, one obedient step at a time.

WEBLINKS

David Small's life reads like a movie script. He grew up dreaming of coaching ice hockey, worked as director of hockey operations for Team Canada West, and scouted for the Los Angeles Kings, before spending over a decade with the Free Burma Rangers in one of the world's most forgotten wars. He's walked through minefields, been bombed and mortared, and written a bestselling book, Nameless Faceless People: Ten Years with the Free Burma Rangers, about what he found on the other side of fear.

In this conversation, David talks candidly about how six months of volunteering turned into a decade of service, the difference between relief and development work, and why he stepped away from the Free Burma Rangers to found the Jungle Discipleship School, training young Burmese leaders scarred by war. He reflects on courage, grace, the fatherhood of God, and what it really means to show up for people in their darkest moments, whether that's in a jungle war zone or on a neighbour's doorstep.

WEBLINKS

In 2008, host Rodney Olsen travelled to Haiti with a group of Australian radio presenters, including Az Hamilton, on a trip organised through Compassion Australia to witness their work releasing children from poverty. What began as an eye-opening visit to local projects quickly turned into a fight for survival as food riots erupted across Port-au-Prince, trapping the group between barricades, armed mobs and gunfire-like explosions of shattering glass.

In this revisited and re-edited episode, Az and Rodney share their side-by-side memories of that harrowing 24 hours, from sheltering in a Compassion office as a rock smashed through a large window, to a tense evacuation through a slum where they wondered if they would get out alive. Along the way, they reflect on an answered prayer felt an ocean apart, a small child's joy found amid chaos, and how the experience ultimately reshaped both of their lives and callings.

WEBLINKS

Sheila Krygsheld has spent years helping everyday Christians move from simply believing to truly understanding why they believe. A former college religion professor, wife, mum and grandmother of six, Sheila is the author of What Makes You Say That? How to Study What You Believe So You Can Share It with Others. Her journey into apologetics began not in a classroom, but in crisis, when her daughter's traumatic brain injury forced her to confront what she actually believed about God, suffering and healing.

In this conversation, Sheila unpacks the balance between head knowledge and heart knowledge, why deconstruction doesn't have to mean walking away from faith altogether, and how Christians can hold firm convictions while still extending grace to those who see things differently. From college campuses to kitchen tables, Sheila offers practical, hard-won wisdom for anyone who wants to know not just what they believe, but why.

WEBLINKS

Jim Burgoon is a speaker, author, certified leadership coach, military veteran, former pastor and host of the Unshakeable Life podcast. Behind those titles is a man who has lived through childhood trauma, complex PTSD, chronic illness and devastating loss, including the deaths of his mother and sister within six months of each other and his wife's suicide attempt soon after. In this conversation, Jim shares how he moved from believing the lies trauma had taught him to telling a far better, truer story about who he really is.

Jim talks candidly about growing up with an abusive father, relentless bullying and a fractured image of God, and how that led him first to atheism and then briefly into witchcraft before encountering Jesus at 25. He explains the crucial difference between being transparent and being translucent, why his PTSD diagnosis doesn't define him, and what he's learned interviewing entrepreneurs and high achievers about burnout, insecurity and fear. For anyone who feels like a lost cause, Jim offers a simple, grounded place to start.

WEBLINKS

Robert Ruesch has been putting words to paper since the mid-1960s, but nothing prepared him for the story he'd one day write with his daughter. Growing up at the world's largest YMCA resort in the Colorado Rockies, surrounded by college professors, world travellers and breathtaking mountain views, Robert's love of storytelling took root early, sparked by a school bully and a creative writing class years later. He went on to become an award-winning author, speaker and humourist, but it's his most personal work, The Long Road Home, that forms the heart of this conversation.

Co-written with his daughter Jennifer, the memoir traces her thirty-year battle with addiction, the overdose that nearly took her life, and the slow, faith-soaked journey toward healing and forgiveness for them both. Robert speaks candidly about the fear of late-night phone calls that went unanswered, the grief of watching someone he loves dig her heels into self-destruction, and the unexpected "coincidences" he believes were God's hand at work all along. It's a raw conversation about fatherhood, faith, forgiveness, and the difference between sobriety and true recovery, and a reminder that hope is never out of reach.

WEBLINKS

We live in the most connected era in human history, yet loneliness has become a defining crisis of our time. In this episode, Rodney sits down with Keith Spurgin, international speaker, church planter, and author of Unknown: Finding Connection in a Disconnected World, to get to the heart of why genuine community is so hard to find and even harder to build. Keith traces his own story from a childhood encounter with Jesus on a farm, through the distractions of his teenage years, to a radical re-commitment to faith in college that sparked a movement in his own apartment and eventually led to 27 years leading a thriving church in Texas. His journey is honest, funny, and deeply human.

Drawing on the relational wisdom in his new book, Keith unpacks why social media gives us the illusion of connection without the substance, why the natural drift of every relationship is toward disconnection, and what it actually takes to build an inner circle that can carry you through life's hardest moments. He also brings fresh eyes to familiar stories, from the Good Samaritan to the disciples Jesus chose, showing just how radical and countercultural genuine love for others really is. If you've been feeling the ache of isolation or wondering whether real community is still possible, this conversation offers both honest perspective and a practical path forward.

WEBLINKS

Gary Janzen grew up in a construction family with an expected future mapped out for him, but God had very different plans. From managing a sporting goods store to pastoring youth, taking teenagers to Mexico for eleven summers, and eventually ministering in Rwandan orphanages still raw from the wounds of genocide, Gary's journey is marked by a willingness to say yes to God at every turn. He shares how a young Rwandan man named Jackson, a genocide survivor who came to live with Gary and his wife, became the unexpected connection that drew them deep into ministry across that remarkable country.

Today, Gary leads International Christian Mission Services (ICMS), growing it from 25 missionaries to nearly 90 agents serving in around 50 countries. With a commitment to financial accountability and a tagline of "quiet strength, global impact," ICMS supports an extraordinary range of gospel work, from a concert pianist ministering through music across three continents, to church builders in Cuba, water well drillers in Liberia, and daycare workers in the toughest neighbourhoods of Brazil. Gary's story is a vivid reminder that when we follow God's leading faithfully, the impact reaches far further than we could ever imagine.

International Christian Missions Service